Comments on: Results of survey and planned changes to the blog

By: Sam

Sam — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 03:18:45 +0000

+ do you get a job ? how do you fund all this ?

By: Sam

Sam — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 03:09:26 +0000

Hi
I have a couple of really, really important questions. Where do you stay in these countries ?lol – do you just find a cheap youth hostel etc (otherwise its really pricey) / what do you do – take classes in the specified language (more $$) / who do you hang around with – (walking alone in a city where you know no one can get a bit tedious ??? ….. Basically, what do u do within these 3 months ????

By: Benny the Irish polyglot

Benny the Irish polyglot — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:53:30 +0000

Thanks Fiona!! I really appreciate that comment – I mostly wrote this post just to be completely transparent to my readers about changes I made on the blog and how their comments have helped me. I wasn't even aware that it could help other bloggers with suggestions
Best of luck with your baby steps
Happy new decade!!!

By: Fiona @ BSF

Fiona @ BSF — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:33:00 +0000

Thanks for writing an analysis of all the comments you got.

I really like reading these kinds of posts, it helps me not only figure out how I want to things on my blog, but I really feel like I get to know you and the blog better.

Here's to a great 2010!

By: Benny the Irish polyglot

Benny the Irish polyglot — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:31:25 +0000

Thanks Janna!! I remember you were one of those that mentioned that you'd prefer more detail as I mentioned here. Best of luck in Italian and Slovak!!

By: Benny the Irish polyglot

Benny the Irish polyglot — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:21:11 +0000

As I said in this article: “I’ll only spread it across several posts if I think it would enhance reading about the topic. I like one page (and hence one Internet link) to entirely discuss a message, so that I can refer to it later as just one link, or so that others may share the link too.”
It's not a win for everyone because your RSS feed / e-mail would be “spammed” by the same topic over several posts. Not everyone likes each post, I'd rather focus everything I need to say on a topic in one page. If someone were to get 3 consecutive posts about the same subject they dislike, they'd be more likely to unsubscribe.
Also, “more frequent updates” is not a goal of mine if it's not discussing new interesting topics. I could easily post twice a day if I wanted, with the same content as I currently have, but that wouldn't count as “frequent posting” for me if it's just two topics per week. I'd personally find it very frustrating to read my posts like that, so putting my readers in that position is not something I plan on doing unless it really does enhance the discussion.
Most of my readers agree with me according to the survey, so I'm going to stick with that way If you find a post too long, you can always bookmark it and finish reading it later (I do this a lot when I'm in a hurry; use a plugin for firefox called “read it later”, it's excellent): If a post is too long for you entirely, then it just means that you aren't really that interested in it, which is fine

By: Randy

Randy — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:02:05 +0000

An easy way for you to solve many of those issues at once is to use the post-dating feature of WordPress. Basically, after you write your one long post for the week, you just cut-and-paste each of the sections into separate posts and set the publish dates one day apart.

The result is that we get to read shorter, easier-to-read updates, you have more frequent posts, and you're still not stuck at your computer writing every day. It's a win for everyone.

By: Janna

Janna — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:08:20 +0000

Hi Benny!
Thank you a lot for the e-mail. It made me very very very happy!
It's amazing how you communicate with the readers of your blog.
And as I wrote in the survey, I admire your positive attitude – it inspires me so much!

I wish you all the best in 2010!