Lately I’ve been thinking about specialized blogs and what an incredible resource they can be. By “specialized blog” I mean one centered on a specific, niche topic. This is more of a freestlye blog, while my Quotables, Linkteria, and ReViews blogs are all specialized blogs. They don’t get into any of the personal rants — instead they stay incredibly focused on one specific topic.

Those kind of blogs are an incredibly reliable source of interesting information on the particular topic they cover. I know I can count on hockeypundits.com to give up-to-date commentary and news on the world of hockey. I know the Command Post can give me up to the minute updates on the war in Iraq. While it’s not a blog, I turn to @U2 for updates on the band before I turn to their official site. I can turn to Reality Blogs for the latest commentary and reactions on the world of reality TV.

I’ve been thinking about these types of blogs because I’d like to find a few, and I’d even like to write some. The other day I was thinking it’d be great to find a Detroit Red Wings blog. I never have the time to keep up with the Wings, but it’d be great to get the latest details from a dedicated Wings fan.

I’d also really love a localized blog, one that focused on a specific location, like St. Paul. This is the kind of blog I’d like to write, though I haven’t come across very many good examples. I imagine such a blog would need to focus in on a specific community, like Frogtown or the Midway, though I imagine it could talk about the wider city. It might even be cool to have an even more narrow focus, like the history of the Midway. I don’t know why, but location resonates very strongly with me. I want to know about the area I live — the people who live here, the stuff that goes on here, the history of the place. Place is very powerful. While such a blog would probably only be interesting to the people with connections to this place, I think it’d be fun to write.

So the short end of this rambling is I’m thinking about starting a blog about St. Paul. I don’t know if any exist, or even if any “local blogs” exist for any location (does anyone know of any? I’d love to look at some as examples). I don’t even know if I’d stick with the idea. It might just be another random idea from a semi-employed guy who just needs more work to keep these ideas at bay.

In case you didn’t notice the enormous banner across the top of the site, I thought I’d let you know I’ve become a sell out. Coincidentally, that song was playing on the radio on the way home last night.

Selling out seemed like an obvious choice after a friend tried it and started raking in the dough. I’m sure I won’t rake in the dough because he was getting more traffic in a day than I get in a month, but some dough is better than no dough.

I’ve tried donations as a revenue stream, and with a grand total of $1 raised to date, it doesn’t seem like the best approach. The Amazon.com referrals are helpful, but it still doesn’t even pay for hosting. So we’ll give this a try and see how it works.

For now I’m experimenting with the ad placement. The top of the home page seems unobtrusive — and, more importantly, I don’t have to redesign anything. On interior pages I’m trying a skyscraper ad at the bottom of the sidebar. We’ll see how that works, though I’m already noticing that some pages are just too short — if this proves effective, I’ll rework some of those placements.

I’m not sure how I feel about the whole materialistic side of things. At one point I was rather idealistic and wouldn’t want ads on my site. But paying the bills helps. And this is a pretty simple way to do it. It’s not like I have control over what ads show up, so I can’t gear my content for the best monetary impact.

At any rate, it’s fun to see what ads Google decides to serve up on what pages. They basically have a computer search your page for appropriate keywords and then post ads matching those keywords. Hence the homepage has a post about the Red Wings, so ads about the Red Wings. The category pages make for pretty clear-cut ads. I also have the ability to block specific advertisers, so let me know if there are any ridiculous ads I should consider blocking.

Go capitalism!

As I think about my blog, I also can’t help but wonder about giving it away. Business 2.0 had an interesting article about the Creative Commons movement, which is basically an effort to encourage artists to give away certain rights to their work on the assumption that free distribution will have greater commercial benefits in the long run. Basically a DJ mixes a song, gives it away for free, then makes more money in the commerical licensing than said DJ would have simply by selling CDs.

It seems a bit more confusing for writers, because I have a hard time imagining what commercial licensing might come from my writing. But the basic idea of gaining greater exposure is still there.

At one time I had a Creative Commons license on this blog, but I switched back to all rights reserved after someone posted a story of mine on their site. They had full rights to do that, it just didn’t jive with me. You can vary the level of permission you give, and the most common I would consider is Attribution (they have to credit the work to me), No commercial use (they can’t make money off it), and non-derivative (the work cannot be changed, adapted, or modified in anyway).

It seems like a good deal, until you consider that anyone can put your work anywhere as long as it’s non-commercial and they give you credit. So anyone could post my blog entries as long as they put “by Kevin D. Hendricks” and it’s not a for-profit venture. My work could also appear in non-profit books or collections without my permission. That may be greater exposure, but I also worry about that loss of creative control.

What if someone wants to use my work in a mocking tone? What if they want to use an article I’ve since changed my mind about? What if they want to use an article I think sucks? Is the idea that you just take the lumps as added publicity? All publicity is good publicity?

I don’t know. I do know I need to think more about this. I’d like to read some of Lawrence Lessig’s books (the guy behind Creative Commons). A quick glance at his stuff gives some rationale for why I might like Creative Commons. You can get his latest book, Free Culture as a free download (or you can just read the whole book online). Within 36 hours of its release the book was available in 9 other formats. That’s some pretty nice distribution. Or is that simply because Lessig is a big name in this field, so of course his book will go all over the place?

The other question is how is Lessig profiting? The hardcover, old skool version costs $16.97 and is #567 on the Amazon sales rank. Apparently people will still buy it even though it’s available for free. But what if his sales tanked? Would the attention garnered by this move earn him larger advances in the future? Is he getting speaking engagements? Article offers? It’s never as simple as the straight up book sales.

I’d be curious to hear what a lawyer says about all this. Hmmm.

Blogging is such a weird thing. I love doing it and I claim it’s all for me, but I also want people to read it and enjoy the thought of interacting with people. Sometimes I so want to make money off this thing, but that’s not really the point. Sometimes I think I should start selling ads like somone I know, but is that the direction I want to go? Swapping space for pennies?

I also have to think about this blog in terms of my business. Right now this blog is featured on the home page of my business. Sometimes I wonder how stupid that is. Linking to the Advocate a while back and pondering about gay marriage is a pretty easy way to offend potential business clients.

At the same time, why should I hide what I’m thinking about? It’s not like I’m having these wildly heretical ponderings and reflecting on my wild nights on the town. I’m honestly trying to grapple with issues. I hope potential business clients will understand and respect that.

It’s also risky to be safe. The safe, boring web site that doesn’t grapple with anything, that doesn’t challenge anything, that doesn’t threaten the status quo (even at the risk of being wrong), is the one nobody reads. I’m better off saying what I think, even if I’m still figuring out what I think, even if I might be off, even if it might offend someone — because that daringness and willingness to be myself and figure things out is commendable. At least I hope so.

Or maybe I’m making this blog sound more cutting-edge than it is.

Interesting BBC article, “Do baby blogs violate children’s privacy?” I don’t have any kids (yet), but the issue of privacy has come up. And I have a blog for my dog, so it only seems fair to have one for the kids.

It all raises odd privacy issues that I don’t know how to answer. When people can scour your blog for personal information and use it against you, what can you do? There’s a certain risk you run in making some information known, and I don’t know any way around that.

It’s especially difficult for me, running a business out of my home where I can’t exactly hide personal information like my address. I also don’t want to separate my blog and my business, since as odd as this blog is, it does display some knowledge and expertise. Basically my writing, my livlihood, my interests, and my personal life are too closely intertwined to keep ’em separated.

Odd dilemmas the digital world brings.