If you haven’t seen me waving my hands frantically and screaming on the Interwebs for the past few days, I’ll catch you up really quickly:  I started a new blog called Thoughtwrestling.  If you’ve been blogging for any length of time, then you know that it can be a challenge to maintain one blog, let alone multiple.  So why on earth would I want more than one blog?

I’ll try to keep this succinct:

Broadcasting Brain appears to have limited growth potential without substantial change

I have created this neat little melange of social media, psychology, pop culture and personal opinion, but it’s kind of unfocused and a bit unpredictable.  I know some of you like that (and I do, too) but it’s an acquired taste that probably isn’t going to take over the world any time soon.  I don’t want it to, either.

Broadcasting Brain has structural/infrastructure issues that I don’t feel are worth fixing.

My blogging pal Michael Martine of Remarkablogger once wrote about creating a starter blog to experiment with before you run out and create your “real” blog.  I’m paraphrasing him, but that’s the essential message.

That’s how I’ve come to view Broadcasting Brain – as a starter blog (even thought it wasn’t my first blog). There are things that I would have done differently if I had started today (domain name, permalinks, categories, etc.)  but I really have no desire or will to try to change them now.

I can take everything I’ve learned to date and apply it to Thoughtwrestling.

Broadcasting Brain is my baby and it is almost indistinguishable from me.

I see some advantages in starting a new blog that is not so closely identified with me that I can view more impartially.  That just isn’t going to happen here.  Another reason why I decided to create a new blog.

I want to create a new platform with the potential for growth for both myself and a band of intrepid colleagues.

Other than all of the “interviews” that I’ve done here at Broadcasting Brain, I create all of the content myself.  I just don’t see myself opening up this blog to contributors.  Again, it’s too strongly associated with me.

Thoughtwrestling is designed to be a platform for multiple authors and collaboration, with myself in the role of founder and editor-in-chief.  At the same time, I’ve gotten a great group of people who have agreed to contribute to the blog in some fashion and I trust in their abilities to create excellent content.  Similar blogs would be Dumb Little Man or Pick The Brain (although Thoughtwrestling isn’t attempting to cover exactly the same space as these two great blogs).

Plus there are some things that I’ve done in the design of Thoughtwrestling to allow room for future growth.

I want a way to better capitalize on my actual work skills and experience.

For various reasons, I don’t create much content about my employer or my day job.  The material that I publish here has virtually nothing to do with either.  I still won’t talk about my employer at Thoughtwrestling, but I can incorporate my work skills into that platform more naturally.

I want to have a platform that focuses more strongly on helping other people.

Thoughtwrestling is intended to give people knowledge and tools to do better work.  Broadcasting Brain is my soapbox, my Op Ed column to the world.  It”s more focused on me emptying out the contents of my brain than anything else.

I want to have a blog that allows me to do whatever the heck I want to do.

That would be Broadcasting Brain.  It’s really always been a personal blog with most of the personal omitted.

So those are my rationales, for what they are worth.  Broadcasting Brain isn’t going away any time soon.  In fact, I think I’ll enjoy it more with this change in focus.

I do hope you’ll check out Thoughtwrestling, but I also hope you stick around here, too.

Other posts that you might enjoy reading:

• Take the conn dear reader – strut your stuff!
• The best bloggers are world builders
• A new blogging resource – The Blogging Lens
• Speedlinking and a status report – January 29 2010
• Maybe Every Thought Aggregates