After one year, I’m not the slightest bit tired of blogging. I’ve heard that after three months, it tends to get stale and the ideas start to run dry, but that hasn’t been the case for me. I’m eager to write posts, and my little notebook of blog ideas contains at least six months worth of post ideas that I haven’t yet used. I love everything about it, almost to the point of addiction. I look forward to the end of my work day, when I get to sit down and start working on blog posts.

The problem is, this blog is EXTREMELY time consuming. There is so much more that goes into blogging than most people realize. I laugh to myself every time I read a blog post talking about “lazy” design bloggers that create round-ups of 50 blue websites or 50 logos featuring animals. I don’t know about those other bloggers, but round-up posts take me three times longer to create than my standard advice post. Sometimes I spend months bookmarking sites to fill up a round-up post. But, readers seem to like them, so I put in the hours and try to keep the subjects of my round-ups useful.

Even a regular text-only post takes around three hours to write, proof, and post. Add a couple of hours searching for stock photos that work with the content, add an hour of time submitting links throughout the internet to promote the post, and you’re looking at six hours for the easiest, shortest post you’ll ever see published on Creative Opera, and that’s not counting research time.

Of course, it’s not just all about posting content. I spend time reading and replying to comments, and reading and replying to emails. Let me be clear, it is your comments and your emails that keep me blogging. I can’t tell you what a difference it makes after staying up until 3am to create a new post to get an email thanking me for helping with a problem, or a comment about how much the post was enjoyed. I love the interaction. I love the discussion. L-O-V-E it. But, it does take hours from my days. Every day.

I’ve found myself with a conundrum. I love blogging, I truly enjoy interacting with my readers, and I really love the fact that I am able to give back to the design community and help new designers. But, I seem to have lost everything else in my life somewhere along the way. A typical day for me consists of working an 8-10 hour day for my clients, eating dinner, and then sitting back down in my office to blog until sometimes midnight, sometimes 3am. And, for all of that work, and all of that time, I’m still only able to post 2-3 times a week, and gather enough traffic to be turned down by BuySell Ads (and deservedly so).

So, I’ve come to a hard decision. I need to re-prioritize. I want to spend more time with my husband and family, get out and go running with my friends again, and get back to horseback riding and taking my dogs for walks. My company website has been begging for a redesign for years, and my poor guitar has been gathering dust for a month. Who knows, maybe I could even pull out my old sketchbook and have a relaxing draw every now and again.

I have to give it up to guys like Jacob Gube and Chris Coyier. I don’t know how they do it. I don’t know how they blog consistently amazing content, manage to work as full-time freelances, AND write books and speak at conferences. Perhaps they’re secretly robots who don’t need to sleep at night? I am in awe of them, and will continue to enjoy their, and the many other, blogs out there that I love so much.

Does this mean that I’m quitting the blogging game entirely? Does this mean I’m selling Creative Opera? No, not at all. I love it too much. I will continue to post to this blog, but only as I have time, and as I have ideas. And, when I do post, I won’t worry about promoting my articles or watching my stats. I’ll continue to answer emails and respond to comments, but in a leisurely fashion. I’m just coming to terms with the fact that Creative Opera will probably never be popular enough to make enough money to make it a viable resource of income. It’s always just going to be something I do because I love it and want to help other designers. So, it’s just going to move down a bit on my priority list.

I hope that you’ll leave me in your RSS reader and continue to pop in from time to time to see if there is anything new on Creative Opera, and I hope you’ll forgive me for (in a way) giving in. I’ll still be on Twitter every day, I’ll continue to add to my Tumblr posts, and I’ve been thinking of doing more guest posts on bigger blogs. And, who knows, if I miss it enough, or find a way to sleep less hours each night, I may even pick it up again full-force. But, for a while, I need to revisit my life away from the computer.

Thank you all for being Creative Opera readers and for all of your lovely emails and comments. It’s been a great year!!

