The Cold Hard Truth - 01.31.00

I'm having a dilemma that only a true website geek could have. Although this past month was my best ever in terms of traffic and I got nice nods from all kinds of people with sites cooler than mine, I look at my stats one problem sticks out at me. Since I started up my website just over 6 months ago, nearly 80% of my overall site traffic is coming from the music review section.

Now, when I say these things, don't get me wrong. I've been writing music reviews for something like 6 years now (only about 2 years of that are represented on the site) and it's something that's still extremely exciting for me. Not only that, but I've amassed quite a back catalogue of reviews and have even had them reprinted on other sites. Music is still my first true obsession (sorry, website) and not only do I listen to it nearly every waking hour of the day, but I probably devote far too much time and money to it. The thing about it, though, is that of the five different sections on my site, it's the one that I'm technically least satisfied with in a strictly creative way.

Basically, it goes like this. Although I do have to come up with actually writing a music review, that writing of the music review is something that really anyone who hears the music can do (whether they choose to is, of course, another thing all together). The other 4 sections on my site are something completely different in that I start out each week (or day) with nothing but a blank screen and have to think of something to write there. I don't have someone else's work to base my writing on (although outside influences definitely make themselves known sometimes) and it's basically just me spilling out thoughts on the page. Although I haven't ever written in the Lesion Legion section, it still holds one of the highest places in my own mind simply because I enjoy the concept of it so much. It doesn't even matter to me that I rarely get entries for it, because nearly every time that I do, it makes everything worth it.

In terms of the section that you're currently in ("Whatever"), it's something that I sway back and forth with on nearly a constant basis, but most of the time I find myself pleased with things overall. If I happen to write a particularly good piece (in my mind, anyway), I get more excited than other times. Overall, the fact that I've actually written something every week for the past two years makes me feel accomplished in some sort of weird way.

Although "Come To My Senses" is only a month old now, I can honestly say that it's a section that I'm glad I started. I wanted to do something daily for a long time, but I just couldn't see myself offering anything new to the web world that some blog didn't already have. Keeping track of my senses on a daily basis not only lets me be as specific (or not) as I want to be, but it's just the right amount of work for me to put into my website, even if I'm completely sick of working on my site.

As far as "In Other Words" goes, I'm really happy with the first story (even though I think that only about 4 people have read it completely through in the few months that it's been up), but I need to get a bit more substance up there before I'm truly satified with it.

I guess that in my own little perfect website world, traffic would be dispersed more evenly throughout the different sections at my site. Sure, I'm 'creating' when I write a music review, but it's not the same as when I 'create' a short story or something else at the site. If the site went down tomorrow, I'd rather it be remembered for something I had written that was mine and mine alone instead of for my critiquing abilities. Until then, I guess I can live with the label of 'that music review guy," though (if anyone calls me that even)

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