Forum Moderators: rogerd
Thinking about launching your own blog? Here's some friendly advice: Don't. And if you've already got one, pull the plug.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.
If you quit now, you're in good company. Notorious chatterbox Jason Calacanis made millions from his Weblogs network. But he flat-out retired his own blog in July. "Blogging is simply too big, too impersonal, and lacks the intimacy that drew me to it," he wrote in his final post.
I'm being facetious, but the point is that like a good website in the 90s a good blog is still a good source of info for the reader and a good way to get a following today. Retreating to a closed circle of friends is probably friendlier, but won't make you millions like poor Jason...
Paul Boutin is a correspondent for the Silicon Valley gossip site Valleywag.
Okay, after reading that and getting to the closing line above, it is clear what that post is, its gossip, that's all. :)
It won't be long before Twitter, Flickr and Facebook are out, they are the current fads. Social Media is being invaded right now by the same folks who made Blogs the nightmare that they are today. SM sites are appearing every day. I wonder how many are actually being launched as we speak!
What I see happening are people combining the use of all technologies available to them. They have a Blog attached to their main website. Some have even installed a SM platform to allow their visitors to communicate with them Twitter style. Heck, with all the plugins available today, you can build a site and not put any content on it. You just rely on the content coming from the plugins and there is a bunch of it! I've found a few of those sites too. They scrape the public timelines and then regurgitate within their own site for added "free content".
If you are going to take this advice, be prepared for an investment in time. I know, I just went through the process from 2008-07-24 to 2008-10-24. In that 90 days, I generated close to 7,500 updates, hundreds of followers and all sorts of new acquaintences and friends.
Think of SM as IM but with hundreds of contacts instead of just a few. Oh, and that 140 character limitation? I've found ways to do 250 characters, works like a charm! Bottom line? TIME SUCK!
