My fellow MIT alum, Liz Burr doesn’t care about my pictures. 
She doesn’t care if The Kid drinks a bunch of alcohol and hangs out with a bunch of chicks.
(L to R) Oz Sultan, Florence Holdeman, Bill Cammack, James Im, Michelle DeForest & Whitney Hess @ TechSet NYC
Photo by Brett Petersel
This is what I’ve learned since consolidating my blogs into one stream, which is BillCammack.com. Consolidation has gotten me a ton of hits/traffic/whatever, but the end result hasn’t been a crossover by “fans” of any particular aspect/section/category of my blog/life.
For instance, even though my “Brass Rat” is in a ton of pictures, people I’ve known for months are like “I didn’t know you graduated from MIT!”.
Limor Fried, Bill Cammack & Phil Torrone
Or people that happen to know that I’ve been page 1 on Google for “Bill” for the last 8 months apparently never clicked through, because they ask stuff like “So… What do you do?”, indicating that they’ve never been to my ABOUT or CLIENTS/PROJECTS pages, which are clearly marked at the top of my site. :/
I also mentioned in “How many people read my blog?” that 88% of my hits are “single-serving friends” (ref: Fight Club), so there can’t possibly be any crossover if people are only accessing ONE PAGE on my site. 
So now that I don’t care anymore, I’m splitting my feeds. I used to be interested in people finding out several things about me, but that’s not how this game works. 
The way it works is that people look for what they’re interested in at that moment, and then they move on. IMO.. There’s no point in showing people OTHER STUFF that has nothing to do with what they’re currently interested in. If they came to my site to see pictures, they’re not interested in editing. If they came to research video editors, they’re not interested in my video blog. If they’re interested in my video blog, they’re not interested in my dating advice, etc etc… So now, I’ve created a feed for each particular interest:
Bill Cammack
I didn’t want to do this before, because I was attempting to gather people with different interests into one location. Forget that. If people want to read about Social Media and not wacky dating advice, more power to them. I feel they should have a way to get ONLY what they want from my site, instead of what I’m trying to offer them while they’re here.
This also solves an issue I was discussing with Liz Burr about my new “Rock Star” series:
“Rock Star” is partially a standalone series, but it’s actually not. It’s a lifestyle blog at the same time that it’s a music blog. In one way, it should have its own site, and in another, it’s actually a part of my usual video blog. Splitting Feeds solves that issue for me, entirely. Also, if I decided to make a different iTunes feed just for the show, all I have to do is link to the new, standalone “Rock Star” feed.
The “downside” to separation is that BillCammack.com becomes invisible, and just the “host” for whatever people are really looking at. However, the way I see it, my site was invisible to begin with, as most people were Googling stuff and ending up here and then skating immediately. At least this way, if they can subscribe to one particular aspect that they like, they’re more likely to receive an update in their reader that they might actually be interested in, instead of a random picture of The Kid posing with his bike.
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Shrug. Sounds like more work than it’s worth unless you think your losing *business* because of it.
@Steve: Excellent point, which reminds me of my previous post, “Are You A Publicist?”…
None of what I’m saying… *NONE* of what I’m saying in my Social Media posts is going to make any sense to anyone that doesn’t get PERSONAL KICKS out of Social Media.
I post stuff to the internet because I feel like it and because I get enjoyment out of it. This has NOTHING to do with business for me. My business is Television and Corporate Video. I get my clients through word of mouth, because I excel at what I do. You want it better? You want it faster? Contact Bill. That’s how it works.
The “problem” for me in communicating my takeaway from Social Media is that most people do what I do because they HAVE TO, not because they WANT TO. It’s part of their job or they’re Social Media Consultants or they’re learning it in school or whatever. While the concepts I talk about can be applied to business, this stuff is fun and games to me. Literally. Social Media is my personal live video game that I enjoy playing.
That’s why I’m starting my Rock Star series… Because I feel like it. I do not need sponsors. I do not need viewers, passionate or otherwise. Everything I need to do my show, I already own, so there’s ZERO overhead. I’m just working out how I want to deal with credits and patching the 1 1/2 minute videos together into larger blocks, and then it’s On and Poppin’!
So, Steve… To get to *your* point… The “problem” I have with only using the main feed from BillCammack.com is basically what I started out saying at the top. Let’s say Liz isn’t interested in my party pictures, but she IS interested in what I have to say about Social Media. My PERSONAL ENJOYMENT is increased by knowing that I can provide her with a feed where everything and anything on it will be on-topic.
Same thing with “Rock Star”. If someone digs that series, it’s personally satisfying to me to know that they can skip everything else I ever post and only get alerts when I upload a new “Rock Star” episode.
So, while this did originally start out as a business site, it’s now my personal fansite I’ve built for myself. My original idea, when I consolidated my blogs was to allow people to cross over from one point of interest to another. I didn’t see that happening. The people that laughed with me about DatingGenius last week are the same people that laughed with me about it 6 months ago or listened to me kick my game live over drinks.
THAT’S what floats my boat.
So my point in splitting my feeds is to remove my own agenda from BillCammack.com and “give the people what they want”. If they don’t care that I edit (business), that’s fine with me. If they enjoy my dating blog, but don’t give a damn about Social Media, that’s fine with me.
I feel better, AND personally more efficiently self-expressed now that I’m delivering several niche streams instead of one “All Bill, All The Time” stream.
Thanks for the comment!
LOL yes, I do not care to see all ur pics. I can see those on Flickr, anyhow lol.
@Liz:
hahahaha
I like all the pics and random detritus. Coming here is like getting washed up on Bill Island with all kinds of new and undiscovered things waiting to pop out at you. Kinda like the island of Dr. Moreau.
@Steve: haha Thanks, yeah, that’s the upside AND the downside of my main feed, haha. My life is random, not regimented. Unlike MOST other people, I don’t do the same thing every day or every week. I don’t hang out with the same people, even though you couldn’t tell that from my flickr sets that Liz hates to see.
hahaha
BTW – I like the random image of The Kid posing with his Flintstone era Suzook. So fierce it should be used in a Scared Straight campaign.
OMG!!! LOL @ “Flintstone-Era Suzook”!!!
As long as my speedo goes to 180, and I’ve personally put it on 140, I’m COOL with it!
hahaha omg!