Yesterday Liz was wondering why she had so few comments compared to other bloggers. I commented that comments in general are down lately. I seem to have just as many visitors, but not so many comments. Maybe it is because of the problem that everyone is experiencing with Blogger or perhaps we all have busy lives?
James had this to say about why blogging may be slowing down:
This year the Orwell Prize decided to include political blogs for the first time:
To mark the 70th Birthday of Orwell's Diaries, the Orwell Prize started publishing the diaries on line in the form of a blog. The first post was on August the 9th exacltly 70 years after the diaries were written.
James had this to say about why blogging may be slowing down:
What does seem to be happening is that it’s killing itself off and it’s marginalized. Let’s face it, we don’t go to any blog to hear or see the news – we go to the MSM, in my case the Telegraph first, followed by Reuters, the BBC, Google for the U.S. news and The Age for the Australian. Don’t remember the last time I looked at the Guardian.Maybe it is just me but I rarely read a newspaper, I just get the headlines and then do all my research from various sources on the web. From time to time I do read The Week which has done all the research already. Quick news and analysis for busy people, just what I need.
If we want analysis, we have our blog of choice – Dale, DK, Denninger, whoever. The rest of us, busily typing away, are at best marginalized, no matter how perspicacious we may claim to be. We don’t reach anyone except those wanting a quick, thirty second grab.
This year the Orwell Prize decided to include political blogs for the first time:
That the Orwell Prize has extended its remit to include political blogs is a sign, for Charlie Beckett, director of the Polis think-tank, that the Blogosphere has matured.Shane Greer of Total Politics magazine believes that blogs can be fitted into four categories:
Two or three years ago, he says, bloggers were considered "outrageous scribblers and scurrilous rumour-mongers".
Now they have become a "fact of life" in the mainstream political debate.
The first, big group are those blogs that are "truly awful". Second are the blogs such as Burning Our Money - which analyses in detail how taxes are spent - which are thoughtful and well written, but only of interest to a small, technically-minded community.Right, that is all the political blogs taken care of but what about all those other blogs out there...
Then there are sites that cater for a more general audience, which operate more like the comment pages in newspapers, giving a forum for debate and finding the most interesting arguments from the more technical blogs.
Finally, there are the "attack blogs" such as Devil's Kitchen, which are out there to snap at the heels of everyone else and fight for a particular political view.
To mark the 70th Birthday of Orwell's Diaries, the Orwell Prize started publishing the diaries on line in the form of a blog. The first post was on August the 9th exacltly 70 years after the diaries were written.
15 comments:
Things have changed in the blogosphere. My average daily traffic used to be 150 (sometimes it can be 200 an hour), then it went up to 250 (occasionally 2,000 in a day). I had a Google rank of 5 and that somehow disappeared. Technorati experiences problems and the ping does not work for days. When I changed my URL my traffic went down to 40 a day. It's just starting to creep up again. I now have several blogs all over the place. I can post a serious piece and it attracts no comments, a trivial piece and I might get 20 comments. I am seriously weighed down with legal work at the present for prisoners rights. Some blogs, Dizzy Thinks and Rachel North London have picked up on it, and Iain Dale linked to Dizzy's post in hid Daily Dozen. I am saddened that no other bloggers feel strongly enough about people's human rights to jump on the bandwagon. I am also saddened because people go on about the importance of the law, and yet when the government breaks the law and erodes civil liberties, it appears as though some bloggers duck their heads in the sand. I ask that bloggers put aside their ignorance, prejudices and fears, and concentrate on democracy, law, and human rights as they relate to convicted prisoners. If you do not agree with the government breaking the law, you could at least say "not in my name", the same with breaching human rights, nobody should violate another's human rights, and if you support democracy, it must extend right across England and leave no rotten boroughs were the franchise does not go.
There may be other factors for less blogging, the economy for example. Good bloggers have perished and some bad ones thrive.
If anyone would like to know how they can support a good cause, let me know.
