Premature Blogging Death Notice(onemanandhisblog.com)
onemanandhisblog.com
Premature Blogging Death Notice
https://onemanandhisblog.com/2021/10/premature-blogging-death-notice/
49 comments
Agreed. For my personal blog, I don't care about things like SEO. I just write whatever crosses my mind. I learned something cool this week? Let me write it down. I learned something that makes me more productive or scratches an itch? Let me write a short, 300 word post.
And some of those posts then start bringing in organic traffic. Who would have thought that so many people have trouble with vmmem on Windows? Or that so many people want to bridge networks with a Synology device?
And I've lost count how many times I searched on my own blog for a solution to a problem I had :))
And some of those posts then start bringing in organic traffic. Who would have thought that so many people have trouble with vmmem on Windows? Or that so many people want to bridge networks with a Synology device?
And I've lost count how many times I searched on my own blog for a solution to a problem I had :))
I agree. I've been blogging since the early 2000s and my blog is basically just a (sometimes retroactively embarrassing) brain dump for myself. Earlier on I cared more about comments and stats and such, but nowadays I just write into the ether as diary of sorts.
Congrats on 20 years! That's an impressive milestone.
I agree about the audience factor. It's kind of funny to receive emailed tips from readers who describe themselves as an obvious target audience, and therefore the following changes should be made to the blog... :-)
I agree about the audience factor. It's kind of funny to receive emailed tips from readers who describe themselves as an obvious target audience, and therefore the following changes should be made to the blog... :-)
My blog turns 21 this year. It grew out of a mailing list I was using to distribute amusing or interesting things to friends. My "readership" is still pretty much only my friends, but it's still fun to do, and still nice to have a place to put these things that isn't Facebook or whatever.
It’s the difference between someone with something to say and someone with something to sell.
It's closely related to how, in some circles, everything needs to be a "side hustle" or otherwise be connected to making money in some way.
>Why do we need an "audience"?
It's not a requirement, especially for those like you. But most people write with the hope that people read their writing. We can debate the importance of this but can't deny the motivation of why people write.
If you don't care about an audience, why spend the effort to maintain an online presence that requires time and money?
It's not a requirement, especially for those like you. But most people write with the hope that people read their writing. We can debate the importance of this but can't deny the motivation of why people write.
If you don't care about an audience, why spend the effort to maintain an online presence that requires time and money?
> If you don't care about an audience, why spend the effort to maintain an online presence that requires time and money?
1. The cost is minimal ($5/mo)
2. The time is roughly the same as not putting it online, as the time consuming activity is the writing itself.
3. Putting it online makes it easier for me to access my own writings from anywhere when I need to jog my memory.
I've literally pulled out my phone and went to one of my blog posts to share an embedded photo of something with someone in person while telling the story I shared on the post in a social gathering, much the same way others will use google on their phone to do similar.
4. Putting it online makes it possible for others to access it. I don't /need/ an audience, but I also think that "sharing is caring" and that sharing my thoughts, experiences, and knowledge online allows for the Internet to grow as a repository of human knowledge in some small way further enhancing the world.
1. The cost is minimal ($5/mo)
2. The time is roughly the same as not putting it online, as the time consuming activity is the writing itself.
3. Putting it online makes it easier for me to access my own writings from anywhere when I need to jog my memory.
I've literally pulled out my phone and went to one of my blog posts to share an embedded photo of something with someone in person while telling the story I shared on the post in a social gathering, much the same way others will use google on their phone to do similar.
4. Putting it online makes it possible for others to access it. I don't /need/ an audience, but I also think that "sharing is caring" and that sharing my thoughts, experiences, and knowledge online allows for the Internet to grow as a repository of human knowledge in some small way further enhancing the world.
I think there are degrees of this.
On the one hand, it's unreasonable to expect that you will have thousands of visitors every day to your blog. Some may get that, but most never will.
On the other hand, it's nice to get visitors that can pass the Voight-Kampff test. Googlebot, Bingbot, Yandexbot and that lot are cool and all, but it's somewhat discouraging when they are your only readership. I get writing for yourself is a thing, but then you might as well not put it online. The greatest part of the blogosphere is the exchange of ideas, the dialogue.