Manda

I’m going to go a different way. I’m going to respond to some of the most common (and weakest) complaints. And, yes, I do know the risks. I’ll be called a “Fanboy,” and an “Apple lover” and will be seen as a person who is defending a product just because it comes from Apple. Fine. Whatever. That’s a chance I’ll have to take. I don’t purchase things because they have an Apple logo on them. I purchase things that work for me and my business. I have an Apple computer, and a Logitech mouse. I have a strong dislike for the Magic Mouse, and you’ll never see me using one. I use what works. End of story. So, let’s see what people are saying about the iPad:

1. No OSX

The iPad was not created to be a laptop without a keyboard. What would be the point of that? As if the folding screen is such a huge burden? This little machine is meant for entertainment and light work. If you have serious work to do, get a laptop. Or, any number of PC tablets available with a complete operating system in place. But, don’t be surprised if the touch screen is frustrating on your tablet PC. The OS wasn’t created for touch, so it’s not going to be user-friendly. Everything available for the iPad was created specifically with touch in mind, so I’m expecting a much more pleasing experience. Perhaps someday when Apple has time to reinvent OSX for touch, you’ll see an iPad with a full OS.

2. The Name Sucks

Oh please. Have you never used a PAD of paper? Have you not ever jotted something down on a notePAD? Do you giggle and think of feminine products every time you use a legal PAD during a meeting? I think we can let this go.

3. No Flash

I’ll give this one to the naysayers. Surfing the web without Flash is not going to be fun. On one hand, I’ll like skipping all of the annoying banner ads. On the other hand, I’m not sure what I’ll do without Hulu.

4. No Web Cam

Everyone is devastated that they won’t be able to use their iPads for Skyping on the go. I can see their point, but I’m going to be selfish here. You know all of those annoying people on the trains having very loud conversations on their cell phones during your commute? Just imagine them all Skyping on the train. The horror!! Plus, who wants to Skype or video-conference with someone holding their own camera? I don’t want to get nauseous watching you bounce around my screen. Use your laptop webcam instead.

5. No Stylus

I’m not sure what a stylus would be useful for other than drawing. When is the last time you even used a device with a stylus? They seem to have faded away — assumingly because people prefer to work without one. And, on a device where all available applications were designed for multi-touch, I’m guessing a stylus will hardly be necessary.

6. No Phone

This one always makes me laugh. Really? You want to have phone conversations on a device that is over 9.5 inches tall?

7. No Camera

Again, I can’t really see myself pulling out this large tablet to take a photo. I’m assuming that later versions will include a camera, but I still can’t imagine it will be as useful as people think. If my dog is doing something adorable, I’m going to whip out my iPad to take a photo? I have a camera on my phone, and being a designer, I carry a small cheap-o digital camera with me everywhere I go. Taking a photo on an iPad wouldn’t be too different than turning my laptop webcam around to snap a photo of my dog. Just doesn’t seem natural.

8. Reader Doesn’t Use e-Ink

Someday, I’m sure we’ll have devices that allow us to switch between a backlit screen and an e-ink screen. I’m a little surprised that it was expected this soon in the iPad though. I’m not going to get into a big e-ink vs. backlit argument, I’m just going to say that at this point in time, no device (that I know of) is pulling off an e-ink/backlit switch option. If you’re really that attached to e-ink, get a Kindle. The iPad is more than just an e-reader, so it needs to have a backlit, color screen.

9. No Handwriting Recognition

I know I’m not the only person out there who can type faster than they can write. Do you really want to write out emails and notes instead of type them?

10. No Multi-Tasking

iPad (and iPhone) apps are created so that when you close them, they reopen in the same place you left off. What is the big advantage to having multiple apps open at once? As long as you pick up in the same place, is that not good enough? I, for one, will take a longer battery life over multi-tasking any day.

There are a few things that I’m nervous about myself: no expandable memory, availability of the ebooks I want (design and web design training books please!), and AT&T’s service. Some of the iPad complaints have been valid, but you have to admit, some are simply ridiculous. And, when it comes down to it, I just don’t think it’s right to jump all over a product before you’ve even tried it.

What do you think? Will you be preordering an iPad?

Instant Feedback

When you write a blog post, you may or may not get comments or responses. Unless you’re doing some serious marketing, you may not even have many readers — making comments even less common. On Twitter, it’s easy to get lost in the steady stream of Tweets.

On Facebook, no matter what you post on your wall, you’re likely to get a response within minutes. No waiting, no working. Why wouldn’t this appeal to teens? They say something, and somebody responds. People are listening. They have a voice.

A Positive Response

When you’re a blogger, you have to have a thick skin. If you write your opinions or convictions, you’re going to get pushback from at least some of your readers. If you don’t give an opinion, they’ll get on your case for that too. On Twitter, you take the same chance. Whatever you put out there could possibly offend any number of people — and you may hear about it.

