---
title: "Reinventing Yourself Through Your Blog"
date: 2009-11-01
description: "$( document ).ready(function() { // Handler for .ready() called. $("
canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/2009/11/01/reinventing-yourself-through-your-blog/
---
# Reinventing Yourself Through Your Blog
At the conference, I learned that although some people have branded themselves online in certain ways, they can be much different in person. For example, online you know Richard Hamilton, founder of [XML Press](http://xmlpress.net), as an entrepreneurial publisher focusing on the technical communication market. You may also see Richard as an experienced manager through his recent book [Managing Writers](http://xmlpress.net/publications/managing-writers/). And you may gather that Richard is a careful, analytical thinker from his [lengthy conference write-up posts](http://rlhamilton.wordpress.com/). That's how Richard has branded himself -- as a publisher and manager.

But Richard has another side to him as well. He's a pilot and previously owned his own airplane. He loves reading literature, especially mysteries. For example, he has read Sue Grafton's mystery series (*A is for Alibi, B is for *…) series up to G. His whole face lights up when he starts talking about mystery novels with another mystery aficionado.

He boots his computer in Ubuntu and prefers to write everything in DocBook XML. He also seems to enjoy long car drives (for example, he drove from Colorado to Texas and back for the conference). More than anything, Richard is one of the most warm, friendly, and conversational people you will ever meet.

Alan Porter is even more of an interesting figure when it comes to branding. Online you know Alan as the head of [WebWorks](http://webworks.com) (or VP of Operations). You read [his blog](https://4jsgroup.blogspot.com) as an expert in the tech comm industry, especially with wikis. His forthcoming book, [Wikis: Grown Your Own for Fun and Profit](http://xmlpress.net/publications/wiki-how-to-grow/), will only solidify his wiki branding. He also blogs about trends in user behavior, from observing, for example, the [way his teenage daughter approaches her homework](https://4jsgroup.blogspot.com/2008/12/move-over-dita-chaos-is-coming.html).

But in person, you'll find that, like Richard, Alan has [another side to him](http://alanjporter.com/) entirely. A cowboy-boot wearing Englishman, Alan is an avid comic artist. Mention conferences like Comicon and Dragicon and his ears perk up. He regularly writes the stories, dialog, and scripts for the comic book *CARS*.

In addition to his drawing talents, Alan has also written books on James Bond, Batman, Star Trek, and the Beatles. He has strong feelings about the importance of storytelling. In fact, Alan works only 30 hours a week so he can focus on his writing.

Alan has written a mystery novel set with NASCAR racing and another novel about Shakespeare pretending to be Christopher Marlowe, which an agent of his was shopping around Hollywood for a possible movie. Alan is also a consultant for [Tedopres](http://www.tedopres.com/), a company focused on simplified technical English. He can fly out to your location and train your employees on simplified technical English techniques.