Backlash Imminent: Something Jason Calacanis Said About Blogging Made Sense

A while ago I read an interesting article on The Next Web and also on the Guardian that talked about serial entrepreneur Jason Calacanis’ recent news that he was planning on starting his own conference called the Launch Conference that would rival that of TechCrunch Disrupt. I must admit that the point that I’m about to make here might result in some controversy, but then again it might not. Nevertheless, here’s my point.

In Calacanis’ interview in the Guardian, his approach towards the Launch Conference is that he’d like to get more intimate with the startups to find real substance and details that will make people want to learn more. Instead of simply having content that anyone can repeat over and over again, startups presenting at Launch would seem to offer a bit of an “exclusive” to Calacanis, or that Calacanis would dive deeper into really understanding the startups.

I’m not going to argue the merits of whether Calacanis is right or wrong as it relates to the Launch Conference or whether it will succeed when compared to TechCrunch Disrupt, but what struck me as something that made some sense was when he was quoted in the Guardian article as saying:

What the market needs…is depth, knowledge and thoroughness.

I couldn’t agree more.  People who read blogs or other digital commentary probably find that it’s all the same information regurgitated over and over again. I know that I struggle with this on a personal level in that what I choose to post on my blog needs to have a certain twist to it so that it analyzes the situation from a much deeper level. Sure, the top tier blogs like TechCrunch, Mashable, The Next Web and GigaOm often have the original story with some deep analysis of it, but the secondary ones that poach the stories already written tend to not have that much more analytics or intellectual additions.

And while I might be shocked at some stories written on the top blogs sometimes, I must not be discouraged because 9 times out of 10 they report really useful and analytical information that you can take with you and formulate your own post and report on it.

Another lesson that I took from Calacanis’ interview is that you don’t always have to be first to publish something. I often want to write my thoughts right after a recent product announcement or to coincide with some other news, but instead I wait until I can compose a really strong post filled with interesting and compelling analysis that you, the readers, will want to learn from.

So next time you decide to write a post, if you don’t have any information, then don’t publish. Bad posts are not worth publishing. In fact, they are probably as bad as posts that are published first with just regurgitated information. Find out some really great in-depth information and exploit that to help your audience really become educated and understand what’s being talked about.

Photo Credit: Okinawa Soba / Flickr