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If you asked me a month ago about spending my precious time updating an industry or personal blog, I’d say, "Never!" Sure, I have a business blog (now sadly ignored) which I’ve spent time on, but I’ve always pooh-pooed jumping in and keeping a blog just for the love of it.
Many times on "The About," (About.com's graphic design forum) I’ve passed a verbal grin in Chris Gee's direction when he went on and on about the wonders and power of blogging on his blog thepreparedmind.com. Not for me. I felt I had better things to do with my spare time.
Then came one Sunday (or was it Saturday?). I was playing around with Blogger.com for a client. They had professed an interest in getting a blog on their site, but in order to gain the SEO (Search Engine Optimization), it needed to be under their own domain. As a first time Blogger user, it only took me a short while to get one up and running the way they wanted it, but on my site for the set up and testing. In the process (we’ll call this the "slippery slope") I thought “why not?.” Here I have a wonderful clean slate of a blog, just sitting there, empty. Yes, the "slippery slope."
Brain wave - Why not have a blog to post reviews of the sites I come across while "Stumbling" (www.stumbleupon.com), sort of as a receptor or conduit, before they get sucked into the Creative Latitude Resources Section, after we do our major revamp (and that's how easy it was to justify.)
Shortly after I’d become a fallen blog lady, Black Sunday hit. CRASH! BANG! ZOOP!! Storms clouds thundered in from the northeast and the saga swept me up and carried me away. Before I knew it, I was blogging with the best, the worse, the average and the sane. Dipping here, linking there, I was hooked. Insanity reigned. It plowed a deep furrow in my time while laughingly rearing its power hungry head.
While I was caught in the malestrome, so were others. Blogging that is. New design blogs sprang up here, there and everywhere. Blogs gathering dust sprang back to life. Formerly mild-mannered bloggers were quoting “he said she said” a mile a minute, keeping up with the latest and passing it on around the Internet. In an amazingly short amount of time, our buddy Google got involved and spread our words around the blogsphere, as well as the SEO sphere. Soon, more were jumping in. Some were using forums while doing the blog dance. Comments from the blogs and forums were marching up Google. Some slowly creeping. Some taking leaps and bounds. The power of blogs was amazing and a bit startling. I had no idea.
One plus week passed and I came out of the blogspell, shook my head and decided to get on with real life. I took the saga off of "Blogging with the Cat" (now dead) and stuck it away, intending to get on with my normal life and watch the rest from a distance. But life is no longer normal. I’m hooked. Even with the best of intentions, I have my original business blog which was invaded by the bug for a short while, and the blog, A Designers Archive, which I've forced myself to stop updating for awhile (my hands shake at the thought). And just yesterday, after finding a new template, I just HAD to create a family blog (partially empty at the time of this writing).
Update: My new passion is Designers who Blog ... and watch this space for a new Business of Design blog ... yes, I'm hooked.
So I’m wondering, is there a cure for this addiction? Does it get better? Worse? Is there a bloggers retreat somewhere? The bloggers 12-Steps out of this blogging frenzy?
I know you are all asking “surely something good came of this." And I’ll agree. Yes, the saga has gained the attention of level-headed bloggers (some new, some not) who have caught the blog fever and started useful blogs for the good of the industry. One to watch is Jeff Andrews with Design Inspiration, showcasing designers from around and about. Another is an interesting blog is from Regal Studios Marketing & Advertising for Small Business.
Before this all started, I was an on and off visitor of Jason Santa Maria, A List Apart (designed by Jason), Eric Meyer's meyerweb.com, Neil Tortorella’s Marketing Mind was in my bookmarks to keep my marketing brain rolling, and I've shared Errol Saldanha's BrandingBranding and Toronto Limited with others cut of the same. And now I read on Jason's blog about Zeldman Presents a Daily Report. Oh dear.
Since I’ve become blog-addicted, I’ve started making the rounds of the likes of Elisabetta's Creative Expression, Jeff Andrews' Adventures in Blogging, Does Size Matter, rohdesign, Dimitris Giannitsaros - Blog and 420 Design soapbox. And just this morning before this article was to be posted, Jeff has pointed me to a couple of Howie blogs for when I had a spare minute - Art Backwash, Designmudd, Yellow Sarong, Jeopopolis, and Cracking the Whip.
But just when we've fought against the blog attraction and feel we have our lives back, there goes Chris Gee dangling yet another tempting delight ... (drum roll) .... the Podcast.
