Where are all the bloggers? 10 possibilities
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Image by Giara.
Has anyone else noticed that a lot of bloggers seem to have disappeared? No new posts, no comments, blogging networks and forums are like a ghost town. Where is everybody? Today, I'll be looking at 10 possible reasons for this, and in the next post I'll be looking at ways to get back into blogging. Don't miss the next post - subscribe today!
1. Money.
If you're paying for a domain name, web hosting, maybe even separate image hosting or paying for the blogging software itself, but your blog hasn't "made it big" yet - what's going to happen if you hit financial difficulties? Maybe you won't renew your blog.
Even a blog that uses a "free" service is not truly free - you have to keep the blog updated, and that time may be better used on things that will make you money. Some people make money from their blog, some don't, if you don't then it's hard to justify spending hours and hours on your blog if times are hard. And they are hard. Heard about the economy?
Thinking about it, perhaps this post needs a warning: it paints a pretty bleak picture. However, I believe we need to understand the impact of the bad before we can work towards the good. So, let's look at what else has caused all the bloggers to go AWOL.
2. Time.
I touched on this in the point above - time is money. But money aside, blogging is very time consuming. There's more to it than writing a post every now and again. Planning your posts, networking with other bloggers, replying to comments, making tweaks to the layout and settings, participating in forums - it all adds up. Some people just don't seem to be able to find the time for all of this.
3. New Year.
It never fails. Instead of coming up with achievable blogging resolutions, bloggers set their sights too high, or forget to set any goals whatsoever. Come February, they find themselves in need of a change. Once the New Year celebrations have been and gone and we're well and truly into the year, it's time to get on with things much as we did before - and not everyone likes the thought of yet another year that's just the same as the last. So they give up on things such as their blog.
4. Boredom.
If you do anything for a long time without making any changes along the way, you may well get sick and tired of it. Bloggers do get bored with blogging - especially if they start with a burst of energy, post far too often and exchange endless comments with other bloggers.
There's no harm in being enthusiastic, but when your initial enthusiasm dies down, are you still going to stick with your blog? Everyone thinks they can be different, but while it's possible to keep blogging for a long time, it seems that a lot of bloggers just get bored with the whole thing.
5. Realisation.
Want to make a fortune from your blog? Want to become the leading voice and rise about the crowd? Unfortunately, a lot of bloggers will never reach this point. There are plenty of things you can do to get ahead, but once you realise it requires a lot of hard work, some people won't go much further.
You do have to face this issue, and it can be overcome - but setting up a blog does not guarantee anything. Landing a new job doesn't guarantee anything, either. In both cases, you have the opportunity to make it your own.
6. Lack of focus.
It's a lot harder to blog if you don't have any kind of focus. You might think that if you write about anything and everything, you'll have more topics to cover - but it also means you have more to choose from. Failing to stay true to your focus results in an unfocused blog, an unenthusiastic author, and a disengaged audience.
7. Lack of new topics.
Even if your blog is very well focused, what happens if you exhaust all your possible topics? This can happen quite quickly for blogs that are in a very specific niche. Meanwhile, a long-term blogger may hit a wall eventually no matter how broad their topic is. Running out of topics to blog about makes it very difficult to keep things moving along.
8. Lack of comments.
I've heard many bloggers saying they'll keep writing for themselves, which is all well and good, but how long can you keep up a blog if nobody comments? What about if you used to get loads of comments and suddenly they just stopped? This has happened on my blog recently...
9. Domino effect.
It's great to have blogging friends - but what happens when one blog closes? Does it set off a chain reaction whereby several other blogs close down too? It's quite possible, as bloggers often comment on each other's blogs - so leaving the blogosphere can create a huge void for that blogger's friends.
10. The fall of the social network?
I've noticed a few networks are disappearing or people are losing interest in them. There are only so many you can keep up with, especially if they don't really serve a purpose, or if they demand a lot of your time. What every social network needs is not just basic features, but a compelling reason to join - and keep coming back. So few social networks provide this. Is it any wonder people lose interest?
What do you think? Can you think of any other reasons why bloggers may have vanished?
Remember, in the next post, I'll be looking at ways to get back into blogging. Don't miss out - subscribe today!
