Let’s start with a quote from THE top marketing blogger:
Seth about blogs, “Lately, the noise seems to be increasing and the signal is fading in comparison. Too much spam, too many posts, too little insight leaking through. “
Seth Godin has a way of being topical, personal, all mixed with great punditry. That’s why he’s tops. A long time ago I gave up posting in response to his posts, because this blog would just be one big suck-up.
But in this case, what he says sheds light on what I wanted to say. There is too much noise, making the B2B/marketing blogosphere dead-boring these days.
Jumped the shark:
IMHO, the blogosphere started to go flat when Kathy Sierra stopped blogging. The number of true guru/pundits went down by one, and that’s when blogging ‘jumped the shark’. We stopped being a community in discussion, and transitioned into a roomful of soapboxes.
Around that time there was a unrelated rise in corporate bloggers, mostly those who are marketing consultants, but especially SEO and those focused in web-lead generation. Individually, they aren’t bad, but collectively they raised the noise level.
Even worse, those starting worthwhile blogs aren’t being heard. I’ve posted articles linking to a few such bloggers, but without seeing their Bloglines subscriber number go up AT ALL. Hey, you like my blog, aren’t you interested in these guys? Has the joy of discovery of new blogs gone away? Or are you just scanning thru too many feeds to quickly to care?
Certainly the problem is too much noise. Not enough patience to see if another blog is going to pan out as worthwhile. Not enough patience to comment on a post if there are 10, 20, or 100 other posts by others to read.
What do you think? Why aren’t you subscribing, commenting, or linking to other blogs as much as you used to?
Next: ‘Signal in the B2Blogosphere’ and the inevitable signal-to-noise ratio metaphor.
Dave,Great question. I do think it takes a lot more for me to really commit to following a blog because of the noise. Before, I’d try subscribing to an RSS feed because of a single, smart post. Now, it takes several for me to actually subscribe to it.I also see much less participation among real folks and more self promotion. I’m all for promoting your personal brand, but it’s making it difficult.I think it comes down to building a community. Gary Vaynerchuck (http://tv.winelibrary.com) has turned his video blog on wine into fledgling celebrity status because he focused on building a following / a community. Perhaps the art of blogging (i.e. that personal community) has been lost with the proliferation of the science of blogging (i.e. seo and personal branding)?
Dave,Great question. I do think it takes a lot more for me to really commit to following a blog because of the noise. Before, I’d try subscribing to an RSS feed because of a single, smart post. Now, it takes several for me to actually subscribe to it.I also see much less participation among real folks and more self promotion. I’m all for promoting your personal brand, but it’s making it difficult.I think it comes down to building a community. Gary Vaynerchuck (http://tv.winelibrary.com) has turned his video blog on wine into fledgling celebrity status because he focused on building a following / a community. Perhaps the art of blogging (i.e. that personal community) has been lost with the proliferation of the science of blogging (i.e. seo and personal branding)?
I too have been fairly bored with blogs right now. They seem to be regurgitating the same old stuff, but, there are a lot of companies that aren’t doing the same old stuff and need to hear it over and over. It’s a toss up, but I would like to see a little more “new meat”. lrmguru.blogspot.com
I too have been fairly bored with blogs right now. They seem to be regurgitating the same old stuff, but, there are a lot of companies that aren’t doing the same old stuff and need to hear it over and over. It’s a toss up, but I would like to see a little more “new meat”. lrmguru.blogspot.com
Prescott–Science of blogging…yea that’s it. Kind of like when a company goes public or merges. It loses that personal touch.Troy–New meat, yes. I’ll b discussing that as I move forward in this series.
Prescott–Science of blogging…yea that’s it. Kind of like when a company goes public or merges. It loses that personal touch.Troy–New meat, yes. I’ll b discussing that as I move forward in this series.
Dave, have signed up for your bloglines to discover new worlds, sail new seas. Some of yours are very new to me. Call me weird, but I really prefer to visit each blog individually. The RSS feeds overwhelm me, but in the interest of solidarity, I am going to try yours.
Dave, have signed up for your bloglines to discover new worlds, sail new seas. Some of yours are very new to me. Call me weird, but I really prefer to visit each blog individually. The RSS feeds overwhelm me, but in the interest of solidarity, I am going to try yours.