coneblog

A key blogging issue is the question of audience. You can’t pick your audience, your audience picks you. The question to ask is, would you continue to write if no one else is reading your blog? I think the answer must be yes, because unless you already have a following, or are famous, there is no guarantee that you will find an audience. This is the same decision that a novice fiction author makes when he sits down day after day at the typewriter. There is no guarantee that his work will ever be read, and a high likelihood that it won’t.

Another issue is the question of voice, as in “do you have a voice?” Can you find a voice? Is your voice one that others want to hear? I believe I have found a voice in my blog. It was no big struggle, the voice is mine. I have paid some attention to the mix of posts, intentionally mixing some of the interesting parts of my life with specific IT project experiences and more general IT project observations. This mix seems to be what the readers want, because I get as many comments on the personal posts as on the IT posts.

Then there is the question of format and timeliness. I’m sensitive to the time pressures of busy IT professionals – I am one myself. I seek to write four or five paragraphs per post, and usually break larger pieces up into bite-sized posts. This lets me stretch the material, and doesn’t impose undue burdens on the readership.

Stay tuned for more about the whys and wherefores of Blogging in the next All New Coneblog…