As my blog site is getting a visual makeover, so is the way in which I want to deliver content. I started this internal review process over the holidays, but it is interesting it came up recently in the Lotus community. So first, this is not a commentary on anything other than my process.

So I have noticed that so many people are posting content on their blog in a rapid fire fashion. They turn on the 'firehose' and just put up content. Lots of posts, as often as possible. Much of this comes from the PlanetLotus.org syndrome - where people want to have lots of blog entries that get read a lot so they get listed on the "Hot Blogs" meter. After tracking blog entries per month and hits per month and contacts per month for all of 2009, I have found that very few of the contacts I get are from PlanetLotus.org that generate into revenue. Now don't get me wrong, I consider PL to be a pillar of our community and I am not leaving the site - but it doesn't add to my bottom line. What PL does is share content with my fellow community members - and that is an important role.

So I have been doing research on how I want to change this. I have been looking at other blogs, inside and outside our community, and other sites. Talking with content authors and what gets them the most bang for their buck. And I have decided to get a bit more structured. Not a daily structure nor a daily post requirement, but something that has a beginning and end. I think the best example in our community I can point at that follows my new goals is Declan Lynch's Learning Xpages Tutorial. Declan took a specific content task, i.e. How to learn Xpages by building a specific application, and laid it out from beginning to end. I also want to be more complete about the content. After blogging a series of content over a period of time, creating videos and slides and more that tie together. All of this wrapped up with a bow at the end with a landing page that ties it all together. A bit more structure within a semi-fixed period of time, but without pressure to do something every day. And in a way that is easily accessed by a user after the process is complete.

So I am going to experiment with this process in the month of March around "Adding Mail Merge Functionality to the Notes Contacts Application" topic. I figure I need about 10 blog entries to cover Microsoft Office, Symphony, doing this from iNotes, and working with one based cloud word processor solution. I want to create a video to go with each step. I also want to create slides that could be used at a future user group or conference. And a deliverable to have all this functionality for download from the OpenNTF.org Contacts Experience Project. I will then take the first week of April to review the results and refine my thought process.

Now this won't stop the other blog entries that come thru reaction or other processes. But I want to focus my efforts on content other's can consume, learn something, get a cool demo, and see the amazing work that PSC can do. I would love to hear your feedback.