Blogging Quality, Not Quantity
A great deal seems to be made of Dave Sifry’s most recent State of the Live Web report, which shows among other things that while the overall number of blogs continues to rise, the number of active blogs (defined as having been updated within the last 90 days) seems to be rather stable, sitting in the 15 million range.
Valleywag asks: “why do you think the number of active bloggers is flat?” BusinessWeek’s Heather Green states succinctly that blogging “might not be for everyone.” She also goes on to note an opinion now held by many, that most people who are interested in blogging are already doing it, with others moving on to such activities as social networking and podcasting.
I see this trend as the continued maturation of the blogosphere. There is always more “room” for a high quality, engaging, and compelling blog to find an audience.
That’s why I’m a little puzzled by comments by those such as Andy Beal, who writes that the future of the blogosphere is “not quite as bright as we all thought.”
Mark Evans takes Heather Green’s analysis by writing: “Not sure if this is a trend or a break in the action but it does put the spotlight on the reality that while setting up a blog is easy, writing one is difficult after the initial enthusiasm dies off.” Evans goes on to note that the money part is significant, that those who think they will retire after blogging for a few months are almost universally disappointed.
So like any craft, blogging takes a high level of dedication and perseverance. Those who are the best and most successful at it are driven in large part by something other than money or accolades.
In essence, you have to love it enough to do it even when you don’t feel like it. You have to stretch to find something to say when you don’t feel like you have a lot to contribute, and you have to find something interesting to contribute even on days when you don’t feel all that interesting!
I’d love to see a highly subjective measure of the blogosphere that somehow assesses “quality” as opposed to mere quantity and volume and frequency. What’s the percentage of good stuff, in other words? Let’s say it’s one percent, just for argument’s sake.
That would mean there’s 15,000 high quality active blogs out there. Not bad, I say.
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