Blogging is dead. Again. This time, the death knell sounds for the individual bloggers. But, as I said last year: Reports of Blogging’s Death Are Greatly Exaggerated.
A recent article in Wired, and then an echo chamber of other posts, declared that the individual blogger is a thing of the past. In fact, my stats show that What’s Next Blog has more readers now than any time in the past seven years.
In a supreme example of link bait, Paul Boutin wrote:
“Scroll down Technorati’s list of the top 100 blogs and you’ll find personal sites have been shoved aside by professional ones. Most are essentially online magazines: The Huffington Post. Engadget. TreeHugger. A stand-alone commentator can’t keep up with a team of pro writers cranking out up to 30 posts a day.”
Magazine Format Blog Posts Overwhelm
And he’s right. A lone blogger can’t keep up with writers cranking out 30 posts a day. But then again, neither can readers.
You will not convince me that anyone reads all of the hundreds of posts published every day on Huffington Post, or most other magazine format blogs. Scores of thousand-word-plus posts, 10-minute videos, seemingly endless podcasts are all too much for anyone to keep up with in our multi-tasking world.
Blogging was also declared dead in 2004, 2006 and again in 2007 when Hugh Macleod said, wisely, “of course you realize this is all crap.”
Concept: Post Only When You Have Something to Say
The individual bloggers I follow: Hugh Macleod, Toby Bloomberg, Chris Brogan, Steve Rubel, Drue Kataoka, Francine Hardaway, Charlene Li, Adriana Lukas, Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, Doc Searls, Dave Winer, Amy Gahran, and a few dozen others, write tight, and they only write when they have some actually new to say. That style of blogging isn’t going anywhere.
Posted by B.L. Ochman
Image: New Orleans Funeral, Drue Kataoka
Right on BL, also the Economist came out with a very similar article declaring blogging over http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12566826
I was much more annoyed at the Economist than I was at wired, somehow I have higher expectations of them and to think more critically and strategically so I really took them to task :-)
http://experiencecurve.com/archives/the-economist-gets-it-dead-wrong-on-social-media-fail
Cheers.
HA, I gotta get on that list of individual blogger list. But seriously, it’s inspiring to see those kind of guys stand up against the blogs who have tons of writers and marketers, those who stay in front of the computer all day and have the ability to be out there 24/7. Blogging’s not dead; it’s just in its teenage years, trying to figure out its identity.
Saying that blogging is dead is like saying that writing or music or publishing is dead. You could say that a format is dead, say LaserDisc or VHS, but a medium like blogging doesn’t really mean anything. The best we can come up with to distinguish blogs from other websites is that they are frequently updated, are more personal, are in reverse chronological order, and allow reader comments. That means we’ll always have blogging, because this is just obvious stuff.
I’ve noticed that pretty much all of the people who say blogging is dead or dying are men. Then I read this press release from BlogHer.
Women are blogging in droves. They’re connecting, expressing, and sharing. They probably don’t care if they’re A List bloggers.
Sometimes I think we in online marketing/social media forget that there’s a whole big world out there.
Hi BL,
Thanks for following my blog ValleyZen and for your interesting use of my painting. Appropriately the New Orleans funeral marches have a dirge but—they end with music that is uplifting and upbeat expressing an irrepressible
spirit.
Blogging is growing more than ever, followed much more than newspapers or other mainstream sources which are tethered to their institutional formats and methods.
Clearly the trend continues to move away from professional content towards UGC.
The fact that Google changed their algorithm and that wordpress and other platforms changed the SEO significance of links — doesn’t take away from the rise of individual bloggers. In fact, one could argue it is a reactionary development of big business trying to reassert itself.
However, disintermediation of the discourse and micro communities is where we are headed and nothing/nobody can stop this progression.
It takes a lot of work, of course, to build a large audience– but it is feasible, while only a few years ago it was impossible. And actually it’s not in the best long term interests of the blogging
community to be very easy for anybody to spam the blogosphere and build an audience, regardless of skill and effort.
BL–Somehow you manage to “drink from the media firehose” gracefully and pull out the essentials in the world of social media.
BL – sometimes a full course meal (a blog), sometimes a tapa (a tweet) and sometimes an over the top Thanksgiving dinner (community). thanks for the inclusion in your prestigious reads!
Interesting post. It does get overwhelming managing the feeds coming in from hundreds of blogs. Nevertheless, I looked at the list of blogs you follow and most of them are A-List prominent bloggers. If anything kills blogging, it’ll be because there is no room at the top for new bloggers. Beginning bloggers will grow tired of trying to generate traffic because everyone else will feel it necessary to follow the biggest blog with little time to pay attention to new emerging blogs.
Karl – you are so right about the Economist article. They totally miss the point. Like you, blogging is the storefront of my business, leading to speaking, writing and consulting assignments. But more than that, I blog because I love to write, to share information, and to meet people like you.
Exactly BL, it all comes down to what your goals are. If success was popularity i’m not winning, but if it’s about finding people who can inspire, educate, or help you then I’m certainly winning :-)
Wonderful post – particularly your point, “And he’s right. A lone blogger can’t keep up with writers cranking out 30 posts a day. But then again, neither can readers.”
And 30 posts a day does not mean out of those posts that there is a valuable piece of content. One hopes that there is, but volume does not always correlate with value.
Nettie
BL – long time no chat but I continue to follow your great insights.
In terms of someone trying to break into the “top 100” sure -that is probably not going to happen but as you and others have pointed out – blogging is so much more than that!
And it is also more than the number of “followers” and “subscribers” too. With quality information, insights and perspectives on any number of subjects – blogs will continue to grow as they archive and update specific information over time.
It’s one thing to “drink from the firehouse” of constant information – it is another when someone is really looking deeper for specific information and view points.
Blogging is so far from dead and as Drue stated above – nobody can stop this progression.
Allan – there are some recent bloggers on my list. but all of the people on the list were new bloggers when i started following them :>)
there’s always going to be room for someone with something new and wonderful to say. Sadly, there’s a shortage in that area.
Jason Calacanis retired from blogging – so freegin’ what? Sean Connery retired from acting – does that mean cinema is dead?