Comments on Where are all the bloggers? 10 possibilities
2
I know a couple people who've left blogging all together. One got hacked and used it as an opportunity to get his "real life" back. The other couldn't justify the time and she didn't want to try to "blog a little bit." It was an all-or-nothing proposition.
I'd say the time commitment is the biggest reason people leave blogging. It's easy to get sucked into all the other non-writing tasks or activities that go with blogging. If there's very little reward (and it doesn't have to be monetary), I understand why people split.
3
I have to say that #1 is probably a big part for many. We came very close to folding Celtophilia in a few weeks when our hosting renewal comes around. I've probably made ALMOST enough money to justify its existence and call it even, but certainly not profited, and it has soaked up a lot of my time over the past year.
Still, I love it, and we're really getting into a zone where bands are sending us materials to review without me going out and doing any searching for them... so in the end we decided to rethink some aspects of the site, maybe refocus a bit, and see what we can make happen in year 2.
I'll agree with Craig above about Social Networks getting too complicated. I have about as few facebook friends as anyone, probably less than 50, and every day I get deluged with dozens of app requests, notes, comments, and every other manner of little tidbit info. I tried posting links there for a while, but it's almost impossible to use that as an avenue to get readers because you just get lost in the shuffle.
4
I'm trying to figure out if "lazy" fits under 4 or 7. Either way, I think I pathologically fall under both. I wonder what the age of the average blogger that has dropped off is and if that has any effect. Why? I don't know. It's a random thought!
5
There definitely seems to be a lull in activity at the moment. Blogging almost feels like a "ghost town". Of course, you have the stalwart "stick with its" but everybody else seems to have disappeared.
One wonders what the future is for blogging. Has it runs its course or will it pick up again?
6
I was just wondering what Lightening said........has it run its course ......peaked already?
7
Thanks for the comments. :)
Craig, I agree, I don't have loads of Facebook friends and the news feed is swamped. Actually, that's not the biggest problem - Facebook decides not to show some of the news in the feed. I did find an option where you can choose to "show more" from a particular person, but I'd rather see everything, then remove different types of content for different types of people. I don't like the way Facebook organises its links, often I can't find what I want.
Kathy, I've seen a few blogs disappear, but sometimes the author doesn't get around to explaining why - so I'm not 100% sure why they quit. It could be for any of the reasons listed above. When sorting through my feed reader earlier in the week, I found a blog I used to visit that has totally disappeared - the domain is for sale. Shame really.
Mike, I guess I'm lucky for not receiving many application requests anymore - or maybe it's because I chose to ignore the invites from those who send them. ;) But there's another problem - how do I see a list of all the people I've chosen to ignore requests from, and is there any way to undo it? As for blogging, I think the cost can be off-putting once you realise it could go on and on forever, eating up your money - so you really have to enjoy it. Or it won't last long.
MoJo - possibly #4? As for the age, do you mean that some of the younger "tech-heads" have grown up and moved on? I'm one of those people who will probably always be online in some shape or form - it's a great medium for me.
Lightening, the same question was asked about web forums just before blogging took off - have they had their day? But web forums are still around. It's just not so common to see a new "talk about anything" forum popping up anymore, those were all over the place when forums were big. A well-focused forum (such as the CMF Forums) can do very well. Similarly, a well-focused blog can do well. I think it's just a case of a lot of people realising that blogging requires a lot of time and effort. Same goes for most things. You can't just put up a blog with a half-hearted "hello" post and have 100 people begging you to write again. Well, not unless you're already famous. :)
I think there are a lot of people who want to be successful without putting in the effort. It doesn't usually happen like that. They will bounce from one thing to the next, seeing if they can be one of the first to pioneer something new, when they'd be better off sticking with one thing for longer and doing it well.
8
I think another aspect to add to #1: Money is the cost of being online. In today's economy many families just cannot afford their internet connection.
Other reasons could involve hardware damage, serious illness, and death.
9
Who stopped blogging? Which forums are inactive? There's still heaps of both that are very active! It's business as usual online if you ask me!
But your right, the problem is with individual perceptions and
expectations, highly, highly bloated expectations. People have been told blogging will make them rich and famous. But what kind of a motivation is greed? And it is so easy, far too easy to start. Anyone can have a blogspot in seconds. And it looks good for a while. You join a blogging advice forum, pick up a posse of groupies, and soon everyone is posting self congratulationary comments on each other's blogs, and propping up each other's Alexa and technorati rankings. Oh, and hows about a Stumble-upon or 5 with that?
