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February 21, 2008
Dead Wood
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| Image: Center for Economic Development
blog activity may not bode well for economic development. I've been keeping an eye on the Butte, Glenn, Tehama Counties: Your Local Perspective blog, because I want to see what my local perspective is. I'm curious what community and business leaders have to say. So far they haven't said anything. It's totally possible that they're too busy doing economic development to write something. On the other hand it may be an indication that they don't do much economic development either. The Center for Economic Development who seems to own the Norcal blog I imaged above actually does some good work in the region (I've been told). They maintain demographic information for a number of counties, and the booklets they create can be informative for a business. That kind of information would be great for a blog. The unfortunate reality is that writing a blog that is relevant, and interesting, is not an easy thing to do. It's terrifically hard to do it 5 or so times a week. The Center for Economic Development seems to have jumped on the blog bandwagon and then forgot to write something. No big deal right, but this happens quite a bit. For someone like me this can be a tad frustrating. I look at things through a number of different prisms, one being a business owner, another being a guy who spends too much time on a blog. The E-R seems to have taken the stance that "more blogs" is better. Dead blogs nestled up against active blogs seems to be a fine way to market free content. And of course two blogs about the Raiders and one about Hollywood celebrities are absolutely necessary. I would do things differently. I would take the popular and active blogs and separate them from the others. They would go at the top of the page. I would separate new blogs from existing blogs, and give new bloggers a chance to "move up" after a trial period. This would also display new blogs and give them a chance to find readers. The monotonous list of Norcal blogs causes everyone to get lost. I would remove dead blogs and move inactive ones out of the limelight. This would support the efforts that are driving readers to the E-R web site. If a web presence is the future of the news biz then quality control over blogs would probably be a smart thing to consider. It may be that the E-R's egalitarian take on the world of blogging is better than mine. I would just focus on merit over multitudes. Who's to know? I think the person to ask is my good friend Anthony Watts, whose blog recently passed the 100,000 monthly unique visits after he took it outside of Norcal blogs. He seems to have found more success than the rest of us put together. The highest number I've hit was in the 7,000's for the month I posted the City salaries. I'm not even sure I'll keep at this gig for much longer. At least once a week I decide to quit. The pay sucks, the hours are long, and I feel like I'm married to my computer when I'm home. Then I go to work and use my computer all day. When did I become a techno nerd? On the other hand, who would post all the documents from inside the bowels of the city if I quit? Maybe I'll stick around for another week or two. Update: Whew!!! There's now something posted at the blog I referenced here. You can see the update here if you like. |
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| Other Dead Wood: The U.S. military claims to have shot down the dead spy satellite last night with its first missile. Below is a link to a Pentagon press conference on the missile hit, where they say they can't be entirely sure that they met all of their goals for this mission. They should know after a couple more days of watching the satellite debris. There is a video of the satellite being hit. (press conference). |
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CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Gregg Payne, who has great stories and doesn't have a TV. I'll leave it at that. See comments below for the answer. |
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Posted by Lon at February 21, 2008 07:36 AM
Comments
Robin Weigert?
Posted by: Gregg Payne at February 21, 2008 07:47 AM
From the HBO show "Deadwood"---Calamity Jane (Robin Weigert)??
Posted by: Mrs. Rainman at February 21, 2008 08:31 AM
Lon:
I find it humourous that the Center for Economic Development office is roughly 100 yards West of your office.
You could walk out your front door and toss a rock through their window... not that you would want to : -)
I asked Dan Ripke about the blog, he said that he has been working on content, but was surprised to learn that it shows up as an empty husk of "Dead Wood"... He thought that it would not show up until he started posting...
Dan and his crew are good folks... I'm sure that they'll rise above their current "Dead Wood" status and do good things with it....
Posted by: Mark Sorensen at February 21, 2008 09:36 AM
Lon,
What about if you dropped down to part-time, weekends off?
A little CI is better than none at all.
What you are doing is really valuable.
Tina
Posted by: Tina at February 21, 2008 09:39 AM
Mark,
Now I've probably embarrassed someone. Let them know we need more Raider content. But in reality they put an organization's name on the blog, and it doesn't look good to have it blank for a month or so.
As far as I know the Center for Economic Development does the demographic stuff and oversees the small business development center grants for a number of counties. They could have a great blog with tons of business and demographic data, as well as posting about government/business oriented programs.
