Saturday, July 07, 2007

If Then Else

Why are there all these blogs about sailing? As Edward recently pointed out on his grandly rebranded EVK4 Superblog most of sailing is uneventful: "A beautiful fun relaxing sail does not make for blog material".

Which got me to thinking? If you didn't blog about sailing what would the subject of your blog be? And why?

I'm not sure what my answer would be. There are plenty of running blogs but they are even more boring than sailing blogs. Went for my usual three mile run. My mile times were 12:30, 12:25 and 4:00. I don't think so.

Or I could write yet another raving, ranting, hyperventilating political blog about how those other guys are evil monsters bent on destroying life as we know it. Too boring.

Or I could cover baseball from the vantage of my couch in front of the TV. But the Yankees are having such a horrible season that that would be way too depressing.

Or I could do one of those food photo blogs and be one of those incredibly annoying people taking flash photos of every dish they eat in fancy restaurants.

Or do something totally wacky like that guy who only writes about the loose change he picks up in the street.

Or be incestuous and blog about blogging.

So many choices. Perhaps I'll just stick to sailing. What about you?

4 comments:

Zen said...

I got it, "Tillerman's Xtreme Blog!"
that would show that young upstart @superblog! :-)

Anonymous said...

I for one sure hope you stick with sailing. Your blog is a great read! Very entertaining and pertinent.

I especially enjoyed the post on NMMA President Thom Dammrich's comments (hadn't even noticed the breakdown of his surname; funny catch there), and agree with both you and your reader, Og.

There are numerous ways that the power of the Internet can bring fellow boaters (including buyers and sellers) and boating enthusiasts together--and for the benefit of us all (the industry included). We can connect and share information in ways that enhance our on-water experiences later.

The only problem is that the marketing efforts of marine industry businesses, publications, and especially builders, are a bit too slow to catch on. Instead of standing there scratching their heads, perhaps they should be blogging (or at least, reading yours, Tillerman!)

I will say though that the NMMA's awareness campaign site, DiscoverBoating.com, is doing a great job of harnessing the power of the Internet to reach boaters in ways that are useful and positive for the industry. I think the promotional video they are using (posted on YouTube) is a fantastic reminder to us all (including those that do spend a little more time in front of their computers than they probably need to) that we want can "participate" in boating related tasks online, but at the end of the day, nothing beats being ON your boat. :-)

Meanwhile, keep that quality content and the clever writing coming!

~ Julie

P.S. I just recalled something a friend of mine told me the other day: A year or so ago, he was about to go on a business trip to Minneapolis/St Paul and had a couple days thrown in to relax. He went on Craigslist and tried to find someone with a boat that he could pay for waterskiing time. A guy responded that just so happened to be planning a trip to Denver (where my friend is located) to visit family a few months after that, and they made a deal to trade ski time on one another's boats. Ends up they're both avid skiers and wake boarders and even used to compete in similar regional competitions as they were growing up in Minneapolis and East Lansing, respectively. They ended up trading the boat time, and have become pretty good pals as a result. How's that for a boating connection that would only be possible via the Internet. ?

JP said...

I in general agree - though of course its difficult to remain focussed on blogging sailing unless one sails a lot. And another "rule" is to post regularly (as you do) - in my case the river life topic (and yours on moving + doing the London Marathon)

But also there non-sailors that read our blogs so its nice for them to have something different.

Might post on this subject....

Tillerman said...

Thanks for the feedback Julie. And I love what you're doing with theboaters.tv. I'm gonna have to give you a plug soon.

JP - I'm still not sure exactly where I stand on this subject of "stick to the niche" vs "mix it up with other stuff". Sometimes I like to read stuff about other parts of a sailor's life; sometimes I find it irritating. Haven't worked out in my own mind what's OK and what's not. Look forward to reading your views on the matter if you decide to post.

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