I've been struggling with what to do with this space. I know I want to write about baseball, but I've been trying to figure out a new way to do it. I don't have the time to dig for the real interesting, perhaps obscure tidbits from around the league, but that was my first inclination. You know, sort of an "in case you missed it" sort of thing. Well, I probably missed it, so I can't do that.
I really like what @cantpredictball does, but obviously they're already doing that, so that's out the window. I don't want to rag on people or be mean or act like I'm an all-knowing baseball fan, because I'm not. I can't troll baseball fans by being an asshole, which some people in sports blogging have found great success at doing. I don't want to create or promote memes because that just feels condescending. I thought about making this an Atlanta Braves blog, but again, there are a lot of other folks that I read (or listen to their podcasts) that do wonderful jobs that I can't match. (see gondeee.com)
I don't have the journalistic skills, nor do I think it would be at all interesting to write things as if they were for a newspaper or news site, like daily recaps or previews. Also because I just don't watch every game. After all, I'm only one person with two kids and a wife to keep happy. It would be different if I was being paid to do this, but this is far far far from being a job. I do watch a lot of games, and I only would want to write about things I've actually witnessed in some form. But I have a hard time actually writing about what I've seen without ripping off someone's hard work because I'm not that smart to think of the story or narrative or look up the stats in the first place. Another problem I have is that I know that I'm writing this, and would be putting in a lot of hard work, for maybe three people to read. I don't want to put in a whole bunch of work, be proud of what I write, and then have no one read it...which has been the majority of my experience so far here at Safety Squeeze. I'm also not quite sure what else I was expecting. If you want to read about baseball, there are plenty of other wonderful places on every corner of every form of media that provides that stuff better than what I can provide. I started the blog to continue the conversation about the game I love, not to get blog hits and notoriety, so I guess I shouldn't bitch about no one reading it. I don't even monetize this blog. (yet)
For example, I wrote that piece about Jeremy Bonderman, I just read two or three other people's posts about the same topic and rehashed it. Not unlike many other bloggers and writers out there, but It's not like I did a lot of work to put that thing together. Not to mention that I was probably at least 12 hours late on the subject. I have been reading Hardball Talk, the NBC sports blog, and I noticed they seem to do a lot of expanding on news that baseball writers tweet. Well that seems easy enough. Well if you wanted to read that, go to Hardball Talk, don't go to Safety Squeeze, even if we were doing the same thing. I'd be a fool to think that my major competition is an NBC Sports blog. No chance, they are obviously legit while I'm some dude in an apartment in Nashville, TN. It's something I enjoy, but it's not like that...so why bother doing what they're already doing? They'll get page views regardless of the quality. It's relevent news, but if I want to get people to pay attention to what I'm doing, it has to be different than a major, mainstream blog, as absurd as that statement sounds.
So what do I do? If I can't stand the idea of writing for an empty room, what do I do to get people in the room? I have to be interesting, I suppose. That sounds like a great place to start. I have an idea. I was going to go on explaining what my plans are going forward, but then I realized that if I do that, then don't follow through, then I'm a chump. So I guess I'll just start writing and see what happens. That's what the point was when I started Safety Squeeze in the first place.
I really like what @cantpredictball does, but obviously they're already doing that, so that's out the window. I don't want to rag on people or be mean or act like I'm an all-knowing baseball fan, because I'm not. I can't troll baseball fans by being an asshole, which some people in sports blogging have found great success at doing. I don't want to create or promote memes because that just feels condescending. I thought about making this an Atlanta Braves blog, but again, there are a lot of other folks that I read (or listen to their podcasts) that do wonderful jobs that I can't match. (see gondeee.com)
I don't have the journalistic skills, nor do I think it would be at all interesting to write things as if they were for a newspaper or news site, like daily recaps or previews. Also because I just don't watch every game. After all, I'm only one person with two kids and a wife to keep happy. It would be different if I was being paid to do this, but this is far far far from being a job. I do watch a lot of games, and I only would want to write about things I've actually witnessed in some form. But I have a hard time actually writing about what I've seen without ripping off someone's hard work because I'm not that smart to think of the story or narrative or look up the stats in the first place. Another problem I have is that I know that I'm writing this, and would be putting in a lot of hard work, for maybe three people to read. I don't want to put in a whole bunch of work, be proud of what I write, and then have no one read it...which has been the majority of my experience so far here at Safety Squeeze. I'm also not quite sure what else I was expecting. If you want to read about baseball, there are plenty of other wonderful places on every corner of every form of media that provides that stuff better than what I can provide. I started the blog to continue the conversation about the game I love, not to get blog hits and notoriety, so I guess I shouldn't bitch about no one reading it. I don't even monetize this blog. (yet)
For example, I wrote that piece about Jeremy Bonderman, I just read two or three other people's posts about the same topic and rehashed it. Not unlike many other bloggers and writers out there, but It's not like I did a lot of work to put that thing together. Not to mention that I was probably at least 12 hours late on the subject. I have been reading Hardball Talk, the NBC sports blog, and I noticed they seem to do a lot of expanding on news that baseball writers tweet. Well that seems easy enough. Well if you wanted to read that, go to Hardball Talk, don't go to Safety Squeeze, even if we were doing the same thing. I'd be a fool to think that my major competition is an NBC Sports blog. No chance, they are obviously legit while I'm some dude in an apartment in Nashville, TN. It's something I enjoy, but it's not like that...so why bother doing what they're already doing? They'll get page views regardless of the quality. It's relevent news, but if I want to get people to pay attention to what I'm doing, it has to be different than a major, mainstream blog, as absurd as that statement sounds.
So what do I do? If I can't stand the idea of writing for an empty room, what do I do to get people in the room? I have to be interesting, I suppose. That sounds like a great place to start. I have an idea. I was going to go on explaining what my plans are going forward, but then I realized that if I do that, then don't follow through, then I'm a chump. So I guess I'll just start writing and see what happens. That's what the point was when I started Safety Squeeze in the first place.
No comments:
Post a Comment