Tuesday, February 21, 2006

"My Audience Awaits"

...or, staring at myself in the mirror and finding my blogs...wanting...

So, I'm rethinking the blog thing. I like what I've done so far here and on my short story blog, but I've come to a difficult realization: I want an audience.

The problem is that I've always been against, as a matter of principle, excessive vanity, narcissism and pretentiousness. But what is a personal weblog but an exercise in vanity, narcissism and pretentiousness?

Confessing your moral failures is the first step on the road to recovery and embracing the truth is, short of a miracle, perhaps the first step in averting one's chronic impending disaster.

Which brings me back to the point that I must admit that I really want an audience. The question is: how do I get one? What do I have to offer that would draw in the Internet masses to read about what I have to say? How can I convince the world to come to me, to read me, to love me? Or, better yet, to bookmark me.

One might begin by taking an asset inventory. What do I have that you, the Internet public need?

> Lots and lots of experience in public relations. Particularly for technology companies.
> A quirky take on family life, what with all of my children and stuff.
> In-depth knowledge of Marvel Comics between 1977 and 1984. I did have this goofy idea that I could do a blog reviewing something from my comics collection (about 1200 total) each week. That sort of thing does seem to be popular these days.
> A minor talent for writing, that I've been trying to nuture these days. But really, who wants to read short stories? What does that really offer the world? I need to write the damn book I've been writing...

What does this offer the Internet public? Here are a couple ideas I'll explore... if anyone's reading, let me know what you think:

> The Heroic News Blog -- Perspective on the latest in News, Politics, Entertainment and Comics (ok, that's just weird, but potentially readable).

> Dom's Blog -- A blog that tells the story of "The Boy Who Could Fly" through his own blog ... an experiment in episodic storytelling. (Possibly even weirder, but it might be fun. But would anyone read it?)

> The Yet Another PR Blog Blog -- a unique perspective on public relations written by yet another PR guy. (I'm bored just writing this one.)

I'm off to do the appropriate research. My audience awaits!

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