What Should I Blog About?

This question arises for me almost every month. It’s not that I have a problem with writing, it’s writing stuff that is going to get read by people.

I know that having a blog is mostly for the writer, but back when I was in college I wrote in two sections of a college newspaper and a public broadcasting website. I had deadlines, and was forced to write constantly.

Every week I would write an editorial/column giving my commentary on the news, politics and general thoughts of the day. It was fairly easy, fun and (in theory, based on circulation numbers) 10,000 people had a copy of the newspaper in their hand with my name printed on it.

So, it was usually read by somebody. People sometimes got passionate enough to write Letters to the Editor. One time, somebody basically called me a Nazi for proposing a 1 cent per ounce tax on soda.

Other times I did actual news stories on subjects ranging from travel, science technology for the newspaper, to small features pieces on media events for KPBS.

But now that I’m teaching, and not in the field of journalism, I have to write for myself and make my own deadlines (or start on freelancing for the few expat magazines out here). But what should I write about? What do you, dear reader, want me to discuss?

It basically boils down to:

1. Korea Anecdotes: A lot of people seem to really like these (especially those people either coming to Korea, or people who want to see what I’m up to). The problem with this, for me, is that this begins to turn into a public journal that is generally not that interesting or helpful to people in the long run. Right now, I have two posts in the works. One about the anniversary of the war (and subsequent invasion of Incheon) and the use of Internet Explorer for everything related to the web.

2. Korea, Long-form: This is writing specifically to people who are coming to teach in Korea, are looking for information about teaching in Korea, or aiding people who are already in Korea. This is stuff that obviously people will have to stumble across via Google or something, but at least it serves a purpose of being helpful to somebody.

3. Tumblr Style: As mentioned before, I think I want to make my blog look more like Tumblr (a short-form of blogging). With this method, I can post multiple times a day with an interesting link, funny picture or short thought on a subject. This is easy and kind of fun, but for me, I don’t find it too terribly interesting.

4. My Two Cents: This is where I would write about anything or everything that I feel like. This is easy for me, and can be quite fun. However, the readership dwindles to only people I know (or see me post of Facebook). Being too broad reduces your readership. Having a focused style or topic can really hone in who is going to read it.

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So, what do you think? Take a vote and I’ll figure it out. I’m at the behest of my readers. While I like writing for myself, I would like to know if someone is actually reading it. I do want to make my site more interesting, but I don’t want it to be like The Onion’s scathing parody of The Boston Globe’s “three remaining subscribers.”