A New Approach

A large part of what we do for many digital clients involves managing content and community for their online properties. However, in this case the cobbler’s son (my blog) has gotten to the point where he has no shoes.

For the last several years, I’ve focused on writing long-form content for this site. Each post that I’ve written has generally taken me between one and three hours to write, as I prefer to share in-depth, thought-out ideas that either provoke new thoughts or provide useful input.

Times, however, are a-changing. Caralin and I have recently bought and are in the process of renovating our first house; we’re planning our wedding and I’m working and traveling as much as ever. Set alongside all of these priorities, the time I’ve been able to spend on this site has suffered as I’ve found it difficult to find the time to flesh-out long-form content on a regular basis. As a result, a lot of ideas I have go unposted – not because I’m no longer having them, but because I don’t have the time to build them out in full.

So, I’m beginning a new approach to content, continuing the process I began with my Tumblr blog. I’ll be producing a mixture of long-form and short-form content; of the same kind of posts I’ve always posted and shorter thoughts, snippets and pointers to other interesting content. I will continue to prioritize long-form content when I can, but when time is short I’m going to prioritize thought-starters ahead of rounded-out posts.

I’m hoping that this will re-invigorate my site, without negatively affecting the content. The volume of longer posts will remain as it is now, but I’ll fill the gaps between them with regular shorter snippets. So, expect more questions and more speculative thoughts, and more points for discussion along the way.

I know I’m not the first person to struggle with this dilemma. Have you encountered this problem? How have you addressed it?