Failure
Some people have an ability to dissect and distill failure, they an innate ability to make their failings relevant and a learning exercise. I’m not one of those people. I believe it’s usually pretty obvious why something fails. Poor planning, lazy execution, no follow-through. Probably all of those contributed to the Satchelist sucking wind.
I still feel it was a good idea, a blog dedicated to laptop bags. Who hasn’t suffered through the frustration of trying to find the perfect tote for their tote-ables, especially with all the digital debris we lug around today. But alas the site’s tepid response and inability to connect with any manufacturers render it pretty useless. Unlike a food site, it becomes difficult to buy bag after bag to do reviews and talk 3rd hand about a review you read somewhere is boring endeavor for author and reader. All the awesomest Wordpress plugins and cool flickr feeds in the world won’t make up for shitty participation and a lack of good content.
The Satchelist has been put on hiatus. I’ve taken to carrying my laptop in a paper grocery bag and recommend you all do the same.
A good content site takes a while to build momentum and readership. I don’t think having monthly or similar posts is a bad thing - you can build up slowly; both readership and contributors. I’d consider letting it run a bit, and see what happens with it organically.
Sometimes it’s good to know when to quit. I wish I knew - I’d have a lot less loose-ended projects… Someday I’ll learn.
Like Andy said, sometimes it’s about knowing when to quit. The site however looks pretty cool, and yes I still haven’t found the perfect bag. Maybe lower the post frequency, and spend just a little time each week promoting and see what happens.
Maybe you can give it to someone to partner with. They get a start for free and you keep to own something that might go big rather than kill it?
Thanks for the advice. To clarify a bit, I’m shuttering the site, but trying to figure out how I would add content going going forward. Frequency of posts is important, but without some direction from the readers it’s difficult to find out what pace makes sense. I think there’s something there, I’m just not sure if I’m the shepherd to help it along.
Time will tell. It’s a great lesson in having your own expectations align with the real effort you’re willing to give and planning you do up front. So while it may now be a failure in my eyes, I’ve gained from the experience.