How to Draw Attention to Yourself

500 Words on Thursday | Written by Lee Schneider

Used to be you had to do something big, like invade a country, to get some attention. But now all you have to do is …

• something good
• something bad
• invent something

Or you could write a blog. May I suggest a few good ones? The Huffington Post is among the most widely read, and Seth Godin’s Blog, is world’s most popular blog written by an individual. (I’m making the optimistic assumption that Seth actually writes it by himself.) Seth does short, relevant, often career-shaking advice and commentary.

True/Slant is an original content news network with a brain. Here’s a an article in which founder Lewis Dvorkin calls out ABCNews President David Westin. Slate, um, could be improved if they hired me to write a column.

The American Spectator is one of the best conservative voices I’ve found. Look how nicely they suck up to John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, for his wacky/Libertarian views on health care reform and climate change. (He doesn’t believe in either.) Peter Lipson’s Science-Based Medicine takes on the vaccination scare and goes after Dr. Christiane Northrup. I rarely agree with him but always respect him.

Ever since I realized that I think visually, life has been much easier. A blog called Information is Beautiful visualizes knowledge, data and issues and makes it look great. The Twitter feed associated with the site will show you things like this mapping of the taxonomy of rappers’ names.

Michelle Kaufmann will keep you posted about designing holistically for a better world. Hardly Normal is Mark Horvath’s chronicle of homelessness that is inspiring, agitating and sometimes bleakly funny all at once. He’s also on Twitter. Amanda Sosa Stone has a snappy take on marketing photography.

Brave New Films stirs up the lefty activists, CampusActivism.org stirs up the campus activists, change.org is an information source for social change-makers, and Michael Moore is, well, Michael Moore. He’s serving up a new blog and is just as polarizing as ever.

Finally, a few personal favorites.

Joel Goodman is thoughtfully examining the value of creativity in the commercial marketplace with Mozart Wrote Dinner Music. Lotta Alsén posts a combination of soul and business savvy at Quickenings. Tabby Biddle (disclosure: married to her) writes with a personal passion in The Goddess Diaries about empowerment for women and girls. She keeps it real. Here’s her latest piece about the Clinton Global Initiative in The Huffington Post. One of her most popular posts involves the time she took ill in India and really put me to the test.

I’ve probably forgotten a few friends, but I’ve got to get back to reading more articles. Follow me on Twitter?  Good idea.