As you can see, posts are coming more frequently these days on Ignorantium. Posts had started to turn into 1000 word slogs for readers. That’s too long for a reader to read and a writer to write with any regularity, not to mention too hard to do and retain some level of quality. The result was large periods of time with no posts. Blogs die when they’re not fed and I didn’t want that to happen to Ignorantium. So instead, I went back to the way I did things a long time ago with quicker posts done more frequently. I may still do a longer piece every once in a while, but for now I’m sticking to the stuff that made me like doing this blog in the first place: product and site reviews, interesting tech bits I run across and opinion pieces aimed at trends in marketing, tech and social media. From the nice responses I’ve gotten, and the nice spike in traffic, apparently people are happier with this format as well. I’ll keep at it.

Expect to see more product reviews next week. The social media world is moving so quickly and spawning all sorts of interesting offerings that allow people to tag, file and connect with friends and strangers alike. As I run across interesting sites and tools I’ll throw up reviews. Also starting sometime next week I’m going to pick a day (probably Wednesdays) where I provide a ton of links to odd things and burgeoning web memes. If you’ve got something you think I might want to include, feel free to send me an email (host atsign ignorantium.com) or through Twitter @jameswester. (Until I get the purpose of @ignorantium figured out, replies and DMs to that account might go unnoticed.)

And finally, my picture today is from Wikipedia’s daily featured article. It’s a randomly chosen picture from my morning surfing, but it kind of fits in with today’s theme of where this blog is going. (The title of today’s post is taken from signs and warnings to riders of the London Underground to “mind the gap” between the platform edge and the train door. In this case, it means mind the gaps between blog posts. I thought that was moderately clever.)

Hope you have a great weekend. See you next week.

photo credit: Wikipedia

I have also found there are a lot of very smart people that are wishing to put their own blogs together. Many friends and relations have said, “I’d love to have a blog about something,” where “something” is politics, dogs, knitting or fish cookery. My advice to them? Do it. Now. There are some obvious reasons to express yourself in an online forum, such as it’s great for your psyche. Cleans out the brain, so to speak.

It’s also great for your professional development. It’s a hugely marketable skill. I have another post I’m working on about technology skills, the job market, etc., but for now realize that being proficient with designing and running a Web page shows a host of qualities that employers are looking for, even those not Web or tech-related. I’m not saying you should have a site to rival something professionally produced, but thanks to WordPress and other WYSIWYG editors, you can create something worthwhile very easily.

The market is tough. I don’t doubt that. But those willing to market themselves well, spend some time on their “personal brand” (an overused but not worthless term) and put their creativity on display will have an easier time finding their next role.

Here is one more reason: there is a lot of real garbage out there.

I’m not one to judge, but…Well, actually, I am. Somewhere I heard a number like 4 gazillion blogs are rattling around the Interwebs these days. That’s a lot. And the 2 gazillion (?) I’ve looked at were pretty terrible. (No comments about this one!) So find your passion, fill your niche, sharpen your pencil, gird your loins and dive in. The myriad tools now available for the beginner blogger make it so very simple. Get started and maybe you can help drown out some of the noise.

Now get to it.