The playing field

I'm just noticing that there are several other similar blogs (similar but not the same), but that they tend to update 1-2x's per week. I'm still trying to sort out how to keep this going once the novelty wears off (time commitment, momentum, tone, etc), so yet another thing to consider. The biggest problem of blogs nowadays, as I see it (and I know me some web tech market stuff) is distinguishing yourself.

I predicted this when I got into podcasting for Digital Trends. When I started, the big craze was just little "about me" snippets. I said to myself, "Me, once people realize that they have their own life to live, and, really, other people's lives get as boring to you as your own, they will be looking for content." Sure enough, that's where it all went - topical conversations.

No matter how topic driven, and this goes for any media, part of the lure of a particular show is the personality. So, I'm still struggling with the tone of this blog. Do I go for a Gizmodoian light hearted, brief summary tone, or a Neurophilosopherian in depth exploration or topics? Personally, I like The Retrospectacle's tone, which is what I'm hoping to build myself up to. The perfect blend of personal and technical, IMO. Though, I tend to be more goofy, so that will hopefully shine through.

Welcome to my internal dialogue, I guess. I haven't actually tried to promote The Blog much, as I feel like I'm still working out the bugs. Why not just start throwing it out there and adjusting based on feedback? Easy. I'm a little fish in a big sea. There are many, many, many options, and people tend to go with first impressions when presented with that many options. So, I want things to be more finely polished and a decent archive going. I don't want to be that site where people say, "Hrm, that's interesting, but I'll wait until it has more substance before I actually start watching it."

My goal right now is to have this place ready for promotion before the first semester of the next academic year (so I won't be embarrassed when my undergrads refer people to it). I don't want them saying, "Go visit my TA's site. We feel sorry for him. i think he had some sort of major head trauma when he was a child."