Update On My Many Blogs: September 2009

Since I've been doing some experimenting over the last few months and am currently making a lot of final decisions about where to focus this fall and winter, I want to share an overview of what's happening with my various blogs and blog related projects.

This Business of Blogging: Down for the Count

This Business of Blogging is officially down for the count. This was one of three blogs launched or relaunched around the same time to explore some territory and help clarify where I want to put my energy.

Flux Research: Wildcard

The current incarnation of Flux Research, with its focus on online business models, is closely related to This Business of Blogging in many respects. I'm working on Flux Research behind the scenes but am not sure if my fantasies will ever see the light of day. What I want to do, as opposed to what can be seen on the blog, will be quite time consuming but I'm getting that obsessed feeling that's required so, who knows?

Raleighwood, NC: Intermittent Signs of Life

Raleighwood, NC was the third blog in this round of experiments that has become an on again, off again attempt at local blogging. I'm going to keep it alive with periodic posts but its neglect is tied up with my ambivalence about my current locale which is also my hometown.  However, it has helped me think my way into the local publishing scene, both in Raleigh and in general, and that's a path worth taking, though I am taking another.

Ill Moves: The Struggle Continues

Ill Moves: Hip Hop Dance could be a real winner if I put some consistent energy in. Though it was not part of the launch/relaunch of the first three blogs mentioned, its rather weak relaunch over the summer was also an experiment of sorts. However, its progress is blocked by my current issue of burnout.

ProHipHop: Threatened by Burnout

ProHipHop: Hip Hop Business is my flagship blog and both its daily operation and the operation of Ill Moves have suffered from my general state of burnout and my posting block regarding hip hop. It's not like there isn't anything interesting to cover, quite the opposite, but I'm working through a temporary block that's affecting both these projects.

Weekly Hip Hop Albums: Along for the Ride

Weekly Hip Hop Albums is a weekly report that comes out of my ongoing activities tracking hip hop album releases. I plan to continue this as long as I'm in the hip hop web publishing space.

Hip Hop Press: Humming Along

Hip Hop Press: Releases is a fairly straightforward and solid affair that isn't so much about blogging as content management. Bonus: it's easy to do when experiencing posting block.

Hip Hop Research: Long Term Project

Hip Hop Research is a project I'll continue with periodic updates. It's intended to be a starting point for an annotated bibliography in book form but, however that turns out, the blog's archives will remain available.

Cultural Research: Birthing a New Blog

Cultural Research has been primarily an archive site for my academic papers and an indicator of my academic interests. I've decided to relaunch the site with a blog to pursue my professional interest in such areas as the transformation of academic libraries and disruptive innovation in education and information services.

The Big Picture: Pushing Forward

Any blogs not mentioned above are either dead, in hibernation or waiting for hell to freeze over.

Of the above projects, the hip hop blogs will continue, hopefully with some revitalized energy.

Cultural Research will be my new baby after the upcoming relaunch. I hope to maintain the new blog as a thoughtful, low volume project and academic calling card.

Flux Research and another project about which I haven't written publically will remain in wild card status, possibly for a January launch/relaunch.

Likely I Ching Hexagram: Biting Through.

Comments

[Slav]

You sure have your hand in many pots, and I can see how some of them don't get stirred as often as others.

The 'block' you're talking about is an interesting phenomenon that I've experienced as well. The crux of it I think is it's not that there's not enough content - in fact, there's too much every day - but how to deliver original content as opposed to regurgitating what's already on NahRight, 2DB or the dozens of other blogs.

[Clyde Smith]

Well, as you know, I'm not currently being all that original at ProHipHop so that "how to deliver original content" isn't really my problem. I think there are a lot of possiblities not being explored and that, if you dig into a specific theme or focus over time, then you'll come up with all sorts of interesting angles.

That can even happen when covering the same material as are others. Once I began focusing entirely on business and marketing, that focus almost always opened up new perspectives. And digging deeper than others also opens up new perspectives, often on the same news that seems exhausted by all the attention it's receiving.

For my part, I've been blogging for something like 7 years and a whole lot of it's been about hip hop, sometimes under combative circumstances, and I'm just burned out on doing what I've been doing.

I actually still dig blogging and still love hip hop but I think I need to take what I've learned and apply it to a new content area.