April 29, 2018

Are Blogs Coming Back? This One's Not Leaving

Fisher on in the forest, 2016, using the Solocator phone app.
I put "Is blogging making a comeback?" into the Duck Duck Go search engine, and learned that quite a few things are making comebacks:
  • The "humble telephone"
  • Baby names
  • Donald Trump (as of February 15, 2018)
  • Methamphetamine
  • "Jurassic Tech" (portable cassette players?)
  • Nye's Piano Bar (Minneapolis)
  • Paganism (as religions)
  • Pertussis
  • Wood paneling
  • "Dad jeans"
  • Measles
  • Print catalogs
  • Rail travel
  • MySpace (!!) (Article from April 2015)
  • Mumps
  • Four "Old School Marketing Tactics" (Direct mail!)
  • Flip phones
  • Heritage apples
  • Battleships, however, will never make a comeback
But I did hit some articles such as "Are Blogs Dead? 5 Reasons Why The Internet Says Yes, And We Say No" when I asked, "Is blogging dead?":
The blog, or weblog, has been around for about two decades. That’s a minor eternity in the Internet age, and the term blog has been a flashpoint since the beginning. There are still some who cling to the idea that blogs are written by Cheeto dust-stained losers in their parents’ basements, but the form has mostly gone mainstream. It has remained divisive, though, and it seems you can’t throw a rock without hitting a take about the impending demise of the form.

Given that we are open advocates for blogs with our clients, and that we maintain an active (and we may be biased, but brilliant) blog on the Raka site, you can probably guess where we stand. Still, let’s examine five reasons the Internet thinks blogs are dead, and why every one of those reasons is wrong.
 Or "Is Blogging Dead?" No, but bad blogging is dead.
But if I had to be honest with you, I would say that social media should be second in command to your blog. One of the benefits of being a blogger before social media got as big as it is (Instagram especially) is that I learned how to build long-form content that is valuable to my readers (all of you). I learned not only how to use this place as my own personal form of therapy, but also how to provide useful tips, tricks, recipes and DIYs that could help you guys lead a healthier lifestyle. Social media was simply a marketing tool to get the word out.
"Blogging is Dead, Long Live Blogging":
Blogs haven't disappeared – they have simply morphed into a mature part of the publishing ecosystem. The loss of casual bloggers has shaken things out, with more committed and skilled writers sticking it out. Far from killing the blog dream, this has increased the quality of the blogosphere as a whole.
Even though RSS and feed aggregators failed to go mainstream, content aggregators such as Techmeme and Google News are experiencing quite strong traction. Learning from Google Reader's mistakes, these smart aggregators now conveniently surface fresh and quality blog content for users.
In general, quite a few narrowly focused blogs are doing quite well, especially on political topics.

So here is what I am doing.

First, I cleaning up and reconfiguring the blogroll on the right. Links will now, in most cases, display the title of recent entries instead of how long it has been since something was published.

When possible, I am adding the authors' names for a more personal touch, unless it is an organizational blog, such as Fair Chase Hunting, a group blog, or the author wants to be anonymous.

Second, I want to add more content more frequently, trying to mix the personal stuff with the newsie stuff. You won't see me vlogging though, no matter what the experts say.

I am not trying to make a living at this — no ads, and there never have been. Maybe an Amazon link on a book title, that is about all that I do for monetization.

I hope you'll stick around and read it.

3 comments:

Chad J. Love said...

I never left, still read all the blogs I've always read, and may even start writing a little again myself, either at the old site or the new Wordpress site I've never done anything with. Of course, I've been saying that for a while now...

Chas S. Clifton said...

If you do resurrect the Mallard or something else, be sure and let know.

Woody Meristem said...

Still posting on my blog and reading others; but the authors of a couple of my favorites have stopped posting.