I took a sabbatical from blogging for the last 1.5 years. It was not because I was making a statement. It was not because I switched to a flashier tool. It was just because I took a job that was not very conducive to blogging. In essence, I was immersed in a business VP role and there were too many sensitive issues I would have had to navigate around, so this made it difficult to write posts. Now I’m a in CTO role which I find to be much more conducive to blogging.

Since I had a year and a half away from the blogosphere, I had the opportunity to “see what changed” now that I’m back. I looked for my blogging tools tucked away in various corners of the internet, afraid of what I’d find as I reached into the cobwebs. Fortunately, or should I say unfortunately, I remembered most of my passwords. There they were, remnants of decayed accounts and dismal blog stats everywhere.

Regardless of my own situation, this did give me a chance to notice some significant changes that occurred in the blogging world over the last 1.5 years. Here are a few significant changes that I think are worth noting:

•  The players have changed.
•  The tools and methods have changed.
•  Subscribers are dead. Actually, they’re not dead, but they’ve taken a new form.
•  Comments are dead. Actually, they’re not dead, they just dispersed.
• Services churn.

Let’s look at these a little more closely with a little Q&A.

Welcome to my personal blog.  I’ve had a work blog for a number of years, but this is my first time having a personal blog.  Starting a second blog has some of the same excitement as starting your first blog.  This made me do a quick search on how to blog.

There are many very good posts that give advice on how to blog [1, 2].  I enjoy reading these posts and I value the advice.  If I were really serious about blogging properly, I’d probably follow much of the advice.  But this blog is just for fun and I don’t have a specific purpose in mind.  For example, I don’t intend to get rich, market myself, or influence people through my blog.  I just want to have a place to share my thoughts and hear yours.

Here is some blogging advice I do not plan to take:

• Post regularly. Chances are that my blogging pattern will be bursty, depending on what’s going on in my life and at work. I’ll post what I can when I can, and I know there will be dry spells. Sorry in advance for those!
• Choose a topic. I don’t have one particular topic in mind. I find many things interesting, so I just plan to share things that I find interesting and want to share.
• Choose a target audience. I don’t have one target audience in mind. Along with having many interests is having many types of friends. Chances are that different people will be interested in different posts.
• Be unique. Seems like a strange a thing to strive for.
• Be focused. See “Choose a topic”.
• Be interesting. Also seems like a strange thing to strive for. I will write about things that I find interesting and that I hope someone will find interesting, but interesting is in the eyes of the reader. Please let me know if you find a post to be interesting to you.
• Be responsive. I’ll try to be responsive, but see the comment about bursty in “Post regularly”.
• Be proactive. This is just for fun.
• Be available. See “Be responsive” and “Post regularly”.

Here is some blogging advice I plan to take:

• Be yourself. I’m just me, and I would have a hard time trying to be someone else.
• Be honest. I think I’m honest.
• Be approachable. I think I’m usually approachable.
• Be authentic. I think I’m authentic.
• Be thankful. I am very thankful.

A blog is not meant to be a one-way form of communication, but it’s meant to be a dialog.  So please leave your comments and your thoughts, no matter how little or big, as the dialogue is the fun of blogging.  Also, your comments will help guide me through my journey of personal blogging.

Finally, thank you for reading this!