Taking back my blog!
Tuesday, August 15 2006
In my very first post I said "my intention here is to discuss come current issues I see in our environments and how I/we handle them so that others can hopefully glean something from the learning process I go through each and every day here at Microsoft."
I was referring to technical issues at the time and I do write about those, but not to the extent that I had originally intended. I quickly moved into posting about working at Microsoft, random technology stuff, some current events, tidbits about video gaming and miscellaneous funny stuff I found online. Eight months later (August 2005) I really wanted to discuss some things that were going on with my daughter (1-1/2 at the time), but I didn't feel like they 'fit' the persona I was creating here. So I went and started another blog, thDad [pronouced the-dad], to talk specifically [and only] about fatherhood, parenting issues and kids. My posting started off pretty strong at thDad, but after a few months it started to feel too much like work, I resented the time I felt I had to put into it and as a result my posting frequency was very erratic. In fact, I've only posted 7 times in the past 5 months over there. :-S
So what exactly do I mean by "taking back my blog?" Well, as we all know people are complex. After reading a few blogs on how to be a successful blogger (like ProBlogger, even though I wasn't trying to make money) I thought that splitting up my interests was the 'best' way to go. Most successful bloggers said to pick a topic and focus on it so your readers would always know what to expect. Photography, parenting, snowboarding, etc. Do one thing and do it well. Sounds great, right? What I didn't take into consideration was that by splitting myself into a few different blogs it was kind of like splitting my personality. thDad would get one side of me while dirtyDogStink would get another, but neither one was a complete representation. There were times I wanted to post something, but just couldn't get myself into the right frame of mind for either blog's 'area of focus' so I just didn't post it.
Well, I'm tired of having a split personality and am going against what the big-wigs recommend. :-P I'm locking the door on thDad, adding a parenthood category to this site and turning dirtyDogStink into the 'complete Tod Hilton.' Not just one part of me, but the whole damn thing. ;-)
I think I've made some great posts at thDad and it still gets a lot of hits from search engines so I'm going to archive it here at http://dirtydogstink.com/thdad/. I will even leave the comments open as I really like the input...even months later. But from now on, anything I would have posted under that blog will be right here on dirtyDogStink under the parenthood category [for your easy reference].
Things really aren't going to change much around here. I have already started posting some stuff about my family and dogs that I wouldn't have a few months ago (with positive responses to them), so I think I'm better off just being myself here...my whole self. =)
~tod
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