Over the past couple of weeks, I have been in conversation with the folks at GigaOm network to be a guest writer for their cleantech blog called Earth2Tech.
After consulting with my employer (Lawrence Berkeley Lab), I have signed an agreement with GigaOm to be a guest writer.
What this means is that when I write a blog I will send it to them. If they think the post meets their needs, then it will appear on their site. This page will be updated with a small abstract of that post and a link to their site.
If GigaOm decides to not use that post, then the post will appear, in its entirety, on this page.
This Week in Batteries started just over a year ago on Feb 9, 2010. Over the last year, I have made ~30 posts on subjects ranging from the costs of PHEVs, the way to make a battery last longer, the batteries in your Roomba, all the way to how to calculate the energy density of a battery.
Making a blog post has become a hobby for me (probably the first true hobby I have ever had. Collecting stamps just did not cut it!). But like all hobbies it tends to be a fairly low item on the priority list. Regular readers will have noticed the long hiatus’ I have taken when work has demanded more of my hours.
When I wake up on a Sunday and feel like writing, I spend the morning making a post. If I have something else to do, then I don’t make a post. On average, I probably spend 2 hours on a blog post.
The return on the 2 h investment has been very gratifying. I average 5000 hits a month (please don’t ask how many of those are self hits!) with a peak at 10,000.
I have also become convinced that if I really worked at it, I could make this blog popular. But this requires a lot more of my time. And even if I did spend the time, I’m not sure how much more popular I can make it.
On the other hand, GigaOm gets 4 million hits a month. And some of their blog posts gets picked up by the New York Times, CNN, Business Week, and The Street.
Being able to get my posts onto GigaOm increases the visibility of this blog significantly, so the relationship is a no brainer.
The first post is now up on their site. Its called the “The Three Laws of Batteries (and a Bonus Zeroth Law)”. Check it out. They even added some nice pictures to accompany the words.
For the regular readers of this blog, this only means that you will need to, occasionally, click on one more link before you can read my post.
So wish me luck.
Venkat