It's all a sham. Come on. What does anyone write about anyway? How to
blog? How to make money blogging? Adsence? Twitter? Facebook? Wordpress themes? *Yawn* BORING!! No wonder people give up. Where's the satisfaction of blogging an idea that's been blogged thousands of times already? No wonder comments are in decline, there's no original content left to comment about anymore!
As for blogging as a new year's resolution? If that's not tempting fate what the hell is? I've tried blogging a couple of times and stopped. Failed. I'm not cut out for it. Simple as. There's more to it than Alexa and technorati.
If your going to run a follow up to this article have people ask
themselves the HARD questions first, because how-to-do XYZ on Twitter
and how to ABC on a forum isn't what people need. Contact real bloggers who have been at it for years and find out what makes them tick and keep going. Your readers may not like what they have to say but that's the sort of insight they need the most!
10
Craig, I recently went through my feed reader and removed a lot of blogs that hadn't posted anything in months or had completely disappeared. I posted this partly because of that, and partly because of this thread: http://www.cmfads.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1722
As for using Twitter or using forums not being what people need, not everyone knows as much as the people who have been blogging for years. You and I may know how to get started with Twitter, but what about someone who's never used Twitter before?
Some people learn by doing, others need to be shown how to do it. Too many blogs assume everyone already knows the jargon - one of the things I try to do here is redress the balance and write tips that anyone can understand. I don't plan to shut out the non-technical readers :)
11
Yes, anything you do too much will become boring--to most people. But everyone has his/her own Elements of Interest, your individual interest triggers. I'm not tired of blogging yet because I have ways to make it new every day. See my ThePowerOfBoredom.com and see if anything speaks to you.
Letitia
12
Hey Ben, lovely post as always.
Do you happen to know why you get less comments these days?
13
I haven’t seen a drop in blogging lately. Maybe bloggers are taking a much needed break? I don’t know. I hope it hasn’t reached its peak because I just started! I can relate to #7 but that quickly fades when I come up with a new topic.
With that said, since I am new, I do find the value of “how to blog” and “how to use Wordpress” blogs.
14
[...] the last post I looked at 10 possible reasons why bloggers may have stopped blogging. Today, I’ll be taking a more positive approach, and looking at 10 ways you can get back into [...]
15
I have a theory that sets of bloggers 'grow up together' to such an extent that they come to feel that their neighbourhood of bloggers is the only neighbourhood in the whole world. I obviously don't mean a geographical neighbourhood, I just mean a group of bloggers who come to know each other in at least some respect over a period of time.
Couple that with the fact that blogging may very well be a finite art - no everyone has a lifetime of regular posts inside of them, it's quite an ask when you think of it.
Therefore, when the neighbourhood you find yourself in runs for a time, fatigue may inevitably set in. A percentage of the fraternity will tire or run out of money of things to say.
Perhaps the lesson is that we as bloggers need to maintain our friends and our associations *but* that we also need to be constantly trying to break out of the glasshouses we inevitably build for ourselves.
'Wordy, sorry, just had a sausage. :)
16
Leo, I'm not sure why I get less comments except for the reasons listed above ;)
17
Add the winters blahs to that list. Also, people buy domains/ start blogging at Christmas time. Some get domains as Xmas gifts. But a month or so later they wind down/ get bored/ realize they aren't getting rich quick after all.
Having said that I just got a sponsor ad out of the blue. $75 a year for a small text ad to sell rubberstamps. Pretty sweet. This is the first time I won't be paying for my blog costs out of my own pocket.
18
This doesn't seem like a particularly new phenomenon to me. From my earliest days blogging it seems there are always blogs that stop updating and then later go dark. IMHO, blogging is ultimately such a personal undertaking that there are probably as many reasons people start and quit their blogs as their are bloggers.
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This is a good post. I would just add about #10 I think social networks like Facebook are getting way too complicated and people are starting to lose interest. It's getting time-consuming even to sift through information on Facebook, and I think more and more people are just going there to get info they're looking for and that's it. Twitter, on the other hand.. it's so simple and fun that I really feel it's going to continue to take off. We'll see!