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Your Blog is What You Make of It

Posted by Matt Birchler
β€” 2 min read

Not a ton of people write blogs. Sure, I know a lot of bloggers and if you're reading this you can probably name a dozen other bloggers just in the tech space off the top of your head, but we're pretty rare in the grand scheme of things.

The entire practice has a weird reputation.Blogs are something that most people get value from, even if they don't follow any particular bloggers. You find then in your social feeds and in your Google results. You find the answer to that weird question you were asking yourself, or you find a how-to article on how to fix something around the house.

At the same time, blogs are a punch line in some circumstances. You'll hear "bloggers" mentioned in jest on primetime television or by journalists. "Why don't you go blog about it?" or "this was reported on XYZ.com, and you know how reliable blogs are..."

I'm here to say that I think that blogs are amazing. Every one is different and brings something to the table that you're not going to see anywhere else. Some blogs are more official and have teams of writers, strict editing processes, timed releases, and a functioning revenue model. Others are tiny one man shops where someone is just excited about something and decides to write about it. They get 5 hits a week but they're not doing it for the traffic, they just had something to say.

The bigger blogs are more reliable in delivering what you expect on a consistent timeline, but I have an affinity to the smaller sites out there. The ones that post about a whole mess of different things, not just one topic. The ones that only post new things every few days or even months. I have countless feeds in my newsreader that haven't posted anything in 12 months, but I'm keeping my subscription just in case something goes up tomorrow.

I think that BirchTree falls in the middle somewhere. This is absolutely a one man operation and I have no intentions of changing that. BirchTree is also a tech blog above all else. Most articles on here are about tech, and more often than not about tech as it relates to Apple. But I don't confine myself to just techno babble, I'll write about something totally unrelated if I think I have something to say that's worth sharing. It's not unusual for me to post something about a video game I'm really digging or drop some life advice that's been rattling around in my brain. I've even delved into religion once or twice in the past!

All of that is part of the deal when you subscribe to BirchTree. This is my corner of the internet and I use it to write the things that I want to see out there in the world. The fact that I have an audience that reads this stuff and gives me feedback on it is a huge bonus, and I am incredibly appreciative of everyone who does, but I'd be doing this even if there was nobody on the other side of the "Publish" button. Your blog is what you make of it, and I'm so happy you're taking the time to peek into mine.

If you want to catch everything posted to BirchTree, please subscribe.