There is a serious discoverability problem in personal websites in general. Search engines and algorithmic content aggregators are part of the problem, but I think an understated part is that we've stopped linking to other websites.
It's like people think they need to trap the visitor on their site by having no exits and only promoting their own stuff. Feeling trapped is not a good feeling. What is a good feeling is discovering something cool, the experience of exploration feels good. We should treat our visitors to that.
Blog rolls, link lists, whatever you want to call it, they help your readers find more cool websites. That helps the blogosphere/indieweb/personal website-space in general. It also helps search engines find those websites and understand their importance better.
Linking is free, it's not a marriage proposal either. You can just link to something that you liked, because you liked it.
On the one hand, it's unreasonable to expect that you will have thousands of visitors every day to your blog. Some may get that, but most never will.
On the other hand, it's nice to get visitors that can pass the Voight-Kampff test. Googlebot, Bingbot, Yandexbot and that lot are cool and all, but it's somewhat discouraging when they are your only readership. I get writing for yourself is a thing, but then you might as well not put it online. The greatest part of the blogosphere is the exchange of ideas, the dialogue.
There is a serious discoverability problem in personal websites in general. Search engines and algorithmic content aggregators are part of the problem, but I think an understated part is that we've stopped linking to other websites.
It's like people think they need to trap the visitor on their site by having no exits and only promoting their own stuff. Feeling trapped is not a good feeling. What is a good feeling is discovering something cool, the experience of exploration feels good. We should treat our visitors to that.
Blog rolls, link lists, whatever you want to call it, they help your readers find more cool websites. That helps the blogosphere/indieweb/personal website-space in general. It also helps search engines find those websites and understand their importance better.
Linking is free, it's not a marriage proposal either. You can just link to something that you liked, because you liked it.
It is connected.
It used to be that it was good advice to avoid linking out because it could very easily affect ranking negatively, or at least give competitors (either real or imaginary) an advantage.
... and the advice was also that if you did link you should add sone attribute to tell Google you didn't endorse the site. This was a good idea for comment fields but I think it became more of a general gospel in SEO circles.
Personally I don't care about Google anymore. I link to whatever I want. Wish more people would do the same instead of "building an audience".
It used to be that it was good advice to avoid linking out because it could very easily affect ranking negatively, or at least give competitors (either real or imaginary) an advantage.
... and the advice was also that if you did link you should add sone attribute to tell Google you didn't endorse the site. This was a good idea for comment fields but I think it became more of a general gospel in SEO circles.
Personally I don't care about Google anymore. I link to whatever I want. Wish more people would do the same instead of "building an audience".
I'd add one other option if you care about audience but don't care about monetization and that is to write for various sites. It restricts you subject matter and style of course. On the other hand, you usually get at least some copyediting and a built-in audience. Your company may even have blogs/sites you can write for.
I still (fitfully) maintain a personal blog that's also an index to my podcasts but most of my professional blogging/writing these days goes to a variety of established sites.
I still (fitfully) maintain a personal blog that's also an index to my podcasts but most of my professional blogging/writing these days goes to a variety of established sites.
[deleted]
I feel like most of the complaints that make people think blogging is dead is because it's hard to "build an audience", but I've never really understood why that matters. I have had a blog more or less non-stop since 2001, and never once was "building an audience" a goal. M
Some people hope to actually make a living with their writing. Some are..look at all the people with 1000s of subs on Substack.
How can insights be useful to others if no one sees them. That is the whole point of having an audience.
Some people hope to actually make a living with their writing. Some are..look at all the people with 1000s of subs on Substack.
How can insights be useful to others if no one sees them. That is the whole point of having an audience.
>> How can insights be useful to others if no one sees them. That is the whole point of having an audience.
Your point ignores what the poster says and then doubles down on "audience". People setting out purely to "make money" often focus heavily on "building an audience" rather than "crafting content for an audience". There is a very subtle difference which results in them burning out before they hit critical mass, or strong competition from people who are ostensibly just writing for fun.
The point of writing down your insights, even with only a minimal audience, is that you capture and refine them. They may be worth much more to an individual in a consulting reference than as Substack subs. The context always matters though, but not everyone can have 1000s of subs on Substack or whatever replaces it.
