As well all know – the egg came first; long before there was ever a bird that might even be considered an early ancestor of a chicken, things laid eggs.  The question of “Which came first, the Chicken or the Chicken Egg?” is more tricky – I’ll leave that one for the philosophers.

The question for me though, is which came first – the content or the readership?

Let’s face it – if I set up a site and advertise it, but there’s nothing there, people aren’t going to stay.  It’s one of the mysteries (to me, at least) of sites like FaceBook; how on earth did they get their first 1,000 users?  Obviously, there comes a point when a site has enough momentum to expand on its own, but those first few readers, visitors or members… how do you get them to sign up?

So clearly, content must come first.  Somehow, I’ve got to put together enough Angry Rants, General Musings and useful technical information that someone visiting this site will feel that their time has been well spent – and not only will they come back and check for more content, but they’ll tell their friends to do the same…

On the other hand… Right now, I have a grand total of 2 readers – and one of them is me.  When writing for such a limited audience, it is tricky to get motivated – and even when I am motivated, it feels like the worst kind of shameless egotism.

Maybe – just maybe – a Blog is the wrong way to start a site… or is that heresy against the principals of Web 2.0?

This is a new project for me. I’ve attempted various blogs before, but never with a serious attitude and a plan to continue them through-out an entire year – nor with a number of pre-planned posts for dry spells.

The plan is to be funny, topical and entertaining; failing that, I’ll just vent whatever frustrations I’m feeling at the time. I’ve tried it before and failed, but this time I have a secret weapon: I made a New Year’s Resolution!

Most New Year’s Resolutions go the way of the dodo within a week – or at the first sight of chocolate cake, whichever comes first.  This may indeed be what happens to this blog, but my last plan conceived in this state of mind had me going to the gym at 6am for nearly 3 months – so I have high hopes.

Part of this is of course an experiment – can I maintain the necessary level of creativity over a long period.  Experience says yes – though I struggle at it, I’ve managed to consistently tell a bed-time story on request for periods of well over a week in the past – but this is a different kind of creativity, and the demands will be more consistent.  On the other hand, I should have quite a bit more insipration – just listening to Jeremy Vine on BBC Radio 2 is usually enough to send me into a 30 minute rant (sorry Dad!).

So, here goes project Blog – the Angry Geek lives!