Janet Lee Johnson | The Art of Marketing

I’ve not blogged enough recently. And it’s not because I haven’t wanted to, because I have… In fact, I’ve got a ton of interesting projects I’d love to talk about, but I can’t quite yet. For several clients, it’s because I’m under NDA. For others, it’s because I’m helping their businesses be more competitive, and it just doesn’t seem fair yet to share.

At the same time, I’ve felt an additional pressure when I blog to be more ’serious’ and ’scintillating’ since my posts are being distributed over on the Content Management Connection blog. Once you’re syndicated, it seems the pressure to perform is ratcheted up.

Sometimes, adding value to the online conversation is just plain hard. Especially when I’m not particularly funny or edgy or whimsical, even on a good day! (I’ve found plenty of great bloggers default to some innate trait to help them out of a void.)

So I feel as if this blog post is a bit akin an old Seinfeld episode… a post about nothing. Except to admit (and that’s exactly the point) that sometimes it’s hard to participate in the blogosphere… Or the Twittersphere… and be “on” all the time.

But confession is good for the soul, the sun is pouring through the windows here in Portland, and I live a dream life. I’ll be inspired all day, I just know it. And I hope to add value again by sharing some of that inspiration. Meanwhile, the muse awaits…

Charlene Li (the woman who, if she were a technology, would be RSS) is leaving Forrester on July 18. In her blog post “Why I’m leaving Forrester”, she explains she’s leaving after nine years because she’s needing more control over how she spends her time - especially with her family. Good for her.

I only hope she’ll keep her promise that she’ll stay involved in this space. I’m not at all ready for her to go.

She’s leaving a whole team of people in their San Francisco office - and I expect Jeremiah Owyang (whom I met years ago at an early Web 2.0 conference and have enjoyed watching him grow) will carry the torch well for her.