Your point ignores what the poster says and then doubles down on "audience". People setting out purely to "make money" often focus heavily on "building an audience" rather than "crafting content for an audience". There is a very subtle difference which results in them burning out before they hit critical mass, or strong competition from people who are ostensibly just writing for fun.
The point of writing down your insights, even with only a minimal audience, is that you capture and refine them. They may be worth much more to an individual in a consulting reference than as Substack subs. The context always matters though, but not everyone can have 1000s of subs on Substack or whatever replaces it.
>People setting out purely to "make money" often focus heavily on "building an audience" rather than "crafting content for an audience"
The issue is not just burnout. It's that an emphasis on pageviews can (though doesn't necessarily) lead to crafting content that attracts clicks and engagement rather than content that actually benefits a potential audience (and yourself).
It's not binary of course. Headline writers have been crafting titles that entice readers to read the rest of the text before there were clicks. But it's certainly more prevalent on the web.
The issue is not just burnout. It's that an emphasis on pageviews can (though doesn't necessarily) lead to crafting content that attracts clicks and engagement rather than content that actually benefits a potential audience (and yourself).
It's not binary of course. Headline writers have been crafting titles that entice readers to read the rest of the text before there were clicks. But it's certainly more prevalent on the web.
The golden age of blog was long ago back, which was not only before current kinds of social media but also in a time when it was literally impossible to make a living from writing a blog, even a quite popular one, because the monetization options simply were not there, and the total addressable audience was smaller as well.
So going back to that certainly would not (by itself) mean the death of blogging.
So going back to that certainly would not (by itself) mean the death of blogging.
> I have had a blog more or less non-stop since 2001, and never once was "building an audience" a goal. My blog is written for my own self, as a place that records discoveries, knowledge, and thoughts so I can read them again later, shared so that they might be useful to others and as a way to connect with friends and family who already know about my blog directly.
I’ve been doing it since the last century. In fact, my personal site[0] is stale as hell, and still has the original table-based layout that was considered “cutting edge,” back then.
I’ve never really given a damn whether or not anyone reads my stuff.
This is where I tend to dump my thoughts, these days[1].
[0] https://cmarshall.com
[1] https://littlegreenviper.com/miscellany
I’ve been doing it since the last century. In fact, my personal site[0] is stale as hell, and still has the original table-based layout that was considered “cutting edge,” back then.
I’ve never really given a damn whether or not anyone reads my stuff.
This is where I tend to dump my thoughts, these days[1].
[0] https://cmarshall.com
[1] https://littlegreenviper.com/miscellany
While I did not have access to the Internet in the previous century, I began blogging in 2001 as soon as I got access to the Internet at my university. At first I played a little with GeoCities. Then I began developing my own personal website.
It was not a reverse-chronological list of posts that we see in typical blogs today. Instead it was a loose collection of webpages with thoughts that I cared to jot down and share with others. Yes, it used table-based layout too! And then later I overzealously overengineered it with ASP-based dynamic pages.
I have now lost that original ASP code. But I still have some of its content and maintain it in blog format[1]. I take quick notes and share quick tidbits here. It now uses CSS and is statically generated with a simple Common Lisp program.
[1] https://susam.in/maze/
It was not a reverse-chronological list of posts that we see in typical blogs today. Instead it was a loose collection of webpages with thoughts that I cared to jot down and share with others. Yes, it used table-based layout too! And then later I overzealously overengineered it with ASP-based dynamic pages.
I have now lost that original ASP code. But I still have some of its content and maintain it in blog format[1]. I take quick notes and share quick tidbits here. It now uses CSS and is statically generated with a simple Common Lisp program.
[1] https://susam.in/maze/
What one may call "stale" I might call fun and interesting. That website certainly applies; I always enjoy seeing nice little places like that with an Old Web look!
I'm just as tired of "X isn't dead" posts that take the phrase too literally.
Sure, blogging still exists... but blogging was the "thing" for a while, and now it's not the "thing." Even with any sort of revival, everyone already knows what it is, so it will never hit a peak with the same energy. No one's going to explain what blogging is during prime time on CNN.
