Blogging for experts

I hesitate before posting about the blog, because blogging about blogging is the poster child of Internet navel-gazing, and, well, I never wanted to be a poster child. But I keep having variations on the same conversation, so here we are. Specifically, here you are, which is proof that something interesting happened along the way.

I started this blog with the idea of explaining social media and online intelligence concepts to a non-technical audience, but the content shifted. I ended up with a more expert audience, too, which works for me. It turns out that I enjoy exploring more specialized topics, and I lack the Cosmo/Men's Health talent for writing the same articles every month (Abs! Exercise! Diet! Sex!).

So the blog gradually became a blog for experts, featuring a mix of news and insight. Conveniently, insight posts represent one of the more difficult styles of blogging. Oh, well. My parents read it, which helps them understand what I do.

All quiet in the comments
Watching subscriber numbers go up is always good for the ego, but there's another metric that isn't so encouraging: the Conversational Index, which is the ratio of comments and trackbacks to posts. I welcome your comments, but most days, you don't leave any.

I can think of four reasons for the silence that follows any particular post.

1. The post was stupid. I really hope that's not it (and I don't think it is).
   
2. It was obvious. Better than stupid, but not much.
   
3. It was brilliant and insightful, but you don't want to point that out to your competitors who also read the blog but may have missed the point.
   
4. You're just not the comment-writing type.

OK, there's a fifth possibility—you're subscribed but not actually reading—but I don't want to consider that one. Naturally, I like #3, and as long as you're keeping quiet, I'll just tell myself that's what's going on. :-)

But if it stays quiet, I just might start making obvious mistakes to bate you. Would that be better?