Last week, Pete Brown complained about the current state of the UK beerblogosphere:
"...collectively, our online beer conversation [seems] to have settled into a complacent rut. It's not any one person, but taken as a whole we all seem to be writing about what awesome beers we've had recently, how extreme they are, how rare they are, how hoppy or how aged they are. Beer blogs have become an online beer geek diary, a hi-tec glorified form of ticking. I brewed this beer. I bought this beer. I drank this beer. In this pub."
My reaction to that was: "Ow!" No, sorry: "Fuck, OW!"
Okay, like the man said, the complaint wasn't aimed at a particular blogger or blog, but when you know that 95% of your posts are Tasting Notes (with the occasional Pub Notes piece thrown in for good measure) then it's hard not to take that sort of thing personally, y'know?
As it happens, albeit purely coincidentally, I've been wrestling with questions like "what's the point?" and "why bother?" and have been on the verge of quitting this blog (and, most likely, blogging in general) several times during the past few months. Reading a post like that - one written by someone whose blog I follow avidly and whose writing I enjoy immensely - was almost the final straw.
But then I re-read Pete's piece and pushed on past the "your blog's shit, mate" moment, focusing instead on his Call to Action:
"Write something that scares you. Write something very personal. Write something you don't think any other beer blogger would or could write."
And then I read Impy Malting's 'Why We Blog' piece and Pete's own follow-up post. And then I started thinking about my own reasons for plodding on with blogobeer.com.
You want to see something personal, Mr Brown? Fine. Here goes (with a quick aside, quoting from Impy, if I may: "This is not a plea for inclusion or encouragement, but a searching aloud.")
I've been a blogger, on a variety of subjects, for about 10 years. It's something I just seem to have to do: a habit that's so deeply ingrained that seriously contemplating not blogging threatens to drop me into a deep blue funk. I've also worked in online marketing (currently for one of the largest print publishing houses in the UK) for even longer than I've been blogging. I've read every one of Seth Godin's books and the majority of his blog posts, as well as countless other articles on the dark art and weird science of blogging and being a blogger. All of which means I know quite a lot about the power and benefits of the medium. I have a good idea what makes a good blog tick. I can do blogging. Blogging is what I do...
So why have I been tempted to quit this blog? In short: I've been trying to work out what I can usefully offer the beerblogosphere. What sort of content can I provide that people will want to read? What can I produce that's worth taking the time to write in the first place? Because time is the key for me: I really don't have much to spare. For reasons that are too personal to discuss here (even at Pete B's urging to write about something scary) because they're not just personal to me, I just don't have a lot of free time. Maybe an hour or so a day, a couple more at weekends, tops. I'm not complaining, it's just the way it is and I'm sure anyone who, for example, is a parent to young children will find themselves is a similar boat. But it does mean that if I'm going to dedicate a regular chunk of that precious free time to blogging, I have to know it's a worthwhile exercise.
In which case, why have I chosen to write about a subject that, whilst it's certainly one that I find deeply interesting, I actually know relatively little about? Especially when everything I've read on the subject of successful blogging calls for the blogger to write from a position of expertise? What do I have to offer that the beerblogosphere wants? What can I say that's interesting, valuable, remarkable, unique?
On the face of it, maybe not a lot...
I'm not running a major brewery, nor am I starting out on a new brewing enterprise. I'm not the manager of a beer emporium or an online beer retailer. I'm hardly likely to become the New Media Beer Writer of the Year, never mind the ultimate Beer Writer of the Year, and I certainly won't achieve Legendary Beer Writer status any time soon. I'm not a particularly dedicated drinker, well-travelled pub connoisseur or a local CAMRA champion. Nor do I have a particular axe to grind. I don't have a fascination for facts and figure or an in-depth knowledge of the history of beer and brewing. I'm don't have the time to regularly socialise with fellow beer-bloggers, and I've never organised a special beer night (a great idea, but likely to go on a bit too late to be practical).
If all of the above is an example what I'm not, what does that leave? In beer-blogging terms, what am I?
My conclusion? I'm just a bloke who enjoys great ale. I'm an average, ordinary, beer-drinking, Northern bloke who, a couple of years back, invited a couple of mates to join him in writing a beer blog, to give us all somewhere to swap beer recommendations and chat about real ale. So now I'm an everyman beer-blogger; one of the rank and file, nothing particularly special to say. But I've learned a hell of a lot about the subject in the past couple of years and I'm learning more all the time. And I also (as it turns out) still have a burning desire to share that knowledge and share the joy of great ale and beer with anyone who wants to join in.
That's what I have to offer: an ordinary punter's enthusiasm and passion for great ale, with a side-order of friendly conversation (available on request).
