Improving the space...

Kent, Earl and OmegaMom's posts regarding ProBlogger's series "If I Had to Start My Blog Again" are wonderful. In fact, I read Kent's last night and pondered it quite a bit today, sketching out some notes during my lunch in the car today. I was mildly shocked to read OmegaMom's post on the subject tonight, because it mirrored many of my own thoughts. But anyway, here are some of the things I'd do differently - (sorry for any duplication OmegaMom):

1. I'd pick a blogging engine with categories. Aaargh. My varied interests just beg to be categorized.
2. I'd try to limit my posting to my most enthusiastic topics. This is quite difficult given the fact that my interests seem to wax and wane with the tide some time.
3. I would try to better highlight new voices not yet heard.
4. I'm too hung-up about not being repetitive. Not with my own content but with regards to other bloggers. I'm sometimes hesitant to post about what someone else just posted about. I sometimes feel as if I'm riding coat-tails when I do that.
5. I'd re-read Strunk & White and stop being so wishy-washy in my writing.This might possibly, could-a-would-a-should-a, just maybe (but correct me if I'm wrong) be a good idea. ;)
6. I'd try to exercise a little more of my creativity in my content. I've tried to do this by writing some more informative/instructional posts about photography, linux and other topics lately. This is conscious. I want not only to comment on other people's content but provide some of my own so to speak.
7. Something else I've noticed in Kent's, OmegaMom's and Earls posts about this topic is that there is a theme of building successful readership. This is not a bad thing. One of my other hang-ups has been my reluctance to overtly try to build readership. Growing readership is a good thing, but not necessarily the primary measure of success for me (and I'm not implying that it's the primary measure for Kent, Earl or Omegamom). I've said before that I love the fact that anybody at all reads what I write, but I don't want it to shape what I write about, or how I write it. That said, I'd like to do more to encourage readership. I'm all too happy to wallow in mediocrity.

As a commenter on OmegaMom's post quite nicely put:

"But there's no reason you can't do those things NOW if you really want to!"

So that being said... watch this space. Hopefully you'll see some improvement.