Finding Inspiration
For the past couple of days I’ve been wanting to start a new online project. I already have a personal/photography blog (in Spanish), an Instagram-like blog where I post my mobile photos, a web development focused blog (since I code for food 5 days a week) and now this new personal blog in English.
I forgot to mention mini-already-dead-projects in between such as: English grammar blog, Korean written blog and probably something else I can’t remember.
YouTube
For a while I had YouTube weekly videos on my personal blog, it was very personal and it worked for some time. People were following and commenting, which is what I wanted: interaction.
Now if I play them back I feel embarrassed (for some of the videos). With that said, I don’t feel like doing videos again. Plus I’d want to step up my game and what would mean learning more professional editing tools.
Podcast
I also started a photography podcast inside my photography blog years ago. I did a couple of episodes and dropped it. I was having a hard time finding material and my voice is not that great.
Recently I was searching for new Android apps for voice recording, however nothing stands out. If you’re on the iOS ecosystem check out the Opinion app (too bad there’s no Android version).
I’m not sure people want to just listen to someone talk. I regularly listen to podcasts but they include video, it’s very convenient to be able to bring the video up when they’re showing something hard to understand by just listening.
Drawing
Another hobby I picked up a while ago was drawing manga. Not that I am any good, I was just practicing a couple for a weeks. I mention this because I came across this Domics YouTube Channel with incredible animations (check it out!). A very talented artist draws, animates and puts voice to his creations. Inspiring and creative, for a moment I wanted to purchase a digital drawing board but then I thought: wait a minute, this is a lot (a lot) of work. Are you sure you’re going to go through?
I did some Flash animations back when I was studying and it was hard, really hard work. I could maybe comic strips but I’m not that funny and there are plenty of good ones out there (Cyanide & Happiness or Dilbert).
Above all, I want to own my content
If I did any of that I would like to own the content I create. I don’t understand people posting long posts on Facebook, Medium or LinkedIn. It just doesn’t make any sense. Why would you host it in their servers? What if they shut down their services? Yeah, you could maybe export the content but will you create it all again somewhere else?
In case you’re wondering, I also don’t understand people copying and pasting the same content in 3 or 4 social networks. And I don’t mean sharing a link but actually pasting the whole post here and there.
Conclusion?
I have no idea. I’m aware that video is huge right now. We have live streaming apps, Facebook is starting to open streaming too even Twitter is showing live feeds in your timeline.
Perhaps I just focus again on photography. I went from posting daily to a weekly lonely post. I don’t go out as much with my camera anymore. It might sound as a lame excuse but it’s hard to find inspiration.
Or maybe I should just stop thinking about this and spending more time consuming rather than creating. I’m listening to audiobooks already, maybe I can pick up books, or play more guitar…
I need to sleep on it and see where this takes me.
Has this ever happened to you?
Ricard