Blogging is dead. Just like punk and disco are dead. They peaked and were co-opted by corporate interests to make profit (and that peaked too). "Real" blogging still exists, but relatively speaking, no one cares (and that's ok).
Sure, blogging still exists... but blogging was the "thing" for a while, and now it's not the "thing." Even with any sort of revival, everyone already knows what it is, so it will never hit a peak with the same energy. No one's going to explain what blogging is during prime time on CNN.
Blogging is dead. Just like punk and disco are dead. They peaked and were co-opted by corporate interests to make profit (and that peaked too). "Real" blogging still exists, but relatively speaking, no one cares (and that's ok).
"no one cares"
Ah, that's the key issue.
As long as whoever is doing it is continuing, it's still alive. The key lesson of the Internet, learned from the punks, is reified in Rule 34: You're Not The Only One. There are an infinite number of long tails.
Can you make infinitely scalable money at it? If that's the only thing that concerns you, no. Go away. Every community is better off without you.
If you love it, can you make some money at it? Maybe, but you're likely to love it less if it becomes your livelihood.
Ah, that's the key issue.
As long as whoever is doing it is continuing, it's still alive. The key lesson of the Internet, learned from the punks, is reified in Rule 34: You're Not The Only One. There are an infinite number of long tails.
Can you make infinitely scalable money at it? If that's the only thing that concerns you, no. Go away. Every community is better off without you.
If you love it, can you make some money at it? Maybe, but you're likely to love it less if it becomes your livelihood.
> I'm just as tired of "X isn't dead" posts that take the phrase too literally.
I think the main irritation from the side that's tired of premature "X is dead" posts is that one feels that voicing such things hastens its true death. "X isn't dead" posts are to counterbalance.
I don't know what the prevalent interpretation of "is dead" is, but I would consider it to be when something can't easily be found in existence. I don't think things are dead simply because they're no longer on CNN.
If we're to keep the metaphor, blogging is no longer in its prime years. It's more like in its middle-age, and being middle-aged is not being dead.
I think the main irritation from the side that's tired of premature "X is dead" posts is that one feels that voicing such things hastens its true death. "X isn't dead" posts are to counterbalance.
I don't know what the prevalent interpretation of "is dead" is, but I would consider it to be when something can't easily be found in existence. I don't think things are dead simply because they're no longer on CNN.
If we're to keep the metaphor, blogging is no longer in its prime years. It's more like in its middle-age, and being middle-aged is not being dead.
>Why do people keep trying to declare that blogging is dead?
Because the blogging ecosystem now is nothing like what it was 10-15 years ago. It's significantly more difficult to find and maintain an audience.
The main ways a reader can find your blog:
#3 and #4 have changed profoundly since blogging's heyday. Social media sites work hard to keep you in their walled garden, and RSS readers just aren't used as much as they once were.
As the article points out, newsletters are alive and well because email is a clever workaround for the issues noted above.
Because the blogging ecosystem now is nothing like what it was 10-15 years ago. It's significantly more difficult to find and maintain an audience.
The main ways a reader can find your blog:
1. aggregator or news site like HN links to it
2. arrives via search engine
3. is a regular reader via subscription or syndication
4. social media
#3 and #4 have changed profoundly since blogging's heyday. Social media sites work hard to keep you in their walled garden, and RSS readers just aren't used as much as they once were.
As the article points out, newsletters are alive and well because email is a clever workaround for the issues noted above.
Having tried to launch a blog myself I definitely think you are correct that self hosting makes things hard. Getting exposure is quite difficult, and getting to eg. HN front page or similar is basically your only way of achieving growth, and that's very much hit and miss.
word of mouth is a huge deal, I think
if people are not compelled enough by your content to want to share it, your blogging 'career' is DOA
if people are not compelled enough by your content to want to share it, your blogging 'career' is DOA
I feel like blogging isn't dead, though I do feel feel like "building your own website to post your thoughts" largely is. Obviously there are outliers, but I remember the late 90's/early 2000's where there were thousands of individual sites across hundreds of free/paid web hosting companies, a lot of which existed because they felt like they could express themselves more easily.
