Why is it so difficult to change the title of your own personal business blog, specially, after such a long time? I mean, really, I’ve now been blogging for over 14 years and I still find it quite a challenge every time I decide to change the name of my own. You would expect, by now, I would have gotten the gist of it all and be done with it in a heartbeat. Yet, here I am, struggling, pretty badly, just as much as ever, for the last three weeks and counting… Who said business blogging was this easy? I guess this is what happens when major changes in your work life are just about to happen and you don’t know yet how to name the blog that’s been with you through thick and thin from all along, so one can continue moving forward. What if you were the one(s) to find a new title for this blog instead? How would you call it? Would you be game? Can you help me? Read on please …
If you have been reading this blog for a long while, you would know how last time I changed its name, if I recall correctly, was back in 2008 (‘E L S U A ~ A KM Blog Thinking Outside The Inbox by Luis Suarez’) and it took me several weeks to, finally, come to terms with it and feel good about it. Now, fast forward to January 20th, 2017, a bit over a month from now. A date that will mark the end of a life cycle for yours truly, as I will be celebrating my 20th year anniversary in the IT industry. I am, indeed, starting to feel the urge to look for a new title altogether for this business blog. Why? Well, mainly because almost everything I have done for work over the course of the last 20 years, specially, that piece of work related to plenty of the heretic topics I have blogged about over here, may well be a thing of the past. It’s a new, changing time. It’s a time to move on and start again (almost) from scratch into whatever comes next. So, what name do you think should I pick for this blog? Any suggestions or ideas coming out so far?
I know what you are all thinking, but no, don’t worry, this isn’t any kind of existential crisis of this business blog or anything. Nor of myself either, for that matter. This is more an opportunity to reflect on a massive change that will kick off in the next few weeks and that’s certainly going to reflect a before and an after around a good number of topics I have written about over here. Mind you, I am making a differentiation between topics and themes. The former will, almost definitely, change substantially, the latter won’t. Next year, I will still be writing, with a gentle twist, about the themes I’m truly passionate about: KM, Collaboration, Learning, Online Communities, Social Business and Digital Transformation, etc. etc. but a good number of the most provocative topics I have written about will be left behind, perhaps for good. It’s time to move on and do some other interesting things…
So the challenge to find a new name, or title, for this my business blog still remains, even more so when I am yet to announce the major changes happening to yours truly from mid-January next year onwards, upon my return from the Christmas holidays. I know, I know, I am just such a tease, aren’t I? Well, all will be announced, properly, in its due time, don’t worry, I am not planning on leaving you all in the dark, just like that, but today I thought I would perhaps reach out to all of of you folks, long time faithful readers of this blog, if you are still around, to come to the rescue of this poor blogger who can’t think straight anymore about a new title for his own blog, before he can move on.
What do you think? Based on 11 years since I published the first blog entry over here, how should I call it? How would you want me to call it? Any ideas or suggestions I should consider, please? Now, I realise once that major announcement comes out, things will become clearer in terms of potential names and titles I could choose from, but since blogging is just such a personal activity (including you all as well, of course) I guess I could just continue searching for that new name. Why not, right?
One thing I have got very clear so far and I will be sticking around to even more so from here onwards, specially into the new year when that announcement I mentioned above would go live, is the Tagline itself for this blog: ‘A blog about working smarter, not necessarily harder, through social networking, digital technologies’. Indeed, I have just updated it this week as well. It has been the mantra from yours truly I have blogged about over here several dozens of times over the years and it just felt right to perhaps incorporate it at a higher level as well. I suspect the new name I may be picking up for the blog (with a little help from you folks out there) may have to do quite a bit with that motto and you will see what I mean shortly…
Of course, I would also need to include ‘elsua’ as part of that personal branding touch one needs to have for one’s blog, so other people don’t think I play football for vast majority of the time 😜, otherwise when they go and google my name they will have to filter through pages and pages of football related news before finding what they may be looking for. By that time, they may well be long gone, so I need to make it a bit easier for everyone…
So far then we have got the following: ‘E L S U A ~ A [insert new title here] Blog by Luis Suarez’. Hummm, I am still struggling coming up with something coherent, concise, and relevant to the main themes from this blog. What are your thoughts? Can you please help me pick up a new name / title for the blog based on what your perceptions may have been throughout all of this time? In return, I promise I will be announcing very very soon what I will be up to during 2017… and beyond. You will then know as well why I have been relatively quiet this week on the blogging front …
Deal?
ELSUA – The Legend Continues
But seriously, why does it need a name? If you are “rebranding your business” then it should match it. If not, it should just be “your blog”.
Simplicity sometimes is the best option.
You could go for something Latin perhaps?
Hi Keith, thanks a lot for dropping by and for the great comments and the good laugh! That would be epic!, going with that job name! haha (If only!). Well, to your point, for all the time I have been blogging I have always had a name for the blog beyond just A Blog by Luis Suarez, more than anything else, because I always wanted to let folks know, in advance, through a short piece of text, what the blog would be about, so they could judge right there whether it would be worth while following up and subscribe via RSS news feeds, or perhaps move on…
So if I just leave it as A Blog by Luis Suarez, it’s not a bad suggestion, since there won’t be a re-branding of my business, but more about moving into the next chapter of my working career that will involve me as the individual, vs. me as the business, if you know what I mean, so I may take up your suggestion and go ahead with it as just my blog.
In fact, a very good friend of mine thought about something very similar when he tweeted this and suggested the following name: elsuasion, which would fit in quite nicely with your initial thought, without even have to resort to Latin for it, although that’s also another option, since I studied 7 years of it and I’m certain I could pick up something! heh
The thing is the more times I say out loud elsuasion, the more I like it, so with your feedback and Jimmy’s suggestion I think we have just got a name for when I’m ready to announce what next 😀👍🏻
Thanks a bunch for the feedback, as always! Hope to see you soon F2F as well! It’ll be about time, too!
Coincidentally I just changed the name of my blog to the New social learning blog. It is more for myself and to bring a focus (or reflect a new focus). Maybe the struggle is to capture your focus? After all, I read your blog through feedly and then I never even see the title :).
Hi Joitske, many thanks for dropping by and for the great feedback! Yeah, the process of finding a name is going well and I think I pretty much got it at this point in time.
I noticed the update for yours as well as I am subscribed to the RSS feed via Reeder (as opposed to just Feedly) and noticed the changes. But it’s a great point you make for those folks who may be subscribed to it via Feedly or something else that perhaps the name of the blog may not show up, but only the content. That’s where things will become easier, because the focus is still there on what I’d want to write and blog about, so perhaps it’s pretty much a done deal with your comment above, in terms of focusing on what I want to write about and let the name come along with it, as it should… 😀👍🏻
Thanks a lot, once again, for dropping by and for the feedback!