For someone like me who’d just recently dipped into blogs, shook her head over the craziness of google bombs, learned what technorati was and how to tweak it, created a MySQL Database on my website to be able to use WordPress (thanks to Velda and Jay for coming to my rescue), the Podcast was yet another bit of technology I’ve been pooh pooing in Chris' direction. As tempting as he thinks it is, I’m still holding out BUT I did feel the need to put a couple of questions to him, just to find out the attraction in case I get caught up in Podcasts like he’s predicting. Weekly he chuckles and says he ‘must’ interview me. I have a fear sometime around 4am I’ll get a skype and it’ll be from Chris, taking advantage of my wooozy state.
Below is a very brief interview I did last week with Chris Gee when we were all under the wild influence of the .... (drum roll) .... LogoWorks saga.
Cat: Why did you start podcasts?
Chris: Well, the podcasts were an extension of my blog. I started my blog originally because I felt that there wasn't enough discussion on GD forums and blogs about actual DESIGN and the design industry. We see a lot of talk about software, computers, techniques and requests for help but not a lot of thoughtful discussion into trends, happenings and and other important matters.
Then when podcasts came along, my first reaction was to search for a GD podcast to listen to. Of course, I found very little on the topic on design and of the few I found, none were done by designers. So I decided to start my own podcast.
Cat: Where did you hear your first one?
Chris: The first podcast I'd ever heard was from the two English guys who do iLovepdg. Those guys are great and MUCH funnier than I am!
Cat: What is your future with podcasts?
Chris: Well I've interviewed some REALLY interesting people, all of whom I'd love to have back again! There are other topics I'd like to cover as well. I'd love to do another show and go into more detail on remote collaboration. Also, someone emailed me this week and suggested I do a show on the basics of starting your own design practice. I've been pretty critical of the AIGA at times, so maybe it would be nice if I could get someone from AIGA on a future podcast. Maybe Ric Grefé will do me the honors? We'll see. I want to surprise everyone! ;-)
Cat: Who are the others podcasting? [touching on the industry, or top poscasters you know of]
Chris: Not many. I already mentioned the ilovepdg guys, there's Media Artists Secrets, there's a new podcast by Lunar Design and not much else that I'm aware of. WE NEED MORE DESIGNERS!
Cat: What advice can you give those who are considering podcasting?
Chris: Jump right in! It's very easy. Sure, you'll make lots of mistakes at first but that's OK. Nobody is paying you so who cares? It's also very cheap to get started. Glenn Fleishman wrote an excellent tutorial which I followed to get started. Cost me less than $100 total ($40 for a shareware recording software and $50 for a Logitech USB/Mic headset). That's it. Went to Circuit City and the next afternoon I was podcasting!
I think podcasting is powerful because it gives us the opportunity to reach people in ways we cannot with blogs and websites. Don't get me wrong, blogs and sites have their place. But let's face it, people have information overload! It's often a choice between reading your blog and the 15 other things they need to read. But with podcasts, people tell me that they listen via their iPods while in the gym. They burn them to CD and listen in their car during their commute. They listen on their computer with a headset or speakers.
I've not really promoted my podcast outside of a couple of GD forums I frequent and already we're seeing about 300 downloads PER DAY on the weekdays. Weekends are always about 20% slower. But if I can get 300 downloads per day (and since 85% subscribe via iTunes, there is little chance of duplicate users) without promoting it, then sky's the limit for anyone else out there who wants to be heard! It's not like I'm Clement Mok or Hillman Curtis or some other famous designer.
Cat: What are your favourite podcast urls? [to get people started, etc]
Chris: Well I subscribe to all of my podcasts via iTunes, which allows you to simply search by name (or other criteria) to find the podcasts. So I don't know the URLs.
Here are my favorites:
lovepdg, media artists secrets, icon-o-casts (Lunar Design), Z100 Phone Taps (prank calls by local NYC djs, my wife and I can listen to these all day!) and of course the Philadelphia Eagles Podcast Network.
Cat: Would you like add anything else?
Chris: If you're a designer and you're listening to this, start a podcast TODAY! We need more! More people listen than only designers.
Cat: it's really weird to be typing to you, and listening to your voice at the same time ...
Chris: You're going to have the unfortunate experience of having me in your head now! Drives my wife batty! She wakes up in the middle of the night in cold sweats ... ;-)
You can keep up with Chris Gee's Podcasts at PodcastAlley.com
©2005, Catherine Morley
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