Sunday, July 29, 2012

A Change in Direction


As I'm sure that many of you have noticed by now, I have been having a very difficult time getting my posts up on schedule recently. There are a multitude of reasons for this, some of which I may go into later once I figure out how to best address the issues. However, for the time being, I can offer a partial explanation as to why things have been so sparse lately.

Firstly, as I have mentioned before, I just recently started a new job. I work full-time now, and I have honestly just been forgetting to write the reviews in advance. I will often suddenly remember that I have a review to write as I am getting into bed for the evening, and trying to write the reviews immediately after I get home from work hasn't been working out so far. I need to get better at writing the reviews ahead of time, I admit, but the primary problem lately has been that I barely have anything to write about.

I moved back home after my graduation from university in December, and this town is not particularly well-equipped when it comes to shops that carry interesting beverages. I have exhausted most of the supply in the area, and I feel that I have officially just run out of new things to try. Right now, I have to rely on trips out of town to pick up drinks for the review, but I only ever find three or four potential review candidates per trip, and I can't really afford to make these trips every weekend.

So...there is the problem. But I do have a solution in mind: cutting down to one update per week. It's not a wonderful solution, and I don't particularly like the idea of it myself, especially after posting so frequently for the past several years. But I am going to be in this town for at least another year before I can (hopefully) go off to grad school, and I just don't see how I can keep up the same schedule as before when there are so few drinks available. I briefly considered shipping drinks in to keep myself supplied, but the cost involved in transporting cases of beverages is just too much for me to absorb right now.

While cutting back on my update schedule is not ideal, I do think that it will offer some benefits. Primarily, updating once a week (Thursdays) will allow me more time to spend on each post. I have started to enjoy researching and discussing the history, preparation methods, and cultural significance of the beverages that I review, and having an entire week to write each post will allow me more opportunity to make the posts a bit more in-depth and informative. Additionally, it will allow me more time to get into a stronger social networking routine. Sites like Facebook and Twitter are powerful tools for bloggers, and I feel as though I have not had a chance to really take full advantage of their effectiveness as of yet.

To sum up, the plan for right now is to temporarily drop down to one larger post every Thursday, rather than three smaller posts throughout the week. As I emphasized, this is only a temporary change forced upon me by the circumstances of my current living situation. I will hopefully be able to resume a more frequent update schedule once I am able to relocate next year.

I would like to thank you all for your patience over the past several months. I know that I have been incredibly inconsistent and that I have done a terrible job at keeping up my own schedule, but the past year has been a very busy time for me for a multitude of reasons, and although I have always tried to keep Drinkable Review fairly high on my list of priorities, there were just things going on that demanded my more immediate attention. Although decreasing my content output may seem like a step backwards, it is certainly better than always being overwhelmed and never posting anything, and I hope to make the new reviews worthy of their meager, weekly occurrence.

I look forward to focusing on the new update schedule, and I hope to see you all back here this Thursday.

- Hayden

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