Eric McErlain Interview

Nice interview of Eric McErlain. He covers the future of sports blogging but he makes an interesting observation that really caught my attention.

I'm beginning to experience some interesting tensions in my own life. It's fairly common for many folks to define themselves through their job: I'm a lawyer, doctor, bricklayer, etc. But now that we have the Web, there's a whole other side of people's personalities that suddenly have a creative outlet.

In my own case, I'm having a Web 2.0 identity crisis. On the one hand, I'm Eric McErlain, the reasonably successful corporate writer and communicator. It's provided me with a comfortable lifestyle, rewarding work and the opportunity to work with and for some very interesting people.

But then there's Eric McErlain the sports blogger. That Eric McErlain gets invited to watch a hockey game with the team owner, helps teach seminars on blogging at the National Press Club and gets written up in Forbes, Rolling Stone and Newsweek.

Guess which Eric has more fun? And once you answer that question, tell me what you do about it. As for me, I'm still trying to figure it out.

One of the big dangers of blogging is that it is addicting and can sometimes cut into time that should be spent on "real-world" work. The healthy balance is tough to maintain. That is why you see so many bloggers get burned out from blogging.

This is probably a subject that should be explored in more depth.