Armstrong & Kottke Chat

A casual fireside chat with Jason Kottke and Heather Armstrong on Day 2 of SXSW allows us to see more character and personality than I've experienced with either of them one-on-one. They both brought out an interesting playful side of each other.

Heather, who is more about the story and less about the 'links,' asks Jason whether posting more frequently has had an impact on his traffic. For Jason, it does. For Jason, links still matter. After a Slashdot link and one other blog (I think Gawker), he added 10,000 new readers per day. But that's only because he already had a high ranking and following before the links.

While I get very few links from other sites, when high volume sites such as Scoble, Winer, Instapundit and Doc have linked to me, it hasn't really affected my traffic over the long haul.

Then again, traveling in a geek community means you either have to write really compelling content for geeks or something so different and unique that one of your communities (professional or personal) yearns to come back for more. I don't really offer either, nor have the time to, so this could largely be the reason why. Yet, I wish I had more 'off-the-clock' time to write about things I'm truly passionate about. And yes, more regularly.

People come to Heather's site for the 'story,' not the links, nor for short posts. Jason pipes in, "Short posts bring new people to your site; the loyal readers who like your style and what you have to say will read your longer posts...." The longer posts in my opinion, are where the 'true voice' and personality of the writer has a chance of shining. Or not.

Heather had two fabulous lines, both worth recapturing. When she was asked about writing more frequent posts, she said, "I actually need to take the time to 'live my content' to actually be able to write about it." Here here Dooce.

It's not that different than the acting teacher in high school sending the student off with words of wisdom he or she needs to hear before they embark on their journey.....'go live your dreams, travel the world, fall in love, fall out of love, experience color, taste the unknown.' I personally never had a teacher who said that, but I did have a grandmother who did.

Her second line was in response to 'how she feels about people who have issues with her posting ads on her site." "Their issues are their issues and its something they'll have to come to terms with, not us. It's working for us."

Why shouldn't she be paid for writing an online daily 'log' that people want to read on a regular basis? If this takes a huge chunk of her day to do, where's the time for a 'real day job?' And how is this different from a columnist who gets paid to write? Isn't she just providing a service like a newspaper columnist gave to consumers 100 years ago and still does today? Somewhere on that newspaper page is an ad.

Frankly, I think its fabulous that she has decided to opt for balance in her life, a lifestyle that allows her to really nuture her family life and find a way to get paid for it through her blog. Purists may say she's selling out. I say she's being smart.

Heather asks Jason, "Are you a friend to everyone or a critic?" He realizes after a moment that he's more likely the 'critic,' but adds that 'you're not always a friend if you're supportive all the time.' Both feel a responsibility about what they say and about who given the growing numbers of readers of their sites.

Jason adds, "If I discover something interesting or a new site that may only have 30 people a day reading it, I may not link to it. Linking to it could bring their site into the limelight and give them a level of visibility they may not necessarily want. It may not be their intent to have 30,000 readers. Maybe they want their site to be private, read only by a few family members and friends."

They both talk about comments and seem to agree on the pros and cons. Heather has learned to ignore the negativity and just 'get over it,' otherwise it will consume too much of her day and potentially bring some of that negative energy into her family life.

"Why go there? It's their issues, and I have to just let it go. People get very nasty and very personal, making judgments on who you are as a person and who you are as a mother." People have made negative comments about her daughter and her dog. We even learn that there's a blog dedicated to people who actually hate Heather. So American, I'm thinking. So pathetic.

Jason doesn't have any interest in building a 'community through comments' around his site. "It takes too much time."

He announces that he's getting married in two weeks and frankly, I applaud him for making a decision to spend more time with a 'real person' he cares about and loves than online responding to comments well into the night from people he has never met. He says that he is, however, interested in promoting focused conversations around important topics he cares about.

Tag: Austin Tag: SXSW Tag: SXSW 2006 Tag: Heather Armstrong Tag: Jason Kottke