Following on from this post, I really do feel we’re getting somewhere here. I have 5 questions to ask you to put this thing into focus [at the end of the link below] but first – comments by two top bloggers:
Tiberius Gracchus wrote, in my comments section:
1] Ultimately you blog for two reasons: firstly so that you can put down your thoughts on a page … we all have unformed political beliefs and blogging gives them a form. The second thing is the comments and feedback- I try to respond to all my comments precisely because I know I don't know that much about the world - blogging is a way of getting into a conversation with people who have other kinds of knowledge, other specialisms and can give me their knowledge and resources in order to solve problems and issues.
2] I'd rather have fifteen readers who came back every day and were interested in what I said and commented, than have a hundred who couldn't care less what I said and just flicked over it. The stats for me are just ego really but the interest derives from people commenting and responding and thinking and responding on their own blogs and reading stuff which challenges me and researching my own ideas and writing things down.
Mr. Eugenides then wrote, in my comments section:
1] But, put another way, it would be rather curious if Guido came in at no.35 but some mug like us slotted in at 7 - gratifying, but not perhaps a true reflection of the "top 100" of the blogosphere.
2] As Gracchi says it's not about the stats, though of course more is better than less and it's nice to think people are coming specifically to read what you have to say; DK said on Doughty St the other day that he blogs entirely for himself, and whether this is true or not, clearly it is important (given that we do this for nothing) that we are excited and interested in what we're doing.
3] I could probably double my stats overnight by putting "Britney Spears Sex Tape" in every post title, but what would be the point?
4] I was listening to Stephen King on Desert Island Discs this morning (now there's a sentence I never thought I would type!) and he mentioned that his wife had given him early encouragement by saying that "good fiction will always find an audience". I think the same is true, broadly speaking, of blogs.
I would add, as I'm sure these two gentlemen would agree, that one must work hard at one’s blog. Same in blogging as in all aspects of life.
Tiberius Gracchus wrote, in my comments section:
1] Ultimately you blog for two reasons: firstly so that you can put down your thoughts on a page … we all have unformed political beliefs and blogging gives them a form. The second thing is the comments and feedback- I try to respond to all my comments precisely because I know I don't know that much about the world - blogging is a way of getting into a conversation with people who have other kinds of knowledge, other specialisms and can give me their knowledge and resources in order to solve problems and issues.
2] I'd rather have fifteen readers who came back every day and were interested in what I said and commented, than have a hundred who couldn't care less what I said and just flicked over it. The stats for me are just ego really but the interest derives from people commenting and responding and thinking and responding on their own blogs and reading stuff which challenges me and researching my own ideas and writing things down.
Mr. Eugenides then wrote, in my comments section:
1] But, put another way, it would be rather curious if Guido came in at no.35 but some mug like us slotted in at 7 - gratifying, but not perhaps a true reflection of the "top 100" of the blogosphere.
2] As Gracchi says it's not about the stats, though of course more is better than less and it's nice to think people are coming specifically to read what you have to say; DK said on Doughty St the other day that he blogs entirely for himself, and whether this is true or not, clearly it is important (given that we do this for nothing) that we are excited and interested in what we're doing.
3] I could probably double my stats overnight by putting "Britney Spears Sex Tape" in every post title, but what would be the point?
4] I was listening to Stephen King on Desert Island Discs this morning (now there's a sentence I never thought I would type!) and he mentioned that his wife had given him early encouragement by saying that "good fiction will always find an audience". I think the same is true, broadly speaking, of blogs.
I would add, as I'm sure these two gentlemen would agree, that one must work hard at one’s blog. Same in blogging as in all aspects of life.
Update: Paul Linford has also weighed into this debate now with a controversial idea.
thanks for this post. One of the most interesting I have read this week.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it got some things out in the open.
ReplyDelete