I write on the web as a way of giving back to all those people who’s blogs I frequent and who have given me so much. That’s the altruistic justification and it is the truth. But it’s just as true that I write on the web to be…well…read. and I am interested in things that increase that readership. More specifically, I am interested in things that increase the depth of that readership. Getting hits on my site is gratifying and I, much like any blogger out there, like seeing that visit count go up, up, up. But, lately, I have found myself gravitating more towards the stats that tell me how long a visitor stays on my site. Is what I am writing compelling enough, to those that drop by my site, to keep them there. I write some fairly long pieces. If I receive a visitor who’s time spent on my site is a mere :30, well, they haven’t read much. They’ve dropped by, checked out what’s around and decided it’s not for them.
I read an article on the inter-webs the other day that passed along some sage advice. Subject of the article? Getting traffic on your website and keeping it there. Method? Write for your audience. In other words, if your site’s about puppies you probably shouldn’t be writing about your latest trip to the dentist. The puppy lovers that came to your blog didn’t come to your blog to hear about your tooth decay issues and they are probably not going to stick around to read about it. They might visit your site but that visit is going to be short-lived. They are going to go somewhere else. Give the puppy people non-puppy-focused content for too long and you’ve lost them. Possibly for good. For me, the piece also reinforced the idea that one should decide what that audience is in the first place. You have to decide who your audience is before you can write for them. In the end, if one is at all interested in truly communicating by blogging on a particular subject, it’s just a tad disrespectful to give a reader much else than what you have led them to expect they’ll find by coming to your site.
I find myself devoting a lot of my time writing on the subject of coffee. Coffee is a passion and a hobby and making it, drinking it, talking and writing about all gives me great pleasure. There is a quality coffee explosion happening right now, right where I live, in The San Francisco Bay Area. I’m having a good time documenting my experience of it. I think it deserves focus and I think those of you who are frequenting this blog to read what I write about coffee deserve a place of your own and to get out of your visit as much as you can.
To these ends, I’ve decided to start up another blog. Coffee focused. No puppies. I present to you: Daniel of Arabica.
I will still be posting here as well but If it’s written by me and it’s about coffee, Daniel of Arabica is where you’ll find it. Thanks for reading. Thanks for staying. Happy brewing. Happy drinking.
Daniel G. Markham
Rion.nu is one of my favorite photo blogs–especially (as m’lady and I wish to become expats for a time ourselves, someday) since the author and her husband relocated overseas, from New York to Paris. After a bit of a hiatus, during which they moved–again–this time, from Paris to London, Rion Nakaya is back to visually documenting the life of (another) city.
I’m not often one to tout the tools I use but WordPress is my publishing platform of choice and the next major version of it — v2.7 aka “Coltrane” — is now out, in the wild and awaiting your download. Nice improvements abound.
Update: I failed to say that, for those looking for a hosted blogging platform (i.e. like Blogger, Tumblr, …), most all of the features found in the new, self-hosted version of WordPress can be found in the hosted version at WordPress.com.
How to Blog (on flickr)
Some people have those insipid inspirational posters …
… I have slide #13 of Merlin Mann’s presentation, “How to Blog”. It’s been web-clipped to my MacBook’s Dashboard for easy access and serendipitous evocation.
The blogging system with which I had a short-lived and tawdry affair, now has a new version out (finally!). It’s a great system (“system” is as a good a word as any, I guess … I never know what to call these things). Simple and easy to use as it was, I never did get the hang of how to really dig into the guts of it, not like I can with WordPress.
For a while it was thought that Chyrp was going to be left to die on the vine. Thankfully for for those that adopted the system, the big cheese is back at the helm. Worth checking out.
Introduced by Matt Mullenweg (created by?) at Web 2.0 in San Francisco, the new WordPress theme, MONOTONE, is designed specifically for photoblogging.
The theme creates a unique page for each image, creating the color scheme for each page by sampling the photo’s colors and assigning a color scheme based on that sample. Amazing.
Two of my web heroes have moved to WordPress!
Derek Powazek returned to the blogging world in March of 2007, shying away from Moveable Type and embracing WordPress. He even devised his own theme and, in the true spirit of open-source, released it to the public.
Now my o-riginal web hero (sorry Mr. P.), Heather Powazek Champ has done the same. I’m speechless. Once again Derek Powazek has created a new theme (actually a slightly modified version of his first WordPress theme) for Heather Powazek Champ’s new endeavor.
I. Can’t. Wait. for this year’s WordCamp now that the possibility that both of these people may be making an appearance (hint, hint, Powazeks)
Can one create an internet company, today, outside of “The Valley”? Evan Williams (creator of Twitter and, Blogger, no less) says?… (via, yeah you guessed it: D.F.)
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area with my beautiful fiancé where I attend San Francisco State University. I am majoring in psychology and minoring in marketing. Yes, I plan to take over the world. more →
© It's a Danapalooza!
Published with WordPress
Styled with a mod'd up version of DePo Skinny,
with generous appropriation of functional bits 'n' pieces from R755,
& Served up by Nearly Free Speech
