Does anyone read blogs?
16 comments
Don't blog about your life, blog about what you've learned. I blog about interesting code and languages that I come across. I like writing how-tos on my blog because often I will later use my own how-to to do something I had forgotten down the line. It's all a matter of personal preference, but blog about something that you find interesting.
Don't blog for money, blog because you want to write. If you try and make money doing it, you'll either lose heart fast and stop, or you'll start doing the slimy marketing stuff to squeeze every last cent out of the site. I went that way for a while, trying to make money blogging, and still regret some of the things I ended up doing to get traffic and sell ad space.
The best thing I ever did, at least in terms of blogging, was to get rid of all the analytics stuff, get rid of the ads, and start ignoring completely the question of whether or not anyone was reading it. Yes, that means I don't know if its getting read by anyone but me, but I'm writing better, more interesting posts, and I'm not nearly as stressed about keeping a schedule.
The best thing I ever did, at least in terms of blogging, was to get rid of all the analytics stuff, get rid of the ads, and start ignoring completely the question of whether or not anyone was reading it. Yes, that means I don't know if its getting read by anyone but me, but I'm writing better, more interesting posts, and I'm not nearly as stressed about keeping a schedule.
I like this: "blog about what you've learned". That would capture just-learned things every day, while they're fresh, and thus serve a useful purpose for me--and therefore provide a good anchor for social connection through the blogosphere.
Seconded. I started blogging at betterexplained.com to tutor myself; I wanted to store just the 'aha moment' that made a concept click.
Writing helps you remember ideas and discover new ones in the process.
Writing helps you remember ideas and discover new ones in the process.
Never blog for other people.
If you want to write commercial content, do so. Find a tight niche, call it a blog (it's really a serial newsletter but let's not quibble) and saturate it. This -- I think -- was what I had in mind when I started blogging.
But it sucks. Look, if you can blather on about the same topic for 3 years God love you. I can't. I like all sorts of things. I like writing about them. The fifth time I write a story on debugging I'm through with debugging for a while.
So I decided to continue blogging because I like writing. Hell with everyone else, including friends and family. I'm not writing to be cute or narcissistic. If anything, I'm blogging to a) help sort out my thoughts by writing them down, and b) leave something behind of myself for my great-grandkids besides a bunch of computer code somewhere. I can't email the little buggers, but I can leave some essays and bits of trivia.
So blog if you like writing. Blog commercially if you like that sorta thing, but no matter what you do, focus inwardly instead of externally. It shouldn't matter whether you have 10 readers or 10 thousand.
If you want to write commercial content, do so. Find a tight niche, call it a blog (it's really a serial newsletter but let's not quibble) and saturate it. This -- I think -- was what I had in mind when I started blogging.
But it sucks. Look, if you can blather on about the same topic for 3 years God love you. I can't. I like all sorts of things. I like writing about them. The fifth time I write a story on debugging I'm through with debugging for a while.
So I decided to continue blogging because I like writing. Hell with everyone else, including friends and family. I'm not writing to be cute or narcissistic. If anything, I'm blogging to a) help sort out my thoughts by writing them down, and b) leave something behind of myself for my great-grandkids besides a bunch of computer code somewhere. I can't email the little buggers, but I can leave some essays and bits of trivia.
So blog if you like writing. Blog commercially if you like that sorta thing, but no matter what you do, focus inwardly instead of externally. It shouldn't matter whether you have 10 readers or 10 thousand.
I like the idea of writing to sort out my thoughts. I've been doing this for years in email with a couple friends. We've sent about 15,000 emails back and forth so far. Writing those brainstorming emails happens naturally because I know who I'm writing for. I know what they care about and how they think, and I see ways to move their minds in ways they'd find enjoyable.
What I mean by "a purpose" is to affect an audience somehow. I don't normally write "for myself". Writing, at least the way I experience it, is translation: here's how the reader currently understands things, here's some content, now invent a way to make that content comprehensible in terms of that way of understanding. Of course, doing this translation leads to improved insight into the subject matter, just as writing a program leads to improved insight into the problem domain.