IIRC that was more or less the genesis for Something Awful and The Best Page in the Universe, but it does kind of feel like now there's only like a dozen sites I ever go on now. Reddit has more or less subsumed forums, Medium (and a few competitors) has more or less subsumed blogging, YouTube has more or less subsumed any other video host, etc.
I do think that overall it's better; even if there's less diversity in sites, these sites do make it easier for the non-technical person to share their opinions, so you could argue there's an increased diversity of thought, and I do think people view the late 90's internet with rose-colored glasses, but I still kind of miss it.
IIRC that was more or less the genesis for Something Awful and The Best Page in the Universe, but it does kind of feel like now there's only like a dozen sites I ever go on now. Reddit has more or less subsumed forums, Medium (and a few competitors) has more or less subsumed blogging, YouTube has more or less subsumed any other video host, etc.
I do think that overall it's better; even if there's less diversity in sites, these sites do make it easier for the non-technical person to share their opinions, so you could argue there's an increased diversity of thought, and I do think people view the late 90's internet with rose-colored glasses, but I still kind of miss it.
Agree..a lot of blogging has moved to Medium and Substack
>This will be news to all the bloggers out there still successfully publishing things and getting read on the internet.
"Died off" simply means the author doesn't use it. RSS and Firefox are widely reported as dead, and surely buried somewhere near the BSDs.
When you change the people around you to be more like you, those who differ no longer exist. So any voice that disagrees can not be human like you. This is the power of social media. Not a reaper of stale software and stuffy practices, but a surgical scythe on the user's sympathy for others.
"Died off" simply means the author doesn't use it. RSS and Firefox are widely reported as dead, and surely buried somewhere near the BSDs.
When you change the people around you to be more like you, those who differ no longer exist. So any voice that disagrees can not be human like you. This is the power of social media. Not a reaper of stale software and stuffy practices, but a surgical scythe on the user's sympathy for others.
This is similar to claims that cameras are obsoleted by smart phones.
It's only true insofar as the timeline being examined starts at the peak of the consumer camera frenzy. But well before a large chunk of consumers had point-and-shoot cameras, amateur photography was very much a thing. And still is.
Blogging existed well before social networks, going by its earlier name of "weblog" or even "home page". There was a frenzy where many people started blogging on tools like blogger, blogspot, wordpress, etc; and then many eventually switched to forms of self expression that had more gratifying feedback loops. But the characteristics of the original demographic of bloggers haven't changed and many quality blogs still exist (with new ones springing up) where there is a motivation to communicate in long(er) form and focus on substance, not so much community building or gratification.
It's only true insofar as the timeline being examined starts at the peak of the consumer camera frenzy. But well before a large chunk of consumers had point-and-shoot cameras, amateur photography was very much a thing. And still is.
Blogging existed well before social networks, going by its earlier name of "weblog" or even "home page". There was a frenzy where many people started blogging on tools like blogger, blogspot, wordpress, etc; and then many eventually switched to forms of self expression that had more gratifying feedback loops. But the characteristics of the original demographic of bloggers haven't changed and many quality blogs still exist (with new ones springing up) where there is a motivation to communicate in long(er) form and focus on substance, not so much community building or gratification.
My humble blog[1] is still up & running from 2000 (I changed domain name, but ported the articles[2]).
I am not an native English-speaker, so forgive my spelling error :)
I write for remembering I have freedom of speech in my Country ([3]) , for notes for me and my coworker (a "knowledgebase").
Last but not least I have integrated google translate in hope to be kindly people with other languages.
So I hope blogging is not dead, I still write and I will write for the next 20 years at least.
[1]: http://gioorgi.com
[2]: https://gioorgi.com/category/blog-objectsrootcom/
[3]: https://gioorgi.com/tag/politica/
I am not an native English-speaker, so forgive my spelling error :)
I write for remembering I have freedom of speech in my Country ([3]) , for notes for me and my coworker (a "knowledgebase").
Last but not least I have integrated google translate in hope to be kindly people with other languages.
So I hope blogging is not dead, I still write and I will write for the next 20 years at least.
