I am weighing out a few different options for this blog, and my personal blogging in general. When I started this blog way back in the day (over 4 years ago), I was mostly just looking for a viral place to connect with others who were as interested in bicycling as I am. Not too many of my close friends share this passion with me, and living in a smaller town makes it hard to join or even be a part of any cycling groups or clubs. This blog has done a great job of connecting me with some great cyclists all over the world. I feel like I've made some genuine friends with people I've never met, or may never meet in real life. 'Online friends' sound so ridiculous, but in this day and age, I feel it's more legit than it's ever been. Many of the folks I follow via their blogs and so one, I probably would be hanging out with quite a bit in 'real life'. If we weren't so far away of course. I've even had the good pleasure to meet some great bloggers in real life, and I like them even more than I did when I only knew them through blog contact. (And by the way, it does seem weird typing this still. Somehow I've still got a stigma regarding the whole 'internet-social' thing) Vik, is a great guy and I've bought a bike from him, rode with him and had lunch on a few occasions. Smudgemo and I met up for beers once while I was on a quick business trip to Oakland. The fact of the matter is that the internet is indeed a social place, fill with real life people. We may never meet them, but we can still hang, and get caught up in our little worlds of interest that we share. It's great. Chris, Doug, Jon, Hughie and Micheal to name a few, are people that I may never meet in person, but we do share a common interest and enjoy each other's online interaction.
That leads me to exploring some of my options. My interests are vast and varied, and many come and go. There are a few though, that do keep my interest, and I find as I'm getting older, I tend to bounce around from one thing to the next less. I love bicycles. Bummer is that in the winter my riding drops quite a bit. I run more than I ride. Food. I love food. I regularly post iPhone pics of the food in my life on my tumbler blog, which is more of just a random dump of quickly shot iphone pics. It's not interactive at all, and I like it more it's non-committal nature. Throw pics up when I can. Nothing more. I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook, and my twitter is more oriented towards business. Then there are my photography blogs, which I will keep as places for people to view my latest photography work. But lately, I've been wanting a place where I can blog about more of the activities and interests that are in my life. Cycling, running, food, design, beer, photography, family, DIY and simple living. I want to put up more quality posts, with quality images (seeing as I've got some decent camera gear) about a variety of topics.
I find myself asking if this blog is the right place to do it. The first thing that bugs me about this blog is the name. Way back when I started it, I had never put much onto the old inter-web, and I choose a nickname for it's title. My name isn't Jerome. It's Jeremy. And the URL very clearly states 'bikes' in it. Would it be fair to have less content on bikes than other topics? I think the only thing that is making me think so much about changing up to a different blog, is that this one has some sentimental value to me. It's where it all began for me, and it's done me very well. I feel that blogging here is a decision that has enriched my life and I really like what this little blog has done for me and how it's allowed me to meet and interact with so many great people.
There's a steady stream of traffic that comes here. Would I lose some of that? I guess I might. But then who cares? I do hate to inconvenience anyone who might want to continue to follow what I blog, by making them have to update their bookmarks. But, hopefully the change will be worth it with a larger stream of content that they'd enjoy. It's not an easy decision, and it hasn't been made for sure yet. But I am indeed leaning towards a new site with more content that spans a great interest of topics.
All this to say that there may be some changes coming in the way that I blog about my personal interests. Any thoughts or suggestions?
I'll keep you posted.
Cheers,
Jeremy
7 comments:
Although I've looked around on your other blogs, "Jerome's Bikes" is the one I follow closely. Because you are an internet friend, I'd certainly follow your blog even if you changed the name and address and/or included other topics/interests. In fact, because of friendship (such that it is), it would be great to have a more comprehensive understanding all in one place. Just tell us where to find you...and don't drop the bike content.
I think a lot of websites start out with a name that in 4 years time may not be fitting anymore but they keep it anyway. I think If you changed the styling of the header as well as the sub title, it would be obvious that the content of the blog is not solely focused on bikes.
That being said, a new url/blog is not a bad idea either.
I will follow your exploits whatever choice you make. It makes for an interesting read :)
Interesting post. I certainly understand where you're coming from. My blog was originally not intended to be about biking at all, but that's where my interests have taken me. I have also considered renaming mine.
At any rate, I would follow you wherever you go. I use a feed reader to keep up to date, and I can easily point it at a new location.
Another option would be to keep the URL (and thus traffic) but change the title to something more general, even if it's just "Jerome's Bikes and Such." Or the title could be completely different, with the same URL.
Whatever you decide, just let us know, so we can follow you in your new location, if it does change.
Your blog is one of some across the water that i follow and enjoy. Sometimes i add comment but i read nearly every post.like you i will proberly never meet most of the folk that read my blog have mwt great friends.
But for me if i inspire folk to go out there and enjoy themselves then thats a good thing, lots of blogs move to wordpress then you cant follow them with updates on blogger and often i lose track of them...
I try to not write about cycling stats and graphs etc...as i think they are only of interest to that person training for a future goal etc... but try and write about things i see via a bicycle and therefore makes the reading more interesting to a wider audiance..
Do what you feel you have to do and im sure folk will stick by you!
You may have noticed that although my blog is called "Two Wheels", I post pretty much everything I find interesting on it. From bikes, to motorbikes to the contimuing adventure of my little shack's plumbing; it all goes on there.
I sometimes wonder if certain subject matter alienates some readers, but then I think, "Hey, it's my blog."
Whatever you do, blog-name-and-content-wise, I'll continue reading.
I would still read it if it changed. I find you to be a very interesting person and like-minded when it comes to bicycles. I don't think a name change and expanded content would hurt anything. I think it would make it more interesting.
Thanks a lot for all of the encouragement guys, it really is appreciated.
Still deciding, but we'll see where it goes.
Cheers,
Jeremy
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