Coding with Jesse

What's the point?

April 12nd, 2006

What's the point of this site? Well, the Big Picture is an outlet for me to write about my greatest passion: the Internet, the direction it's moving in, and the way it is changing the world. But at the same time, I work as a web developer, so this is also my forum for sharing different problems and tricks I come across, as well as touting the benefits of web standards and best practices.

The result is, I have articles like Setting a form field to null or undefined and Let's get personal on the same site. This means that people who don't do any JavaScript coding have to put up with my technical articles. And people who just want my tips and tricks have to put up with my, let's say, fluff articles.

Luckily, these both roughly fall under "The Future of the Web". If I started posting pictures of cats, or investing advice, or whatever, I might get more complaints. But even under the blanket of "The Future of the Web" I have some thinking to do about my target audience.

I don't really write the techie articles for regular readers so much, they're more geared at people searching the web on, say, "setting form field null javascript". Nor do I write the fluff stuff geared at search engines; they're mostly for the regulars.

So how do I solve this apparent dilema? I could create multiple RSS feeds for categories. I could spin off a second blog. I could drop one of the topics altogether. Or, I could just ignore the problem and let people skim over the topics they have no interest in.

Well anyway, I haven't solved the problem yet. I've thought about these options, but I haven't decided what I'll do. But I'm aware there is an apparent identity crisis looming.

How do you deal with identity and branding, and evolution over time? Do you put much thought into this before creating a site or blog, or do you just let it evolve over time and define itself? Where would you like to see this blog go?

About the author

Jesse Skinner Hi, I'm Jesse Skinner. I'm a self-employed web developer with over two decades of experience. I love learning new things, finding ways to improve, and sharing what I've learned with others. I love to hear from my readers, so please get in touch!