Hello, happy Friday, and welcome to the beginning of a new chapter for my blog. I started writing this blog back in 2007, wrote for 14 years, then took a year off from 2022 - 2023. I took a year off not because I had lost my spark for writing, in fact, it was quite the opposite, I continued to write a lot, just not on this blog. Instead I lost my spark for writing about domain names and domain investing, which had been the focus of my blog.
Writing, art, music - really all of the creative endeavors we do as humans are only truly meaningful when there's passion behind it. I love writing, to me it's one of the best ways to both express and share a little bit of yourself with the world. Also, for someone like me who admittedly lives a pretty stressful, high-pace life, it gives me a chance to slow down and meditate in my own way.
I started writing fiction in 2022, Science Fiction to be more specific, during my time off from this blog. I'm continuing to do this, I love it, but I'm not ready to share this with the world on any regular cadence. So I've been thinking a lot lately about - what do I want to write about on my blog? Do I really want to keep this blog going or should I just shut it down for good?
In answering the second question first, I feel like since I've written thousands of articles on here, there's something sad about wiping all that away. In some ways this blog has become a part of me, and I think erasing it from the planet in some way erases a part of me. I know that might sound dramatic, but for fourteen years this was a daily blog, it really was a core part of my life, and domain names have been and continue to be something that has changed my life in so many ways.
Domain names showed me that I could make money outside of whatever my primary job was, they sparked my passion for investing, and investing in less mainstream assets than the stock market or real estate. Domains also gave me a new life, a life where I had more money to spend on travel, without a doubt my absolute favorite thing to do and my true passion. With extra income I didn't have to live on a tight budget, I was able to explore the world more than once a year, and do so in a way I never thought possible.
For all of us, there's things we do to make money, and things we do with the money we make, and it's okay if those aren't the exact same thing. At the end of the day, I think what I have always loved about investing, whether it's domains or NFTs, the stock market or angel investing, it's that the extra money that these endeavors generate allow me to over-index on my passion for travel and exploring the world.
I've always felt like the world is such a big place, there's so much to see, but most people just take one vacation a year, and too many people IMHO go to the same place every year. Right now I try to visit five countries a year, that's my goal today, and I hope to increase it over time. This year I've been to Japan, Canada, Italy, Hong Kong, and Taiwan - each country has impacted me in different ways and I always come back home with a renewed perspective on life.
Okay, it might seem like I'm wandering here, and I am - heck, this is MorganLinton.com, it's my personal blog, there are no ads, no sponsors, and no reason for me not to wander, so that's just how it goes. But, I'll stop my wandering here to talk about the main topic of this article - a renewed focus for my blog.
In thinking more about what I want to write about on here I realized first and foremost - I don't want to write about investing, in anything, period. We live in a time where it feels like just about everyone is an influencer or investment guru and I'm not, and don't want to be confused with either of those things. This is not to say there aren't great people out there sharing investment advice, I'm just saying I don't think I'm qualified to, not do I want to be one of them.
So I started experimenting on LinkedIn, writing about different topics and doing two things - first, getting a feel for how I like writing about that topic, and second seeing how well those resonate with people by looking at the data.
On Monday I wrote a post about art, more specifically about the transformation the art world is going through thanks to things like NFTs and AI. I talked about my favorite artist today - Refik Anadol who is making waves in the art world with visually stunning, often dynamic art created using AI and data in a ways that nobody has done before.
This post turned out to be the highest engagement post I've ever written on LinkedIn. Normally when I write a post I get 2-3 likes, if that, I have 311 on this post and even had a comment from Refik himself which was pretty wild and unexpected.
This made me think, hey - it has been fun learning more about the art world, especially the new path art is taking in the shift from physical to digital and incorporating things like AI and data. The art world is completely new to me so in many ways I can use my blog as a way to share what I'm learning, as I'm learning it. Additionally I see a nice bonus in sharing new artists with the world and hopefully helping them get their art in front of more people.
Last but not least, I see the art world going through a lot of changes now and the traditional art world rejecting digital art, which is sad to see. I hope to be a voice promoting this change, every other industry has seen a shift from physical to digital, it shouldn't be shocking that art would see the same, right?
As for cadence, I'm not going to be writing daily on here like I have in the past, or weekly, the reality is - I just don't have the bandwidth for that. But I will hold myself to writing on here at least twice a month.
For those of you who have been reading my blog for 15+ years, thanks for reading and I hope this new path is something interesting to you, heck - maybe you'll find you have a passion for art that you never knew existed. For new readers, welcome! Either way, here's to the journey ahead.