What I mean by "a purpose" is to affect an audience somehow. I don't normally write "for myself". Writing, at least the way I experience it, is translation: here's how the reader currently understands things, here's some content, now invent a way to make that content comprehensible in terms of that way of understanding. Of course, doing this translation leads to improved insight into the subject matter, just as writing a program leads to improved insight into the problem domain.
I'm currently doing a "Does God Exist?" series of posts because, well, the argument interests me. So I took a bunch of books on all sides of the issue and am going through each of them, writing a quick review as I complete each book (along with a recap)
I've found that the act of making yourself physically write something on paper makes you remember better. This effect is amplified if you're trying to explain it to somebody else in an essay. So the blog is kind of a mind "power tool", enabling me to sort through tons of debate and get to the few arguments and insights that matter to me. On top of that, it'll be around next year when I've forgotten a lot of the detail, keeping the "good parts" near the top of my cognitive heap. (not stack)
I've found that the act of making yourself physically write something on paper makes you remember better. This effect is amplified if you're trying to explain it to somebody else in an essay. So the blog is kind of a mind "power tool", enabling me to sort through tons of debate and get to the few arguments and insights that matter to me. On top of that, it'll be around next year when I've forgotten a lot of the detail, keeping the "good parts" near the top of my cognitive heap. (not stack)
Writing guest entries on popular blogs is actually a good way to promote your own blog.
I write a blog that's precisely of the sort that you think can't be interesting to others. Random thoughts about anything that interests me; rants, arguments, (rarely) mini-essays on anything in a long list of my interests. Very eclectic.
It's extremely popular, with readership in five figures, and typically more than a hundred daily comments on various posts. One of the best things about it is that it has many readers who are smarter than me, and/or more knowledgeable than me on just about any given topic I'm interested in. I've made a few really good friends and a lot of friendly acquaintances through the blog, all over the world.
Maybe my case is a rare exception; that wouldn't surprise me. I've tried, for example, to write the same kind of eclectic random-thoughts blog in English -- my primary blog is in Russian -- for a few years, and never got more than 100-200 readers. Maybe I wasn't giving it enough attention (it's semi-dormant now, though I'm trying to find tuits to revive it), or maybe in English, a non-specialized blog has a harder time attracting attention. Or maybe much of it is random. Among the blogs I read (40+ in English, a few hundreds in Russian), most widely-read ones are either by famous people or specialized to some topic; but there are some exceptions like me.
It's extremely popular, with readership in five figures, and typically more than a hundred daily comments on various posts. One of the best things about it is that it has many readers who are smarter than me, and/or more knowledgeable than me on just about any given topic I'm interested in. I've made a few really good friends and a lot of friendly acquaintances through the blog, all over the world.
Maybe my case is a rare exception; that wouldn't surprise me. I've tried, for example, to write the same kind of eclectic random-thoughts blog in English -- my primary blog is in Russian -- for a few years, and never got more than 100-200 readers. Maybe I wasn't giving it enough attention (it's semi-dormant now, though I'm trying to find tuits to revive it), or maybe in English, a non-specialized blog has a harder time attracting attention. Or maybe much of it is random. Among the blogs I read (40+ in English, a few hundreds in Russian), most widely-read ones are either by famous people or specialized to some topic; but there are some exceptions like me.
Have you checked out PG's site? Rather than a blog, it's an (occasionally) updated set of essays and thoughts. They are usually reviewed by several people before publication (so are higher quality than blog posts), and most of them have a specific point or question which is explored in some detail.
Benefits to this approach are the lack of a dated timeline of posts (so no urge to write because "it's been a week already"), and you only write when a particular issue strikes your fancy.
A negative of this approach (for PG this is less of an issue) is that it is difficult to gain a readership this way, as there is no regular "feed" of content coming from you. If anything is true about online readers, it's that they like to be fed.
