ELEVENTH IN LINE




About This Blog
A blog about my life, universe, etc. At any given time you might find something endlessly interesting or just me ruminating on something else, which no one (not even myself) finds interesting. That's the way blogs go, I suppose. Anyway, I was eleventh in line, and you weren't. Hah!

About Me
Name:
Sarah
Age:
26
Residence:
Columbus, OH
Religion:
LDS
Political Score:
5.00/-2.15
Job:
Temp @ JPMorgan Chase
College:
Ohio State University
Majors:
Political Science, International Studies
High School: Home Educated
Hobbies:
Reading, standing in line for things, writing, research
Resume:
HotJobs
Email:
lloannna@gmail.com

About My Family
My mom is a
lawyer in Pickerington; my stepdad and dad are computer guys, and my stepmom (who works with my dad) is an engineer. My sisters are, in order of age, a photographer, an artist, and a person too young to have her own website. My brothers are, in order of age, living up north, and again, a person too young to have a website. At some point soon I'll be collecting links for my aunts, uncle, and cousins. ^_^

Message Services
(Please see the notes below the Comment Policy before sending me a message)
AIM:
lloannna
ICQ:
29395930
Yahoo:
lloannna



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Star Wars: Episode 3 Line (Hollywood)
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NaNoWriMo 2007:
My Novel: Cipere Lumen

Official NaNoWriMo 2006 Winner


NaNoWriMo 2006:
My Novel: The Manatee Conspiracy

Official NaNoWriMo 2006 Winner


NaNoWriMo 2005:
My Novel: Beyond the Cliffs of Kefira

Official NaNoWriMo 2005 Participant



NaNoWriMo 2004:
My Novel: sul Okyar tir taTz'ileea

National Novel Writing Month

Tuesday, March 30, 2004
 
I LOVE CLAY SHIRKY,  
Because he always manages to say something that makes a lot of sense and helps clarify an issue which (though it may be back in the recesses of my brain, in the "I don't have time to deal with this" section) has bugged me for a while. It's a little creepy, to be honest. Anyway, today he clarified the problem I think all bloggers (and all webmasters, of whom bloggers are a subset) face, and one of the problems that I personally haven't bothered addressing through gargantuan efforts to be either really interesting or really well-publicized:

Users are busy, they are creatures of habit, and there is significant
competition for their attention.


One would assume that the best way, therefore, to get them to come and use your site (in my case, read my blog, click on my links, and comment on my posts) would be to make such usage take very little effort, be easily adaptable into a set of habits, and vie for their attention in ways that outstrip one's competitors. Tools like BlogRolls and RSS feeds help on the first point; people like Howard Stern and Ann Coulter and Al Franken and so forth seem to be the benchmark for the third. But it's InstaPundit and eBay that really demonstrates solutions to the second point: being useful to one's constituents is the best way to ensure they make using you a habit. There's also being exceptionally talented and interesting (think Lileks, or SamizData), but at least in my personal case, those factors alone aren't enough to ensure consistent readership; if life interrupts, visits may be put off for days or weeks or (if you're really bad, like me) months. Moreover, if life really interrupts, they aren't the first ones to be checked when you start reading again; I started with Glenn Reynolds first, then as he linked to people and I remembered liking them, I would go back and read them. Right now I'm at about 25% of my pre-Christmas reading level -- my first visit back to Andrew Sullivan was this afternoon, as was my first return to Jeff Jarvis' site and SamizData. And I used to read them every day, as a matter of course, because they were interesting and entertaining; I returned to InstaPundit and Steven denBeste far sooner, because they are useful.

Which, of course, begs the question of whether I want to attempt to be useful, myself. I'm not sure at this point, but it seems like the sounder road to being a writer whose words are actually read, instead of merely posted. And of course, it'd also help if I actually put some content on the blog (yes, I am working on that essay -- it's going to take longer than I first thought, because I'm trying to answer a question that requires a lot of research).

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Because only so many people can be eleventh in line.