Most of you know that I have a tendency to get into these blog redesign rabbit holes. I am on the verge of falling into another one. Maybe.
This blog has been around in one form or another for about 12 years. It started life on Diaryland (because I am ancient) and then moved to LiveJournal before eventually moving to WordPress in 2008.
There have been so many themes since I started.
A recent WordPress theme update forced me to do a massive manual update of the 2,000+ posts on this blog.
Although layout and coding changes always threaten to mangle the appearance of my old posts, the bulk of the content remains, thankfully.
My semi-annual dive into my archives was sobering, with all of the usual angst regarding whether my best years are behind me.
I also noticed that many of the blogs that I used to read have gone silent or disappeared altogether.
I’m not going to rewrite Frank Chimero’s seminal Homesteading Blog, but I will state the obvious – personal blogs, particular law blogs, tend to have a very short lifespan.
There are always the usual concerns about a potential employer (or opposing counsel) finding your blog, but there is something else at work here – Facebook.
Fall hasn’t quite arrived in Dallas yet – everything is still green and the temperature is way too hot to wear anything but shorts.
However, it is not as if I’m really spending a significant amount of time enjoying the weather – I’m inside working for most of the weekdays, and my weekends are spent freelancing inside neighborhood cafes because it is too hot to sit outside.
Freelancing at OakLawn Coffee
A random I.T. problem knocked out my company’s web applications and email systems for most of the morning, but instead of enjoying the weather at the pool, I took some time to page through this blog.
I actually hate taking selfies. I find the practice narcissistic, socially awkward, and oftentimes tacky.
I have an acquaintance who constantly takes selfies. His Instagram account consists of variations on the same picture – duck-face selfies.
Going to brunch with this guy is terrible because he likes editing photos on his phone more than talking to the people at the table.
You know there’s a problem when you knock over mimosa flutes while extending your arm for a selfie.
Simply, awful.
I got Photoshop from a friend and taught myself HTML within a few months of receiving my clunky new Gateway computer.
A small clique of emerging teen graphic designers / web developers took me in. We treated websites more like temporary art installations and compulsively redesigned our work.
The primary focus was on intricate collage-like designs, with no attention paid to utility or loading time. Clout was measured by your appearance on link lists and guestbook entries. Feedback was given in AIM group chats.
Then came Diaryland, Livejournal, Myspace, and eventually, Facebook.
Suddenly, everyone was online. We were no longer cool or special, and the makeshift art collective dispersed.
There are more content creators than ever on the web – even my most technologically inept friends are on Facebook and Instagram – but there are still relatively few people creating meaningful long-format work.
That’s why bloggers like Frank Chimero and Jakey Emmert are important.
That’s why I’m still around as well.
Instead of writing, I wasted hours wringing my hands over blog aesthetics.
If I’m going to spend time writing, my blog has to look good, right?
Worries of widgets, UX, and mobile compatibility became more important than new entries.
I snapped out of it while reading Liz Danzico’s interview on The Great Discontent. She has a great bit of advice on learning to communicate effectively:
“Also, we live in an age of sound bites, and there is something about learning how to speak effectively and in small ways that is important. Say big things in small ways. Twitter has helped hone that a bit; it’s important not just in writing, but in communication of all kinds. That is not to say that long-form writing isn’t important, but if I were to give advice to my younger self, I would say that it’s important to learn to communicate succinctly.”
Danzico’s advice made me realize that all of this fretting about blog aesthetics was unnecessary and getting in the way of succinct communication.
Perpetual redesigns are fine when your website is an art project, but this is a blog, and the primary value proposition here is the content, not the appearance. (And frankly, some of my favorite blogs are simple, cluttered, or even ugly.)
I’m implementing this “cut the bullshit” approach in my professional life as well. Now my work emails, conference calls, and meeting agendas are dramatically shorter.
Apparently life is far easier when you stop obsessing over extraneous details and get to the point.
Who knew?
I recently considered adding a “top posts” widget to the sidebar of this blog. It was a pretty simple widget – it displays my 10 most trafficked posts, updated every 24 hours.
When I previewed the widget, I was surprised to find that none of the top posts were recent.
This prompted me to open Google analytics for the first time in ages.
Although I obsessively check the web traffic of my clients, I rarely check the analytics for my blog. Traffic and conversions aren’t the goal here.
Almost all of my most heavily trafficked blogs were 2-3 years old, and it was pretty easy to figure out why: law school orientation.
This was one of the top law school student blogs back in the day because I was one of the only consistent bloggers writing without a pseudonym.
I graduated and stopped the textbook-induced navel-gazing, but my old advice posts remained.
Sure, the old posts are in a bit of a sad state – WordPress themes and URL structures changed, links broke, YouTube videos were taken down, text styling got wonky…but the meat of the content is still there.
I remember binging on law school blogs when I started. Most of that involved trekking through the archives of writers who had long since graduated and abandoned their blogs. The information was crusty, but endlessly fascinating and helpful.
So, I’m slowly going through my archives and fixing all the formatting and linking errors. Perhaps this will make the information easier to consume for fledgling law students in the future.
Comments are too hard to approve or moderate, and most meaningful conversations happen on social media anyway. Feel free to tweet any feedback @dennisjansen.
Several people have noted that things are much quieter around these parts. Blogging was easier when I was in school because I was busy exploring the city, surrounded by hilarious people, attending drag shows, and living in a crazy apartment building full of drug dealers, passive aggressive notes, and schizophrenics.
Several readers have asked why I am not participating in a “best of blogging” competition for law student blogs. The answer is simple: the competition is a scam.
It works as follows:
NoName Legal Website (NLW) needs visitors. NLW has no credibility because it is a content aggregator and offers little (or no) original content. Snooze.
But NLW has a plan! Lawyers and Law students love competition and arbitrary rankings. Heck, all the law schools in the country tout their US News Ranking while simultaneously bitching about how ridiculous the rankings are.
So NLW creates its own rankings of the top law school bloggers. NLW informs the bloggers of their nominations through pingbacks and emails. The student bloggers mention the competition and link back to NLW. The new traffic helps NLW build a reputation and to compensate for its lack of original content.
NLW now has visitors without paying for advertising space.