Some firms blog, and some don't .... an important shift in the way VC firms interact with entrepreneurs.

[Blogging is] a huge benefit to our business. Of course it brings incremental deal flow, but it also filters the deal flow and makes it more targeted and more relevant

Its also a great way to bring needed attention to the companies we invest in

And its a way to do research on new sectors and learn about other companies that compete with our companies

Definitely less about deal flow and more about transparency and providing accessibility, humanizing the VC process

- Open dialog helps me keep in touch with entrepreneur’s latest issues and hot buttons

- Provides sense of accountability to the entrepreneur community

- Helps me understand social networking, community, blogging, and many other Web 2.0 phenomenon from a practical standpoint as a practioner, not theoretical

It takes a lot of time. We choose to dedicate that time to other outreach and marketing efforts.

Our goal is to share [our experience and intellectual property] in the confines of the meetings that we have with our portfolio companies and potential portfolio companies.

That, to me, is the defining argument for and against blogging. There are those who think the best way to manage your "intellectual property" is to hoard it for yourself. There are others who think that intellectual property should be shared, developed out in the open, and that it will grow exponentially. I am in the latter camp.

Blogging doesn't necessarily give you an advantage over those who don't.  But, if you don't blog, you need to figure out what other means you will use to stay connected to the Web community.

First and foremost, I don't consider myself a "VC blogger". I don't talk about venture capital/business exclusively. Or even most of the time. Those that read/interact with this blog know that. This blog is about me. All of me - work, personal, family, everything.

My blog is about getting my thoughts, observations & interests down on digital ink. But this blog is also about the feedback from you all. The conversation is a big reason why I keep blogging.

An aside: mainstream media Web sites could learn a thing or two about Web navigation from blogs. For example, neither the column title nor Scott Kirsner's name is a link. Granted the Columnists link isn't too far away -- but when I follow the link from that page to his column, I get a registration wall. Er, no thanks.

While I'm at it, here's one more reason I read blogs over MSM articles: splitting an article across two pages just to double the number of ad impressions is very annoying. Enough already. The short-term boost may seem like easy money, but I'll bet it's a losing strategy in the long run.