Thoughts on Blogging

     Over the last couple of weeks I have been having some trouble coming up with ideas for blog entries, but I have also spent some time thinking about blogging in general. So today I will talk about the ideas I have contemplated related to blogging. I guess you could say today that I am, blogging about blogging or, meta-blogging.

     In the past I have tried to start a blog but I had trouble getting into the habit of posting regularly. Then I started this blog, at the beginning of this semester, as part of a technical writing course. The instructor requires that I write a 26 blog entries before, April 11th, the end of the semester. The blogging component only makes up a small percentage of the course mark, but the goal is that I practice writing on a regular basis.

     Blogging is an activity that I never used to find interesting. However, since I have gotten in the habit of writing regular posts I have started to enjoy blogging. Based on this experience I could definitely see myself continuing blogging after I have finished this course.

     Starting a blog is simple, but generating ideas and getting people to read the blog are very difficult. In this blog I have talked mostly about some my of the games and graphics projects, but I doubt that I could sustain a blog on those topics alone. Secondly, the audience for this topic is also very small. I have had some success with one of my videos on YouTube which has currently reach close to 7000 hits, however my other videos have not been nearly as successful.

     This then got me to thinking about the kinds of blogs that I am most interested in reading. A common thing that I search for and read are tutorials. In order to write a successful tutorial I would need to write it on a topic that I am very skilled at. The two skills that immediately come to mind are game programming and making computer graphics. I am both very skilled at these and people are constantly asking me to teach them. For example, just this week at the first game developers meeting when were suggesting topics for meetings several of the members were interested in learning more about these two skills. As a result I have volunteered to give a couple tutorials.

     During the rest of the semester I will probably try creating a few video tutorials on YouTube and see how many views that I can generate. If any of these turn out to be particularly successful I will let you know in another blog entry.