Author note: When I heard the news that Diddy would be launching a blog at diddyblog.com, some feedback on potential issues sprang to mind and I wanted to write about them at Bad Boy Blog. I then thought it would be fun to write this post in a letter format. The main idea is to offer some suggestions to Mr. Combs himself, but perhaps more likely, to the digital people at Interscope or Bad Boy - whoever is responsible for the development and maintenance of diddyblog.com. I don't actually expect Mr. Combs to read it, but you never know.

Dear Mr. Combs,

My name is Patrick O'Keefe and I am the author of Bad Boy Blog, the leading source of news and information about your company. I am a huge, huge fan of your work (since 1997) and you are an inspiration to me professionally. Beyond that, I am also a published author and I have been in this whole online community and social media space for 10 years now. I travel around the country and speak at conferences and events about these issues.

I was pleased to hear that you were planning to launch a blog at diddyblog.com. I look forward to reading, subscribing and linking to it. Drawing from my experience in this area, as well as my familiarity with you and your work, I wanted to offer you some suggestions that you might find useful as you develop this project.

1. Consider not allowing comments. I know that some people might suggest that a blog isn't a blog without comments. But, others, like myself, feel that whether or not to allow comments is a personal choice that each blog has to make. I suggest this on the basis of responsibility. On the various iterations of your official websites of the past, you have had community spaces, you have had forums. But, they have never been particularly well moderated. And so, they become a liability.

Moderating forums or comment areas takes time and work. It's not easy. It's a big part of my job, so I know. You can't just put an intern on it and call it a day. It takes more than that. As such, I would suggest eliminating that need altogether, at least at first. Maintain your focus on the content and the website itself and don't worry about having to deal with comments. Allow the discussion of your entries to take place elsewhere, like Twitter.

2. Use WordPress. Another thing I've noticed with your websites, in the past, is that you have usually paid a good sized development house to build you a site powered by, at least in part, Adobe Flash with it's own CMS (and you probably paid them a princely sum, as well). These sites were sometimes difficult for search engines to index, which impacted how well you ranked.

This time, use a solution that is already developed, proven and well tested. I recommend WordPress. You might even check out WordPress.com VIP, a special service that is used by the likes of CNN, Flickr, the BBC and more. My point is, you don't need to pay someone to reinvent the wheel. Pay a talented designer to make you a great, aesthetically pleasing site, but use WordPress as the basis (whether your blog is video or text or both).

3. Link to good stuff, don't copy and paste. I have a feeling that you wouldn't actually do this, but just to make sure. When you want to highlight something on your blog that someone else wrote, you want to quote a small portion and link to the full version. You don't want to quote the full article, with or without a link. This is both ethically and legally wrong.

There seems to be a trend with some artists to copy the works of others onto their site. This is theft and their websites are being built on a house of cards that will eventually fall. So, just limit yourself to short excerpts and direct links to cool stuff. This has the nice side effect of building good will and showing that you better understand this space than the previously mentioned artists or, at least, their digital people.

This applies to text only. With videos, you can embed them if the site hosting the video has embed tools. Try to use the official site or home of the video. (For example, you'd prefer people embed the "Angels" music video from VEVO, rather than from some random site that uploaded it without your permission. The same thing applies here with other people's videos).

4. Blogging is just a medium, like television or newspapers. Someone may have told you, or you may hold the belief, that blogging is primarily for gossip. Or that blogging is primarily for people to say whatever they want, without responsibility. Or that blogging isn't where serious writing is done. At some level, you seem to hold these beliefs because, in your videos or in interviews with other outlets, you have repeatedly referred to "the blogs" in a derogatory manner. All of these generalizations are wrong.

Blogging is, in so many words, online publication. It is a medium, it is not a style. If you're familiar with the work I do here at Bad Boy Blog, you'll know that I take it very seriously. We are a legitimate source that fans can trust. We report on both the good and the bad and I provide commentary on issues, as well. We are not a gossip site. I created Bad Boy Blog because I, myself, as a fan was sick of the lack of information, or accurate information, out there about Bad Boy, you and it's artists.

So, by starting a blog, don't think that it is any of those preconceived notions that you may have had. It is simply a reflection of you and the type of publication you want. Give a responsible writer a blog, and you have a blog with responsible writing. Give a gossip writer a blog, and you have a gossip blog. We all choose our own destiny. The choice of your blog is yours.

5. Don't let positivity overtake objectivity. This is the last thought that I want to offer. This one isn't so much technical as it is my opinion as a fan.

I am a positive, optimistic guy. I work hard and I dream big. But, at the same time, that does not mean that I am never critical. I write critical pieces here at Bad Boy Blog. Not everyone at Bad Boy likes that, which is fine. And, of course, in my life and professional endeavors, I am regularly critical of myself.

As I said earlier, you are an inspiration to me as a businessman. As a businessman, I doubt that every decision you make or every idea that comes across your table, you greet with "wow, awesome idea. Let's go!" No, I am sure that you think critically, that you analyze it and that you carefully plot your course.

Positivity is a great thing, but blindness is disastrous. One trend that I myself have noted is that a lot of people, a lot of artists, regard any sort of criticism as "hating." If you don't like their record, you are "hating." If you don't like their video, you are "hating." If you say that something they did isn't right, you are "hating." I'm sure you can see where this is dangerous. If every critique is hate, we end up surrounded by yesmen, yeswomen and enablers. We never change or improve. I'm not saying you're encouraging this trend, necessarily, but the trend itself is part of my point.

What I would like to see at your blog, more than anything as a fan, is honesty. You recently revealed your hopes of starting a business school. What business lessons will you share through this school? That is something I'd love to hear on your blog. Not just positivity, but the truth as you see it, based on your experience. I'd like to see you encourage critical thought. That is one area where I feel you can help people. And that will be a positive.

So, I am hoping that your blog is a mix of things: that there are positive and inspirational posts, that there are fun posts and that there are posts about your music, but also that there are posts that share your experiences and the realities of business and industry in an honest, truthful manner.

Thank you for reading these thoughts. I hope that they are useful to you. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Sincerely,

Patrick