On Facebook, most everyone reading your wall is someone you actually know. Real friends (if not cyber-friends). They’re there because they already like you. You don’t need to win their approval. If you want to post “I had eggs for breakfast this morning,” chances are you’ll get responses like “I LOVE eggs!,” and “I had eggs yesterday!” on Facebook. On Twitter, you’re asking for a “Who cares!” Doesn’t it makes sense that teens would enjoy the guaranteed acceptance they get by surrounding themselves (and their thoughts) with friends, the way they do on Facebook?

Eavsdropping on Conversations

In the blogging world, conversations are fairly slow (unless you find yourself in the middle of a heated Mac vs. PC comment war). Somebody says something. 20 minutes (or 3 hours) later somebody says something else. And maybe the author chimes in once or twice. B-o-r-i-n-g. And, why would teens care anyway about what a bunch of people they don’t even know have to say?

On Twitter, conversations happen so fast it’s almost impossible to keep up. I was trying to follow the iPad conversation last week. TweetDeck was refreshing with 100 new tweets every few seconds. And, again — mostly from people I don’t know.

On Facebook, it’s easy to follow a conversation. Conversations are indented and easy to read through, easy to join in on, and easy to go back to later. Teens aren’t interested in throwing their thoughts out to the black void of the internet, they want to have a conversation with their friends, and Facebook makes it easy for them to do that.

Easy Multi-media

Sending a photo or video with Twitter is a practice in patience. Going back and looking for them later is even more frustrating. Even searching through a person’s blog posts of photos is annoying when you’re looking for a particular post or photo and you can’t remember when you saw it, or what title the post had.

Facebook makes it extremely easy for teens to share photos, videos, drawings, music, etc. They are all in one place, they are easy to scroll through, and they are easy to comment on. Enough said.

No Work, No Expectations

I’m not sure how many of those who were surprised that teens no longer blog have actually blogged themselves. It’s a lot of work. And it takes a lot of time. Do you remember being in high school? I barely found time to eat and sleep — I have no idea how teens EVER maintained full-fledged blogs.

Doesn’t it make sense that a teen would rather post some photos (worth 1,000 words), post some comments, and post some wall thoughts — and call it a day? I’m sure there are some teens out there who are aspiring writers, and I know of some young adults that maintain stellar design blogs — but they are not in the majority. I’m not surprised that most teens prefer not to spend hours a day composing blog posts. I know that wouldn’t have been appealing to me at that age.

Bragging Rights AND Control

With Twitter, the goal is to have the most followers. In blogging, it’s to have the most readers. In Facebook, it’s to have the most friends. The beauty of Facebook, though, is that you have some control over who those friends are. You decide how much you want to share, how you want to share it, and who you want to share it with. All while showing off your growing number of friends. It’s true you can block users on Twitter — but do you even know enough about anyone on Twitter to make the decision to block them? And, if I don’t like you, I surely can’t keep you from reading my blog or making comments. But, on Facebook, if you stole my boyfriend, I don’t have to let you see my photos or read my wall. Gotta love that control. Teens can keep their cliques as open or closed as they like.

Amateur Snooping

I’m sorry to call you out, but I know that about half of the people who have sent me friend requests on Facebook just wanted to go through my profile and photos to see what I was up to and what I looked like. Don’t be ashamed if you’re guilty — I am too. It’s fun to look through other people’s photos and wall posts and profiles. You can’t do that while blogging or tweeting. You don’t learn much about a person in 140 characters and a background design, and all I know about my readers is the information they leave me in the comments. Facebook allows you to really get to know the people you are interacting with. Just another Facebook feature that has tons of appeal for teens.

As far as teens are concerned, Facebook is really built for them. I’m not at all surprised that young people are Facebook fans. And, I’m even less surprised that they prefer it to Twitter and blogging. It seems obvious to me. But, please let me know what you think! Are you a teen who knows I’m wrong? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

If you couldn’t make it, have no fear. Chris Coyier — author and owner of one of my absolute favorite websites, CSS Tricks — was a speaker this year. He has been kind enough to compile videos, slides and examples from this year’s conference for his readers. There is so much great information here, it’s almost like attending in person. Thanks, Chris, for taking the time to share so much amazing information with your fellow designers!

Click here to view the Front-End Design Conference ’09 Wrap-Up

Erika Martinez is the designer behind MonaEve Design Farm, and writes for her blog, MonaEve Design Blog. She is extremely knowledgeable and friendly, and one of my Twitter favorites. If you want to know more about Erika, visit her blog or follow her on Twitter.