.. or what to do with all my online thingies 🙂
Beware: An essay of sorts.
So recently, when dabbling into live coding, and seeing almost nobody except regular listeners (to my shows) around, I decided to dig back into „how to promote stuff“.
After all, next to nobody knows I‘m also doing „this live coding thing“. And then, there is so much stuff I usually research when looking into topics. So much effort, and nobody benefits from it, because there hasnt been much exposure of it in the last few years? Eg. my old blog silently died a few years ago (4 years? 5 years?), and getting back on track took waaay too long.
Yes, this weblog is my current home for all my writings and ramblings, but I dont think most ppl know about it.
This got me thinking and tinkering, about all the options to promote oneself, inherant possibilies with using other platforms, and in the end, I decided to do a lot more than I originally thought I‘d do. Thus, lets talk about my plans for all of this, the immediate future, as one may say 🙂
This future looks not so bad anymore.
Originally, I only wanted to promote this lovely piece of live programming show, but – so many things are not working well as a live show, and while writing tutorials and how-tos are a good way for reference, showing things to you directly, in a self-contained format, does help a lot more.
My thoughts went into things like:
- podcasts – a friend of mine repeatedly told me, over the last few years, why I wouldnt just do my own podcast? One to talk about all that tech stuff, ie. web development, with WordPress, HTML 5, JavaScript, Usability, all that jazz that makes me tick and want to look further; esp. those „This is only a test“ committed by (Adam Savage‘s) Tested are stuck to the back of my brain, but also „The RTFM Show!“ by JayzTwoCents
- screencasts – its a lovely format, with the option to enhance it with a live show, but not necessarly requiring one
- live shows – as mentioned before, these are great, but not everything works as good as the other options do; could also be used for quick reports on progress, some news bulletin format-like show, random ramblings and rants („just chatting“), and so on
- co-programming – working on something, while a clock ticks away, and then doing a quick 10 – 15 recap, after each „burst“; there is a streamer on Twitch (SabrinaSchuh), who does exactly this with „co-authoring“, ie. doing 30 – 45 minutes of concentrated work on your own writing-related project .. this got me looking further in what other streamers do 🙂
- („social“) platforms – which are relevant to what kind of audience? Instagram is for immediate imagery, maybe a bit of music / announcements, simple educational stuff, Facebook is maybe best for event announcements, potentially for live streaming, maybe a bit of a classic page, but not much more; Twitter is .. well .. Twitter. Maybe move more towards Mastodon / GNU/Social, because the geeky / tech-savvy community seems to be lurking there (much more so)? And what about other video platforms (than Twitch, YT Live + FB Live)? What about MixCloud Live?
Which leads to more thoughts – what do persue?
Me thinks, its going to be several ventures.
One is, „classic“ self-contained videos on YouTube and maybe Vimeo, ie. tutorials, how-tos (eg. „x ways to achieve a ‚current song‘ feature for OBS“), but also podcasty-like, lengthy feature shows.
The other, quite different formats within the live streaming „commmunities“. So, for once, the classic DJ shows are gonna continue, but are going to be slightly refined. I really want to do some kind of album feature thingy, eg. „listening session“, every few weeks. Maybe bi-weekly or on set dates. Plus, adding some pop-up shows here and there, cause I totally miss that .. just when this urge hits you, DO the show! DJing helps me to relax and unclutter my brain from unneeded garbage 🙂
Thirdly, some intermedia formats, for instagram, and other „shortish media“ (for want of a proper name).
Further and further we go, down the rabbit-hole.
Which by now should be a big bear-like cavern.