by Gunnar Engblom   

A blog called GunnarEngblom.com?

Creating GunnarEngblom.com

I had never thought I would have a page called GunnarEngblom.com, and less that I would the be the first one to acquire that domain. After all, and this may be surprising to the people who knows me, I am not the only Gunnar Engblom in the world.  Did you ever do a search on your own name on Facebook or LinkedIn? How many hits do you get?

I get four additional Gunnar Engbloms on LinkedIn and three of them live in Stockholm. Good thing I got out, because otherwise Stockholm would have been a very confusing place for me. I am the only Gunnar Engblom in Lima.  And I am the only me.

Am I really that narcissistic? Why am I doing a blog about me, when I run so many other blogs and social sites? All other blogs I am doing are really not about myself and my thoughts, but more how I can provide something useful or entertaining for others. Such post are mostly altruistic, but I admit they are also part of greater marketing plan for my company Kolibri Expeditions which sells birdwatching tours in Peru and elsewhere in South America.

Give Love – Receive Love = Social Media Mantra

Social Media marketing is not about selling but about sharing and providing value to others. That is what I try to do. Incoming marketing has to do with making people love the things you share and the value you provide. Incoming marketing is about making people love you for this . And you won’t get love unless you give love. It is a quite easy life lesson really. As old as the bible. Very occasionally, there may be a sales pitch thrown in. After all, a birding trip to South America is also something that can be useful and valuable to someone interested in birds. A good general mix is 90% providing value, 10% promo.

I have considered personal blogs quite lame. You know, the type of diary blog that gets 0 comments, and basically only relates the boring everyday stuff the blogger has lived every day.  These are the blogs that are really not directed to the public, but could be extremely useful for the person writing them. A bit like therapy, I guess. This may be my chance of therapy and this could make you very bored. Maybe I am doing it just for myself to let ideas flow. Maybe, I could care less if anyone actually reads this. Or maybe I want you to love me. Maybe I am a narcissist after all. Let’s say for now, that GunnarEngblom.com could be anything I want it to be.  And I am all ears if you want to help  me shape this new blog. All I know is that it does not have to be about birds, and it does not have to be about running, but surely these topics will be touched every so often.

Aspiration should not humble inspiration.

On the other hand, for some time I have had an idea to start a blog, where I share ideas how to live a richer life, how to create a business, how to get in better shape, how to live to at least 80, in my case another 25 years to see my daughters have kids and all that. Now that could be a useful blog for others, I think. And even if a lot of such blogs already exist, some of my Facebook friends and birding clients may be interested in my experience. Since it is totally irrelevant, I could hardly put this content on my Kolibri Expeditions blog,  BirdingBlogs.com, Birding 101, RunningLima.com or GuranGuran.com.

But what am I going to call the new blog? I could not decide if I should use my own name, you know like SethGodin.com or ChrisBrogan.com and make my name into a brand. GunnarEngblom.com was available. Quite a narcisistic thought to be in the same league as Seth and Chris! Aspiration should NOT humble inspiration.

Or should I think of SEO and use something descriptive instead. Something catchy that people can remember?  Something with LifeHacks? No, Lifehacks are more simple tricks to make life easier. It needed to be something that included life changing strategies that should be implemented right now. After some searching and playing around with available words I found that BetterMeNow.com was available.

GunnarEngblom.com or BetterMeNow.com? Which should I choose? You can probably guess? I chose both.

Two new blogs

So I bought the domains at GoDaddy.com. And bought a modern theme  with Responsive Web Design called Marketer’s Delight from the webdesign and web-developer wonderkid Alex Mangini of KolaKube for the blog which will work on any device, have default perfect font, and is adjustable to changes I may want to apply. Now I am stuck with two new blogs. The other one BetterMeNow, will be about living a richer life and how to become better at being myself, make more money and, become healthier and with lots of useful tips for you.  This one, GunnarEngblom.com will be an overall blog about ME!

Having said that it is about me and for me first of all, I still think friends and clients will enjoy and find useful some of the stuff I will write about here. There will be thoughts and ideas. I will also talk about books and films I see. Sometimes I will be opinionated about conservation, racism, intolerance, politics etc. And I also will post links to my other blogposts and projects.

I hope friends, family, fans (of my music) and clients (from my birding trips) will follow me. Easiest done with an email subscription. If I get to carried away with talking about myself, give me a kick in the face, next time you see me. I probably deserve it.

Links mentioned in this blogpost:

I think it is a good idea to alway repeat the links mentioned in a blogpost again at the end of the post for clarity.

  • Kolibri Expeditions – yes, my birding  tour company.
  • Kolibri Expeditions blog this has long been my main blog. I recently updated the layout to fit better with our main page.  My old blog with a lot of posts can be found here.
  • BirdingBlogs.com. Multi-author blog  somewhat stagnant today, but still get good traffic. Anyone interested to become a regular contributor let me know.
  • Birding 101. A multiauthor blog how to start birding in the digitial age. I started this blog passionately a few years ago, but lost a bit of steam as I was not getting the traction I had hoped for and some contribibutors who were supposed to submit never did.  Anyway, the idea is a good one, and it is a blog that will be revived. Be certain!
  • RunningLima.com. My running blog.  Right now only one post ” 10 secrets how to qualify to Boston Marathon”, but more will come. It is likley, I will do most my writing here in Spanish. Afterall, are here not enough runningblogs in English as there are?
  • GuranGuran.com. My anarko-punkrock music project from the 80s-mid90s. OK the blog has not really taken off yet, but you can find some of my music on Facebook.
  • SethGodin.com Author, entrepreneur, marketer
  • ChrisBrogan.com Author, entrepreneur, marketer, Social Media marketer.
  • Marketer’s Delight The WP theme this blog is built upon. MD is in its 4th version and now stand alone from the Thesis WP platform earlier versions (skins) were built upon.
  • KolaKube. Alex Mangini’s website. Alex created Marketer’s Delight.
  • BetterMeNow. My next blog. Nothing there when I write this. But look out for this space.




Next Post: