Posting under the influence

I touched on this last night, but at the time I simply wanted to respond to what was e-mailed to me and hadn’t read what was said about monoblogue in the post in question. Having read it, it didn’t change my mind about what I originally wrote but it did lead me to think that perhaps I need to give a refresher course on the purposes for my website.

Like most people who take the time to type out their thoughts and opinions on a regular basis, I’m looking to change hearts and minds. When I began writing in this format, there were a number of goals I had in mind and in truth the model I envisioned was not a blog, but a radio show. If you measured influence on my website, you’d see that Rush Limbaugh is probably number one. (I’ve been a dittohead for about 12 years, and October 5, 2007 was a red-letter day for me.) Much as he does his show on “what interests me, because if I wasn’t interested it would be boring” that’s the way I write. It’s why you don’t get wall-to-wall politics because I get tired of it after awhile.

Certainly I think I do my share of the political posts, and as one may guess I see things politically from the right side of the spectrum. The first President I ever voted for was Ronald Reagan and I’m hoping that in whatever time I have remaining I see another President who compares favorably to him. But that President, whoever he or she is, will have a lot to do in attempting to restore a philosophy of limited government based on the model created by our Founding Fathers and embodied in our Constitution. Unfortunately, it’s been noted that a democracy only lasts until voters figure out how to vote themselves money from the national treasury (attributed incorrectly to Scottish writer Alexander Tytler) and my friends, we have a republic where both parties are guilty of this malfeasance. I’m a Republican simply because there’s less work involved in straightening out this party than with our counterparts across the aisle, plus they tend to win elections on a vastly larger scale than the Libertarians or Constitution Party.

But there’s still a lot of work to do. And my aim is to inspire thought among those who read my political writings about the larger points of limiting government and enhancing individual freedom, including pet issues of mine like property rights and nanny statism like seat belt or motorcycle helmet laws. (Yes, I do wear my seat belt but I don’t believe that not wearing one is a primary traffic offense.) In particular, what gets my goat are situations when federal regulations dictate withholding federal money if states don’t comply with particular items desired by the federal government, like seat belt laws.

I also figured that not everyone would come to read a strictly political website. Moreover, I wanted to appeal to an audience that’s skewed toward a younger generation and also promote the area that I have adopted as my own – the first place I’ve ever lived by choice and not because of family ties. Thus, I added three of my other life interests – baseball, where I devote a seasonal post for each Thursday’s Shorebird of the Week and add in other Shorebird-related topics; and secondly music, as evidenced by the occasional posts known as “Weekend of local rock.” I’ve always been into music even though I can’t play or sing, but I found out quickly upon my arrival that Delmarva is blessed with a lot of talented musicians. I can keep plenty entertained with the area rock bands but I’m sure others can vouch for the local musicians of other stripes too.

The third interest is photography, which I put to use a lot. I like to share my pictures and I think that blogging doesn’t have to be just a written medium so I add photos to help tell my stories. It also gives those who visit my site from other areas a visual perspective of some of what makes Delmarva interesting.

I feel all this brings me appeal from a wide-ranging audience, and I figure if they like one of the non-political topics I delve into they may start with that and eventually begin reading some of the other more important and weighty things I have to say as well. Just as Rush uses humor as a hook, I use these other topics to broaden the audience.

One thing I did figure out early on is that I can’t generally be a primary local news source, simply because I have a full-time job that I do during most of my waking hours. This website is simply my hobby/obsession and it can be a challenge to write so much and cover news too. While another local news-related blogger likes to brag he covers more stories than the local newspaper and its 200 employees, he should keep in mind that the vast majority of those people aren’t field reporters. If you count the number of co-contributors this particular blogger uses then the comparison of his forces against the number of reporters the paper employs is far more even.

And to be quite honest, I think having too much of a local emphasis limits my audience. I can get away with it for the non-political items because they don’t comprise the bulk of my work, but I’m looking for a readership that probably doesn’t care about what’s going on in the city government of Salisbury, Maryland. I can make the argument that state events are important when our General Assembly is a canary in the coal mine of rampant liberalism but on a local level that model doesn’t hold true. We have others locally who do get into those trenches and I tip my hat because they care enough to do so. I’m simply more interested in a bigger picture so I only do selected local items.

I occasionally do become a primary news source for local events I’m a participant or observer in such as political forums or meetings. At times there will be other media there but normally I’m it so someone has to tell the story. A picture or two doesn’t always do justice to the event so I do my reporting in an effort to inform and fill in the gaps by recounting that which was said. Am I biased? Of course I am. But when I’m outed by the moderator at a Democrat forum yet praised for the quality of my website I guess I’m doing something right – Lord knows I take a lot of shots at those on the left side of the aisle. (Needless to say, most of them are deserved!) No one’s told me I’ve misquoted them yet; it’s not my fault they say the things that give me the rope to hang them with.

Finally, in doing this for almost 2 1/2 years and closing in on 1,000 posts, I’ve figured out what works and what doesn’t. Granted, some will read the first two paragraphs of my various posts and lose interest but I’m not here to write on a sixth-grade level to someone who lives and dies by who advances on “American Idol.” There have been features I’ve done for awhile and dropped like the standings reports I used to do during baseball season or the Congressional legislative checkups. Unfortunately, those are time-consuming and frankly I found that I was simply duplicating efforts that are better done by other news sources. Some may recall the Ten Questions I did, which I thought was a great idea but didn’t get cooperation from the candidates who I asked. On those sorts of things it takes two to tango and I was dancing with myself.

I don’t know what measuring stick the folks at BlogNetNews use to determine “political influence” or if that’s just a catch phrase they use to keep folks interested. I do know that by my efforts I’m actually a small part of the political world as an elected official, a contributor to the Red Maryland website, and occasional pseudononymous writer for the Patriot Post website. So I do a small part in changing the minds of thousands through those outlets, and with the possible exception of crossposting on Red Maryland none of it influences my BNN rating. In fact, I wonder if the crossposts cannibalize this site’s readership slightly and prove to be counterproductive in the rankings.

What I do know is that I have a number of folks who read and enjoy my site because they like my writing and point of view. Of course I’d like to see that number rise to rival some of the national sites I link to but for doing this on a very part-time basis as a solo operation I can’t say I’m doing too badly.

I’ll leave you with this. Architect Daniel Burnham once said:

“Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency.”

There’s nothing that says I don’t have a big break coming that I haven’t foreseen yet, so I’ll keep plugging away and doing my part to change a nation.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer. View all posts by Michael