Seb Talks about Blogs and Life

When we left Seb Prooth of Seb’s Random Thoughts he told us about his current film work on YouTube at YouTube.com Melting Clock, http://www.youtube.com/meltingclock/ and the success he’d enjoyed being part of the www.globalgeekpodcast.com “>Global Geek Podcast.

Seb, How does blogging fit with your life?

This is a really interesting question. It just so happens that I have recently been making the conscious decision to blog more often. With the effect of quitting a weekly podcast and having no other connection with the fast moving world of digital media other than my blog, I decided it was time to take things more seriously.

Aside from that, I usually blog when I have something to say. For instance, last week when Richard Hammond of the BBC’s TopGear was severely injured in a crash, I covered the story on my blog. TopGear is one of my favourite shows and when I saw the headline I was compelled to write something.

Where has your blog taken you so far? Where do you see your blog taking you in the future?

My blog has made my writing better. I have written very formally on the blog at times such as when I talked about the effects of Digg and being Dugg when I openly opposed telemarketers making use of Skype to sell their goods. I see that my blog has made me a name on a couple of forums. On a Google search for “Sebastian Prooth” it pulls something in the region of 40 grand results. Although my efforts in podcasting contribute greatly to those numbers, many of the results are due to things I have said on my blog.

In the future I hope to see my blog progressing as it has been. I enjoy the casual nature of blogging. I have the motto on my site “writing not for hits, but to hit with what I write.” If my site gets Dugg and I get 20 thousand hits in 2 hours, I will be pleased, but If I continue getting 150-500 hits a day for what I write without the assistance of Digg or other mass media distribution service, I am happy with that.

What you tell a younger friend to do if he or she were just starting a blog?

If I was advising a younger friend about blogging I would probably tell him or her to go for it. Definitely. The Internet does not need blogs about what you had for breakfast (unless you are a gourmet chef,) or what you did when you had 20 shots of whatever on Saturday night. The Internet needs blogs where people talk with passion about what they know. I can’t stand it when I go to blogs that are there obviously to benefit a company or to push someone’s agenda. We all have agendas, your blog is not the best place to bare your agenda naked to the world.

The Internet is a cruel place at the same time as being the largest and most resourceful – resource on the planet. If you are going to start a blog, and you want readers the first thing you should consider is if what you are going to write about is of interest to anyone but yourself. I don’t really care if Joe Bloggs (pardon the pun) ate chilli for breakfast. It doesn’t have any bearing on my life. But if you are blogging about a feature on the latest beta release of Windows Vista, or reviewing a film that has just come out, or maybe one that came out before you were born, you have an audience there.

If you don’t care if anyone reads what you write, then I suggest you do whatever you like on your blog. Remember, even though now a tired cliché, do not release a great deal of personal information about yourself. And the last rule of blogging is – ENJOY IT!

Thanks Seb, can’t wait to see where you take your blog next.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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