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March 27, 2005
Blogging 101 - You Don't Need a Blog
By Matt Wood in Blogging 101
A few weeks ago, my partner QBlog wrote about blogging Rule #1: Don't Suck. Sage advice indeed, but the truth is no matter how hard you try, your blog will suck. It will be unbelievably, mind-numbingly bad. You won't post often enough to keep people coming back, and you'll be mad at yourself. You won't get any comments, and you'll feel like a loser. Then you'll abandon your blog, and the internet will be littered with yet another carcass with six meaningless posts, four of which are apologies for not posting often enough. There are 12,000 new weblogs created every day, and 11,999 of them suck, including yours. So don't even try. Do the internet a favor, and don't clog it up with your "ramblings," "musings," or "random thoughts" in a blog. There are better places for it.
But I just want to speak my mind, you say. Great. Don't do it in a blog. Speak your mind to your friends, your family, your co-workers, or your classmates. If you're angry or excited about something, tell them about it, and get them angry and excited too. Don't waste your time hoping some intrepid, like-minded soul will stumble upon your sad, default-Blogger-templated website. After the initial delusion that everyone from Finland to New Zealand will care about exactly how you feel about Donald Rumsfeld wears off, you'll realize that you're talking to yourself. And you'll be more frustrated than if you hadn't started the damn blog in the first place. So turn off the computer and get out of the house. It's liberating.
But my family and friends don't want to talk about this stuff with me, you say. There's probably a reason for that. You're either A) boring or B) an obnoxious blowhard. Either way, take the social cues from your friends and keep it to yourself. You'll be doing all of us a favor. Remember that guy at your office, the one you can't stand because he's such a know-it-all and won't shut up? Don't be that guy.
But I want meet new people with the same interests, you say. Bravo. Allow me to introduce you to the humble discussion group, otherwise known as a message board, a forum, or an email message sent to more than one person at a time. With four million other blogs to contend with, hardly anyone will be able to find yours, let alone feel compelled to comment on it. That endless succession of "Comments (0)" you'll see after every post will demoralize you to the point that you'll consider leaving the spam comments around just to boost your numbers. So instead of setting yourself up for failure, seek out these other wonderful people, in a place like Slashdot, Kuro5hin, or a Yahoo group, where all the technical bits are taken care of, where the discussion is lively, and where chances are someone will respond to you within five minutes of pressing "Send."
But I don't want to meet other people, I just want a place to record my thoughts, you say. Awesome. Instead of spending $29.95 a month for broadband, $14.99 a month for web hosting, and $69.95 for a copy of Movable Type, take $1.50 and buy a notebook and a pen. They're age-old tools for creating what you really need: a journal. Let's say you're really pissed about what your boss said to you one day, or you secretly think your boyfriend is cheating on you. Are you going to write about that on the public web? Probably not. Every blogger self-censors no matter how tough they talk. So spend some time really getting things off your chest in a good old diary. Trust me, you'll feel better in the long run.
We can't all be so lucky to write for a quality publication like this one. So seriously, don't even try. A blog isn't the right answer for most of the reasons people think they need one. But you don't need one. Your energy is better spent conversing with real people, not hoping to be the one voice heard in the middle of a riot.
- By Matt Wood
Blogging 101 publishes every Sunday and provides blogging tips, advice and tutorials for blog newbies and veterans alike.
Comments
Yup u r right, Forum of like minded ppl is a great idea. Almost any forum will let ppl start a new topic, as long as it matches with the theme of the forum. MANY forums have "Miscelleneous" category as well.
Gosh, Matt -- you having a bad day? ;)
Kathleen, the grump got a point. I mean we all should look at our blogs and think that does it suck? Is it a big clutter or is it a good blog? I see where he is comming from. Aren't we all bored by seeing stupid blogs?
I go by a simple rule. Let search engines and traffic be the judge.
So, Imran, we can expect to see "page not found" when we click on your blog pretty soon? ;)
I mean with a google page rank of zero and all, you really ought to hang it up -- by your own rules!
Seriously I see what both of you are saying. But one great thing about blogging is precisely that anyone can do it. And nobody sez they have to do it well.
btw -- you might want to correct your recent "Diamonds" post. Q spent more in the area of millions not billions.
All in good fun, right?
Kathleen,
I suppose you're referring to some incorrect info on Imran's blog but while we're clarifying things about Quixtar, care to comment about the percentage discount that Employee IBOs receive? Your buddy David E. has "evaded" my direct question so far and hasn't provided a direct answer (see his post and my comments). I just want to know the exact percentages the employee IBOs get discounts for.
Care to share? Or maybe David E. will answer when he has time?
Why will IBOs not answer your questions? What do they have to hide? QBlog, if you asked me the same question, I would tell you I get a 10% discount on all non-grocery items, that's part of my benefit package. No big secret, no big deal.
I think this post on blogging, probably applies to me. But, I don't care. Qblog is defenately the "king" of blogs about Quixtar. I think you should just support all your little "subjects", though. The more voices we get out there the better. We're like a hive of bees, bugging the crap out of Quixtar. I'll always support QBlog.
LOL kathleen, thanks for pointing out my blunder. Fixed.
>>So, Imran, we can expect to see "page not found" when we click on your blog pretty soon?
Ha! you wish :) You may, if I get bored!! I'll get bored when Quixtar become smart. Not see it happening any time soon ;)
>>I mean with a google page rank of zero and all, you really ought to hang it up -- by your own rules!
