Bloggers Series: Glenn O’Neil on Intelligent Measurement

Hello, I’m Glenn O’Neil, founder of Owl RE, evaluation consultancy and co-author of the Intelligent Measurement blog.

Rad Resource – Intelligent Measurement: The blog focuses on issues and trends in evaluation, with a particular focus on communications, training, development and events. On average I blog about one time a week and have done so since 2006. Our blog now has on average some 10,000 readers per month.

Hot Tips – favorite posts: Here are four posts that I’d recommend on my blog:

Lessons Learned – why I blog:

I started blogging five years ago to position myself as a specialist in a particular area – evaluation of communication programmes and projects. Has it worked? I would say a resounding “yes”. I didn’t expect potential clients to find me through my blog – but I know of several that did so. At times I have thought, like most bloggers, “is anyone out there?” But then I’ll meet someone, like I did recently at a conference who said my blog was “inspirational” (a bit too much I think..). Funny enough, my blog also serves as a sort of personal online archive – where are those excellent guidelines I recall seeing on XYZ? I go to my blog, surely I posted them there!

Lessons Learned:

  1. Blog regularly – set yourself a goal – like I do – e.g. once a week;
  2. Should your posts be long thoughtful pieces or more short pieces referring to online resources? I think a mix of both if you can;
  3. Set yourself a topic area in which you will blog – set out the parameters in your mind at least – then you will have a more “niche” position
  4. You should have a clear reason why you are blogging – Don’t blog for the sake of blogging; it’s not everyone’s “cup of tea”.

This winter, we’re running a series highlighting evaluators who blog. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org. aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.

2 thoughts on “Bloggers Series: Glenn O’Neil on Intelligent Measurement”

  1. Glenn, maintaining a blog since 2006 is a big deal. You have over 300 visitors/day which is also very impressive. While your blog is so popular, normally there are very few comments (1-4) or no comments at all. People appreciate you for sharing your thoughts, visit your blog regularly, and… most of them do not comment. Don’t you think that professional blogs are one-way communication by nature?

  2. Glenn, thanks for contributing! We don’t have enough coverage of communications evaluation and I’m so glad that your voice is adding to the knowledge base.

    We need to get you stateside for our conference!
    -Susan

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