[1]: http://gioorgi.com
[2]: https://gioorgi.com/category/blog-objectsrootcom/
[3]: https://gioorgi.com/tag/politica/
What I see is not so much the death of blogging, people certainly still do it and there are always going to be people doing that. Even when diaries were private and only for themselves.
The death is in communication and engagement (not the growth hacker kind, the human kind) amongst writers and readers. I don’t think most people are looking for a huge audience, but even a small number of people who regularly read and give the author some kind of feedback is a big incentive.
These days there is so so much noise, comment sections are dead due to SEO/spam, and it’s easy to feel like you’re just shouting into the ether without any hope of human connect across any amount of space or time.
The death is in communication and engagement (not the growth hacker kind, the human kind) amongst writers and readers. I don’t think most people are looking for a huge audience, but even a small number of people who regularly read and give the author some kind of feedback is a big incentive.
These days there is so so much noise, comment sections are dead due to SEO/spam, and it’s easy to feel like you’re just shouting into the ether without any hope of human connect across any amount of space or time.
Blogging is evolving could be a better way to put it. It is not just social media, there are places like dev.to, medium and substack where blogging is happening. These are not necessarily social media as categorised like FB,Twitter.
Also, there are a lot of static site generators now. Jekyll, Hugo and Pelican are some of the ones that comes to my mind now. They are making blogging more accessible IMO.
Ironically enough, I started blogging a couple of years ago because of social media. I found that social media is not a place for having/sharing concise and thought through ideas or conversations. It is a place to share instantaneous thoughts which are mostly emotionally charged and therefore could be emotionally taxing or unproductive.
But having a blog let's me share my thoughts in a better way instead of a tweet for example. And the audience seems to be much better than in a social media too.
It is like in a way yelling my thoughts from the top of a mountain. There is a chance that someone could hear it, but that is not why you are there, yelling, in the first place.
...Also to occupy my lil corner in the world wide web too!
Also, there are a lot of static site generators now. Jekyll, Hugo and Pelican are some of the ones that comes to my mind now. They are making blogging more accessible IMO.
Ironically enough, I started blogging a couple of years ago because of social media. I found that social media is not a place for having/sharing concise and thought through ideas or conversations. It is a place to share instantaneous thoughts which are mostly emotionally charged and therefore could be emotionally taxing or unproductive.
But having a blog let's me share my thoughts in a better way instead of a tweet for example. And the audience seems to be much better than in a social media too.
It is like in a way yelling my thoughts from the top of a mountain. There is a chance that someone could hear it, but that is not why you are there, yelling, in the first place.
...Also to occupy my lil corner in the world wide web too!
1000% agree. Blogging has some significant virtues:
But there are a lot of strengths.
* decentralized
* robust
* standards based (HTML, RSS)
* allows freedom to innovate
* some robust OSS options available with different tradeoffs
* built-in distribution mechanism (URL, sharing on social platforms, SEO)
But there are a lot of strengths.
For the vast number of writers, direct monetization is a pipe dream in any format. The unfortunate thing is that too many people try to monetize and distract from their writing (or let the monetization actively pollute their writing) as a result.
ADDED: To be clear, I don't find anything wrong with some incidental affiliate links for things you like or doing reviews/write-ups of items you're given for free--so long as your reviews are honest and the fact that you received the item for free is disclosed. And nothing wrong with Patreon links either. My objection is to plastering ads all over the place and coloring your writing.
ADDED: To be clear, I don't find anything wrong with some incidental affiliate links for things you like or doing reviews/write-ups of items you're given for free--so long as your reviews are honest and the fact that you received the item for free is disclosed. And nothing wrong with Patreon links either. My objection is to plastering ads all over the place and coloring your writing.
100% agree that you shouldn't start a blog to monetize. I was just pointing that out as a weakness of blogs. (I've tried a couple of things in my ~2 decades of blogging; none brought in more than a dinner out or two.)
Talk to the folks who write books (I have). Money is nice, but it is secondary to a whole host of other benefits:
Talk to the folks who write books (I have). Money is nice, but it is secondary to a whole host of other benefits:
* expertise gained
* credentialing
* an accomplishment they can point to
* reachAbsolutely. I've written books--both self-published and through a publisher--and, to be honest, they probably impress people professionally more than they should. But the money has been in the noise for someone with a decent tech job.
