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lfigueroa

lfigueroa

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I know some of you have some extraordinarily wonderful pool blogs out there.

OMGWTF’s http://massiveunderstatement.com/ and Trigger’s http://pooljourney.blogspot.com/ come immediately to mind. In addition, I am aware that there are some alternate pool sites out there that range from the sublime, such as http://www.poolstudents.net/index.php to the well beyond ridiculous, that shall remain unnamed.

Soooo, I would like to ask those of you who have created and maintained blogs over the months and years: what have you found to be the pitfalls and benefits of that endeavor: any thoughts and advice would be appreciated and if you’d prefer you can PM me for an email address or I’ll buy you a drink or two at the event and we can talk then.

Lou Figueroa
 
I have one that I go on from time to time but if you are not getting a good deal of feedback or participation I think it can feel like you are talking to yourself. Perhaps no one likes to read about pool and would rather be playing but from the forums there are some who like to participate. :cool:

http://fastlennylife.blogspot.com/
 
lfigueroa said:
I know some of you have some extraordinarily wonderful pool blogs out there.

OMGWTF’s http://massiveunderstatement.com/ and Trigger’s http://pooljourney.blogspot.com/ come immediately to mind.
Soooo, I would like to ask those of you who have created and maintained blogs over the months and years: what have you found to be the pitfalls and benefits of that endeavor: any thoughts and advice would be appreciated and if you’d prefer you can PM me for an email address or I’ll buy you a drink or two at the event and we can talk then.

Lou Figueroa
Click to expand...

Hi Lou :)

Thanks for the mention. :)

I have been blogging regularly for a few years now and even try to post around 10-15 blog entries a month. I know, that seems like A LOT. lol.

My first pitfall advice is to ensure you email your blog entry after you post each one. The worst thing that can happen is you lose everything due to some server error or something, and then every thing you ever documented, shared, felt, wrote about for years, is GONE. I learned this b/c Samm Diep lost YEARS worth of blogs articles due to a server error with WordPress. So, I make sure to set up in the settings to always email each blog entry to myself, and then I save them to a folder.

I personally think a pitfall is starting a blog and then forgetting about it. I love reading blogs, but so many never stay maintained. The way I prevented this personally was to set a goal to write a certain # of entries every month.

As for the positives and benefits, I use my blog as my personal pool journal. If others read it and like it, cool. If others learn some tips to help their game, even better! I used to have a paper journal, but I love the online blog so much better.

I share things I witness, tournament results, emotions, experiences, tips, stories, video blogs, conduct interviews, etc. At first, the few friends I shared it with said I should not only open the blog to everyone, but also share even more things in my pool journey. So, it has evolved.

It can be difficult to find the TIME to write blogs entries. But, I get creative and utilize my free time (like waiting rooms or when someone else is driving I'll bring out my laptop, etc.).

I don't have an issue with lack of topics. lol. I actually have a long list of things I still want to write about. When I go to tournaments or league or travel to pool events, the topics jumped at me! I have to make notes during a weekend tourney to remember all that I wanted to write about. There are so many things that just pop up to vent, share, explain, etc.

I try not to be long winded, but as you can see, I'm not good at that. lol.

I think keeping the topics diversified is good, too.

And quite honestly, maybe others who read our blogs can offer why they come back to read them. Maybe that will help, as these are just my views from the blogger, not the reader.

I hope you are asking because you are considering starting one!
 
I tried one for awhile and just stopped fooling with it. Easier to just write here at least for me. The up side of a blog is its uncensored and you have the ban hammer on comments which is always fun.

I hope you are thinking of starting one Lou because I would like to read it.
 
Fast Lenny said:
I have one that I go on from time to time but if you are not getting a good deal of feedback or participation I think it can feel like you are talking to yourself. Perhaps no one likes to read about pool and would rather be playing but from the forums there are some who like to participate. :cool:

http://fastlennylife.blogspot.com/
Click to expand...