Holly smokes. I am not hanging any thing up. I just said that these tow are my bench marks. I don't expect to see google rank go up, since I am using free blogger template, but traffic keep on increasing. NOW I'm hanging it up :) By rank I means higher on searches, not page rank.
I'm having some ideas to polish the blog. And no, not spending any money :) Just learning more.
Imran,
Glad you got a sense of humor, man.
Also, re you quixtatic comment: Hope you're breathing OK -- didn't mean to suggest you cut off your life support. LOL!
love this part:
Instead of spending $29.95 a month for .................snip..................getting things off your chest in a good old diary. Trust me, you'll feel better in the long run.
Love it!!! So true, So true.
"Instead of spending $29.95 a month for broadband, $14.99 a month for web hosting, and $69.95 for a copy of Movable Type, take $1.50 and buy a notebook and a pen."
-I already have broadband and use it for a lot of other things (work, gaming, newsreading...)
-I use free and ad-free web-hosting (for a small blog, it's more than sufficient)
-There are many free blogging tools (Blogger, Dotclear..), why would you stick to a really expensive solution?
These arguments aren't the right ones.
Yes, if what you say is uninteresting to ANYONE you should stick to the notebook (or personal thoughts). But if you feel some people (even if it's just your family or friends) could benefit from reading you, and you want to start your own blog, you definitely should.
Maybe I've missed a lot of sarcasm here, but I found this post rather distasteful. Why are you airing your frustrations in regard to blogs in the context of a blog post? Why are you telling people not to speak their minds in blogs while your site "is protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution"? If 11,999 of those 12,000 blogs are crap, why did you bother to create one? Call me stupid, but I must be missing something. I share the same frustrations towards crappy blogs, my own included, but man, this is a little overblown. If it's meant to be sarcastic and funny, then congratulations; it is. But if you're being serious, you missed the mark.
It's not the blogging that's wrong, it's putting your blog on Feedster or similar. There's a perfectly valid use case for blogs for those of us who live away from home, which is to use it to show family and friends what you are up to.
I see a lot of ranting about how blogs suck, about how nobody cares, etc. So, if nobody cares, why are so many people annoyed about it? My 'blog' is a livejournal, and I'll lay odds you could care less what I say on it. And that's ok, because I'm not talking to you; I'm talking to a select group of people who do care what movie I'm seeing Friday night, because they might want to tag along. It's more centralized and convenient than a mailing list, doesn't make nonmembers log in (as do most message boards), and is a convenient place to refer people to. Sure, creating a blog with the idea that the unwashed masses of the internet will be lost without your pithy wit is hubris, not to mention kind of silly. But just because someone isn't talking to you doesn't mean nobody's listening.
You hurt my feelings!
I'm going to blog about you, you mean mean man!
your blog suck, your post suck.
thanks
this is so true, with the explotion of all free blogging devices, reading certain blogs, to some extent has become annoyingly akin to seeing teenyboppers typing "LOL" in chatrooms.
But we cant blame what people write about... but dont worry, I will convert back into religiusly scribbling away on a journal dedicated to stuff that just doesn't fit on the web.
Thanks for the article, it has opened my eyes to reality.
While most suck, every once in a while a gem of a post can be discovered from the sucky weblogs. We shouldn't expect a single weblog to do all the work.
I like the challenging nature of your post, but don't agree with it. Notebooks aren't easily searchable, nor are they accessible wherever there's a computer. You can add pictures and sounds much more easily online than to a notebook. Blogger is free, if you've already got a computer there's no extra cost. If you lose your notebook, it's lost forever, but if your blog crashes, it'll be restored from a remote server. I was unable to keep a diary for longer than a month or two, but my blog's lasted two years so far.
Your posting is very brutal but I believe you did a good job of saying what needed to be said. Many people are blogging who, perhaps, should not. Or, to say it more charitably, perhaps they should learn the basics about effective writing before they start a blog. But overall, I think writing down one's thoughts is a good idea -- possibly the first step to self-improvement.
Cheers,
Peter
I don't think it's a good idea!
Plug+comment: Maybe instead of starting a blog, some people should just make 1 or 2 posts at craigslist/forums/flypapr.com. -Flypapr creator..
I love your rant it's got us all jumping up and down like fleas on a hot plate.
I appreciate the humour and your point of view. There's no doubt there is a blog graveyard which is gradually building up.
The way I see my blog is not an island floating along with the other blog debris in the blogosphere.
Mine is more proactive, It's not waiting for people to "find" it. Instead I tell people to check it out. After all I know it's worth their while!
It's aimed at my clients, prospects and people I know. What's more I know they look at it and some on a regular basis.
It's a great way of building a relationship with these people.
Because let's face it could you really speak to 400 people every week and show them what a great business person/artist/writer or whatever?
I feel like an empty room, but eh. Nothing seems worth doing. I haven't gotten much done today.
Not much on my mind right now, but it's not important. I've just been letting everything happen without me. I just don't have anything to say right now.
I haven't been up to anything recently, but so it goes. Such is life. What can I say? Pretty much not much exciting going on to speak of. I haven't gotten much done lately, but I don't care.
Cool site. Thanks:-)
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The Mayor's office will NEVER have a blog. If there's one thing I've learned from politics, it's that you should never tell people what you're up to.
Posted by: Mayor McCheese | March 28, 2005 2:09 AM