Bill Santos on Blogging

Bill Santos, 42, is the engineering manager of the national archives and a Columbia native. He moved away from the people tree for college and replanted in Wilde Lake in 2000, with his wife.
Santos keeps his ear to the ground and his finger on the pulse of Columbia issues.

In the fall of 2006, Santos started Columbia Compass.

"As stated in the [Columbia] Compass tag line, the blog is intended to navigate the social, political and cultural world of Columbia, Maryland. Admittedly, the blog has been more about politics than the social and cultural aspects of Columbia. That has been more of an evolution than a conscious decision."

Santos says he hopes his blog will reach out to both natives and ex-patriots of Columbia.

"For those that live locally, I hope to provide perspective on the goings-on in the community. For those living farther away, I hope to provide a connection back to Columbia."

Santos doesn't tailor his content. Sometimes he hears a quote from a local official or reads one in the paper and gets a 'spider sense' feeling to write about it in his blog. Other times he reads something that evokes nostalgia, passion or joy and writes about that instead.

"With respect to information, I do a lot of research. I would say about half is web-based. The other half is reading books (I have a crazy collection), attending meetings and talking with people."

Santos follows Tales of Two Cities, a hyper-local blog similar to Columbia Compass. The difference he says, is that the author Wordbones writes from a business perspective. He also follows Dinosaur Mom, 53 Beers on Tap, Columbia 2.0 and Hometown Columbia.

"All of them are very good bloggers," he says. "The Howard County Maryland Blog and Hedgehog Report are also well done."

Santos offers some advice to new bloggers and his top 5 tips.

"My advice to beginning bloggers is to find something you are passionate about and keep it narrow. If you like what you're writing about you are more likely to stick with it."

1. You will never have enough time to write everything you want to write.
   
2. Be honest.
3. People who post anonymously are wonderful people, except when they are posting anonymously.
4. Give credit often.
5. Attend the Blogtail happy hours.