1234

RA Bloggers (Read 300 times)

BeeRunB


     

    I think also that the average blogger does want page views. For me with the DMN, it's huge, but those writing just for themselves really do want more "opens" and views.  Anyone who tells me he doesn't care if he doesn't get many views, and that he's just writing it for his own pleasure is probably kidding.  Why not just keep a diary? Of course you want others to read it.  Of course, as Jeff also points out well, blogging sure does give you an incentive to write better.  I love the discipline of it.

     

     

    (I'm not sure if the above was in response to what I wrote or not)  My earlier point about views in relation to the creative process for an artist is that once you make the view count paramount, and begin shaping your work to appeal to everyone, then the work becomes more generic. I formed this belief from years of creating in different mediums. I've allowed view counts and critical reviews to influence my creative process, and the result is usually something that will bother me to the day I die. Of course, an artist who shares with the public hopes someone will buy his painting (song, screenplay, architectural design, view the web page with the ad, etc.), but the struggle is: how much do you want to bastardize your work in order to make that buck? Sometimes I look at a past creation and cringe, because I know that I put a detail in it just for approval from some anonymous entity or for someone looking to buy my work. Someone might say "nice work", and on the inside I'm saying "ugh, it was a smelly piece of fluff."  Nothing wrong with creating things that are generic and for mass consumption, and geared towards getting the most page views you can. I'm all for business, and I sometimes consume watered down stuff and fluff. But when you're the creator, and you have the artistic bent, and you want to make a buck from it and remain true to yourself, it's a struggle, especially when collaborating. The movie The Big Picture with Kevin Bacon just popped into my head for some reason. 

    RunJasonRun


      People have advised me to use hyperlinks in my blog, but I refuse to do so.  I like for my race reports to have the feel of a story being told around a campfire with friends, and I do not want the reports to have the feel of being bombarded by distractions in a busy shopping mall.

       

      Visitors and numbers are all good, but I primarily write my race reports for myself as a "post-game analysis" of sorts to determine what I did right or wrong, and I also tailor them for friends who would like to run the respective races in years to come.  My blog has become more popular than I ever imagined, but this happened gradually on its own.

      Nobody leaves this place without singing the blues.

      bhearn


         I primarily write my race reports for myself as a "post-game analysis" of sorts to determine what I did right or wrong, and I also tailor them for friends who would like to run the respective races in years to come.  

         

        Huh. Those reasons are also why I wrote my monster WSER report...

         

        People have advised me to use hyperlinks in my blog, but I refuse to do so. 

         

        ... but I threw in a ton of links. I will find them useful when referring to the report later, and I think other readers will as well, if their goal is to learn more about the race and how to run it. But then, I'm not a regular blogger; in fact I only made the blog for the sake of that one report.

        bhearn


          Speaking of running blogs, as I was looking at the referring sites for my WSER post, I discovered that there's an entire forum devoted to running blogs:

           

          http://getoffmyinternets.net/forums/running-bloggers/

            Speaking of running blogs, as I was looking at the referring sites for my WSER post, I discovered that there's an entire forum devoted to running blogs:

             

            Oh my, people talking about people talking about people talking about running. My head just exploded. Either that or I need to watch Inception again.

            When it’s all said and done, will you have said more than you’ve done?


            King of PhotoShop

              jimmyb, great point. I totally understand.  Spareribs

              LedLincoln


              not bad for mile 25

                Here's my running blog, where my slow times and erratic weight fluctuations are out in the open for the world to see...

                 

                Best Pace Scenario

                 

                I was dealing with injury and burnout during the past year, but have thankfully put myself back into the game, so the reports should be more frequent during the last half of 2014.

                 

                Jason, I like the name of your blog, and the focus of limiting it to just race reports, and the discipline of writing one for every race. Good work!

                 

                (The lack of those are three of the multitude of faults to be found in my poor attempts at blogging.  The comments from Spareribs and Jeff and DaBurger probably point out most of the rest.)

                BeeRunB


                  Remember, RA bloggers, if you want to post links to latest updates or particular pieces you've written, do so here in this thread, if you wish. I was hoping it wouldn't just be a list, but an active portal to members' blogs. 

                  bhearn


                  RunJasonRun


                    Nobody leaves this place without singing the blues.


                    King of PhotoShop

                      I wrote a long and detailed response to your Western States post, but your selected provider made it so difficult to reply that after several tries, I gave up.  I post two blogs on Wordpress and I still couldn't get the reply to post.  Too bad too, because I enjoyed the write-up.  Spareribs

                      bhearn


                        I wrote a long and detailed response to your Western States post, but your selected provider made it so difficult to reply that after several tries, I gave up.  I post two blogs on Wordpress and I still couldn't get the reply to post.  Too bad too, because I enjoyed the write-up.  Spareribs

                         

                        Sorry about that. I just went with what seemed like the easiest way to get a blog post out there, not being a regular blogger. Started with Google Doc, but didn't like the formatting. And thanks!

                        RunJasonRun


                          I wrote a long and detailed response to your Western States post, but your selected provider made it so difficult to reply that after several tries, I gave up.  I post two blogs on Wordpress and I still couldn't get the reply to post.  Too bad too, because I enjoyed the write-up.  Spareribs

                           

                          Most of these free blog provider sites are like that.  You have to enter your email, prove that you're a real person by answering a CAPTCHA question where the words or numbers are usually illegible, and then stick a scalpel into your kidney to get a couple of drops of unicorn blood.  That's my only real complaint about my own blog site provider or most blog site providers.

                           

                          I loved reading bheam's report, but I decided to leave my brief comment in this thread.

                          Nobody leaves this place without singing the blues.

                          runlikeagirI


                            The most mindblowing thing in this report, to me...is that you ran WS in Fastwitches!!  Cannot compute. Wow.

                             

                            Well OK then...

                             

                            http://bobhearn.blogspot.com/2014/07/western-states-2014-race-report.html


                            King of PhotoShop

                              First off, no one contests the erudition and athletic prowess of bhearn. He has been on the forum for quite some time, is always insightful and a damn good runner.  I too enjoyed the blog, but his post is a bit different from some of us who post on a frequent basis, so I want to be clear that my 600 word suggestion has little to do with someone who wants to write a great report, complete with detail and lots of pics, and it putting it up there more or less for posterity purposes and for being able to recollect it all at some future time.  If someone were to write posts that long every week, it could be difficult to attract a following, but I had no quibble with this post, as it covers a subject of broad interest to many and is quite an accomplishment as runlikeagirl points out.

                               

                              I would also like to comment on the hyperlink mention as that is one of those pieces of advice that riles me up like Daburger.  I get really annoyed reading any blog post that has half a dozen or more links in it. I keep wondering, "Am I supposed to stop here and click on this?"  "Where did I leave off?"  "Will pursuing the link interrupt the flow of this guy's story?"  "Why is he torturing me?"

                               

                              I will often insert a link in a blog post to allow the reader to see a more detailed explanation of something I've written about, but one per post is about my limit.  I get lots of mail from people who are sponsoring races, for example, and they want me to plug their race. If it's a good cause, I'm happy to do so but I don't like to take up my own space, so I give it a brief mention and then say, "Learn more here."  But a lot of those links are tiresome.  Good comment Jason.    Spareribs

                              1234