2 posts tagged “blog”
This space has really stagnated this year. And the thing is, it's not the only one. I have so many friends who have abandoned their blogs in the last 6 to 8 months. In fact, I'm going on record right now and calling 2009 the "year the personal blog died."
I'm a fan of Coding Horror's Jeff Atwood. I've been reading his blog for about 2 years now. He has written some blogging adivice on a couple occasions, and I've decided to implement his suggestion to pick a schedule. From here on out, I'll be attempting to post at least twice per week with posts going up on Mondays and Fridays. I'll endeavor to find something worth writing about, and if I can't find anything I'll at least post a message to that effect. It means sometimes I may be grasping a bit, but in the end it should improve things. I would have preferred Tuesday instead of Monday, since I can't always count on anything happening over the weekend to write about, but when it comes down to it Monday and Friday are the days when I have the time to put a post together.
The new schedule begins today, and I'm not counting this post. That means there'll be two posts today, with the next post following a few minutes after this one. The first scheduled post is also inspired by the coding horror blog, and is the first time I'll be posting something I might not otherwise have bothered with, so I can keep up with the schedule. Hopefully this kind of thing won't happen too often, but since it will never replace a good post, and there is always the chance a post like this will itself be good, I think it can only have a positive effect.
I should mention that I use the term 'Schedule' very loosely. Posting is currently a manual process, with entries typed right in the blog service's new post window. This means there's no specific time on Monday or Friday when the blog will be updated. I'll still update outside the schedule when I get the muse, but occasionally I may delay a post so that I can make it public at a scheduled update. Along with the new schedule you may also see a few more posts directed at the subject of medical billing, since that's what my employer pays me to do, but I'll try to give most of my posts a more broad appeal.
I've been blogging off and on for about 4 years now, but I'm going to be honest for a minute and admit that I really don't have any readers. Sure, a few family members check here now and then, but this blog isn't really aimed at them. I think that kind of thing belongs more in a Facebook or Twitter type setting. I'm working towards more of a professional journal, but I don't have any following among other programmers. This is okay. I'm still very junior in my profession, and I view this blog in it's current form as training towards launching something bigger later on down the line.
Part of the problem is the lack of consistency. Sometimes I'll there will be stretches where I'll post more than once a day for a few months solid. Sometimes I'd go 5 months or so without updating a single thing. Hopefully adding some regularity to the blog will help this area. My other big problem is proofreading. Right now I have a tendency to make a post, and then immediately go back and fix a grammar error or six, maybe add a thought, or even completely re-write a paragraph. It's not that I don't proof before I post. It's just that it takes several revisions to get something I'm happy with. I still need to find a process for saving these revisions before going live with a new post. Hopefully the schedule will help with that by giving me some more time to review an entry before it goes 'live'. Aside from that, the only problems I see can only be fixed with time, and experience.
Until I came to Vox I've used platforms of my own creation, and when I finally launch what I consider a 'for real' site I intend to do that again, or least a modified version of an existing open source platform. In the mean-time, I need to practice with the schedule, I need to improve my proof-reading, I need some more experience in my field, and I need to build some readership. Wish me luck.
