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.
Related stories:
Blogging Is Not A Minority Sport
The Grind and Crunch of Blog Production
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April 28th, 2007 at 12:55 am
I agree. The number of blogs not being updated is not a good measure of how healthy or popular blogging is. Everything that gets super popular quickly is bound to slow down eventually.
It’s so true that you have to keep going even when you don’t feel like it. You also have to ignore the traffic (or lack thereof) or that becomes too much of an influence on how you value your own work. It’s a tough trap to fall into.
April 28th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
[…] Eric Berlin is correct in saying that quality is far more important that quantity. […]
April 28th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
I’m driven by the concept of quality. My “drafts” are so numerous because I sit on them unsure of the importance of the content. I don’t just stick something on. It is tough to find the time to articulate a piece but it’s rewarding in some strange feeling. Heck, I feel I offer better content than my local paper sometimes. I actually take this seriously. I always say to myself, “man, I wish I had more resources to refine myself even better.” By this I mean access to information and traveling to the places I write about etc.
As for popularity, everything I’m told to do to drive up traffic has little to do with quality. I’ve accepted my traffic numbers. I believe that I offer quality. because I take writing as a craft seriously.
April 28th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
Yeah, um, ignore the punctuation and grammar…. :
April 29th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
I agree. The number of blogs not being updated is not a good measure of how healthy or popular blogging is. Everything that gets super popular quickly is bound to slow down eventually.
April 29th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Eric F - Totally agreed. Working on a piece right now about fighting through lack of motivation… which I argue, usually requires some kind of compulsion to keep on going! I applaud anyone who can keep on pumping out quality content day-after-day, year-after-year. That’s certainly my goal.
April 29th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
Alesandro, your concentration on quality makes you a rare breed, so that should give you some level of motivation right there! Most bloggers (myself included) bang out copy, do some level of self-editing, and then jam the publish button. Sometimes I have the luxury of letting stories percolate and improve over time, but the other demands and responsibilities I have simply don’t allow for a lot of that.
April 29th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
xinebox — right, exactly. I’d love to see some kind of measure of “quality” of the blogosphere, even though it would be highly subjective. My sense is that the quality of the blogosphere keeps on rising dramatically, that people go to the blogosphere first for news and opinions more than ever before, that blogs are meshing with traditional media more than ever before, etc. That’s why talk of the blogosphere’s “declining health” simply baffles me.
April 29th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
I like Alessandro’s take on quality. Every now and then I’ll spend time writing something and then just delete it because I don’t feel it adds anything useful. Mostly I’m in the write/quick edit/publish category because of the amount of time I have available, though.
Xinebox - I’m assuming you liked the first paragraph of my first comment on this post so much that you just had to resubmit it verbatim? Or was it my questionable grammar?
April 29th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Eric F - What I’m finding recently is that I’ll start writing and then after I finish a first draft I’ll delete about the first paragraph or two. That’s usually the point where the story usually starts! The blogger’s self-editing process is fascinating to me and something you very very seldom see written about.
And very good call on the first OMC in-post comment plagiarism ;-)? Maybe xinebox meant to give you a blockquote there?
April 29th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
Eric F and Eric B: Time is indeed the biggest enemy. Self-editing can be incredibly tedious. I often find myself checking and double checking sources. Suddenly I’ll realize why am I doing this? If you don’t mind, I think I’ll tackle this on my blog. That’s if - cough - I have time.
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