In today's day and age, online presence is everything. We work, learn, and socialize to a large degree online. Facebook and Instagram feeds create a record of our social lives, Snapchat and TikTok offer a peek into daily affairs, LinkedIn functions as our virtual resume, while Twitter serves as a podium to send short form messages to large audiences.
These platforms have collectively become the cornerstone of our online identities as we constantly post video, pictures, and thoughts through them. If used correctly, you can develop a personal brand using these products. To do so effectively you will have to adapt to the way the product is designed, leaving little for you to customize for your needs. However, if you read the fine print you'll realize that despite being the contributor, you do not actually own any posts you create. It is the property of the platform and they are allowed to do with it as they please. Simply put, you are the product.
I recently started writing as a way to collect some thoughts that I wanted to share with friends and family. In doing so, I realized how beneficial it was flesh out what's in my head through writing. Serendipitously, I recently stumbled upon Balaji Srinivasan, a successful angel investor and entrepreneur through an episode of the Tim Ferris podcast. Balaji talked about the value of creating your own website to post ideas and reflections that piqued one's interests. It motivated me to set up balt.co, which I plan to use to write about topics that are either important or interesting to me. The benefits I've realized are plentiful.
These platforms have collectively become the cornerstone of our online identities as we constantly post video, pictures, and thoughts through them. If used correctly, you can develop a personal brand using these products. To do so effectively you will have to adapt to the way the product is designed, leaving little for you to customize for your needs. However, if you read the fine print you'll realize that despite being the contributor, you do not actually own any posts you create. It is the property of the platform and they are allowed to do with it as they please. Simply put, you are the product.
I recently started writing as a way to collect some thoughts that I wanted to share with friends and family. In doing so, I realized how beneficial it was flesh out what's in my head through writing. Serendipitously, I recently stumbled upon Balaji Srinivasan, a successful angel investor and entrepreneur through an episode of the Tim Ferris podcast. Balaji talked about the value of creating your own website to post ideas and reflections that piqued one's interests. It motivated me to set up balt.co, which I plan to use to write about topics that are either important or interesting to me. The benefits I've realized are plentiful.
Developing a personal brand
A personal website give you full autonomy to share different type of information and media and allows you to customize the presentation of it to how you see fit. There are plenty of ways to do this. All you need to start is a domain and a hosting service such as Ghost, Substack, or Wordpress. I am starting out by pointing my domain at my world blog but plan to migrate to Ghost in the near future.
The goal is to write about what most important to you and use it to build a follower base, as a portfolio to share with potential employers / business partners, or simply as a public journal that you can reference from time to time. The world is your oyster.
The goal is to write about what most important to you and use it to build a follower base, as a portfolio to share with potential employers / business partners, or simply as a public journal that you can reference from time to time. The world is your oyster.
Self Improvement
Writing is a great way to flesh out your thoughts and ideas. It helps you more thoroughly comprehend any topic you are interested in and drastically improves your ability to effective communicate about it.
Sharing Knowledge
Whether its reflections on a current event or a deep dive on an obscure topic that