Writing Blog Topics

Bloggers always want to know how to attract readers (just like people who write books). Should I blog about a popular topic, throwing my two cents into the mix; or should I blog about something new and different or provide scarce information? Some social scientists over at the HP Labs performed just this sort of research analysis with the following startling result:

"the relative performance of the first two benchmark strategies as a function of the rate of novelty decay switches so sharply around some critical value that it resembles phase transitions observed in the real world.

Given the importance of maximizing page views for most content providers, this work suggests a principled way of choosing what to prioritize when designing dynamic websites. Knowledge of the rates with which novelty and popularity evolve within the website can then be translated into decisions as to what to show first, second, etc."

Now, if only we just knew what the "rate of novelty decay" was ... is it something like the half-life of nuclear particles or atoms approaching a critical mass?

Lacking the proper calipers and thermocouplers to measure the novelty decay rate here, I'll opt for answering the initial question with a resounding Yes! It all depends on the focus of your blog, and it may be inversely proportional to the size of your ego.