But what do I know, I write about beavers.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at February 21, 2008 10:03 AM
Tina,
Those are good ideas. I've already limited weekend posts to a minimum. I recently changed from writing my blog in the morning to doing it at night before bed (I still post them in the morning). I don't watch a lot of TV so nights after the kids go to bed is good, even though my brain is less funtional.
We'll see how things go. Spring is coming, and this is the year my son and I will start mountain biking into Upper Park. That's going to take a little extra time.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at February 21, 2008 10:20 AM
Thanks for the notice Lon. Yesterday I had my new best day ever on the new wordpress blog platform: 13,100 unique page views. Now I'm over 126,000 views for the month. I briefly hit 3rd most popular post in all of wordpress.com yesterday before CNN Hillary news edged me out.
Yeah its been fun! Sometimes scary. My blog is being cited overseas now.
Anyone can generate traffic on a blog, Lon's rise to the top of the true to form Norcal blogs, edging out "bullfight by the bay", which used to be the previous leader shows how creative writing and interesting graphics can really add value to the content.
Of course it helps to be connected to your subject matter. Being downtown, Lon is as connected as you can get.
BTW Still waiting for a post of the new devil horns sculpture in the new city plaza. Odd dichotomy; "the hands" on one block, "devil horns" on the other.
Posted by: Anthony at February 21, 2008 12:22 PM
Anthony,
I had a whole "The Devil Is In The Details" blog ready to go on the new downtown plaza art. Then I figured I had spent enough time demonizing the $68,000 chess tables that I could let that one go. The devil horns were about half the price, and at least they were recognizable as art.
126,000 unique visits is huge. Congrats. You deserve it.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at February 21, 2008 12:44 PM
me thinks my traffic will increase again
Posted by: Anthony at February 21, 2008 12:50 PM
"But what do I know, I write about beavers."
Here Lon, I saved one for you:
Beaver population helps battle drought
http://junkscience.com/blog_js/2008/02/21/beaver-population-helps-battle-drought/
Posted by: Anthony at February 21, 2008 01:16 PM
Hi!
I agree with you on the dead blogs on Norcal Blogs. They should be removed to the "inactive" blog file. For a more in-depth study of Norcal Blogs, read my blog critique on the ER Forums that nobody uses or reads according to ER Editor David Little.
My blog critique is the most well-read and entertaining topic on the forum, it has 615 hits compared to the other topics. People are curious to see which blogs will be hammered or given the magic wand of approval.
Stay tuned...
Posted by: Dahlia_TJefferson at February 21, 2008 11:40 PM
Mrs. Rainman and Gregg both got the CI challenge. Gregg doesn't even watch TV, which makes me very concerned about how he comes by this knowledge.
It is Calamity Jane from HBO's show Dead Wood.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at February 22, 2008 07:31 AM
Dahlia,
It would seem to me that the E-R could decide to treat the blogs differently. Do they want new readers for active blogs? Do they want to push blog readers to E-R news stories? It seems like the blogs are either an asset or an afterthought.
Lumping active efforts with blogs that haven't published in months certainly makes me think they are an afterthought, or at least a resource that's not being exploited.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at February 22, 2008 07:39 AM
Lon, if you want to break out of the mold, simply do what I did. Start a blog with the same name at wordpress.com Then ask ER to give you an XML file export of your existing blog, import to the new one, then ask them to cahnge the link on the norcalblogs menu page, put up a notice on your old CI blog saying here is where the new one is.
Took me all of about 30 minutes, cost -zero
Then, blog on brother.
The current state of affairs is hoplessly mired in what the MNG corporate folks want to do with the software, and a resolution is not forthcoming anytime soon AFAIK.
Posted by: Anthony at February 22, 2008 09:39 AM
Anthony,
I'm more wondering if blogging is worth my time. I see more and more blogs being added to the main page making it less and less likely that new readers will find this blog. If I wanted to improve the chance that someone would find my blog via the Norcal blogs web page I would rename it "A1 Blog". That tells me that the content and effort of individuals is not valued by the sponsor in a way that I would value it.
I would simply do things differently if I wanted to keep people working hard and providing free content.
Who knows maybe I'll take your advice and move over to somewhere else. It's just not the shoddy software that I was bothered by.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at February 22, 2008 10:20 AM