I must be insane, I started a blog

[Brian C. Miller]

Darin, I don't think that r.e. is being caustic, it's just that you need to start blogging! Like was remarked lately on the OLP blog, it's the blogger who is to create the content.

Start writing!

[Vaughn]

r.e.: I think darling Darin was just asking us about the insanity of him starting a blog -- not necessarily about the contents of his yet fleshed out blog. He was just trying to share where the there will be when the there is there and not just under his hair.

[Darin Boville]

He was just trying to share where the there will be when the there is there and not just under his hair.

Say that five times fast!

--Darin

[r.e.]

Darin, I don't think that r.e. is being caustic, it's just that you need to start blogging! Like was remarked lately on the OLP blog, it's the blogger who is to create the content.

Start writing!

Yup, or post photographs, or both.

And fix the potted Wordpress theme

[Corran]

Hi Darin. I just started a blog about a week or so ago myself about film photography in my area.

I am trying to write a post a day (as well as shoot some film everyday as practice anyway!). I will be interested to see your blog as it gets posts. I had been meaning to start one but was spurred on by seeing some blogs from other members on this forum.

What is your intended audience, by the way? I'm hoping to get locals interested and possibly generate work from mine eventually, but it's an uphill battle since everyone and their dog has a blog these days.

[mdm]

The Sartorialist makes a million a year from the ads on his blog, I'd say get snapping.

[Darin Boville]

The Sartorialist makes a million a year from the ads on his blog, I'd say get snapping.

He makes a $million from two ads on his blog? I know he gets tons of hits but $500k an ad? Oh my.

--Darin

[mdm]

Product placement too.

[Jack Dahlgren]

It appears to be more about words than anything else so I'll base my commentary on that. For example:

"From time to time I would like to share books that I am reading, want to read, or which have arrived and am about to begin reading. It is that last case I’d like to start with–a first impression of one that came today.'

You could leave that whole paragraph off your post and it would be just as^H^H^H^H^H^H^H more effective.

I've been blogging for 6 and a half years and I find that my least successful posts (and most incriminating ones) are those where I state what I am going to do. No one cares what I plan to write about. They only see what I have written. Skip the prologue and be wary of 16 part series that end on the 3rd episode!

Your previous post - the long quotation - does not read well. When at the main page I only see part of it and only find out who it is from and when it was written by clicking to read more. Introduce it at the front. Tell us why you think it is interesting or why we should think it is interesting.

Anyway, I encourage you to keep at it. I find that it is interesting to look back and see what I have written and thought in the past. Many of the posts from years back surprise me as if I've never seen them before and sometimes I wonder if i actually wrote them. Memory is truly a fluid thing. But this will only be valuable to you if you actually write things that indicate what you are thinking and feeling.

Reposting a quote reveals only a little about yourself in that you selected it. Complaining about the poor colors in a book indicates that you are a curmudgeon and may not understand that authors don't always have a big hand in reviewing the print samples.

The other thing I enjoy about blogging is finding people who read and comment on my blog. I've had many good conversations about what I've posted. But people will only engage in conversation if it is interesting and you invite or challenge them to respond.

I've also run into people who know me first from my blog so do your best to represent yourself in a way that is representative of you. I don't really see your voice coming through in your blog in the way it does with your photography. The blog is the ghost of you.

(disclaimer - my blog is becoming ghostly itself. You will slow down over time. You may end up posting every few months. But resist the temptation to comment to your readers about that fact, or proclaim you will be revitalizing your blog shortly! It never happens.)

[munz6869]

Blog on - the Robert Hughes post is an interesting one!

I agree with Jack's comments - my own blog started at a feverish pace and is becoming a bit sporadic - even so, there's so much content on it now that search engines alone seem to generate a fair bit of traffic daily - onwards to infamy!

Marc!