Success and Failure: To Be or Not to Be

To take a risk or not? That was the question. In the beginning.

What to blog about was really the question. And after reading and reading, I had decided to write a blog that would include all the information I needed for a whoopee final project -- writing a communications plan for my office.

I attended a seminar. I made notes. I created a folder, Printed documents and hinted about a wonderful project to my boss.

Then that looked like work. And maybe less than interesting for folks outside my office. And it still looked like work in a life where there's just too much work.

Just for Fun

So a tagline came into view: Just for fun. A relative suggested a blog title. I pre-tested it on one of my churchgoing friends. Her look was something far more than quizzical. I put it to work on Google keywords' tool. And while many naughty concepts seem to do well there, none sounded authentically me and they just didn't strike the right tone. Now for this post, I asked Google keyword tool if I could cite failure in my blog. Up popped fearsome things like "heart failure" with 1.2 million global monthly searches, followed right along by another miserable -- "kidney failure." So I added success to this post.

So I shifted some words for my Wordpress blog. Pre-tested on Google and got a nicer set of searches (will share that with the next homework assignment) and planned a post that would just drown in keywords. I took photos; I made a video. I even scouted out Beth Monaghan's advice from the Richard T. Cole and Derek Mehraban "The New Media Driver's License Resource Guide" Blogging Resource 2-13 on Page 61. It's good advice: have goals, make a calendar, be consistent,  write for your audience, and be a part of the broader conversation that will carry your work to other blogs and beyond.

How Can Failure Succeed?

But when I sat down to write, the mood was all wrong. I couldn't be flippant. I wasn't sure my audience would appreciate the opening post. But my mind was filled with one canon not from our readings: write about what you know. So I did.

There's a lot of great advice in the textbooks, really great. But when I looked at the student blogs, it seems that they too are following the age-old sage: write what you know about.

The blog's first post is done. I toyed with adding another page, then did some research to discover that that might be more challenging on a school night than I am prepared to tackle. So you'll find it at: http://kylec.newmediadl.com/.