Benefits to this approach are the lack of a dated timeline of posts (so no urge to write because "it's been a week already"), and you only write when a particular issue strikes your fancy.
A negative of this approach (for PG this is less of an issue) is that it is difficult to gain a readership this way, as there is no regular "feed" of content coming from you. If anything is true about online readers, it's that they like to be fed.
Is it really true that online readers like to be fed? Do many people actually follow blogs, or do most blogs get read only when an article comes up in search-engine results? Is there any data on this?
BTW, I do indeed like the "occasional essay" approach--and especially having some reviewing and filtering. The #1 problem of the web these days (any entrepreneurs reading?) is signal-to-noise ratio.
BTW, I do indeed like the "occasional essay" approach--and especially having some reviewing and filtering. The #1 problem of the web these days (any entrepreneurs reading?) is signal-to-noise ratio.
"Do many people follow blogs?"
Feedburner stats indicate that blogs do have followers. But do they get read? I suspect the number of readers is far lower than subscriber count.
In particular, I think nobody reads tweets, no matter how many followers you think you have. Twitter is mainstream perhaps in that many people write. The only people who read are PR people scanning for a few keywords at a time.
I've been thinking about this for a while: http://akkartik.name/blog/2009-05-19-21-30-46-soc
Feedburner stats indicate that blogs do have followers. But do they get read? I suspect the number of readers is far lower than subscriber count.
In particular, I think nobody reads tweets, no matter how many followers you think you have. Twitter is mainstream perhaps in that many people write. The only people who read are PR people scanning for a few keywords at a time.
I've been thinking about this for a while: http://akkartik.name/blog/2009-05-19-21-30-46-soc
http://steve.yegge.googlepages.com/you-should-write-blogs
[It is also a good example in support of at least one of the points that it itself makes]
[It is also a good example in support of at least one of the points that it itself makes]
"Friends say I should start a blog"
This is not a good reason to start a blog :-)
I read just under 20 blogs (by which I mean real people's blogs, not tech news that just happen to use the blog platform to publish).
The best blogs are defined by a very strong focus on a particular topic. This both because it gives the writer the opportunity to explore themes at lengths, and it gives the reader a certain amount of predictability in what they are going to find.
Narrow-focus blogging also has the advantages of allowing you to build a more diverse audience. This may sound counter-intuitive at first, but the more subjects you touch the more you end up narrowing your audience to people who think like you.
I think your instincts are correct. "Random thought" blogs are not going to have a wider audience than your friends and family.
This is not a good reason to start a blog :-)
I read just under 20 blogs (by which I mean real people's blogs, not tech news that just happen to use the blog platform to publish).
The best blogs are defined by a very strong focus on a particular topic. This both because it gives the writer the opportunity to explore themes at lengths, and it gives the reader a certain amount of predictability in what they are going to find.
Narrow-focus blogging also has the advantages of allowing you to build a more diverse audience. This may sound counter-intuitive at first, but the more subjects you touch the more you end up narrowing your audience to people who think like you.
I think your instincts are correct. "Random thought" blogs are not going to have a wider audience than your friends and family.
> This is not a good reason to start a blog :-)
I dont know - we dont really have enough data about his friends and why they think this.
It could be good advice. For example if I was considered expert and insightful on, say, a security forum my friends there might suggest I start to put some of it in a blog for a wider audience :)
To the OP: It really depends how good a writer you are and what sort of topics you can write about. If your engaging to read then your audience might range across a number of sources.
Yes, people do generally read a small set of core blogs - but we also sit and read interesting stuff that goes by our radar. You might not get people checking your site every day but if they can find good content on there once or twice a fortnight (say) they might look out for your links on HN et all. That, to me, is as good a readership as any :)
(if you in it to make money though that's a different matter)
I dont know - we dont really have enough data about his friends and why they think this.
It could be good advice. For example if I was considered expert and insightful on, say, a security forum my friends there might suggest I start to put some of it in a blog for a wider audience :)
To the OP: It really depends how good a writer you are and what sort of topics you can write about. If your engaging to read then your audience might range across a number of sources.
