CONN OMUINEACHAIN asks readers whether he should blog in English. Turning that on its head, I wonder if I should blog in Irish. The readers often decide for the writers. My readers appear to be English-speaking more than any other language. If I want to reach my niche, I think I should tick with my native tongue. I think Conn's readers would appreciate their Irish niche to remain as pure as possible.
It would be hard to think about the Irish blogging community without An Timeall in its natural form. Look what happened to Guinness when it tried to go yellow. Guinness is strong because it is pure black. An Timeall has a strong signal because it is unabashedly Irish. Its purity will grow its niche audience. But its trendline will remain below normal growth rates since the number of wired Irish are well below the hundreds of millions of English speakers. But if you want numbers, go Chinese or Japanese. The English language posts represent 28% of the blogosphere, according to Dave Sifry.
I like the love An Timeall gives to blogspace. It is love because it is giving in a conversation that builds relationships. It is loving because I feel I am part of its tail even though I'm a blow-in. Even the comments are loving--and they're likely to stay that way if they avoid the attention of English-speaking spammers.
So if Conn wants to go English, why not give over one podcast a week to explain the most popular Irish conversations of the week. I would add that to my subscriptions straight away.
Conn OMuineachain -- "Should I blog in English?"
