I’ve tried to live by the principle that if you don’t try something, you’ll never know if you would have liked it. And I have always wanted to try my hand at the business side of publishing.

Thus it was that I became a publisher a little more than a year ago. A company reorganization presented the perfect opportunity because my job as chief editor was being scaled down by decentralization. My boss agreed to let me give it a shot.

I worked very hard over the last year. I struggled to learn stuff that was way outside my comfort zone: sales management, pricing, marketing, campaign management, quotas, forecasting and on and on. I had some very gratifying successes but I also made my share of mistakes. Learning on the job is hard.

And ultimately what I learned is that publisher isn’t the job for me. I’m an editor at heart. I’m inspired by the constant change in this technology and I’m fascinated by the dynamics of this industry. I like a good story and I like talking to the people who are creating change. I might have been a competent publisher with time, but I think I’ll always be a better editor. Life’s too short to do work that doesn’t inspire you.

So I decided to leave TechTarget and go out on my own, which is a step I’ve always planned to take. My idea is to launch a business creating online custom content for technology marketers. There’s an explosion of activity in this area – white papers, webcasts, podcasts and live events – and a need for people who can speak the language of IT professionals. Paul Gillin Communications will provide that service when I launch the company the week after Thanksgiving.

I’m leaving TechTarget on the best of terms. The company’s management was terrific and even agreed to become my first customer. I’m hoping to do a lot of business with TechTarget customers on behalf of the company.

I learned a lot in the last year. I gained tremendous respect for good salespeople. That’s a hard, hard job and it takes persistence and a tough skin to do it well. I learned that advertising decisions involving hundreds of thousands of dollars are often made on intuition and faith. And I learned a ton about the finer points of online marketing. I’ll bring all those lessons to my next venture.

Soon this blog will be replaced by the website for my new business. In the meantime, please contact me at paul@gillin.com if you want to learn more about my services. Or just to chat.