Kathy Sierra, (who had to deal with a ton of bad stuff last week - read about it here), has posted something new on Creating Passionate Users. She talks about what the future holds for her, and the wonderful Technorati Top-50 blog she wrote.
Here are the possibilities she lists:
My vote, Kathy - start Twittering! Okay, just kidding. The group blog sounds like a great idea.1) Get a real job doing this, so that I can continue with the same kind of work, but without raising my own visibility. In other words, it would be for a company and the focus would be off of me.
2) "Ghost write" for someone or something else. I got myself into the Technorati Top 50, I could help someone else (if it's for the right reasons) raise their readership.
3) Create a fake persona and write as that fake person. Unfortunately, almost everything I do has a look and style, and I don't think the quality of my writing is suddenly going to improve, so it would be pretty obvious that it was me. Still... a rape fantasy about a fake person who lives thousands of miles from where I do would not effect me as deeply or as personally as when the dream/imagery is about the real me I don't like this idea as much because anonymity--NOT Owning Your Own Words--is one of the biggest contributors to the problems that have driven me and thousands of others off their blogs or other online communities.
4) Turn THIS blog into a real group blog... with a LOT of authors, and I would take more of an editorial role. That way, I represent only a small percentage and the hatred/anger/threats would be more distributed. Kind of a share-the-attacks approach ; ) More like 37 Signals, less like Scoble, where all personal attacks are directed at him instead of The Blog.
5) Right now, I couldn't pay anyone else so the blog would have to be sponsored to pay other authors. I would agree to sponsorship only if it was by someone/something I already love (Apple? Adobe? Google? Anyone interested?)(And of course I'd also need authors, so if it looks like a group blog is the way to go, there will be a call for participants)
6) Make the blog private -- where only registered members can see it. That way, it would be much more difficult (and probably less fun) for others to attack it and/or me. It would simply be a private community. My visibility would drop dramatically, yet I'd still be able to write about the same topics. This idea is one of my favorites -- but at the same time it is much less user-friendly (you'd have to log-in, no public RSS feed, etc.) and that would be a really bad idea.
7) Do something else on the blog -- podcasts, video, e-books -- something other than the posts. This might not make any difference, though. But perhaps without the words and pictures... it could just make it worse since it would still be my voice (podcast) or worse, my FACE (video), although I've considered cutting videos that wouldn't have to show me at all.
8) ? ? ?
4 comments:
Okay, I don't want to be really bitchy and I guess it's only fair that she asks her readers what they want to see from her but... isn't she grown up enough to decide what to do with herself without asking the entire internet like a teenager on Livejournal?
I mean, just pick something and do it, lady. It's okay. The world doesn't hate you. In fact, the world doesn't care about you any more. That was SO 2 weeks ago.
Way to turn getting scared by bullies on the Interwebtubes into getting famous, though. Wow. Kevin, will you photoshop me dead and post death threats for me anonymously on some forum so I can be famous too?
Mo,
I disagree strongly here. Kathy has built a huge and very devoted readership, and including them in her decision to move is a very very good idea if she wants them to follow (which she does, and I know they do).
One look at her blog's content makes it clear that she blogs for her readers, not to get them. She has no ads, as she says, and doesn't even call attention to the books she publishes. She, like few other bloggers, actually writes content that is motivated by no desire other than to be of use by her audience. That she cares what they think she does next is consistent with her focus, and generous considering the incredible support her readers gave during the controversy a couple weeks ago. They all wanted her to keep blogging, and she's not, but there's still a very big desire for her writing.
And, Mo, Kathy was a very successful author and even more successful blogger waaaaaay before this shit went down. That she might have gotten some more readers because of it is not the point, it's that she offered compelling, useful content to begin with. If people didn't care beforehand, they sure as hell wouldn't have cared during.
But yeah, the internet has moved on, and Kathy's less scared now. Good times. I, for one, am looking forward to blogging about some good news.
About that photoshop, though...if you think it'll work, maybe I'll look into doing it once I buy CS3.
Fair enough. If the blog is for her readers and she is considering doing something else with it, then it only makes sense that she asks for their input. You are quite right.
But I think to ask them what to do with herself is, I don't know, somehow attention-mongering.
Since the blog is part of what she does as a whole person, though, maybe it's inextricable.
And of course she already had a lot of readers or there wouldn't have been a commotion. But I still think she victimized herself quite a bit. Maybe she didn't even mean to but she did seem to manipulate the fiasco in her favor.
I don't agree with this though: If people didn't care beforehand, they sure as hell wouldn't have cared during.
People love a scandal; they love an excuse to get riled up. She got lots of reactions from people who weren't regular readers, too.
my vote's on number 1 or number 4.
1) Get a real job doing this, so that I can continue with the same kind of work, but without raising my own visibility.
4) Turn THIS blog into a real group blog... with a LOT of authors, and I would take more of an editorial role.
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