Buziaulane: Blogonomics 06 (4)

Today it is one year ago, that I started the blog Buziaulane. Since May 1, 2005 more than 365 postings have been published on various subjects in the field of new media with a focus on electronic publishing and more precisely content strategy. A good occasion to evaluate.

This tower at Buziaulane in Utrecht (The Netherlands) has been my virtual outlook for one year now

Some evaluation tools were handed to me by Erwin Blom, a digital pioneer working for the VPRO public broadcast company. He is a rather new blogger on the block, but one with a view, which he presented at Blogonomics 06.

As a radio, television and internet producer Erwin Blom is busy with projects. For the final results of the radio and television programs, he usually has a lot of material and insights, which he can not use in the radio and television programs. For Erwin Blom a blog is a fit platform to share ideas with other professionals. The blog is also a communication platform to talk with and to interested people. He even sees the blog as a knowledge sharing platform, which can be used to share ideas or even claim ideas. He has a daily frequency in posting blogs. His postings have an informal tone. Erwin Blom thinks blogging is worthwhile if you have 100 or more readers.

Looking back at my year of blogging, I can say that I have seen it as a professional activity. It is for me formulating my desk research and digesting new developments. It is also a communication platform for me, communicating with people I know in the Netherlands, with friends and experts of the EUROPRIX Top Talent Award circuit and the European Academy of Digital Media (EADiM) as well as the jury members and nominees of the World Summit Award (WSA). I have posted every day one posting. I attempt to launch the posting daily around 8 o'clock (Amsterdam time). I have no idea of how many people read my blog. I would love to know how many page views I have, but I have been unable to put a counter on the blog (any advice welcome). It is one of the down side point I have about the Blogger program. The other downside points are: instable logging on with the username and password (part of the password moves over to the username) and the wysiwyg of the editor (compose and preview). I have not found either the facility to put the postings of my mini-series together. Despite these downsides, Blogger is an easy package to start up a blog and keep it going for 365 days. In the beginning I have not allowed reactions from readers; now I have a moderated form for reactions. So far I am not impressed with the reactions as 95 percent have been spam reactions. Besides if people want to react to a posting or write they either have my e-mail address or can find. Does the Buziaulane blog have disadvantages? One big disadvantage is the language.

What is the outlook for the second year? I will continue the blog on a daily basis. I see some disturbance coming up in June and July as I will be moving. It presents me still with another problem. The blog name has been borrowed from the street where I live now; should I change the name to the street? Personally I think I will not do so. Why change an established name after one year. I will also keep the monthly blog of the Content Market Monitor going as it has now 2100 free subscribers in 100 countries. Having chosen to write the Buziaulane and Content market Monitor blogs in English, it is difficult to comment on particular Dutch situations. I would have to start up a Dutch blog for that and perhaps I might do so, but then after the move. But as this is still some months off and only for people who read Dutch, please come back for another year of Buziaulane.

Looking back at the moment I started the Buziaulane blog one can ask whether I stepped in late in the blog business. To be honest it was not the earliest moment, but it was a moment of returning. In 1981 I started to deliver contributions about European online developments for the Online Chronicle, a fortnightly electronic newsletter on the Dialog host/server. In 1984 I started for VNU Business Publication in London the IDB Online newsletter. Every working day it was published. In fact it was the first electronic daily newsletter in Europe. In 2003 I attempted a blog on the site of Telecombrief; it failed due to technical and organisational problems. But Buziaulane has now succeeded for a year and fetches a fantasy price of almost 8.000 US dolloars (one-off, a month, a year ?), according to Business Opportunities Weblogs.

My blog is worth $7,903.56.
How much is your blog worth?