It is easy enough to take apart an inanimate object, such as your old toaster or fried computer, to learn about what made it tick, to see the parts that made the whole. It is another thing to try to undo matters of the heart, to decipher the mind behind the personal web logger. There is something intangible about virtual journals. I wonder how many countlessss blogs have gone the way of Humpty-Dumpty, of posterity, archived in the virtual grave-yard of the internet tubes. Not all blogs are created equal, few are superlative. I really miss John Cieciel's Spitting Image. Rest in peace one of the swamps finest, Alesh's Critical Miami. Long live his new venture Buildings n Food. Blogging is good for the soul of the whole. Long live the freedom of speech.
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Thanks. I really really really appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteA question I've been asked, and one which I struggled with, is "if you want to do something else, why not just do the new thing at the same place."
And for me, the answer came when I looked at the long-term perspective. From my own interests, the "Miami" name would have gradually become more and more of an oddity, and might have even turned readers away. Then too, the body of work I did under CM deserves the respect of not being mixed in with a bunch of non-local crap-shooting.
Also, I wanted to play around with some new ideas in content management and blog design without destroying the old ideas.
In other words, CM seems like a thing that deserves to exist, even as a dead thing.
The question, obviously, is to leverage CM's sizable readership into a sizable readership at the new place. And the sad fact is that it's mostly not possible. You get one click from most readers, and they'll either decide to click back at some point in the future or (much more likely) not. New blog, new "do I want to stick with this?" decision.
Fair enough. And maybe I'll regret this decision somewhere down the line. CM was REALLY well read. Then again, the readership never really materialized into anything that even threatened to become a viable job, even part time (the google ads plateaued at around $130 per month over a year ago).
I keep coming back to the same thing: I started CM to fill a need -- a Gothamist-like blog for Miami. Today there are dozens, if not hundreds. If what people really enjoy about my blog is my particular perspective, then they'll EVENTUALLY find my new blog. Plus, the new place will attract plenty of people who have no particular interest in the local aspectology of CM.
I guess this is all pretty obvious. But it's nice to type it out where it'll be findable but not under everyone's nose. Thanks for the opportunity. And thanks for your readership and thoughtful comments, swamp.
Thought that was a chain letter until i read the, end.
ReplyDeleteIn an age of labels, tags and mosquito-like attention spans, it is near imposible to be recognized and appreciated for the multi-layered nuanced contradiction that is the true character of most people.