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Summer Updating

Posted: June 26th, 2008 | Author: Mark Pike | Filed under: Washington, DC |

I am conflicted. I’ve been using Tumblr as a micro-blogging platform more than anything else I’m publishing over here at themarkpike.com/blog. My readership on Tumblr has grown to over 150 people, while the readership of this domain remains around 3 (hi Mom!).

Basically, I really enjoy using Tumblr to post random things on the web that I run across, snap photos on the run, reblog insightful quotes, etc.

However, at the same time, I want to maintain a professional long-form method of self-publishing on my own domain.

In fact, the main reason I initially decided to micro-blog over at Tumblr was to keep this site more professional as a first impression for potential employers. Ironically, my prolific blogging on Tumblr has promoted that site to 5th place in a Google search for “Mark Pike.”

I’m having difficulty figuring out the best way to bring these two interests together. Right now, I’m importing my Tumblr RSS in a sidebar on my own domain (themarkpike.com/blog). It doesn’t look great, and the Tumblr posts deserve to be featured somewhere more visually compelling. But, I don’t want to completely import Tumblr onto my domain because then I lose some of the professional appearance when it’s just a stream of random photos.

I don’t like leaving the two separate as I’d prefer to have a clearinghouse for my web activity.

Any suggestions?

In the meantime, here’s what I’ve been up to since my last blog post:

  • Invited to be on Emeril Lagasse’s cooking show, but had to decline because I would have had to miss a day of work.
  • Saw a few Nationals games.
  • Spent some time back in Va Beach and Williamsburg.
  • Attended the American Constitution Society’s national convention.
  • Appeared a video featured on the front page of YouTube.
  • Wrote a guest post on Spencer Ackerman’s new blog about FISA and Notorious B.I.G.
  • Continued to learn a ton about practicing law at my summer gig.
  • Purchased some plane tickets to Costa Rica in August.

4 Comments on “Summer Updating”

  1. 1 Wick said at 11:16 pm on June 26th, 2008:

    My 2 cents … what are your goals for a website/blog? If you have a unique goal for each site, then keep 2 blogs. If not, combine the two on tumblr. That’s what I eventually did. :)

  2. 2 Mark Pike said at 11:39 pm on June 26th, 2008:

    Thanks for the feedback, Wick. My goals for both sites are essentially the same, but each have some limitations.

    Tumblr has limited ownership and is a less powerful publishing platform, whereas WordPress here isn’t as easy to publish to.

    I’d like to have my Tumblr integrated into my WordPress, but not be prominently displayed… but also not be so peripheral in the sidebar.

    I guess I just need some Tupperware for this site. Keep everything tidy. This should be my clearinghouse, I just need to figure out how to port Tumblr correctly.

  3. 3 Wick said at 7:57 pm on June 27th, 2008:

    If you figure that out, let me know. I looked at it about 7 months ago and had no luck, but I hear exactly what you are saying. I’m sure there is something out there now or will be soon in the Wordpress universe.

  4. 4 sandlex said at 3:46 pm on August 2nd, 2008:

    Hi. I should say you are lucky ‘cuz you have just 2 blogs! I have 4 at this moment - livejournal blog where I write in my native russian language, then I have sandlex.com with wordpress where I write in english about more serious things like work and projects, I have twitter and tumblr. All these stuff gives me a huge headache. I like the simplicity of twitter, but at the same time I like tumblr cuz it gives me more freedom. Should I crosspost every my post to both of them? Who the hell need it :) Concerning my blogs at livejournal and sandlex.com. I was going to abandon livejournal and write only in wordpress blog, but I don’t have an audience there so for what and who write then? Okay, I decided to write to sandlex.com for me, but should I crosspost everything to tumblr/twitter/livejournal to share with others? I don’t. I think it’s all clear in your case - you understand what you want to write in each of your blog so do it - write in tumblr all unimportant stuff and to your blog write something serious. You suppose to have different audience on these blogs so you don’t have to mixed the content and don’t need to crosspost and have rss from tumblr on wordpress.
    Thats what i think

    ps damn, which of my blogs should I set as my Website in those fields? lol

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