Editing The Pen Addict 147/transcript (section)

== Top Five Pens ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, that's great. All right. So I updated my top five pens list this week. And we talked about some of the changes I was going to make. And I implemented them this week. So what the change was is I kind of moved the list away from my favorites and the pens I'm using the most frequently over the past time period between the last update and the current update of the top five pens list into a straight recommendation page for different categories of pens, papers, inks, things like that. And the reason I did that is because I was causing more confusion than I had intended with kind of cross pollinating. What's my recommendation? What's a Brad favorite? And how are these different? And how does this apply to me, the reader, reading it? So I wanted to add some clarity in it. So it's been really well received as far as the new format. The feedback has been, I love the new format. I understand why you did it. I don't like not having your personal touch on it. And I knew that was going to happen. I was actually kind of hoping that would be the feedback. I like what you did. I see why you did it. I missed this other part where it had like the personal touch to it. And I explained that in the post that going forward, I'm going to take those personal items and those are going to be more regular blog posts. So there'll be some different types of posts coming up where I talk about, you know, my top three or five blue black inks. I took that list completely off. You know, I, some of the high end fountain pen stuff like the Nakaya or like the list of pens, my current pens. That I'm using, my favorite pens that I'm using right now. That list is off. Because I can talk about that on the blog separately. Because that's more of a constant changing type of thing. Like there's change in the top five recommendations list. But there's usually not wide sweeping changes. The pens I use for month to month, there's often wide sweeping changes. There'll be a pen I'll live for for a month or two. I can't get it out of my hands. And then I won't use it for six months. So there's an opportunity there for regular blog posts to have that stuff specific to me. The personal stuff that people really actually do come to this list for and want to see some more of that. And then the top five pens page will be more of a pure recommendation. These are the best pens in these categories for a wide range of people, if you will. So that's kind of the way it went. And a lot of the list, you know, one of the biggest changes is I ripped the fountain pen stuff out and started that from scratch. And now I have a top five fountain pens under 50. Top five fountain pens between 50 and 100. And a top five fountain pens between 100 and 200. That seems to be like more than enough of a range for anyone looking at a top five list. Where before, I kind of did, you know, the kind of the, what did I say? The no-brainer fountain pens. Just like something that's getting into fountain pens. Someone that's getting into fountain pens can just look at this list and purchase something. And know they're going to get something that's good quality. And then the some-brainer fountain pens, which were like, that was more of a personal favorites list. Like it listed in a Kaia or a Mirror X or things like that. Things that you had to put a lot of thought into it. That didn't really serve its purpose in the top five list. These types of lists, I think, serve better what people are looking for. I also, in fountain pen inks and paper, instead of saying, what's my favorite, what's the most highly recommended fountain pen ink or most recommended paper, I did it by brand. Because I didn't think it was really right to sort it by color, if that makes sense, for what this list is trying to accomplish. You should know that if you're going to buy Pilot Orochizuku ink, you're going to get a great ink that performs well, behaves well, is easy to clean. You can just pick whichever color speaks to you. There's no reason for me to put a Pilot Orochizuku Konpeki on there. That doesn't serve the meaning of this list. Same thing with paper. You know, I put Rodia down there. Rodia makes awesome paper no matter which style you buy. So you find the style that speaks to you the most. Is it the graph paper, blank, line, dot grid, you know, top bound, staple bound? There's a million different things. I don't need to narrow it down that much. Just know that if you're going to buy Rodia, it's going to be really good paper. So those were kind of the biggest changes. And like I said, I think the feedback was super positive. People want to see more of my personal stuff. So I'm going to start, I'll either start it this week or I might wait until April 1st. I'm going to start logging what I use every day into a notebook so I can have at least a monthly post of, here's the stuff I used the most over the past month. Because I think people want to see that too. So what are your thoughts on these changes?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm happy that you've gone down this route.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because I think it makes sense for people, as we were talking about last week, for people that are coming to your website, right?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because they're not necessarily there with you. I like that it's kind of like a notes from the editor. Yeah. That's kind of how I look at it. Like, it's like editor's note.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. Yeah. Under each little section, I have a little note if I feel I have something additional to add. And that's more from a personal perspective.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm very, very happy you have buy links. Although there doesn't appear to be any affiliates on them.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Well, that's a conversation we can have offline. But there's not direct affiliates to the places that I link to.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Okay. I understand that. That makes sense. Because you've got specialized places. It's not Amazon, all of this stuff.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Exactly. Exactly. I mean, I could go in and find anything that's on Amazon. But that's just... Don't do that. You've... No need for that.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Servicing people, I think. But yeah, having buy buttons is a good thing.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Actually, I've gotten some good comment on that. Which I was surprised. I'm not... You know, I shouldn't be surprised. But I was like, oh, thanks for doing that. I was like, oh, okay, good. I'm glad someone finds that useful.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I guess one of the things is one of your sponsors is someone that you're sending it to a lot, right? So it kind of just... I'm sure it all ties in for JetPens, right? Because that's where most of this stuff is.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. So probably out of the buy links, I don't have a count. It's got to be greater than 75% go to JetPens. Just because that's where you can get a lot of this stuff. And I'm happy to support them. They support me. And so, yeah. I mean, it certainly helps out the pen addict as a whole. And allows me to do things like hire additional writers when I need to.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You have a missing close bracket on Field Notes for the buy. Okay.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. I will fix that. I keep... There's definitely a few things I've had to go and fix. I see another one now. I see a second one, too. Right above... In the section above that, there's another one. So, yes. I will go back and get those. But good. I'm glad you feel that it's generally...

'''Myke Hurley:''' I think the list is great.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because I think it's clear. You've made some changes here that I think are great just in general. I like the new descriptions for the lists and stuff. I think, yeah. I think this is all around a really, really great addition. And I think it's a nice evolution for a page that I assume will grow even bigger and bigger over time. Yeah.