Thursday, March 13, 2008

Getting A Blog Off the Ground

Thinking about starting a blog? Here are some brief thoughts of mine published in the February issue of EP Lab Digest.

-Wes

3 comments:

Margaret Polaneczky, MD (aka TBTAM) said...

That was a great little article.

What continues to amaze me is how you are able to write such high quality posts on a daily basis. It takes me hours to put together a real medical post, and then I'm exhausted for a week.

Just curious - how many hours a day do you devote to your blog?

DrWes said...

tbtam-

I find this blogging thing a lot of fun, but there is a fine line involved in keeping content current and preserving a life. After blogging for a while, I have had times where I felt obligated to post for some reason. Addiction? I'm not sure. But it takes a while to garner readership, especially if you're not particularly literary, so you don't want to lose that following. At the same time, though, it's easy to put up stupid content that might have been better left behind - I hate when I do that - I'm learning it's better just not to post at all if you don't have something to say, but it's always a balancing act for me.

Althought it's hard to say - I'd put my estimate at about 1-2 hours daily. I like to get up early, make some coffee, check the news feeds - sometimes something catches my eye - so I write. I wish I could say I was organized, but it depends on my clinical workload. Last weekend - there weren't too many posts... why? I was on call and got killed! Other days, it's lighter. And it depends on how passionate I feel about a topic - I might devote more time to some issues than others. I do tend to spend more time on Sundays, generally, so I can expand on a topic if the muse is right.

I watch virtually NO television - I'd rather read - but keeping time for friends and family is also important, so I make sure to sprinkle a few posts about "Life" in my blog - just to make sure I don't forget what its all about (Alfie), and get too sucked into cyberspace! ;)

I do find that I turn to my blog more and more for teaching. When I front-load the effort to put up a case, it's there for later reference, and makes the time spent worth it.

Anonymous said...

Dr. Wes,

I agree with you that blogging can be a bit addictive. Given the options though, blogging's not a bad downfall.

I too, scour feeds for relevant content for our audience - entrepreneurs within healthcare - but find that some of the best content comes from mixing in a dash of the day-to-day and relating it back to the healthcare environment. I think it's good for healthcare in general to look up once in a while and get a perspective that doesn't come from within.

That's my take at least - keep up the great posts, and I invite you to check out our blog sometime as well!

Tannus

www.vantageclinicalsolutions.com/blog