The Mark Dykeman Web Niche

Will the size of the blogosphere continue to grow exponentially, will it slow down, or will it be replaced by something else?

This post from Read/Write Web, an article on the current state of blogging that was inspired by Alex Iskold’s reaction to the recent Blog World Expo in Las Vegas, attempts to address this question.  The Expo was attended by over 1,500 bloggers from around the world, which seems quite amazing to me.  On the other hand, the author writes that Technorati has indexed close to 35,000,000 blogs. Good Lord, that’s a blog for every human being in Canada, plus a bunch of the animals! Maybe there’s an underground moose blog movement that no one’s talking about. I don’t know. Maybe the salmon have got burrs up their butts in addition to fishhooks in their mouths. Maybe it’s the beavers…. anyway, moving on.

Throughout the course of the article, the author wonders if blogging in general is either reaching a maturity stage or “digestion” phase.  Assuming the blogging practice is now firmly established, the world (sorry, the blogosphere) as a whole is trying to figure out what to do with blogs. If you think of blogging as a product, products can go through introduction, growth, maturity and then decline, although it’s possible to reenergize a product or product family through innovation and marketing.

Alex’s article is well written and I encourage you to read because it talks about the different types of blogging. I’m going to skip ahead to the conclusion:

So what is going to happen to blogosphere? Can it sustain its current rate of growth? The growth of professional blogs might not be there, but likely, the blogosphere is going to continue to grow (if anything, because of an increasing amount of spam). But there is likely to be a correction. The long-tail of the blogosphere might be in danger. Spam is only a part of it, but competition from social networks and microblogging platforms is quite significant. Only time will tell how things play out.

Note:  for those of you who aren’t familiar with the term “long tail”, where’s what Wikipedia has to say about it. 

The author then asks the reader why they blog and to make comments on the subject.  OK, I’ll bite.

I’m going to simplify things for a moment by dividing blogs into three categories:

1. Blogs as a form of personal expression without regard to earning an income.  I remember reading somewhere that if a person just wants to document their thoughts, feelings, and experiences, like a personal blog, then that’s really an on-line journal.  That’s one way of looking at it.  Another is that “blog” is an abbreviation for “web log“, which sure sounds like an on-line journal to me.
2. Blogs designed to attract revenue towards something (a person or an organization) without the benefit of a writer’s unique voice or personality.  The point of blogging is not the blogger, the point is the product or service that the blogger is trying to sell. Michael Martine at Remarkablogger has written some very good posts that really crystallize this type of thinking.
3. Some kind of a hybrid of the first two types, where we are entertained by the blogger’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences while the blogger derives some form of income from this, either through ad revenue, pay per post/contract rate, or an ongoing salary.  I think of this type of blogger as a syndicated columnist, or even a pundit (perhaps there’s no difference between the two).  In this scenario, the product is the author and their blogging.  You could argue that this type of work is similar to the work that actors, comedians and other entertainers do – generally speaking, they are paid to communicate or express themselves.

I’m a category 1 blogger, based on the three types noted above.  With enough time, work, and luck, I’m sure I could do category 2.  At present, I prefer to keep the details of my professional life out of the blog for personal, ethical and professional reasons, so category 2 doesn’t interest me at the moment.  A particularly popular blogging niche amongst some bloggers is the “make money by blogging” or “make money online” niche, which I really don’t think will work for me.  After all, I haven’t figured out how to do that yet and I suspect most people haven’t figured it out, either:  especially some of the ones who say they’ve figured out how to make money online while sipping pina coladas lying in a deck chair on their own private island I’m sure that someone is rolling in the dough.

Personally, I’d like to be a category 3 blogger, even if I have to increase my writing tenfold, my voice volume by twenty decibels, and dress up in suits on TV.  No, scratch that last.  I’d like to be a category 3 blogger if I could maintain my semi-anonymous lifestyle, which doesn’t seem likely but there are always sacrifices to make… 

So I’m sticking in category 1 for now.  Maybe I’ll take The Uncanny Broadcasting Brain Blog to a different level someday, but for now I’ll entertain for free.  Unless you might want to leave a tip?  Hm, better look into that, I really would like to buy a new computer…