> they probably impress people professionally more than they should
Wish I could upvote this 10x.
Folks, if you are thinking about writing a book and have done anything else difficult (marathon, big peak, startup, having kids, thesis, etc), you can do it! It's a matter of discipline and time.
Now, whether the book will be a big seller or not... The answer is probably not. But, as I mention above, you'll learn a lot and as @ghaff mentions, it will be professionally impressive.
Wish I could upvote this 10x.
Folks, if you are thinking about writing a book and have done anything else difficult (marathon, big peak, startup, having kids, thesis, etc), you can do it! It's a matter of discipline and time.
Now, whether the book will be a big seller or not... The answer is probably not. But, as I mention above, you'll learn a lot and as @ghaff mentions, it will be professionally impressive.
> and doesn't have a straightforward monetization strategy
I've seen a few bloggers doing 'sponsored posts' where they ask companies if they'd like an article discussing the company's product(s).
(There is a dark side to that too. Some posts don't declare they're sponsored and are secretly astroturfing/shilling products, so keep that in mind).
There is also affiliate marketing which has been a staple for many bloggers even since the early days. Check out Commission Junction.
I've seen a few bloggers doing 'sponsored posts' where they ask companies if they'd like an article discussing the company's product(s).
(There is a dark side to that too. Some posts don't declare they're sponsored and are secretly astroturfing/shilling products, so keep that in mind).
There is also affiliate marketing which has been a staple for many bloggers even since the early days. Check out Commission Junction.
I think of blogging more as a way to illustrate to my potential future employers how I think, and approach solving problems. Consequently, it also helps me get better at articulating problems and talking about things in a clear and concise way, thus I become a better communicator with every post I write. Now if someone discovers my stuff via a search engine or social media, that's great! But, it's definitely not why I do it.
So... blogging is no where near death. There's plenty of traditional written word blogs, but last I looked, audio and video podcasts are doing great, too. A podcast is an RSS feed with a media payload, and the sites that host them are ... blogs (even if dressed up as "podcasting/audience engagement platforms").
It's not that it's dead but unless you gain the necessary viralnes and or name recognition, you will just be mostly writing to yourself. It's a market dominated by a handful of large winners. It's always been this way and no evidence to suggest things are getting easier.
Social media platforms provide a market with tools to get you exposed to much larger audiences with less effort. Blogging on your own leaves it up to you to find other tools to get that audience. It's the same as selling on Amazon vs. selling on your own.
Of course most people are going to flock to the easy route. That doesn't mean that old route ceases to function. The frequency of the old use may go down. And maybe it will go to zero - at which point one could argue death. But it's not really dead until it's no longer possible. And while social media might suck a lot of air out of the room, no one has taken it all yet.
Of course most people are going to flock to the easy route. That doesn't mean that old route ceases to function. The frequency of the old use may go down. And maybe it will go to zero - at which point one could argue death. But it's not really dead until it's no longer possible. And while social media might suck a lot of air out of the room, no one has taken it all yet.
Blogging is subject to network effects, it was a social network. The users have moved on to the commercial social networks who manage privacy and security to some extent.
Yeah, it's dead.
Yeah, it's dead.
Blogging is just taking a nap, waiting for new frameworks and platforms to appear which re-enable it.
Why does it need those things? Blogging doesn't need a lot of technically complicated infrastructure.
I think it's less about technical infrastructure (which, I agree, does not need to be complicated) and more about interfaces which facilitate its use and networks which facilitate reading and feedback.
And the other missing piece, IMO, something which makes blogging cool again. :)
And the other missing piece, IMO, something which makes blogging cool again. :)
Why do we need an "audience"? Many of the most honest and interesting contemporaneous writing in human history was written as private memoirs or journals, and blogging originated out of journaling. There's never been a need for an audience to derive value from writing, and that hasn't changed, we've just accepted the bargain social media has tempted us with to "make us famous" off of feeding their user-generated content machine. Being famous was never the goal of starting a blog, and it shouldn't surprise anyone that many many people continue to blog without any desire to be made famous.