Building blogs: For a friend, Part 1
October 8th, 2006 by rivercrow
One of the folks I am building a blog for is presenting some interesting challenges. He’s brilliant, but is a self-admitted non-techie. He has evolving ideas of what he wants to do with a blog–and what he could do.
I’m not entirely sure WordPress is exactly the tool he needs. Mostly, but some of the things he wants to do might be better suited to a CMS or other such. On the other hand, I can find tweaks and plugins that solve his problems.
The very things that make me like WordPress–the complexity, the control–are the things that are challenging him. Although I would prefer that he have full control over his site, I am close to suggesting that I set him to Editor or Author of his own blog in order to simplify his experience.
As far as what he can write about…. It’s easier to ask him to block off what he doesn’t want to write about, or what he cannot write about. Computers, obviously, although he has useful comments from the User Perspective. I know what I would like to hear him talk about and have been making a list of my interests. Admittedly, his enthusiasm engenders interest in the topics he discusses, even if no interest existed previously. Seductive. Easy to see why he’s been drawn to sales.
He wants to market some of the obscure artists he’s befriended over the years and seems interested in promoting the various social causes he’s found. I think he can do this–I am convinced that his voice is strong and engaging enough to transmit his excitement.
As for my emotional involvement….
I find myself in a transitive situation: I want to help market him, he wants to help market others. I’m concerned that I may appear as too controlling or coercive, when what I mean to express is encouragement. I want to make the environment as usable as possible for him without taking away too many tools and options. Control of the content and the presentation is important to both of us.
It’s a clumsy dialog at the moment. We both have input and constraints; we each have visions of where this could go. Over time, I think this could lead somewhere very pleasant for both of us. Time and patience.
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