Blogging: It’s Not About Fame
In his recent article for Wired, Valleywagger Paul Boutin makes the claim that “Blogging is so 2004″ and ones’ efforts are better spent on Twitter or YouTube.
Writing a weblog today isn’t the bright idea it was four years ago. The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge. Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths. It’s almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers. And why bother? The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter.
Boutin goes on to cite Robert Scoble and Jason Calcanis as examples of ex-bloggers who’ve moved on to other forms of social media as a form of self-expression, noting their prominence in the tech sector but not stating the obvious fact that they might be on a different pulse than mainstream internet users. Of course the internet illuminati are going to move on to the next new thing, but my best friend still keeps a LiveJournal.
The main point Boutin tries to make here is that the blogosphere is overrun with poor content and amateur punditry- it is now nearly impossible for Joe Blogger’s blog entry to rise up and rank higher than a professional blog like the Huffington Post, even if the topic and the writing quality are the same. What he doesn’t consider within the essay, however, is the importance of inbound links and domain strength. Some of the most famous personal bloggers have been blogging on their domains for almost a decade- Heather Armstrong registered Dooce.com in 2000- and many receive publicity bolstered by book deals, national media attention, and speaking engagements. Corporate blogs and new outlets have the money and connections, not to mention the staff and domain strength, to quickly gain and retain popularity. Boutin’s correct about one thing- if it’s difficult to be a famous blogger now, it’s because the playing field is far from even.
However, the purpose of blogging isn’t necessarily internet fame- corporate blogs still provide an elegant, efficient means for a company to communicate on their own terms while pursuing long-tail keywords and increasing inbound links to their site, and free platforms such as Blogger and Xanga provide a creative outlet for millions of amateur writers. Blogging doesn’t require video editing tools or condensing your thoughts into 140 characters. (Some people I follow on Twitter will spread out a thought over several missives, but if what you’re saying on Twitter takes more than one tweet to convey, you’re doing it wrong.) Blogging is the means to a whole host of ends, and though there might be newer technologies out there, none are full replacements for blogs.
Ironically enough, Paul Boutin has made a name for himself as a correspondent for Valleywag, a Silicon Valley news and gossip blog (part of Nick Denton’s Gawker Media empire). So you’re reading a blog post about a blog post in which a professional blogger says blogging is passe.
Doesn’t sound like blogging’s dead to me.
October 23rd, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Great thoughts, Lauren. I agree that it’s often frustrating to get a thought across on twitter, and significant information is impossible. I see a lot of people and companies (including Apogee) Tweet titles of blog posts with a link, which seems to combine the best of both worlds.
Maybe our next T shirts should say “I read Twitter for the articles”