I recently stumbled upon (actually, Rojo-ed) a post written by Seth Godin in March, 2006 in which he talked about how some of the biggest and most popular blogs were pumping out a huge number of posts a day. In theory, the more you post, the more traffic you generate, which, in theory, should attract more advertising dollars. Right?
The problem, Godin contends, is multiple blog posts also creates digital clutter tha challenges even the most loyal of readers. For anyone who reads Engadget or TechCrunch, it can be difficult sometimes to get to some of the better posts when you’ve got to wade through a bunch of other less compelling material. Another related problem is band-wagon jumping where everyone feels the need to blog about a particular event such as Apple’s fourth-quarter results even if they have little insight to add.
Or as Godin puts it, “the problem is surplus. By writing too much, too often, we’re trouncing on the attention of the commons”.
Although Godin’s post was written more than 18 months ago, he identified one of the blogosphere’s biggest problems/challenges: a platform where you can write as much as you want, and more if you hire a team of writers. What’s happening, as a result, is the blogosphere is starting to splinter into magazines such as TechCrunch while independents scramble to keep up in a race where quantity has begun to rule the day.
The focus – and this is something I think that many bloggers think about or should be considering – is quality, and the need to write well as opposed to writing often or blogging for the sake of blogging. It’s a difficult task because there’s a sense you must blog every day to keep an audience that can leave with just a single click. On the other hand, you can easily lose your audience by writing posts that have little to offer.
Without a doubt, it’s a tough balancing act but one many blogs and bloggers will encounter as the blogosphere’s matures and evolves.
One Comment
There’s one “top 100″ blog I can think of that posts an inordinate amount of content that is ridiculous. It’s gotten to the point where I’m thinking of unsubscribing the feed. And I definitely agree with you about quality, which isn’t to say length. ReadWriteWeb does a good job of giving deep analysis, sometimes it can go TOO deep, but often they hit the right sweet spot.
Frankly, most people already subscribe to TechCrunch so there’s no point in just announcing news. Giving unique perspectives and insight let’s you talk about the “hot” news of the day and gives readers something useful to work with, not just another me-too headline.