I always wondered about that -- how much feedback do you get.

I write, because I enjoy writing, and that's why I do the occasional extended piece. But it is good to get feedback.

Thanks, Lenny.

Lou Figueroa
 
akaTrigger said:
Hi Lou :)

Thanks for the mention. :)

I have been blogging regularly for a few years now and even try to post around 10-15 blog entries a month. I know, that seems like A LOT. lol.

My first pitfall advice is to ensure you email your blog entry after you post each one. The worst thing that can happen is you lose everything due to some server error or something, and then every thing you ever documented, shared, felt, wrote about for years, is GONE. I learned this b/c Samm Diep lost YEARS worth of blogs articles due to a server error with WordPress. So, I make sure to set up in the settings to always email each blog entry to myself, and then I save them to a folder.

I personally think a pitfall is starting a blog and then forgetting about it. I love reading blogs, but so many never stay maintained. The way I prevented this personally was to set a goal to write a certain # of entries every month.

As for the positives and benefits, I use my blog as my personal pool journal. If others read it and like it, cool. If others learn some tips to help their game, even better! I used to have a paper journal, but I love the online blog so much better.

I share things I witness, tournament results, emotions, experiences, tips, stories, video blogs, conduct interviews, etc. At first, the few friends I shared it with said I should not only open the blog to everyone, but also share even more things in my pool journey. So, it has evolved.

It can be difficult to find the TIME to write blogs entries. But, I get creative and utilize my free time (like waiting rooms or when someone else is driving I'll bring out my laptop, etc.).

I don't have an issue with lack of topics. lol. I actually have a long list of things I still want to write about. When I go to tournaments or league or travel to pool events, the topics jumped at me! I have to make notes during a weekend tourney to remember all that I wanted to write about. There are so many things that just pop up to vent, share, explain, etc.

I try not to be long winded, but as you can see, I'm not good at that. lol.

I think keeping the topics diversified is good, too.

And quite honestly, maybe others who read our blogs can offer why they come back to read them. Maybe that will help, as these are just my views from the blogger, not the reader.

I hope you are asking because you are considering starting one!
Click to expand...


Good points to consider. I'm kind of like you in that I write for myself and if others happen to enjoy the longer pieces, that's a good thing. As to starting a blog, I'm kicking the idea around. After Tunica, I did my usual thing and wrote up a trip report. When I was done I was going to post it here, but then paused and asked myself, "Why?" I couldn't come up with a good reason.

Thanks for the good thoughts!

Lou Figueroa
 
JCIN said:
I tried one for awhile and just stopped fooling with it. Easier to just write here at least for me. The up side of a blog is its uncensored and you have the ban hammer on comments which is always fun.

I hope you are thinking of starting one Lou because I would like to read it.
Click to expand...


Thanks, JCIN. Everything has its time.

Lou Figueroa
 
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lfigueroa said:
I always wondered about that -- how much feedback do you get.

I write, because I enjoy writing, and that's why I do the occasional extended piece. But it is good to get feedback.

Thanks, Lenny.

Lou Figueroa
Click to expand...

I know people view it and check it out but not a ton of feedback. I could be doing something wrong though like sucking at it, haha. I do think you need to do a weekly blog, mine is every 2-3 months it seems that I put in a new entry. Another thing is you need to promote it and get people to see and find it or what is the point.
 
I have a friend that has a blog on college football

http://kegsneggsblog.com/

He started out small but now from time to time, he gets a mention on Fox Sports Radio or ESPN Radio. And is at the point that he may make some money off of it.

Money is probably not your motivation Lou but just wanted to point it out if someone else read this thread and got interested in blogging.

(btw Lou - did ever do any more on your pool room space you were looking into. I am still very much wanting to be involved if you did something in Earth City)
 
Fast Lenny said:
I know people view it and check it out but not a ton of feedback. I could be doing something wrong though like sucking at it, haha. I do think you need to do a weekly blog, mine is every 2-3 months it seems that I put in a new entry. Another thing is you need to promote it and get people to see and find it or what is the point.
Click to expand...


