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Why blogging is far from dead 

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You had better stop reading this as blogging is dead. Seriously, I just read it. Some wag at Wired says there is too much social media, and blogging is, like, so 2004. What rubbish.

According to Paul Boutin, who writes for Silicon Valley gossip site Valleywag, writing a blog today isn't the bright idea it was four years ago as the blogosphere, "once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge".

Tsunami of paid-for bilge? It was worth reading the piece for that alone. I laughed out loud, as this rant was clearly marked "paid bilge" as someone hit the publish button. 

He goes on to say that "cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths" and it is almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers.

His line is why bother? – you are better off expressing yourself on Facebook, Flickr or Twitter.

His argument seems to be those folksy blogs where people wrote about their humdrum day to day lives or, ahem, subjects such as politics or dating have been replaced by impersonal professional sites.

You mean like Valleyway? The site he writes for that is part of Nick Denton's media blog empire Gawker. Do you think he is talking at all about himself when he writes about "cut-rate journalists"? I'm emailing him right now. I'm just going to say this: does the phrase "pot kettle, kettle black" mean nothing to you? Try it out and take it for a spin. I think you might like it.

Swipes aside, on one level he has a point. The world is full of professional blogs in 2008 and marketers have entered the fray. The medium has grown and matured. New players and types of blog have entered the market. In places it has got professional, there are powerful blogs out there like the Huffington Post, and that is to be applauded for what it has brought us.

Newspapers like the Guardian have also thrived with sites like Comment is Free. All good news I say. Who wants to see the blogging wither and die? Not me for one. I enjoy this too much.

A lot of those early bloggers got bored and moved on as the novelty of writing an online came and went. My first blog ran for a few years and virtually all of the links that I had on my blogroll have died, but not all.

Yes social media, micro blogging and multi media sites are all the rage, but there is a place for all here. I use Facebook, Twitter and have flirted with a bunch of other social media sites but not, errr, committed. Blogging offered, and still does, a space to put down a sentence and a link or 500 words. Whatever caught your fancy that day. He complains in the piece that text-based sites aren't where the buzz is anymore, which is true but the buzz moves on and what it leaves behind is the substance.

For B2B sites like Brand Republic, blogging is very important. We've built up, and continue to do so, a network of bloggers with a variety of things to say. Some might post a picture, a piece of video or like me they might type for a good while before stopping.

Blogging is alive and kicking. Okay, I need to let me fellow Twitters know what I've been doing in the long form.


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Published Oct 22 2008, 03:30 PM by Gordon Macmillan
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Comments

by Andrew McCormick
October 22, 2008 5:24 PM
 

Is it worth setting up a website because there are already tons out there? Yes. Is it worth setting up a blog because there are already tons out there? Yes. If you're good and know a little of how to get noticed, it is still worthwhile.

 
 
by Amod Munga
October 23, 2008 2:28 PM
 

Read that article over at the Wired site. Noticed the comments form underneath it. Does that make Wired a blog?

 
 
by Gordon Macmillan
October 23, 2008 2:52 PM
 

It is a very curiously piece. Nick Denton's network is definitely always described as a blog network. it's like biting the hand that feeds you.

 
 
by Gordon's Republic
October 23, 2008 4:45 PM
 

Following yesterday's post about blogging being dead, I've got absolute confirmation that it

 
 
by Fiona Berry
October 23, 2008 4:48 PM
 

Sorry!, we couldn't find the page you were looking for.

Tsunami of a shame.

 
 
by Mitchell Caplan
October 24, 2008 7:10 PM
 

Couldn't agree more. And it appears that Wired does as well...they have taken down the link to the article!!

 
 
by PR Furblog
November 6, 2008 3:19 PM
 

And so are blogs according to a journalist from US Wired last week - a story that somehow made it into

 
 
by Gordon's Republic
November 17, 2008 4:36 PM
 

Good piece in the New York Times today on how "the layoff will be blogged". It picks up on

 
 
by furlongpr.com blog » Blog Archive » PR is dead
January 5, 2009 7:10 PM
 

Pingback from  furlongpr.com blog  » Blog Archive   » PR is dead

 
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Gordon Macmillan

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