Yes, people do generally read a small set of core blogs - but we also sit and read interesting stuff that goes by our radar. You might not get people checking your site every day but if they can find good content on there once or twice a fortnight (say) they might look out for your links on HN et all. That, to me, is as good a readership as any :)
(if you in it to make money though that's a different matter)
"I find myself drawing a blank about what I'd blog about, though. Who would I write for? What would be their purpose in reading?"
I hate to self-promote like this, but seeing as how I run a startup (in profile) dedicated to helping bloggers find stuff to write about and "cure writer's block" (our little slogan), I figure I should say something.
Yes, you should definitely, definitely start a blog. If you're comfortable with it, I'd say get firstnamelastname.com. I got paulstamatiou.com four years ago and have been writing on it consistently since then and I kept it professional and devoid of too many personal things. I talked about stuff that interested me (technology) and often lots of little guides showing how I was able to do this or that. A lot of my posts have just been about things I've been working with over the last few days. New piece of software that I find really handy.. blog post, but I try to add info that others wouldnt have.. tips on how to use that, or getting it setup quickly etc.
Over the years my subscriber numbers slowly went up and now I have a decent following. It's still more or less "professional" in terms of the content I put up there and it has ended up being a portfolio of sorts for myself. Was it worth it? DEFINITELY. It got me a Yahoo internship in California (and several other job offers), I've been flown around to check out various events for different companies, got invited to speak at a conference in Europe (and expenses paid), and I was even in a Nike commercial as they found me online as a "real" user of Nike Plus. Again, I dont want to make this like I'm tooting my own horn... just trying to say that you need to start a blog!
only reason why you might not want to start a blog:
*you dont think you would be able to write consistently
The only thing worse than not having a blog IMO is having one that hasn't been updated in weeks or months.
I could go on and on but I'll just point you to my HN profile where you can email me. :-)
I hate to self-promote like this, but seeing as how I run a startup (in profile) dedicated to helping bloggers find stuff to write about and "cure writer's block" (our little slogan), I figure I should say something.
Yes, you should definitely, definitely start a blog. If you're comfortable with it, I'd say get firstnamelastname.com. I got paulstamatiou.com four years ago and have been writing on it consistently since then and I kept it professional and devoid of too many personal things. I talked about stuff that interested me (technology) and often lots of little guides showing how I was able to do this or that. A lot of my posts have just been about things I've been working with over the last few days. New piece of software that I find really handy.. blog post, but I try to add info that others wouldnt have.. tips on how to use that, or getting it setup quickly etc.
Over the years my subscriber numbers slowly went up and now I have a decent following. It's still more or less "professional" in terms of the content I put up there and it has ended up being a portfolio of sorts for myself. Was it worth it? DEFINITELY. It got me a Yahoo internship in California (and several other job offers), I've been flown around to check out various events for different companies, got invited to speak at a conference in Europe (and expenses paid), and I was even in a Nike commercial as they found me online as a "real" user of Nike Plus. Again, I dont want to make this like I'm tooting my own horn... just trying to say that you need to start a blog!
only reason why you might not want to start a blog:
*you dont think you would be able to write consistently
The only thing worse than not having a blog IMO is having one that hasn't been updated in weeks or months.
I could go on and on but I'll just point you to my HN profile where you can email me. :-)
The only thing worse than not having a blog IMO is having one that hasn't been updated in weeks or months.
Can you explain why an infrequently updated blog would be bad?
I suppose you believe that it makes you look bad somehow. But what evidence do you have that that is really so?
Can you explain why an infrequently updated blog would be bad?
I suppose you believe that it makes you look bad somehow. But what evidence do you have that that is really so?
There are many types of blogs: the family-oriented types, the 5-stories-per-day magazine-style types, niche review/guide types, "semi-anonymous" technical opinion/discussion types, etc.