Every few months is probably not often enough. I know I could put out something interesting once a week. I'm not sure, but that's what sounds about right to me -- any thoughts on how often you need to blog to keep up the interest?

Lou Figueroa
 
lfigueroa said:
Every few months is probably not often enough. I know I could put out something interesting once a week. I'm not sure, but that's what sounds about right to me -- any thoughts on how often you need to blog to keep up the interest?

Lou Figueroa
Click to expand...

IMHO, once a week or at LEAST twice a month.
 
watchez said:
I have a friend that has a blog on college football

http://kegsneggsblog.com/

He started out small but now from time to time, he gets a mention on Fox Sports Radio or ESPN Radio. And is at the point that he may make some money off of it.

Money is probably not your motivation Lou but just wanted to point it out if someone else read this thread and got interested in blogging.

(btw Lou - did ever do any more on your pool room space you were looking into. I am still very much wanting to be involved if you did something in Earth City)
Click to expand...


Good site -- did he design it himself?

And no, money has zero to do with it. Same with the book -- if it covered costs that'd be cool.

And no, nothing on EC, I mean, come on -- I live in the CWE. If I did anything it'd be SC or Mid-town.

Lou Figueroa
or maybe Overland :-)
 
akaTrigger said:
IMHO, once a week or at LEAST twice a month.
Click to expand...


yep, that's what I'm thinking. If I'm going to take the time to check out a website, I'd want to be rewarded more frequently. It would probably also help if it was on a semi-regular basis so you sort of knew when to expect something new.

Who designed your site?

Lou Figueroa
 
Mine is www.prairiepoolplayer.com and I started it mainly to document my last year on a local bar league, and I have turned it into everything from how I practice to documenting which cues I have owned and how I do in state tournaments etc. I would agree with Trigger, in order to get the "hits" you have to post once a week (which is very time consuming if you want good content). Comments are hard to come by and I was even a bit concerned what some "locals" would think of me blogging, but in the end it has been received very well. I try to keep it somewhat serious / somewhat light but that is just personal preference. I really think we need more pool blogs out there (there aren't very many that are kept current). OMGWTF and Trigger are 2 excellent examples! There was even a thing called Pool Synergy that consisted of all pool bloggers writing about the same topic (expressing different views) on the same day every month. I think that would be great to get started again. I look forward to reading your blog. Good Luck!
 
schonshooter said:
Mine is www.prairiepoolplayer.com and I started it mainly to document my last year on a local bar league, and I have turned it into everything from how I practice to documenting which cues I have owned and how I do in state tournaments etc. I would agree with Trigger, in order to get the "hits" you have to post once a week (which is very time consuming if you want good content). Comments are hard to come by and I was even a bit concerned what some "locals" would think of me blogging, but in the end it has been received very well. I try to keep it somewhat serious / somewhat light but that is just personal preference. I really think we need more pool blogs out there (there aren't very many that are kept current). OMGWTF and Trigger are 2 excellent examples! There was even a thing called Pool Synergy that consisted of all pool bloggers writing about the same topic (expressing different views) on the same day every month. I think that would be great to get started again. I look forward to reading your blog. Good Luck!
Click to expand...


Pretty good site (though dark blue letters against a black background might be worth changing :-) Thanks for the encouragement.

Lou Figueroa
 
lfigueroa said:
Good site -- did he design it himself?

And no, money has zero to do with it. Same with the book -- if it covered costs that'd be cool.

And no, nothing on EC, I mean, come on -- I live in the CWE. If I did anything it'd be SC or Mid-town.

Lou Figueroa
or maybe Overland :-)
Click to expand...

Yes he designed it himself - pretty simple WordPress setup

EC is close to Overland .....and a better neighborhood
 
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