In fact, that's pretty much all I ever set out to achieve with Blogobeer.com. I didn't want to generate Intense Debate on the State of Beer (because intense debate on anything takes reading-time and comments... lots and lots of comments). I didn't want to become any sort of leader or figure-head in the beer-blogging community (luckily there's very little danger of that happening). I didn't even want to produce particularly great writing (although I do thoroughly enjoyed the great writing that other beer bloggers produce on a regular basis). And the one thing I definitely didn't want was for the blog to become a chore, a task, a nagging pain in the arse ("Update me! Update me! It's been days! I'm neglected!").
All I really wanted to do was talk about real ale with my mates. Old mates, new mates. Anyone who stands on the common ground that is the love of great ale. Or great beer. Or great triple-green-hopped Double-Imperial IPAs. Whatever.
So I've decided to stick to my guns and just blog about whatever the hell I want to blog about. Life's too short to make myself miserable worrying over what other beer bloggers might or might not think of my posts. Even if no-one else reads anything I write, then at least I'll have a record of the ales and beers that I've enjoyed; my memory's not what it was and I have a hard time recalling one particular session bitter from among all the other session bitters, so an online record will help me keep the better ones in mind for future reference. If that makes me a techno-ticker, so be it.
Then again, there isn't much point in writing regularly if you don't at least try to improve along the way, so I am going to attempt to make my Tasting Notes a bit more interesting in future. More descriptive, maybe. Pithier, perhaps. Shorter, definitely (why write one long post when you can break it up into a few and cut down on all that "must-post!" angst?) and more to the point. More photography, too; a picture speaks a thousand words and I do have a pretty good camera (even if my snapping skills show definite room for improvement, but that gives me something else to work on, eh?)
I'm also going to try to participate a little more. At the end of last year, Tandleman mused on the state of the beerblogosphere and made the point that:
Comments are needed to encourage bloggers. No comments = no point in a lot of ways. Surely there are enough things on blogs worthy of comment?"
So that's something I'm going to try to do more often as well. If I see that another beer-blogger has posted their own write-up of a beer that I've tried myself, then I'm going to let them know that I agree with them (or not). I'm going to try to engage more of my fellow beer-bloggers in conversation and not just on Twitter (although hey, if that's where the conversation is, then why the hell not?) And I'm going to try to remember to link in to other beer-bloggers' posts a bit more often (that should help them with those seemingly all-important Wikio rankings...)
Tandleman also made the point that beer-bloggers should spend less time showing off their rare bottle collections and get off their keyboards, support their local pubs, that sort of thing:
"Some too, need to get out and about a bit more, particularly to the pub; they need to raise their heads up and look around them"
It's a good point, and although I'll still be doing most of my drinking at home - because I am always going to be subject to those free-time limitations - I do have a plan that might help. I'm lucky enough to work for a company that offers a perk called 'summer hours'. From June through August we all work half an hour longer Monday to Thursday in exchange for Friday afternoons off. As a result, Jo and I are planning a few Summer Pub Expeditions (to places like Sheffield, Leeds, Huddersfield, Stalybridge and Buxton, or maybe just Salford, Manchester and Bury) which will hopefully provide me with a fresh perspective and some fresh inspiration.
I doubt that any of the resulting blog posts will be award-winning, Pulitzer prize material (sorry, Scooper) but I do hope to discover and talk about some great new beers and some great new pubs. (New to me, anyway. If you've discovered them all already and talking about them just bores you, that's fine. It's a big Internet, plenty more to see and read and do. Help yourself.)
And, come to think of it, there's something else I could do. Something that maybe not many other beer-bloggers can do as well as, if not better than, me.
As I said at the top of this piece, I've worked in online marketing for over ten years. I'm an everyman in that field as well; I'm primarily a general website content manager for a wide range of websites, which means that I've learned enough to get by about a wide range of subjects related to online publishing, blogging and online promotion. I'm not an expert in a particular field, but I can just about hold my own when it comes to the essentials: HTML, CSS, RSS, WordPress, Blogger, search engine optimisation, website Analytics, keyword advertising, Twitter, Facebook, Google and the general ideas, concepts and principles of good marketing and effective blogging.
I'm always happy to share what I know, especially if I learn something new in the process. So I could post a few pieces about the areas and subjects I've just mentioned - either in broad, general terms, or how they apply to the beerblogosphere, or to a specific blog (at that blogger's request). Again though, I'll only be able to spend time putting those posts together if there's going to be some interest out there. So, how about this: if anyone has anything they'd specifically like to know, put it in a comment below, or drop me a line and ask me. I'll see if it's a question I can usefully answer and if it is then I'll rattle off a quick post.
In the meantime (mmmm: Meantime...) I'll be the bloke in the corner with the laptop, sipping an imperial stout, trying to decipher the scribbles in my notebook and typing up my Tasting Notes (with the occasional Pub Notes piece thrown in for good measure).
Brewery: Brasserie Lefebvre
Lurking next to the 
I found this bottle lurking in the back of the overflow Beer Cupboard (formerly known as the Wine Cupboard and still housing the Single Malt Annexe) when I had a clear out a few weeks back.
Brewery: 
Brewery: 
Brewery: 
