Why blogging isn't for everyone
I have decided a few days ago that I won’t be blogging for much longer. Well, actually, I have ca. 150 blogposts on my blog, and I plan to bring it up to 500 (which will take about a year), and then quit pretty permanently, and maybe start writing again when I’m retired. By that time, I’d love to publish books, though who know what the industry will look like then. Or perhaps, I’ll go the Paul Graham route, and produce a super-long essay once a month or every quarter.
Anyway, a number of reasons why I don’t think blogging is for everyone (and no, none are related to health).
1. You can only say so much: I’ve blogged for roughly three years now. In the beginning, I had a lot to say about my life, philosophy, productivity, the Mac, and the media. Most of those topics are boring to me now. I’m cranky about new technology, feel like I’ve seen it all before, and don’t want to be one of the many bloggers writing about the same thing, over and over and over again. I guess it’s a lot to do with the law of diminishing returns.
2. Competitive advantage: I don’t think blogging and commerce works particularly well together. The most obvious reason is that blogging itself is pretty hard to make profitable. Another reason is that it distracts you from what your core-focus should be as a business-person: making money, be productive. And three, competitive advantage is often incompatible with making things public. It’s like playing chess and writing about the moves you make before making them. I also don’t think its particularly effective as a marketing-tool: A good picture always says more than a 1000 words; it’s still pretty niche (focussed on tech); and it’s much more valuable to be written about by a top-blogger, than it is to write about something yourself.
3. Free stuff sucks: The way most blogs are run is on an open source model. People contribute but are not held to any standard except for the one they set themselves. I try to conduct myself professionally, whatever the circumstances, but even I fail when I have to choose between surviving (paying the rent, etc.) and producing an altruistic piece like this one. There are of course indirect advantages to blogging, like contacts, etc., though is much more to do with how you conduct yourself in real life, then as a blogger.
4. The distraction of community: I think this really depends on the person, but I find it much easier to write when there’s no one looking over my shoulder. I have consciously trained myself to ignore the fear of failing in public, but I still find myself re-checking my text the next morning, for embarrassing spelling, grammar, or logic mistakes. And you have to grow an elephant-skin to write negative stuff about companies and technologies, as there will always be a fanboy nit-picking your words to the extreme. The other side is if you receive no comments. That can be hell also.
5. Blogging is not the same as writing: It’s easier. You can be quick and hide your mistakes by writing a new post the next day. People don’t read blogs the same way, they do books. They skim and a post written yesterday has much less value then one written today. So while it may be a way to improve your grammar and stuff, it’s not the same as constructing a universe, like you would in a book.
Why I like blogging
I don’t want to make this a hate-piece, so here goes.
1. It’s a way for me to formulate my thoughts: The world is getting to be ever-more complex. It really helps to write stuff down, it’s a form of therapy, and a way to formulate my goals. Of course, too much openness disrupts competitive advantage (see point 2 above).
2. It’s a great way to practice writing: This is why I originally became a blogger, to improve my grammar and learn to communicate effectively. I read tons of book about writing in the beginning and tried different styles. And I like to think that it helped, though (see point 5 above) writing a book or a thesis is still considerably more work.
3. It’s a good way to meet people: Even though I may appear negative, I’m always happy to read a comment and to have met my fellow-bloggers. If I wasn’t forced to pay the rent, I could probably spend an eternity communicating with all these interesting people all over the globe.
4. It’s a good way to learn about a topic: My own blog is my way of learning as much as possible about food & retail. By adhering to a regular schedule, reading a lot, and writing it down in my own way, it kind of feels like I’m going to school. And hopefully I’ll graduate at 500 posts.
5. Why don’t you give me your own reasons in the comments?
All in all, while the last 5 reasons show that I do love blogging, I guess it bothers me that it’s only a hobby. And I have no desire to make a job out of it either. But as always, as we wrote in our disclaimer, my/our thoughts on this blog are evolving, so no guarantees that how I feel today is the way I’ll feel tomorrow. Blogging is dead, long live blogging!
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I’m new to blogging (3 weeks) but I wanted to give it a try. I am a freelance editor, and my blog is primarily aimed at writers. I also have a web site for my editing business linked to my blog, so I was hoping it might generate new customers.
I also like to share information that others might find useful or interesting, and I thought this might be a good way to do it.
