• by Bill McCloskey , January 3, 2007

I guess we are making our New Year's resolutions. I'm guessing that by now, most of us have already broken most of them. So I have some resolutions for this column and some reality checks for loyal readers.

1. First, what you won't get: Those who read my column regularly will know that I'm not a "how-to" kind of guy. So you are not going to get a lot of those types of columns from me, i.e. How to Build Your List, How to Increase Your Delivery, that type of thing. Fortunately, other Email Insider columnists fill that need quite well without me sticking my nose in.

2. You also won't get a great column every week. Let's face it: they all can't be gems. In fact, I do run a company which takes up the majority of my time, so some weeks are just going to be better than others.

3. That said, I have absolutely no idea what my readers consider the gems and what they consider the dregs. I've been writing columns for over 10 years now and I have never found a connection between what I think is good and what my audience thinks is good. The column I punch out in five minutes between drinks and dinner at some trade show are the columns that often generate the most excitement and conversation in the industry. Some of the ones I labor over go over like a lead balloon. I never know, so there's nothing I can do to change it.

4. I guarantee there will misspellings. Thank god for spell-check, but it doesn't catch everything, and because of my schedule some of these columns are written hours before they are sent out--leaving my much-suffering editors the challenge of doing what they can. I guess my worst one this year was misspelling the Moscone Center. I forget what I called it but I think it was a form of pasta. I was at a trade show with little time to think, let alone write ,and I had to get my column in before heading to the booth. Which reminds me...

5. My columns that have the most controversial subjects and the columns that are the shortest and have the most errors will occur around trade shows. I'm stressed, overworked, overtired, over-caffeinated, and undoubtedly late with my column. I beg your forbearance.

6. While I don't do a lot of "how-to" columns, I will continue to focus on many "data" problems. Some blog readers have criticized these columns for not putting them more in a framework of "how-tos"--while I, on the other hand, believe that the raw data is, in itself, fascinating. I will often leave it up to astute readers to use the data as they see fit.

7. Expect that I will remain as curmudgeonly as I always have tried to be in the past. I write 'em as I see 'em, folks, and that is unlikely to change. My most controversial column last year, judging by the number of times my name popped up in Technorati, was my criticism of the RSS community. If you are ever interested in seeing your name pop up a lot in a Google search, try writing anything negative about RSS! It is a fun game for children and adults alike.

8. But I do promise this: I'll write the best column I can at the time. I'll attempt to be entertaining while I do it, and I'll always tell you the truth--at least as far as I see it. And that is about as good a resolution as I can make. Pass the chocolate.