About the Blog: What to Expect

A lot goes into running a blog, and I want to set some expectations for you going forward. This is going to be all about the blog itself, and not the actual journey I’m planning to take. If you were looking for the journey details, check out “About the Dream” for the full story.

Posts and Schedule

This isn’t the first blog that I’ve done, and I know firsthand how much can go into writing and maintaining a post schedule. I have a metric crap ton of work to do between now and launch day, so I don’t want to get trapped maintaining a blog the entire time, but I also want to commit to communicating my journey too.  So here’s what I’ve come up with to ride that line.

Post Format

Posts will typically be rather short and broken up into sections if it makes sense, so you can scan for something in particular. Some types of articles will be naturally longer than others, but I’ll break this down more in the Types of Posts section. I’ll do my best to keep things light and entertaining, but that’s more a personality thing than a consideration.

Schedule

I’m going to try and post every other Wednesday at noon (Eastern Standard Time), but that may be subject to change as we go on. I do work full time and have a ton on my plate these days, so I don’t want to commit to every week and have to push off posts, but once a month is not going to be enough to cover everything that I need to. Every other week seems about right, but let’s see how it goes.

Types of Posts

I’ve broken up the posts into four different categories. If you’re looking for something in particular, you can use the category system to filter out only those types of posts, which should help you find what you are looking for much quicker. Let’s dive into what they are and what to expect in each.

Foundation

These posts are foundational material that will always be relevant and are usually related to the blog itself or commonly asked questions.  They are going to be a little longer than usual, around 800 to 900 words. If you are new or lost on where to get started, this is where you want to look.

Research

These posts will be somewhat long (800 to 900 words, maybe more on complex subjects), about specific technical subjects, and are highly structured. These will be highly relevant in a specific context, but may not be relevant to you in different situations.  If you’re looking for how-to guides, comparison articles between different systems, or information about a particular thing, this is where you go.

Personal

These posts will be short (about 300 to 500 words), pretty intimate, and to the point.  They will read more like journal entries than articles, and will only be relevant to those of you who are looking to get to know me on a personal level. Or wanting to enjoy to drama of my journey, no judgements. If you are struggling with fears, doubts, or wanting to make a personal connection, this is where you go. If you want to know more about me right away, check out “About the Author,” where I get into that in detail.

Updates

These will be super short, probably under 300 words. They’ll be relevant for everyone following the blog, but probably only for a short time. These will be things like announcements of me taking a break, changing the post schedule, or pleas for help because I was abducted by a group of hyper-intelligent Ostriches. Or would it be a flock?  Either way.

How to Keep in Touch

So this comes down to being kept informed of new posts and happenings around the blog, but also being able to get in touch with me if you have something to say.

Staying Informed

The best way to know what’s going on with the blog is to keep pace with the updates category. If you’d like a reminder of new posts, there’s a newsletter to remind you when a new post goes live.  I’ll also reach out with important updates and maybe some special behind-the-scenes goodies from time to time.  If you’re interested, check the sidebar for the signup form.  Also, I hate spam and will never harass your inbox with useless crap.

Contacting Me

I don’t want this to be just me talking at you, but a two-way conversation.  Sadly, spam bots are abundant these days, and I can’t just post my email address for you to use. If you want to get in touch, you’ll need to use my author site contact page, which has some built-in protections against robots. If you get the newsletter, however, just hit reply to one of my emails. Not only do I get those, but I actually read them and stuff!  Amazing! Lastly, I moderate all the comments here, so feel free to reach out there, too.

The Wrap Up

There you go, everything you need to know about how the blog is going to run. Probably.  Maybe. Oh, let’s face it, I probably forgot something. If I did, and you have a question, let me know. (If only we had covered how you could do that…  *cough, cough*…)  In case you missed it earlier, if you were looking for what the dream is, that post is “About the Dream,” so head that way. Until next time, though, thanks for joining us in finding Austrasia.