Some styles of blogging are more suited for money making, but obviously take a lot more effort (especially so when you are competing for eyeballs against established full-time blogger teams).
Techies and geeks often tend to use blogging as a form of intellectual expression, about their opinions on their field of interest, or to talk about things they've done or are working on. This type of blogging is often reactive to others' opinions, news from major outlets and aggregators, etc, and often become decentralized conversations.
Family-oriented blogging usually takes the form of show-and-tell when they're going through something exciting in life and blogging can be a nice complement to their IRL social lifes.
In the end, blogging is what you make out of it. It's not a magic pot of gold and can look like anything between an old-school Geocities guestbook and a professionally written magazine.
If you want to do it for fun and/or for expressing yourself, just go ahead and do it. Who cares if no one is reading (yet)? But, if you want to do it for money, then treat it as a step into a journalism career, not as a retirement fund.
Some styles of blogging are more suited for money making, but obviously take a lot more effort (especially so when you are competing for eyeballs against established full-time blogger teams).
Techies and geeks often tend to use blogging as a form of intellectual expression, about their opinions on their field of interest, or to talk about things they've done or are working on. This type of blogging is often reactive to others' opinions, news from major outlets and aggregators, etc, and often become decentralized conversations.
Family-oriented blogging usually takes the form of show-and-tell when they're going through something exciting in life and blogging can be a nice complement to their IRL social lifes.
In the end, blogging is what you make out of it. It's not a magic pot of gold and can look like anything between an old-school Geocities guestbook and a professionally written magazine.
If you want to do it for fun and/or for expressing yourself, just go ahead and do it. Who cares if no one is reading (yet)? But, if you want to do it for money, then treat it as a step into a journalism career, not as a retirement fund.
I read a number of blogs. The best ones focus on specific niches but often use those niches to explore the wider world. For example, Marginal Revolution at http://www.marginal revolution.com is nominally an economics blog, but it also discusses foreign travel, ethnic cuisine, books, and more. The blogs I contribute to try to follow the same general principle: The Story's Story at http://jseliger.com focuses on books (except for the present top post, which is about keyboards—sometimes exceptions are interesting) and Grant Writing Confidential at http://blog.seliger.com . The latter is part of my family's business and so has a purpose beyond random musings.
If you're thinking about writing a blog, read Penelope Trunk's comments: http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/penelopes-guide-to-blogging/ which are invaluable if not always accurate. In addition, I wrote a post called "You’re Not Going to be a Professional Blogger, Regardless of What the Wall Street Journal Tells You" that got slashdotted and ought to dissuade you from the idea you're going to make money directly at it: http://blog.seliger.com/2009/06/17/youre-not-going-to-be-a-p... .
"Without a purpose for writing, though, I don't see how to even try writing a blog. Any suggestions?"
As others have said, don't write a blog if you don't have a purpose. Your purpose should come from something you care about deeply enough to know something about that you'd like to transmit to others: in my case, that means books, chiefly, but also grant writing. For many HN readers, it probably means programming. Remember too that the deep knowledge/writing/transmission process isn't linear, but recursive: I've probably learned more about books by trying to sort my ideas about them out in a logical, rational way than I would if I just read a lot (this, incidentally, is why good schools require you to write a lot: writing forces you to embellish the ideas you do have and often to come up with ideas you didn't have previously).
If you're thinking about writing a blog, read Penelope Trunk's comments: http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/penelopes-guide-to-blogging/ which are invaluable if not always accurate. In addition, I wrote a post called "You’re Not Going to be a Professional Blogger, Regardless of What the Wall Street Journal Tells You" that got slashdotted and ought to dissuade you from the idea you're going to make money directly at it: http://blog.seliger.com/2009/06/17/youre-not-going-to-be-a-p... .
"Without a purpose for writing, though, I don't see how to even try writing a blog. Any suggestions?"
