My blog’s splitting up: It’s not you, it’s me. No, really. It’s me. And me. And me…

Ladies and gentlemen, my blog is going through a split. Not a divorce. But a split. My topics just… need some space, you know?

The Case

Slash7, as it stands currently, is an undifferentiated mishmash of stuff. You can’t come to my site and see what it is that I do. Or rather, you see that I do just about everything, which is in fact true but is also really confusing.

And that also makes it tough for me to having blogging discipline, whatever the hell that may be. And my writing voice is all over the place. It just feels awkward to me.

I bet it’s even more awkward for new folks and you guys, not to mention sometimes annoying.

The Solution

I’ve been agonizing over this one for a while.

But, thanks to Havi and the nice folks at her Kitchen Table community, I’ve come to the conclusion that splitting up is the right thing to do.

And boy does that feel better.

So, everything’s not set up yet, but I wanted to let you know about it in advance.

The Great Split of ’09: The game plan

Here’s how it’s going to work:

  1. The topics I can carve out are going to get separate domain names and separate blogs. They will still all be by me, though (with two exceptions). At least for now.
  2. I’m going to offer a combined RSS feed of everything, for those of you who like the Mash o’ Amy. Your experience will remain consistent.
  3. Otherwise, if you only like one or two topics, you can subscribe to the feeds that’ll make you happy. Less clutter for you! Yay, focus!
  4. Slash7 will list all these blogs (and all the old links will work), but generally speaking, I’m going to be moving my personal “this is me” writing to notjustaprettybrain.com. This writing will not be to teach, or entertain, or whatever, it’ll just be for me to write whatever I feel like talking about. You may not find it to your liking… but that’s what the other, focused blogs are for.

And I will start emptying out my immense bucket o’ Things to Write About, No Longer Agonize Over.

The Great Split of ’09: Where the fault lines lie

The divisions will look something like this:

Interface design, practice of: uncommoninterface.com

Ruby & Rails programming: rightbrainrails.com

Freelancing / Consulting Business / Life: freelanceologie.com

Next generation web stuff, hunting down and discussion of: hardrefresh.com

JavaScript programming & goodies: jsrocks.com

Me & my squishy grey matter (probably boring personal stuff): notjustaprettybrain.com

“Productivity”: www.justfuckingship.com (yeah, you heard me; this one’s actually online now)

Sooooo, that’s that.

This transition will take some time. Although less time than you may think, now that I have discovered the joyous wonders of outsourcing.

17 Comments

  1. Chris Beck says:

    Congrats, Amy. Realizing that you need help is the first step towards recovery.

    Seriously, I have wanted to do the same kind of thing, but I haven’t been able to come up with the differentiations yet. Glad to see that when I pull the trigger I am following in good footsteps.

    Good luck!

  2. Love some of the domains you’re splitting your content up over. Let me know where your ‘general’ feed is lurking away so I can update my reader. Anyway rock on.

  3. Dr Nic says:

    Can you make your slash7 RSS feed be an aggregator for your technical blogs’ feeds?

  4. Amy says:

    @Dr Nic, I can do anything I want! 😉 Of course, I can make a tech-stuff-only feed. That’s a great idea.

    @Chris, do it! Pull that trigger! I feel better already.

    @Jacques, thanks 😀 I’ve spent a long time collecting those domains!

    I’ll post here as soon as any changes re: feeds happen.

    I think I can make it so the current slash7 feed URL you’ve already got doesn’t change at all, through the miracle of feedburner.

  5. Tobias says:

    Hi Amy,

    I really enjoy your blog.

    I just have a question about this splitting business. Why the overload of several different blogs with different domains?! Isn’t that overload? Are you really producing so much content? Be honest to yourself.

    Usually, blogs have categories for what you need. Looking sideways to the left, my gaze is freezing as you somehow seem to (mis)use categories as tags. Those poor categories… Look at them! There’s hardly any with more than 10 entries!

    I’d stick to one blog and use reasonable categories. Keep it simple, keep it small. Multiple blogs is multiple (meta) work.

    But hey, that’s just me.

    Tobias

  6. Amy says:

    Tobias, put simply… It’s my blog and I’ll split if I want to, split if I want to, split if I want to, etc., etc.

    I’ve been experimenting with it already (just fucking ship, the freckle blog) and I wrote so much better with a constraint. Better and more.

    And then I don’t have to stay up late nights wondering if my personal brand is losing out because people can’t identify what the fuck it is that I actually do.

    That said, it’s not very polite to do what you just did. I wasn’t soliciting advice.

  7. I think the real story is that you want to be able to design at least 7 different visual themes and the only way to do that is to start six more blogs!

    Seriously, I’m looking forward to it and will subscribe to the mega-feed when it’s ready. Bring on the Hoy Media Network!

  8. Tobias Weisserth says:

    @Amy

    Hey Amy, I really didn’t want to offend you. I just expressed what I was thinking about the splitting business.

    I’m sure the new blogs will turn out fine, just like I enjoyed this one. Good Luck!

  9. Max says:

    Yo! What I want to know is… where’s the OPML file at?

  10. Jose says:

    Why didn’t I know about this http://www.justfuckingship.com/ blog…grrrr!

  11. Jay says:

    Amy,

    I think your courage to find a solution to your problem speaks volumes toward your dedication toward us. Thank you. And kudos on the jfs.com domain name, that is awesome.

  12. Very ambitious Amy. After reading (part of) Pro Blogger, I was thinking to split my blog up too. Still gotta figure out exactly how I’ll do it. The "Amy Planet" is a nifty idea, though personally I’m looking forward to the more streamlined Amy. Less is more and all that jazz.

  13. Amy says:

    @Tobias, OK, no hard feelings. 🙂

    @Geoff, haha. Hoy Media Network. OK, now I’m scared…

    @Jose, because I’ve been writing it "in private" because I wanted to see how it was going. I think it’ll turn into a book some day but I dare not think that too often or I’d never write it.

    @Jay, thank you.

    @Nathan, yeah, ambition’s my middle name. Or is it Elizabeth. I can never remember.

    I think one of the points I should make is that I don’t intend to take over the world with any of these blogs (except maybe the interface one).

    What I want is an outlet, where people can understand what they are getting into if they find an article, and people who are turned off by the randomness of Slash7 can get what they want.

    It’s all good. 🙂

  14. Seems everyone is asking for the aggregated RSS, so why are you splitting up? Do you really believe that your life has these friendly little dividers made of lacquer bamboo …

    It’s just going to be a KFC bowl in the end.

  15. Amy says:

    Matthijs, it’s hard for people to know that I’m a UI whiz if I write about all this other crap.

    Final word: it’s what I want to do. So I’m doing it.

  16. Ahad says:

    I think thats great Amy! More power to you and you just go ahead and conquer the world!

    Another though i had as i was reading through your blog was perhaps you can add a portfolio section of your previous work. I think that would add show your UI prowess!!

    Best of luck with the other blogs, I’ll be sure to subscribe to the aggregate!!

  17. Ben Kruger says:

    Amy,

    I have been following you for quite some time now. While everyone recognizes that you can do what you want, aren’t you worried about diluting your brand? I would think someone of your skills could do two things well. First be nice to everyone, which I don’t see! Second, make a great design with everything you have to say right here at slash7. Challenge yourself!

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