It can be argued that blogging and blog commenting is on the wane because social media – in particular Twitter and Facebook – has captivated web users attention, but none of these services are in themselves a replacement for blogging.
Twitter is first-class for the quick dissemination of breaking news stories and the writing of witty one-liners has become an art in itself, but with only 140 characters maximum this provides a break on the style and substance of the platform. Bloggers face no such restraints.
There is still a need for traditional blogging.
At the moment Google is waging a war against content farms as it seeks to improve the quality of the search index. Few, if any, could seriously complain that this isn't a righteous move by the big G. At WebProNews Chris Crum questions whether we want high ranking content from non-professional sources on important subjects such as cancer:
You can still search for "level 4 brain cancer" on Google and the top 2 results are from eHow. The top one comes from a freelance writer with a background in marriage psychology and family therapy, whose other featured articles on the site include titles like "Kohler Toilet Won’t Flush Completely", "Roper Dryer Won’t Start", and "My Toilet Water Smells
In my Google reader I subscribe to about 100 feeds. Some of these are magazines such as Sitepoint, Smashing and SeoMOZ, but most of them are individual bloggers like Stephen Dean, Murray Woodman, David Walsh, Janko Jovanovic, Debra Mastaler and Jeff Starr.
If, during my web travels, I come across a quality post then I check the output of the author and if they write consistently top notch items I subscribe to their feed. Using this methodology rarely do I subsequently unsubscribe.
For the online industries such as web design and search engine optimization, bloggers have played a crucial role in the dissemination and revision of ideas and best work practices. Blogging, at its best, provides quality information to the web audience.
I don't envisage this changing in the future.
Rachel Andrew reflects on ten years of blogging and how Twitter has eaten into her daily routine:
As I stopped posting trivial stuff to my blog, without any conscious decision, the blog then became the place I posted important things. My recent posts tend to be about business or web issues, and take the form of short essays rather than the short posts of the past. Again, this hasn’t been a conscious change of direction for the blog, however the more I post things I feel are important, the less I feel able to post the trivial. (her emphasis)
I would suggest that Rachel's experience of moving the whimsical to Twitter and leaving in-depth analysis on her blog is the norm rather than the exception.
So if blogging is on the retreat then perhaps this is just the quantity rather than quality?
Intellectual detractors of the net often disparagingly talk about “the cult of the amateur”. But this is both a strength and weakness. Clearly, I don't want to be handed information about brain cancer by a non-medical writer; but the professional, semi-professional or amateur enthusiasts are an essential part of the web environment and especially in the new media and creative industries.
To celebrate and rejuvenate blogging Chris Shiflett recently issued a call under the banner of “Ideas for March”. The points of his manifesto read:
- Write a post called Ideas of March.
- List some of the reasons you like blogs.
- Pledge to blog more the rest of the month.
- Share your thoughts on Twitter with the #ideasofmarch hashtag.
This is my contribution under the Shiflett standard.
I blog for both altruistic and selfish reasons. Sometimes during the course of work I come across tricky problems that take time to solve. Often partial ideas for solutions have already been recorded by other bloggers or forum users and I want to contribute to the wider discourse. Using PEAR Cache Lite with Drupal 6 and Varnish and Google Analytics and Drupal are two recent articles in this vein. I don't do anything to promote these types of posts. I just write them, publish them and then let them float.
Other posts are about self-promotion (SEO) and autodidacticism. As an example, I recently spent a few days playing around with HTML5 canvas. Afterwards I wrote what I had learnt into a tutorial and then went on a link building exercise. Writing my coding experience down solidifies my knowledge of the subject matter and improves the learning process. Read Using HTML5 canvas, A Complete Guide to CSS Functions and A complete guide to CSS pseudo-classes.
Most importantly, I enjoy writing. As a young adult I had little grasp of the English language and I found it impossible to spell any word over six letters. I was so awful that I wondered whether I was dyslexic (Don't be stupid, my mum said, You just didn't pay any attention at school).
Many years have passed since then but throughout most of my adult life I have learned to love both writing and reading and consider them fundamental to a healthy, informed outlook to life. Indeed, the written word is the bedrock of modern civilisation.
Writing quality blog posts takes time. For me, they are often 1,500 to 2,000 words long, and I want to be certain that all information is correct and spelling and grammar mistakes are kept at a minimum. This often means revisions before publication. To sum up, I take it seriously.
This is why I blog: contributing to a community, self-promotion and enjoyment.
And in keeping with the spirit of things I pledge to write one extra article in March.
Fellow bloggers trending at the moment for #ideasofmarch are
Matthew Weier O'Phinney, Lisa Denlinger, Nate Abele, Kevin Schroeder, Leon Paternoster, Stu Robson, Sean Prunka, Elizabeth Naramore, Cameron Koczon, Rafael Machado Dohms and Sam Hardacre
