Re-evaluating

Been a long time since I updated here. I've been working out pretty regularly, and have started incorporating serious plyometrics into my workouts. And every time I've worked out, I've wanted to update the blog about what's been happening, what I've been learning. Heck, I made two plyo boxes; I've got expertise to share!

But updating the blog with a 500-word entry each day hasn't been feasible. And with the new year approaching (and once Halloween hits, the new year is approaching very quickly) I've got to seriously reevaluate my media approach here.

The point of this blog, of all my online activity, was to both inspire my training and make myself a better candidate for ANW through their video submission. And a sporadic blog just isn't going to do it. So I've got to figure out a way to make the online content a better compliment to the training, a better resource for fellow ANW fans, and a better source for my own submission.

So let's back up. The online content has several possible elements:
1. Blog
2. Podcast
3. YouTube videos
4. Twitter feed
5. Facebook page

What I need to reevaluate is what you do with each element and how often.

I still think that the blog is the best place for daily updates. But of what? A recap of the training isn't necessarily valuable to anyone. But there should be some lesson learned in every session, something from which everyone could benefit. It can also be a good place for discussions of whatever's come across my Google news feed. For example, a few days ago there was an article out of Malaysia about their own version of Sasuke. The moment's passed, but that's the kind of stuff you'd post. And the posts needn't be longer than a hundred words, short and punchy. A training tip, a bit of news, that's all folks want or need. And with my schedule, that's all I can reliably produce.

Next element I want is a podcast. I've run one before but never been regular with it. I've always found that it takes too much time to crank out an episode. That's probably because I insist on writing each episode word-for-word and they run about ten minutes long each. Also, I've never been familiar enough with GarageBand to make production smooth each time. So hopefully I learned something from my previous podcast, and can use that to streamline the process.

But what goes into the podcast? Commentary. Observations about ANW and training for it that aren't necessarily tied to whatever I'm doing in training that week, but are basically timeless. And yes, I'm contemplating the podcast coming out weekly; I can't imagine having the time for any greater frequency.

I envision it like the NPR podcast The Score. It's a weekly podcast that can't be more than five minutes, which I know works out to about a thousand words. And if it's going to be "evergreen" content, I could probably outline a few months' worth of topics up-front, and hopefully thus get a jump on scripting each episode.

Then there's YouTube videos. These also wouldn't be necessarily timely, but would be valuable instructionals folks could turn to any time. A video on how to build a plyo box would be a good idea, for example. Another video illustrating exercises on the rope would also help. Of course, there's some videos out there that do this already. But a voice-over tying the training to the Sasuke obstacles would make them more appealing to my target audience.

And the videos might come out no more than once a month. It's exponentially tougher to produce video than it is a podcast. Heck, I'm not even sure I could produce a decent video without at least giving my garage a new coat of paint!

Twitter and Facebook seem like they should be a part of anyone's online strategy. But what would a Twitter feed be good for in this case? What Twitter's good for generally: timely, brief messages. Quick comments about the workout. Instant updates about the audition process -- assuming, of course, that there is a next season of ANW.

A Facebook page would be a good place to aggregate all content. The twitter feed, podcast, blog entries, and YouTube videos could all link there, in one convenient spot for any followers on Facebook. Of course, you could probably do the same things on the blog page, and perhaps I should. But Facebook is a built-in audience, your friends your first network of viewers/readers/listeners. So it makes sense to bring all your content there and point elsewhere.

This is clearly going to require some serious time management. But I think I have a pretty good idea of what I want to get done over the next six months or so.