About three and a half years ago, I had to make some changes to my format and workflow. It wasn’t the first time I’d done things like that and probably won’t be the last. And usually when I make changes, I don’t say much about it. I usually find it’s better if I don’t. But I think this time it’s worth talking about it a little.
The changes to my workflow were a result of changes search engines made about four years ago. My traffic dropped off precipitously, and nothing I did brought it back. I even enlisted some help from an SEO professional, who had some suggestions that helped me stop the bleeding. But there was no turning back time. The rules had changed.
The problem was twofold. First, search engines decided to start keeping more traffic to themselves rather than suggesting links. Second, the rise of generative AI meant that any time a small independent site like mine wrote something that gained significant traffic, within weeks more than one big name would see it, clone it, and push me to the second or third page of results.
So I retreated into retro tech, an area I was familiar with, and an area I could write about that is harder to clone. As someone who lived through the 80s and 90s actually using this tech, I can bring a perspective AI can’t clone. So I decided to specialize in that, and look for ways to grow it organically.
Along the way, I came up with a workflow for sorting through ideas as they came to me, so I’d be able to find them when I need them. This has helped a lot. For years, it wasn’t unusual for me to spend longer trying to decide what to write than actually writing. Today, I know what I’m going to write the next time I sit down to write. And yes, I do my own writing, editing, and graphics work. I’m not a gifted graphic artist, but I won’t resort to AI-generated graphics.
Last month, I took measures to stop AI models from stealing my content, and hopefully stay under the radar of those larger sites that like to clone my content as well.
So why am I telling you all this?
When I made the changes, I had a backlog of pieces I’d written to keep as insurance. Professional writers call it a well. If I had writer’s block, I could dip into the well so I’d have something to run. If I fell ill, I could go to the well to tide me over. I couldn’t have made it through the last 15 years without it.
But my new workflow and altered format had specific requirements for the well. Some of what I had could move right over, but I had 20-25 pieces that, for whatever reason, didn’t fit.
Now that I’m confident I have a deep enough well, I can consider doing something with that content.
Starting this month, I’m going to run those leftovers on Saturdays and Sundays. Maybe some of it never should see the light of day. We’ll find out after it runs. I can always pull it back if it’s a disaster. Maybe one or two of them will upstage the stuff I run during the week.
And then in January, I’m going to expand my weekday format to cover the rest of the week. It took a while to get to the point to be able to go from four days a week to five. A year or so ago I started thinking about what it would take to go to seven. I did some experiments this year with posting weekend content and found it makes a big difference, so I think it’s worth trying.
How can you claim to be a retro tech site and not cover x?
I get questions from time to time about why I haven’t covered one particular technology or another. Usually it’s because it’s something I don’t have much–or any–experience with. That doesn’t mean I won’t ever cover it. But it’s harder, so that means it will take longer, and I probably won’t ever have as much content on that topic as I have about something I’m more familiar with.
The oddest question I ever got is why I haven’t written about Ken Olsen’s conversion to Christianity. I agree, that sounds like something I’d write about. It was a matter of not knowing where to start. Eventually I found a lead, so I’m working on it. There are some blog posts that I can write very quickly. This one is going to take time to do well.
What happened to the train content?
I get one other question from time to time. Why don’t I write about trains anymore?
For nearly 20 years, I wrote about model trains regularly, usually on Thursdays or Fridays. Several things happened all at once to bring an end to that. But the main thing was the train content generally took 3-4 times as long to produce as the tech content, while also generating quite a bit less traffic.
A series of conversations that happened in the spring of 2024 convinced me I was better off spending that time writing more tech content. I finished a few pieces I’d been working on and they went into the well.
That means I have a bit of previously unreleased train content that will run between now and the end of the year. If it performs better than I expected, I can consider more content again in the future.
Thank you
I’m looking forward to the content that’s going to run through the rest of this year and into 2027. And I’d like to thank those of you who read regularly. It seems more new regular readers came around this summer than I have seen in a long time. And I know a fair number of you have been reading for 10, 20, even 25 years. Thank you for hanging in there with me for so long.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.
Viva Dave! Keep on keeping on !
I didn’t realize you were posting as often as you are. For whatever reason, not all of your RSS feed is showing up in Feedly.