Blogging Lessons Learned From Arrington

In a classy well articulated post by ReadWriteWeb's Marshall Kirkpatrick, he summarizes what he learned from Mike Arrington when he worked at TechCrunch. The post is in response to AOL's acquisition of TechCrunch announced today on the TechCrunch Disrupt stage in San Francisco. Points below:

• A great blogger is always on. Looking back over my emails while working for TechCrunch, many of them are apologies for not having anything posted by 10am, or explaining why I am stopping work on a Friday evening.
• It's important to be first, but if you're not first - it's important to link to whoever you learned about something from. The blogosphere is a trail of links, and status is built by earning links from others.
• It's good to stir the pot, to challenge people who need challenging, but it's also important to give people the respect they deserve.
• Details matter in your writing. Unclear, imprecise language is important to avoid.
• The background of company founders is important. It should influence who you chase down to write about and it should be included in any write-up of a startup.
• Conference sessions are boring and pointless, it's usually better to work the halls for stories.
• Even a big, career advancing scoop is not worth ruining someone else's career to get.