Chris and I have been online interacting socially since before the internet was called the internet. It’s part of who we are, and being online forms a vibrant part of our social lives. But we have to admit, some days, we feel a little spread thin trying to keep up with all the places we share.
Last summer on the blog, we drew some stronger lines between our personal sharing via Technomadia and our work life. It’s helped a great deal for us to regain some work/life balance. Keeping what we do here… fun. And after work hobby.
But drawing that line on our YouTube channel was a bit tougher – as they make it a touch difficult to establish a new channel. We finally made the decision to suck it up and just do it. Keeping content for RVMobileInternet on our personal channel was getting cumbersome and confusing.
So, if you follow us on YouTube at all, you may have already seen this quick video we released announcing the subtle change:
And, our invitation to join our new Mobile Internet Resource Center YouTube channel if you want to stay on top of that sort of content.
To make it clear – anything we share under Technomadia is more like hanging out with us after work for happy hour. It’s our side hobby. Our fun space. It’s where we share when we have spare time & energy.
What About This Blog?
Our greatest reward for sharing is engagement – interacting with you, our viewers & readers. It’s what makes all the effort worthwhile for us.
When our personal social media time & energy gets spread thin, we tend to focus more energy on the efforts that are bringing in the greatest amounts of joy. And quite frankly, YouTube has become our most rewarding effort-to-reward ratio.
A blog post might take 4-6 hours to compose, gets 10,000 views in its first week and earns maybe 10-20 comments (hey, we love each any every one of them – keep them coming!). But by contrast, the video version might take 2-3 hours, get 25-30,000 views and earns 100+ comments. And obviously we know a decent number of blog readers are also YouTube subscribers who might comment there instead of here – and that’s super cool.
We love to blog however, it’s a deep part of who we are (and how we met) – sharing via the written word. We’re not intending to stop anytime soon as we want the written recording of our lives.
But you’re probably already noticing that more of our blog content these days has a video counterpart to go along with them. The video to written word ratio may continue to shift to match the comment/view ratio better.
There are after all, only so many hours in the day – and only so many of those should be spent at the keyboard.
People,
I too like the blog, however, the fees that advertisers pay for Youtube channels are far better than traditional blogs. There is a price for everything.
Thanks. Our focus isn’t monetization however, but engagement with our community.
I am so delighted to find your blog.
I am newly retired , professional woman excited to start a new adventure. Just bought my first RV -1996 Winnebago Rialta- it’s been well cared for but I am interested in updating it -especially with solar and would like more of a tiny home vibe. Never RV’d before, just several long camping trips with friends before I had two sons. I realize I have a steep learning curve…so I truly appreciate all your details about RV equipment ,clubs that are worth joining and boon-docking advice.
I loved reading about your boon-docking adventure in southern FL. I am planning on going to St. Pete FL to play bridge for part of the winter and now will want to go further south to the water management area ,too.
Yesterday I opened a paypal account to send you a bottle of wine. I’m still exploring your blog.
Congratulations on tying the not.
I also sent a link to your blog to my son, who works in IT, in Boston.He loves to travel and is thinking about exploring opportunities in Austin TX.
Thank you again, You’re the best!
I’m a fan- blog or U-tube.
Arrrrgh ! to do a video blog, you note some points you want to cover, adjust the camera and go down the list. You’re done. Bloggers who have trouble just haven’t learned these simple steps. Quality writing is much more time consuming. There is a reason why full time novelists rarely manage more than a novel every 6 to 12 months.
I enjoy your blog and skip the videos because I can digest a blog in about 3 minutes instead of watching a 10 minute video. You are the very first blogger I have ever heard say that it took less time to make videos than it does to write a post. I’ve lost count of how many bloggers I’ve seen attempt to start a vlog and then quit when they found that it took them 2-3 times longer to produce video content over written content. Would love to hear your secret on producing video content so much more quickly than written.
Our secret is we keep it simple and don’t over-produce. Our video content is mostly us talking to the camera in one straight take, with some B-roll footage intermixed in. We have a template with an opening and ending we plop it into.
But like I said, we love writing and blogging, so we’ll find balance between the two. But do realize, a reader’s 7 minutes savings ‘costs’ us several hours 🙂
Chris and Cherie, I believe you would call me a lurker. I have been following your adventurous lives for several years without ever making a comment. Have stayed in many of the boondocking sites you review. Bought your BLM app for our ipad. Now that you have become Loopers I was waiting till you were near our summer home near the Trent Severn Waterway in Ontario, Canada to finally make contact and possibly show you some wonderful land features of our area. We are located at Lock 42 which is between Lake Couchiching and Sparrow Lake.
I completely understand your decision to make changes in your social media presence, please continue your blog entries, just less often if needed.
Hope to meet in the future.
Out of the closet lurker, you might be surprised how many you have.
Gord
I surely appreciate the need to simplify. I also appreciate the blog, because until this year, weak internet was my normal. Now, however, I am stationary, taking care of dad in the big city, with great internet, and enjoying streaming. Love your you tube. But know I will be back on the road at some point, with less powerful service.
Just me I know but I far prefer the written word to video. For me its faster, I can clip relevant extracts for future reference, etc.
thank you so much for the written blog. I know how expensive of time it is to do good writing. I probably write a hundred words for every one I actually use — but I’m aiming for maximum terseness. I hope/expect you have a better ratio. The flip side is that I rarely have time to spend watching videos . . . oh, well.
I’m grateful you will continue to blog. I have limited data and can’t watch videos. Or participate in video casts, etc.
You are entitled to your happiness, not ours. Go for it. Personally, I am sad that so much content is on video. Video has a great value at times. But, it is overused to convey facts that are learned much faster and more effectively by reading. It is popular because most adults are lazy learners. Tis sad. Most of the time that I succumb to video, I know I am being less efficient and wasting time.
When we’re consuming information, we too much prefer written. It’s easier to skim and get just to the parts that interest us. We honestly don’t watch a lot of video content ourselves.
But as content creators, we also realize what it takes to consistently create quality written content. We’re producing sometimes 3-6 articles, fielding forum questions and maintaining dozens of articles a week over at RVMobileInternet. When it gets to hobby-time, there’s not usually a lot of energy left over to keep sitting and writing.
I appreciate your sharing whether it be written or video. Most interesting y’all showing the new boat and the process to obtain. I personally prefer written over video but I am old school along with just old. ☺ Please keep up the good work and I will keep reading watching.
Thank you 🙂
Good choice to split things up. It will take a lot of pressure off of you. Enjoy the boat.
It already feels great to have the personal and work life more defined!