Blogging is Like Fishing - Part 2

I didn't plan a Part 2, but Blogging is Like Fishing turned out to be mostly about the psychology and strategy of getting hits on your blog. But there are other observations too.

1. I write more and think more than I would otherwise. Things I would just think about in passing get caught in my blogger net and then I have to figure out what to do with them. I need to look at them in more depth, I start googling to learn more, trying to think about other not obvious connections there are to other topics. One of the points made at the writing workshop in the Village of Wales was to just write as if none of the rules matter. While I'm still observant of the standards of style in general, the blog seems to impose deadlines that force me to stop tinkering and let it float on its own.

2. I'm learning new technologies faster than I would so I can use them on the blog - my camera is a tool to illustrate my blog posts. So I've taken a lot more pictures than I would have, learned different ways to download, edit, and post them. I've had to learn how to post video, which led me to YouTube, and Viddler. If I'd waited to start blogging til now, I would have skipped those because blogger has its own direct from your computer files video upload now. But having a YouTube account gave me a better understanding of how that phenomenon is working. It never occurred to me that people would be looking at my videos. They were just a place to store them so I could upload them. But more people have looked at my 21 YouTube videos than have looked at my blog. The Sierra Leone All Stars being the big draw with over 1800 hits. I've had to learn iMovie - 05, 06, and now 08. I've also found Viddler for better quality videos, and Jamglue for audio. And I've had to learn some html, but as blogger advances, that becomes less and less necesarry, but what little I've learned does help me get the page a little closer to what I'd like, rather than just what blogger allows. But I'm still a long way off there.

3. I'm ready to start writing some of the articles and chapters I've had on my agenda for a while. I'm even thinking of setting up a new blog related to that as a way of creating some artificial deadlines. I don't want to take away from this blog, but eventually my other writing will demand more of my time and this seems like a way to transition.