Hey Blogger, Go Kill a Tree

The bloggers I know are some of the most productive people on the planet. They churn out well thought-out posts with regularity. But after weeks, months and years of steady blogging activity they often have nothing tangible to show for it. This is where paper comes in handy. Here’s why I recommend bloggers rock it old school and make use of paper.

1) After you write a blog post it is a good idea to print it out and re-read it. This is a great way to catch errors and add new information. There’s something about reading from a computer screen that lends itself to errors. It could be all of the additional background noise (cluttered desktop, animated background, etc.). When reviewing your work on paper you are able to give it the dedicated focus that proofreading requires.

2) Printing your blog posts allows you to expand the circle of people who are reading your work. While almost every soul on the planet is online, there are still some folks who prefer reading 1.0 style. (i.e. – Grandma!) Older folks might not remember the URL to get to your blog, but if you give them a printed blog post that includes the link, you might catch the imagination of someone you would have never converted into a page view otherwise.

3) I’ll never forget that during 9/11 many local ATM machines were temporarily disabled. That always serves as a reminder to me that just because something is available ‘online’ 99.9% of the time, doesn’t mean it will be there forever. If you blog for someone else, or are using a blog platform that does not offer a complete backup of your goods, then you want to consider creating a printed archive. Hard drives crash, USB sticks get lost; it sounds like over kill, but most insurance policies do.

4) If you are fortunate enough to make money from your blog writing, you are going to have to include the income (or loss) when you file your annual taxes. I’m always amazed at the number of people who show up unprepared when they meet with their accountant. Don’t wait for the last minute. Keep a printed record of what blogs you wrote, when you wrote them, and how much net income you earned. You’ll thank me later.

5) I recently spoke about my blogging threesome. Many of us who toil away for hours each night have very little physical evidence of our hard work. Not everyone’s partner is an online junkie. To this end, I propose that producing tangible proof of your blogging – in this case paper printouts – can help others understand just how verbose you are.

So what are you waiting for, dear blogger: go slay a tree! And then recycle it for another blogger to use down the road.