(By the way, if you came here via Twitter in search for the “are personal blogs still relevant?” bit, scroll down to Direction.)

Disconnected: Plagued by a slew of illness

Since my last post, I’ve been sick for a whole month. I suffered a week of flu, half a week of food poisoning. Then I decided to shoot hoops at the arcade and then pulled a muscle. (What a loser!) So I’ve spent most of my time bed-ridden.

Distracted: The boyfriend stopped by

The boyfriend also stopped by Singapore for a month before moving to China for work. I wanted to spend as much time as I can with him before our lines of communications get blocked thanks to the Great Firewall of China. For those who don’t know, people have no access to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Posterous in China.

Direction: Are personal blogs still relevant?

Personal blogs are increasingly being replaced by niche blogs. I only need to look at my Google Reader as proof; my subscription to niche blogs greatly outnumber personal blogs.

Nanyate.com started as a personal blog where I write about anything I’m interested in. But over the last few months I realized that it’s not that personal after all. Whether it’s about culture, gadgets or life lessons, I write with one guiding principle: what can my readers get out of this. I spend an insane amount of time brainstorming original topics, fact checking and crafting my words to make sure it’s easily understood. It’s really become more of an opinion column than a log of my daily life.

In an effort to stay relevant, I’ve been thinking of re-branding nanyate.com. Perhaps I should go the Dustin Curtis route, where my entries are more like articles. Or perhaps I should start focusing on specific topics.

Since my guiding principle—that I write for my readers’ benefit—will never change, I’d love to hear what you guys think instead.

• Should I re-brand nanyate.com?
• What would you like to see me write more about?
• Why do you read personal blogs (aside from your friends’)?
• Are personal blogs really a dying breed?

With that said, to make sure my March 2010 archive isn’t as pathetic, I bought a 20$ voucher to a coffee chain near my home to commit myself to blog. (I can’t seem to write at home for some reason.) I’ve also written a few entries in advanced with the next one scheduled to be published tomorrow.

No related posts.