Broomeshtick

Keen observers will have noticed that the post rate here has dropped a little over the last fortnight. That’s because changes are afoot.

You see, this site has taken many forms over the past two or three years and I’ve used it as something of a place to experiment. It’s only in the last few months that it’s started to gain a nice following, which is lovely. But it poses problems too.

As you might know, my main blog, the one with a really nice following and lots of longer articles, podcasts and video clips, is Write for Your Life. It too has gathered many more subscribers and pageviews over the last few months. Double lovely.

However, all this loveliness does mean that I’m effectively maintaining two sites at once, both about writing. The more I’ve thought about it, and especially as life gets more hectic and time precious, it makes sense to combine the two websites. And so that’s what I’m planning to do.

Of course, as the older, bigger brother, Write for Your Life will win the great big blog-fight and be the site that I continue to maintain. But Broomeshtick fans fear not, for its legacy will live on.

What I love about Broomeshtick and the Tumblr approach is being able to pick a great article, show it to other people and offer my own take on things. It’s far more satisfying than leaving a comment, for example. In doing this, I’ve found I’ve got more to say than expected. I really enjoy this curated style of blogging.

As a result, you’ll soon see Write for Your Life change a little. Whereas now it’s essentially a magazine, with new material appearing just a couple of times a week, it will become more, well, blog-like. I’ll still write articles, record podcasts and film episodes, but I’ll also become a curator.

It’s going to be great, I think. And I’m only half-joking when I say I’d like the site to become the Daring Fireball of websites for writers. Hey, why not? Reach for the stars, expect nothing. It’s like a motto, or something.

Anyway, finally, and this ties in with the upcoming Write for Your Life membership scheme, these changes will mean slightly more of me. More of my thoughts. My writing. My approach to being a writer. Because one way or another, it’s going to be a busy 2011 for me and my scribblings.

Hope that’s okay. I’ll keep you posted.

I don’t think out loud too often on the internet. But I’m going to now, just for a second.

In the next month or so I’m planning to launch Write for Your Life Membership, a paid email subscription that offers extra content, special offers and curated links. It’s the first time I’ve actively tried to make money through my websites.

And I’m finding it slightly stressful. Because how much is any premium service worth? Why would someone pay to access content when the web is littered with great material that costs nothing? 

As I sit here figuring this out, something is dawning on me.

It’s me that people will be buying into. I’m not some faceless corporation or trendy startup with a cunning pricing plan. Just a bloke with a blog and something to say.

That’s a good thing, right? That’s the sort of person I like to support all the time.

So I should be confident. I should be reasonable. I should stop worrying and focus on the content. Because in the end, it always comes down to the content.

After just over two years of proper blogging, today I received my first unpleasant email from, quite unbelievably, someone who is subscribed to Write for Your Life.

Perhaps more believably, it was following my post about Apple. Some people really don’t like Apple, what with their shiny products and their sexy straplines. I don’t really get it myself. In fact, I don’t really understand anyone getting so worked up about one company at all, unless what they do is rather ghastly or unethical.

Calm down people. Look in a different direction. No one will mind.

Anyway, this email, which for the record was an ill-punctuated enquiry about ‘just how much Apple dick’ I like to partake in, provides a lovely bookend of misguided abuse. Because in my very first post, when I told my fellow scribblers to abandon their muses, I received a comment that suggested, quite forcefully, that my words were ‘harmful to writers’. Which is nice.

But where then the rather unkind tone made me feel silly for daring to post my thoughts on a subject I’ve spent years learning and plying my trade in, now it feels rather celebratory.

Some people like to complain. Some people like to converse. Some people. Some people.  

I started Write for Your Life just before Christmas in 2008, partly to learn the mechanics of WordPress for work purposes, partly to start building a platform for my own writing. And like many new bloggers, I read plenty of articles about blogging. 

But the truth is, I ignored most of them. I didn’t post daily, for instance (barely once a month at one point). Instead, I tried to make sure that when I did write something, it was worth reading.

With a novel to edit and a full-time job to attend to, I relied on word of mouth and a little social networking to let the blog grow organically. 

Well, today Write for Your Life reached the 1000 subscriber milestone. With a sexy new design in place and more time to provide quality content, I believe that this is just the start. Plus you never know. I might even try to make a few shillings from it. Imagine that.