Dead Blogs
I read some disheartening news today: nearly 68% of all blogs posted on the blogosphere are unread. There are myriad reasons, chief among them, I would presume, is that their respective authors simply do not update frequently enough. For certain, there are two sections of Mugglenet’s site that I used to frequent, and neither of them have had a new post since a week after the release of the seventh Harry Potter book in late July, ’07. It’s irritating to check back to these “blogs” and find nothing new; so much so that I only check once a month or so now, whereas I used to check daily.
Barring infrequent posts, what other reasons are there for a blog being unread? One certainly is the blogger’s credibility, and this makes me sit up and take notice of my own work here. What credentials have I to stir your interest, to make you want to read my words? I’ve no degree in English or Literature, nor do I have a list of published works to cite. All I have are my experiences, my thoughts and ideas, and my desire to stir your interest, to make you want to read my words and perhaps even set down some of your own.
This blog is new, and having studied Web design at the collegiate level and working in that same field, I know that while some sites take off overnight, blogs usually don’t. I have nothing noteworthy enough to say that would warrant a press conference, for instance. Nor do I have the available funds to buy ad space on popular sites like Yahoo or MSN. There are many things I can do to market this blog (and those things, I shall do), to put myself out there and let you, the potential (and hopefully returning!) reader know that a) I exist, and b) I have a true desire to interact with you, to share thoughts and ideas, knowledge and wisdom. And are those ideals not the very stones upon which the foundation for the Internet and the World Wide Web were built?
Yet most of the population will likely never read my words. And I find this sad, but perhaps not for the reasons you may think.
No doubt you’ve noticed the ads on this site, so you know that I do nurse a desire to earn some compensation for my work here, yet that is not why I do it. As a Web designer by trade and training, I have the means to build my own blog site, be it in Flash or XHTML and CSS, and I can break for the $100 or so that would buy a Web server and a domain name. Doing so would mean that I do not have to share what ad revenue I do make with Blogger; and yet I stay here. Why?
Because Blogger has the resources to get my words out there; to put them in places where people are likely to stumble upon them. Hopefully my words will create (or nurture) a desire in you to read, or write, or think, or all of the above, and as arrogant or egocentric as that my sound, those are my true intentions.
What does all of this have to do with writing a novel, you ask? And I answer: is not the purpose of a blog and a novel the same: to tell a story? Be it a fictional story or the day-to-day struggles and triumphs of an aspiring novelist, a blog and a novel are but two different catalysts of the same type.
So I charge you with this task: when you run across a blog, read it. If it has few (if any) comments, post one. I can assure you, from personal experience, nothing you could do would make a blogger happier than replying to his or her post. Not even clicking on his or her ads. A blogger, I think, is a bringer of knowledge, even if it is personal knowledge, gained through the course of living day after day in this crazy, beautiful world of ours.
Help them bring their knowledge by receiving it, and inspire them to continue to do so by giving back a little of your own, through your comments and replies.
Nearly 68% of all blogs go unread. That number is too high, my friends.
And you have the power to change it.
J.B.
[...] the 68% Posted December 4, 2007 I wrote previously that nearly 68% of all blogs go unread, and I realized today that I am among that number. [...]