As others have said, don't write a blog if you don't have a purpose. Your purpose should come from something you care about deeply enough to know something about that you'd like to transmit to others: in my case, that means books, chiefly, but also grant writing. For many HN readers, it probably means programming. Remember too that the deep knowledge/writing/transmission process isn't linear, but recursive: I've probably learned more about books by trying to sort my ideas about them out in a logical, rational way than I would if I just read a lot (this, incidentally, is why good schools require you to write a lot: writing forces you to embellish the ideas you do have and often to come up with ideas you didn't have previously).
Yep, I had a similar problems when deciding to write a blog. First of all personal stuff may not be important/interesting to others OR maybe you may not feel comfortable putting too much personal details. I wrote a couple but always shut them down soon. Finally I started http://socialapp.wordpress.com
I have been going to a lot of meetups in the Social Space (Facebook, Myspace, Web Startup's etc) as my side projects/interests lie in the same area. In the process of these meetup's I have learnt a lot and seen a couple of good demos. So, I started to blog about those events or the demos that I see there for everyone else's. After any meetup, I typically have a descent number of topics to write about.
The primary reason for me to start a blog was to get better in writing skills and convert the thought process to text that fellow reader can comprehend. I am not really looking to make any money via blogging at least in the near future.
Another theme I have seen is that a couple of people write on funny incidents that happened to them during the day or weekend. It could be a funny/embarrassing incident, but they do a great job of expressing it that even strangers will find it amusing to read it.
Edit: In the process I also opened a twitter account (@socialapp) to see if I would be able to promote my blog. It's been a descent passive experiment as well =)
I have been going to a lot of meetups in the Social Space (Facebook, Myspace, Web Startup's etc) as my side projects/interests lie in the same area. In the process of these meetup's I have learnt a lot and seen a couple of good demos. So, I started to blog about those events or the demos that I see there for everyone else's. After any meetup, I typically have a descent number of topics to write about.
The primary reason for me to start a blog was to get better in writing skills and convert the thought process to text that fellow reader can comprehend. I am not really looking to make any money via blogging at least in the near future.
Another theme I have seen is that a couple of people write on funny incidents that happened to them during the day or weekend. It could be a funny/embarrassing incident, but they do a great job of expressing it that even strangers will find it amusing to read it.
Edit: In the process I also opened a twitter account (@socialapp) to see if I would be able to promote my blog. It's been a descent passive experiment as well =)
I started to blog mostly for myself (Dec 2008), and initially that was the audience. After a while I started to find my focus areas and now I have changed the name of the blog twice - and become a tech source magazine like publication with a bunch of writers and hundreds of readers (maxping.org). Money? No, at least not yet - unless $60 from google adsense counts. I recommend to just start doing it and find out how it folds out.
I think you just wrote your first entry.
I subscribe to many blogs that cover my technical interests and a few personal ones. I avoid blogs with adverts or that are set up to make money. I generally use an RSS reader to follow these blogs (and Twitter and other sources).
Then start writing/blogging anything that interests you. Over time, you'll get the groove on and start forming topics that may pull in readers.
Start a blog on a subscription basis. Your friends can pay up their subscription and if you hit some threshold, then you start it. The old ... let them put their money on the table gambit. Other than that, I agree with the other comments. Blogging is something that you should do if you're prepared to do it with no reward.
I find myself drawing a blank about what I'd blog about, though. Who would I write for? What would be their purpose in reading?
I seldom read blogs. I find them boring. With one exception, I don't see why anyone would read them. Seriously, does anyone except your spouse and closest friends care what random thought crossed your mind today?
The exception is blogs about fast-moving domains, written by people who themselves follow the domain closely. Following the blog would be of interest to others who want to keep up with that domain. Indeed, my understanding is that the most popular blogs are about gossip, politics, and specific industries. This is what we used to call "journalism". Similarly, a kind of blog that I can see the value of is a blog about some skill, like "lifestyle design" or getting straight A's in school. Not "any random thought", but "the latest about a specific topic from a very good source".
I hate to shoot down an idea without even trying it. Without a purpose for writing, though, I don't see how to even try writing a blog. Any suggestions?