Your comments on why blogging is not for everyone was helpful to me. I have started to explore blogging but I am a private person so the idea of putting my thoughts out there for the world to see is not enticing. Besides, I do not want to spend hours in front of a computer. I do enough of that at work. But on the other hand, as far as work goes, if the day comes when my employers want me to do a blog I want to be able to say, “Sure, I can do that.”
Vince, I love the cartoon you chose to illustrate this blogpost. The exact story happened a while ago with me!
except that she didn’t leave.
@Jeremy: I’m sure your situation wasn’t as 2-dimensional as that picture
@Diana: I understand how you feel and good luck.
@Nancy: your blog is pretty interesting for something 3 weeks young. Keep up the good work!
Hey Vince!welcome back!!
5.At the risk of you stopping blogging here are my reasons:
Don’t go against your nature : If you stop netblogging I am sure I will find you some years after the 500p-day behind your grocery store blahblogging. It shall be an interesting transmedia experiment, indeed, but I am not fluent at dutch.
On health risk, community pressure, and futility consciouness, for me they are all different aspects of how you manage attention (watch out, the famous attention2.0). My star, resist to turning into Britney and go for the warholian model of conviviality: gogogogogo ! ! !
As for substituting blogging with writing, well uhhh…you cannot: blogging is to writing what your home is to a sand sculpture of the white house- you cannot live in it, I suppose. (exceptions : Ana Frank, Umberto Ecco) And it’s true that you normally (and mor(n)ally) cannot make any mney but selling your home.
As for dollars, I suppose that people will give them to you because they are in need or because they get pleasure. The need for information on internet is a joke. Pleasure is also poor on internet, it is mostly (most intensively at least) canalized through music. An aphorism I read today on bloggers turning into “music moguls” helped me state this as if it was something I had known for years.
Finally, aren’t you tempted to go for this on your next post “competitive advantage is a myth : or how rats can be a little girls’ heros ” ? I am. syncroblogging?
I guess the best thing I’ve read about blogging is this Hugh Mcleod / Kathy Sierra presentation (the dream team indeed).
The main point being : be thankful to your readers for they grant you some attention instead of granting it to any other one out of the billions available on the internet.
And Vince really is a champion for that. Articulate, concise, straight to the point : it’s a pleasure to read because by the time you finish the post you’re a best person. You know something more and/or you have food for thoughts. And you’re grateful because your attention has been rewarded.
The main problem I see is this : once you’re used to being pampered by the blogger in the e-life you’re pretty likely to be disappointed by everyday people in the meatspace. You think they’re dull and don’t have much respect with the attention you grant them while getting into all sorts of endless and useless arguments/deflections.
I find this rather unsettling to get into this type of thinking while communicating with friends or people in my family.
That’s perhaps another side-effect of reading too many blogs, Cecil. It engages different thought-processes within the brain, intellectual ones, and that is not the type of conversation people often have in real life.
Those types of talks usually require a significant amount of alcohol, the right person, and are usually done in the evening. Books are usually read during the evening also, perhaps there is a connection? Perhaps we should stop reading blogs during the day?
Anyway, way too philosophical for me during this time of day.
Thanks for your comment, Georgia. Insightful as always!
I doubt, I’ll stop writing, but I’m currently working on a blog, which isn’t being indexed by Google or allows for comments, and find it very refreshing. That may be my future, at least as far as internet-publishing is concerned.
As for competitive advantage, can’t wait to read your post on it. I’m always interested in new perspectives on it, especially since there is, in my opinion, much to say about it in regards to (internet-)media.
I’m not sure I follow you on this, Jeremy. Blogging is great, it depends on your natural rythm. You don’t have to be prolific to have interesting things to say. Some great bloggers only publish once in a week or two. I guess you just suffer from blogging fatigue, which I can unerstand. Take some time and breathe…
One more point, I think you miss the value of blogging as a way to touch your customers. Palm had a very efficient experience last year, when bloggers all around the world explained them they were going the wrong way. The Palm blog was the best place for such a discussion to occur.
So please, don’t stop blogging. Just blog a little bit less…
Don’t worry, Herve. Both Jeremy and me (the author of this piece) are following your good advice… at least as far as taking a break is concerned.
[...] to see if there was an interesting blog on why someone plans to stop blogging. I did find this one from April, 2008 but I’m not sure that it’s [...]