well, it's been two weeks since I started hospitalimpact.org. As I've been struggling with html code, sifting through hospital news, researching blogging trends, and thinking about hospital leadership, here are some observations.

Blogging for hospital leaders: an oxymoron?

Blogging may have been the "word of the year" in 2004 (ironically, "blog" narrowly beat out "incumbent"), but still very few people are familiar with blogs. Research has shown that only 7% of the population is "very familiar" with blogs. I'm pretty sure that % is even less for hospital leaders, which begs the question: why is hospitalimpact.org a blog in the first place? is a blog for hospital leaders an oxymoron? A valid question.

Blogging is fun for me... so far...
I realized something about myself this week: when I learn, I write, and when I write, I learn. so, because I love learning (apparently one of my strengths in strengthsfinder), I love to blog.

But as one visitor mentioned, blogging is like "having homework for the rest of your life." So far, thankfully, it hasn't been like that. It's been exciting to see how people end up on this site - one site out of 8 billion+ websites (websites outnumber people 4 to 3!?). And I've felt the child-like joy of learning something new.

Bloggers don't make money blogging

Even mildly popular bloggers that get thousands of hits per day probably can't blog for a living. It's simply not enough traffic to make it worth the while for advertisers or sponsors. Back-of-the-envelope calculations tell me advertisers pay ~0.5 to 1 cent per visit. Most bloggers blog on the side or as a marketing tool for their consulting firm or their day job. Of course, blogging doesn't cost that much either. $10-20 for a domain name plus $5-10 dollars/month for hosting, depending on your traffic. It's the time commitment that's killer.

Quality vs. Quantity
Yes, I admit it, I've been weak. Pumping out quantity instead of quality. Isn't one truly original thought/idea a week more valuable than 1 semi-new idea a day? Shouldn't I shoot for one shining idea vs. several dim ones? Stay tuned.

Anyway, thanks for visiting! hospitalimpact.org has already had 500+ visits simply from word-of-mouth (though I'm still trying to figure out how many of those hits was me). any riveting comments, random ideas, half-baked thoughts, crazy questions, effusive praise, ill-willed bashing, inspiration to share, offers of sponsorship or free pizza, feel free at tony[at]hospitalimpact[dot]org