Felix Salmon, model blogger

All self-effacement aside, my favorite finance blogger Felix Salmon richly deserves this lengthy profile in Big Money. Here was my favorite part:

But every writer scribbles with an ideal reader in mind. Salmon is no exception. He may not covet the biggest audience but he does yearn for the best and most influential reader: "It’s a known fact," he says, "that Larry Summers reads a lot of blogs."

If that sort of audience is what he’s after, I ask, why not become a regular on CNBC? "Because Larry Summers doesn’t watch CNBC and say, 'Oh my God, that’s interesting, I should actually think about that when conducting economic policy.’ CNBC is people shouting at each other. If we were to get into a screaming match about health care reform, it doesn’t matter how smart we are, we’re not going to be shedding any light. Whereas the blogosphere is really good at drilling down very quickly to the nub of the question. People talk about it like it’s the best graduate seminar ever invented."

The "seminar-like" quality of the blogosphere is certainly what drew me to it, first as an avid reader and now as an extremely peripheral contributor (I optimistically estimate my current regular readership at approximately four people). And by articulating the qualities that make Felix a good blogger, this article helped me realize that in a way he is my blogging role model (perhaps along with Tyler Cowen) for the elegance and punchiness with which he uses the format. I think I have probably learned more about how to blog from reading him than anyone else, and while I still have a long way to go, it certainly helps to have someone great to model oneself after.