Since my return from the NE/SE GSA conference this past week, it has been increasingly difficult to rage on over topics typical of this blog. I wanted to take this blog slow, waiting until a solid faction of followers was present, and grow like like to CO2 levels in our atmosphere (zing!). This hasn't been the case. Debuting in May 2009, Water n Rocks has only totaled 4 followers. Two of which are authors of this blog, and two are emotionally involved with authors.
It isn't about the followers, and due to adding Water and Rocks to Facebook traffic has been on the rise. Mostly from a small mountain town in Southern NY, and some image searches which have led viewers here ("People write about rocks and water?!").
Needless to say, this blog is not a diary. I started it in order to open peoples eyes to the wonders of out natural world. Yes, with emphasis on geology, geomorphology and hydroscience; but still as a source of pictures for people who just want to discover new natural phenomena in their own backyard.
It was quite embarrassing on the art of this blog to be outright rejected by a very populat blogroll, Nature Blog Network. I will not link to this site as I do not wish to start a word war with these folks, rather I just want to pass on this new life anecdote I have learned from this experience.
Don't take anything too seriously. I was pretty upset with the rejection. "We feel your blog does not match our interests...(paraphrased)" was downright insulting at the moment I read the terse email. Why would a blogroll intended to bring people into their community reject someone searching for a community to belong to? It doesn't make much sense. But this is not the point of this post. The point of this post is more of a State of the Blog address.
So without further adieu, here is what you have to expect in the next epoch (see what I did there?) or Water and Rocks...at the Same Time.
Field Research
I am currently conducting makeshift experiments in first-order drainages in hope of finding insight into catastrophic flooding - think Lake Missoula floods, the "biblical" flood, etc. This is more intended for educational purposes rather than hard science. Quick and Dirty, if you will.
Textbook Diving
Anyone who knows how I function can recall and excessive amount of textbooks, from amazing to awful; on a bowed down shelf in my room. From time to time I will be diving into these textbooks, finding diagrams and visual aides to help clarify geologic and hydrologic concepts - both quantitative and qualitatively.
Pictures!
The photos from the Western Trip of 2009 do exist, I swear. I was doing a photoblog type presentation of this trip, and may continue to, but not in the frequency I was. I burned myself out with massive posts on locations. Trying to fit a week of the Grand Canyon into one post is...well, impossible.
Philosophy
Just kidding. I do not believe in philosophy (dodges poorly thrown bricks). Instead, I plan to question whatever I feel like, from other scientists' research to my own (clay varves in CNY?! Bullshit!)
Themed, Seriesed Posts
And making up new words, like seriesed. Along with the textbook dives, I also plan on multiple types of posts with a common title or theme. One of which will be glimpses into geologic history. Most common, I will go back to the Plesitocene and Siluirian. Because they're awweeesommmme. Deal with it.
And more. I don't know what, yet, but be ready for anything. Also, I am looking to start a new blog in which the ONLY topic will be geology, hydrology and biological field trips (this includes paleo-goodies).And as always, please comment, leave positive and negative feedback, and if you are interfested in becoming an author at this blog, please let me know.
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3 comments:
"Since my return from the NE/SE GSA conference this past week..."
Uber jealousness....
Hey Roy, thought I could comment on followers and such if traffic is something important to you on your blog. I currently have 441 followers and 501 feedburner readers, so I think I know what I am talking about a little bit. Here's what you should do -- first move the follower widget from the bottom to the sidebar, doing that ensures people don't have to search all over for the follower button. Also, if you have twitter, you should find and follow other prominent geobloggers, communicate with them and build up your network, always tweet your link to whatever you are posting, as twitter really does drive traffic. I don't know how serious you are about your blog, but if you are super serious I recommend spring $10 to register a domain name through blogger, it looks more professional. And you could even split the cost with Tony, if he's up for it. Also claim your blog on Technorati, there's a few other cataloging sites you can add it to which are general, like BlogCatalog, also add your blog feed to this site: http://scienceblips.dailyradar.com/what it will do is post a partial feed from your blog so anyone who checks out the site will be able to see what you are posting and can check out your blog and also vote up what you've written about rocks.
What else... Comment comment comment. When you comment on a relevant blog to yours, you build community and usually people will click on your blog profile and then click on your blog, so be sure the profile isn't private.
Also, if you aren't shy I recommend doing vlogs every once in awhile to change things up, you can just upload them to youtube, plus it makes your content stand out a bit.
Sorry if I came off as condescending, I don't mean to, but I feel like I do have a good amount of knowledge about blogging/driving traffic :-)
No April you're totally right about everything you said. I've been meaning to do, well, everything you said, but since it hasn't been field season, I haven't done much else.
The commenting on other blogs usually gets me noticed by other blogs authors, so I have been getting hits from some of my favorites.
I will be posting video blogs soon, been doing some quick and dirty fluvial experiments (should get Tony excited, if anyone).
I'll check out the other sites you mentioned, and give them a shot.
Eventually, I plan on registering to a true domain. Right now though, I'll keep it set. If/when I do so, I plan on editing my own formats and html code and so on, so it's no longer a cookie-cutter style blog.
Thanks.
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