Blog Progress Review - 24 November 2006

I recently switched this blog to the new e-blogger format. I did so with some reluctance because of a feel, since confirmed, that the new system still had bugs.

One plus, however, of the new system is the inclusion of tags or labels. However to make this work properly I need to go back and insert tags on past posts, a time consuming process. This has caused me to look back over past posts, to reflect on progress to this point.

I made my introductory post on this blog on 3 July 2006. I defined my objective in this way:

This blog has been created to encourage debate about and to provide information relevant too the management of all professional services firms. With time, I hope that it will develop into a valuable resource.

Since then I have written 74 posts of varying length, including a number of longish, some of you might say very long, thought pieces. Looking back at these, the content is certainly there. I have also gained at least some readers over the last five months. But I also have a feeling of some discontent.

Blogging approaches vary.

Some people make very regular often short posts, in some cases several times per day. In these cases readers come for interest and currency. Others make fewer, longer, posts. Readers still come to browse, but there is greater emphasis on the blog as a resource, with more people entering through search engines in search of specific information.

I straddle these approaches to some degree. I try to make regular posts, 3-5 per week, with a mixture of short and long posts. So I hope that I get both regular browsers and people through search engines. A google site search throws up 77 references to this blog, so Google at least is indexing the site on a reasonably regular basis.

If I have content, some readers, some search engine indexing, why then do I feel some discontent? Part of the answer lies in impatience, it just takes a while to build content. But, thinking it through, I think that the real answer lies in the difficulty of making information properly accessible within the limits set by the blogspot, e-blogger process.

Looking back over the posts, I have now written on most aspects of the management of professional services firms, creating something of a management primer. In doing so, I have tried to write from the perspective of both firm management and the individual professional and manager. However, the value of this material depends upon ease of access.

Earlier I began a series of stocktake posts trying to provide consolidations on a thematic basis. I think that I need to do more of this, now aided by the tag system. This should also help me keep track of lose ends, things started but not completed.

This would then give me three types of posts: the longer thought pieces, regular shorter pieces on items of interest, together with various types of stocktakes bringing previous material together.

In all this, the need remains to target so that I really meet the needs of current and prospective readers. This is the hardest part in building a blog like this since often I simply do not know. I can only write about what I think to be important and then try to modify in light of feedback.