Thoughtful Thursday… um…
August 29, 2008
I think I forgot to post!! I thought about it… but that’s as far as it got.
Blame the overly full day that started at 6 a.m. and stopped at 2 a.m. Friday morning. I was at the salon getting hair done for headshot for the Walmart Money Saving Moms thing… then at the photo place. Then drove downtown and picked up my friend Kit and went down to Trios Enoteca for the Rocky Mountain Blogger Bash 5k and was there from 6pm until 1am – then drove Kit home and my Twitterpal Kath1213 to her car.
Didn’t get home until Friday, really. So there you go.
I’ll get the Friday post up shortly – even tho technically, this could count – I’ve got something to say today.
Thanks for bearing with me while I try to start being more consistent about this whole “daily posting” thing. Apparently, I’m less structured right now than I need to be! 
Thoughtful Thursday – Frequency & Dilution
August 21, 2008
When I started this blog, I posted rather haphazardly to it. Whenever I really felt motivated to post, I would. Then I’d Twitter the link, some folks would come and read it, a few would comment and I’d reply and we’d move on again until the next time.
Recently, I decided to take a risk with it though.
You see, this isn’t my first time around the dance floor. I’ve been blogging for 8+ years now under various names in various places. With one exception, I found that the more frequently I blogged, the more sparse the comments and readers became.
I know my own reading habits are such that there isn’t a ‘daily blog’ that I read. No, I’ve never gotten addicted to Dooce or Techcrunch or anything else everyone I know says is “the first thing they read every day upon logging on.“ I’m just not that kind of gal. The only people in real life I can be around every day are my husband and my daughter – so it’s not terribly surprising that I feel the same way about blogs. Heck, even when I got the newspaper delivered I didn’t read it daily. I’m just too random for that.
So it doesn’t exactly surprise me that the kind of readers I attract when I write aren’t that sort either. You’re more likely the sort who clicked on a link I posted on Twitter, or who occasionally stops by because it’s on your blogroll and you’re bored or you’ve found me on a search engine somewhere. The thought that I might spout blogging gems daily is just as amusing to me as it is to you.
So when I opted for shifting this blog to ‘daily posting’ under certain topics, I knew I was doing so at the expense of good commentary. I mean, few folks feel the need to write a letter-to-the-editor of their local newspaper every day about an article they read – why would we think blog readers were going to comment every day? Usually, I suspect the folks who do “read this one site every day first thing” and comment on it are probably a bit more obsessed with the blogger than the blog.
Honestly, not everything that comes out of an a-list blog site is that fascinating. A higher percentage than most? Sure. But if someone is commenting every day on every post – I’d wager money on the fact that the attraction is getting noticed by the poster him/herself, not because every blog spurs a discussion.
Recently, I posted a couple of times in my new format only to have 0 comments.
At first, I got paranoid!! ‘Oh my gosh – this isn’t going to work!! You don’t like the new format! It’s not interesting or engaging enough to read!’
Then I went and checked the site stats… and yep, sure enough, some of you are still reading.
‘Oh duh…’ went the voice in my head, ‘you knew this was going to happen. You’d just gotten used to having someone respond every time you posted here. Now get back to reality and don’t abandon ship just yet. When someone posts that you’ve gotten boring, or your subscriptions start going the other direction along with your site traffic, then you can panic.’
It’s just that I’d forgotten the law of numbers.
You see, I read monthly magazines cover-to-cover most times… because I have time in which to do it and because the infrequency of their publication tends to mean higher quality of content. Sometimes I’ll read weekly print publications cover-to-cover, but usually it’s when I don’t subscribe but have bought one on a newstand. But daily delivered data? Yeah, it’s seldom ALL worthy of note. So if you’re reading this in your Google Reader or whatever RSS feed you use, I’m not going to be surprised when you skip over or delete a large number of my daily posts unless the title interests you.
But hopefully once in awhile I’ll manage to post something that spurs discussion again. Because I’d forgotten what it’s like to keep wondering why no one is commenting on an entry. I guess if I’m going to step up the frequency, I’d better both up the level of content AND lower my expectations!
But do me a favor? If it does get surpassingly boring – before you delete me from your ‘to read’ list? Take 2 minutes to comment and let me know. Even if it’s only to say ‘dude – you suck and you were more interesting when you talked less.’
Thanks!
Weight-Loss Wednesday? Thoughtful Thursday? Sick Reality.
August 14, 2008
I’m taking 2 minutes to write this before I go back to where I’ve spent the past 40-or-so hours… my bed.
Weight-Loss post didn’t happen – because I was busy losing calories the old-fashioned way: not being able to keep anything down other than crackers, ginger ale, and a bowl of chicken noodle soup.
Thoughtful Thursday? all I can think about is how miserable I feel, how quickly the e-mail is piling up in my inbox, how far behind I’m getting, and how I somehow managed to miss calling in to a panel on women in speaking that I really wanted to be in on.
But my stomach, intestines and muscles inform me that I am not going to manage anything other than clicking “Post” on this and collapsing back into bed. If I’m lucky, my darling GeekDaddy will bring me more soup. But he’s been taking care of both Buttercup & me while working full-time the past 2 days. He’s truly my knight in shining armor. My exhausted knight in shining armor.
Did I mention I’m a sucky patient? Whiny, self-absorbed, demanding and cranky? Yeah.
On that note. Tomorrow is another day. G’night.
