Thursday 16 September 2010

State of the Blog: blog bottle-neck

Thursday 16 September 2010
I'm in the process of adjusting my schedule, not least because I'm now writing pieces for Obsessed With Film again. In my efforts to strike a balance that results in decent coverage for both DMD and OWF, there may be days when DMD is quieter than usual. Like today. The ironic thing is, these "slow days" are actually nothing of the sort for me! I'm currently writing three reviews right now: Merlin 3.2 (for this weekend), last night's Mad Men 4.2 (for tomorrow), and Canadian pilot Lost Girl (for OWF, likely tomorrow).

Incidentally, it's been nearly two weeks since I resumed writing for OWF, and I'm pleased to report it appears to be going well. My premiere reviews for Him & Her, This Is England '86 and Merlin attracted a huge amount of hits for OWF via Google, often placing higher than The Guardian and The Telegraph reviews!

And while the number of comments still don't reflect the amount of readers OWF get every day, my reviews have certainly inspired more comments than is typical for OWF articles. I hope that spreads across the site. A special thanks to the DMD regulars who have been pitching in (Matt M, Bob, Dom, Jozz, Lpf20, et al), because adding a comment inspires more, and it's always great seeing familiar names in less familiar surroundings. Thank you!

The news items I've posted have been less successful, no doubt because TV news its more widely distributed and, once people have read a particular piece of news, they're unlikely to seek it out again for a re-read. You just have to hope you become a known "go-to" source in people's minds -- but because OWF's primarily movie-centric, it will take many months to change mass perceptions. If not longer!

I haven't been calling attention to my OWF news articles around here, because doing so would increase an already grueling schedule, but I do "re-tweet" my OWF news items on Twitter.

Anyway, it's all going well so far. September's a famously prolific time for new TV releases, so OWF are getting way more pilot reviews than will be usual. We'll see how it goes once all the big shows are back, established, and regulars reviews become weekly DMD exclusives.

There's a chance I'll review more pilots specifically for OWF as additional content there -- so feel free to leave recommendations of pilots I should check out, knowing I probably won't have time to continue past episode 1. This includes English-language foreign shows. Yes, I may get around to Canada's Z.O.S and Charlie Jade, I guess. Maybe.

Finally, more box-set reviews are on the way! I currently have Lost S6 and Glee S1 Blu-rays for review, and some box-sets for OWF are hopefully on the way (Fringe S2, Doctor Who S5, The Good Wife S1). And there's my long-promised Firefly review to find time for, too. I know, I know, I will get around to it. I also have Sons Of Anarchy S1 to get through, in slow-time.

So even if I'm not posting a great amount some days, the writing doesn't stop and is providing content for the future.