Listosaurus Rex

Short version:

Listosaurus Rex will now be focusing on publishing new, original lists instead of discussing old lists from other sources.

Contribute your own lists, and we’ll gladly consider them for publishing here!

Long version:

I started this blog just over a year ago with no real goal for the site.  It was just an experiment in whether I could create and sustain a blog.  Spotty success so far, but 372 days later, and here I am still writing for it, so I guess it’s gone well enough.

The thing is, I never really defined what success was for me on the blog.  Was it number of page hits?  Number of subscribers? Ad revenue? Acclaim and attention? Just intelligent discussion?

At various points, I’ve really pushed for each one of those.  But going for page hits or subscribers or revenue seems a bit fake, like I’m trying to lure attention to myself.  It feels like I’m not doing it because I mean it, just because I’m trying to squeeze something out of it.  I don’t like that.

Discussion, then? Maybe, but this blog isn’t the best way to generate it.  Just bringing it up with my friends is more effective.  And a good portion of the discussion in the comments comes from friends.

Thanks to some attention from a few readers, I was inspired to revive the site for the past two months, and I’ve been reflecting on the purpose of the site since I brought it back to life.  Why am I doing it?  Sure, it’s fun — most of the time.  Portions of it get tedious, especially when I try and set myself on a daily post schedule as I tried for most of December.

Doing it just for fun means I’ll stop whenever it’s not fun.  That’s not how you’re supposed to run a blog.  I don’t want to do it that way.  Who says I won’t just get bored once and for all with it?  It’d be less a project and more a personal indulgence.  I want to consider this a successful project.

I really enjoyed writing most of the recent posts, but I just cannot keep it up.  Each post takes between a half hour and five hours depending the depth and the amount of reading of the list required and, especially, if it’s an original or not.

Compounding the time problem, I now have more going on than ever.  I’m a full-time student, I’m running for sports editor for a daily newspaper, working part-time recruiting teachers for a summer shool, writing as a weekly sports columnist, playing part-time in my school’s basketball pep band, and, not to mention, just enjoying college life.

I cannot keep up with writing a post a day.  I just don’t have the time or the perfectly consistent schedule to be able to.

So I have two problems: lack of consistent time, lack of a vision for the site.

To deal with these two at the same time, I am going to start focusing on writing original lists.  I want to make them unmissable and authoritative.  I’ve had a lot of contribution from friends and readers the past couple weeks with phenomenal results all around.  I really love empowering people to share their knowledge, expertise, and opinions.  I love hearing what other people have to say and getting their voices into the mix.

The new goal of this site is to post about once a week with in-depth and high-quality original lists both by me and others.

My two new goals are to a) write a solid set of good lists in areas I consider myself pretty-decently informed, and b) get as many and as good guest contributors as I can to write lists on the site.

My call to readers out there who have any interest in contributing (for the first time, or again) is to think about what type of list you might be interested in writing for this site.  You don’t need to be an recognized expert, nor professional in your expertise.  I just look for committed fandom and good experience with the topic.

If the site ever grows enough where ads generate noticeable revenue, I’d be glad to split revenue with writers.  As I’m still a long, long way from generating enough revenue to even cash out the first time, I can’t promise that right now.  So the only incentive I can offer now is an opportunity to get your voice out and generate discussion in the topic.  I’ll also, per custom for guest posts on blogs, provide you a short by-line for you to advertise yourself or your site if you run something.  Or I can write something, as I’ve been doing.

Another tangent: I liked the way the recent discussion post turned out.  I want to do more of these.  If you want to work with me on one of these, let me know.  Now that I have some audio and video recording experience thanks to a class I took last semester, I might even work on a multimedia post of some sort.

Anyways, I apologize for the long rambling post, and I’m curious what any of you think of these ideas.  Please let me know in comments.  I’m not saying I’m going to completely eliminate discussion of lists from other sources, but my hope is to increase quality and depth of posts while trimming down quantity.

~raptor

listosaurusrex@gmail.com