Just going on comments figures alone, I'd say things have gone up overall at my place simply through being round for more than a few months (how long most blogs last); the best way to ensure people come back is through what you, Liz and Welshcakes and many others are doing: regularly entering into dialogue through the comments section. It took me a while to see this.
It has its advantages: by entering into dialogue, people therefore will want to come back to see what's been said in response, and will encourage commenters to return to comment in the future, as they know you'll take the time to respond. It's an organic thing; it'll grow.
I decided this would be the approach I would take this year to blogging, entering into dialogue through comments, but things aren't going as I'd like ('cos of my eye).
It's an interesting topic. Blogs will and are becoming more mainstream. And as always when things become more mainstream they can often kill things off.
Yes, my comments are down , too. It's hard not to imagine you are not writing interesting stuff when that happens. Yet my visiting is up. I just commented on James's site that a lot of people seem to be blogging on social network sites rather then purely blog hosting ones.
es things do change. I try to visit my blogging pals at least once a week to find out their latest news. Facebook is OK, but a different aspect, more trivial really.
i have been unable to get into any blogger blogs for a few days .... so maybe other people also had this problem its not the first time its happened either... none of the social networking places are the same as having your own blog and i suppose comments will always go up and down but we blog because we love too :-)
JHL - Sometimes I think that unless it is a highly publicised campaign people just tend to read the info and not pick up on the importance of the issues involved. Also some blogs aren't political at all and the people who write them aren't interested in politics. I agree that google and technorati have gone a bit strange recently.
Damon - I agree that the best way to keep people coming back is to enter into dialogue. I always check back on blogs where I know there will be a reply. It must be really frustrating having the problem with your eye.
Rob - I think maybe Bloggers who have a different angle on things may do better.
Welshcakes - I think that Facebook may be to blame in some cases, although I have never used it. Twitter is a bit different, you can use that as a tool to enhance your blog in several ways.
D - It is always difficult to stay up to date with everyone.
Sally - You are quite right on why we blog :-) I am suffering withdrawal symptoms from my serious blog, it has been down all week :-(
I blog for the reason thatSally gives - because I love to.. or at least certainly like to. I shy away from political blogging myself - partly because others do it better than me and partly becasue I feel I should keep some of my views to myself given my emplyer (I wouldn't want a doocing!)
My own visitor numbers (and the number of comments I receive) are down - Visitor levels reached their peak this time last year. Ah well.
I suppose more people find Twitter, more appealing. It's not something that really appeals to me though.
Jams - I think that is the only reason to blog otherwise it would become a chore. I suppose the only political blogging I do is based on the PCS campaigns that or my friends are involved in and these are National or Group supported campaigns.
I don't find Twitter a substitute to my blog, I have been using it to advertise blog posts on my other blog and more recently highlight other peoples blog posts. As I have my latest Twitter updates in my sidebar it acts the same way as if I had linked to it in a blogpost. I thought I might also use it to do brief updates from my mobile phone whilst I am at the PCS Conference. The schedule is so busy there wouldn't be time for blogging.
I have stopped commenting so much. It is probably we get banned on places and then give up all together.
Vaca Pack - Probably because you are not identifiable on your site...
I've come to the conclusion that there are so many random factors (google indexing, erratic technorati indexing, individual blogger mood swings, corrupt template code, spammers etc etc)
My traffic dropped drastically in Jan/Feb but seems to be recovering slowly this week.
As Jams said, if you do it for anything other than the love of it, traffic watching will drive you crazy.
Thank you for the mention, cherrypie!
I was just reading your garden post. we've been put off going abroad because of the pound and we're thinking of visiting Scotland. I'd like to do the north of England too. So many places I haven't been - and so many lovely gardens I haven't seen!
I only started this game to get my book 'published' and I still work away on it. Not that anyone is interested - not pouting merely statig a fact.
I have returned to my photographic roots and spend most of my time on that.
Then there are my anti-alarmist rants.
Otherwise I guess I fall into the 'truly awful' category
Pisces - I don't follow numbers to closely either. Technorati is rather hit and miss, it leaves off loads of my links.
Liz - We have been thinking maybe Scotland or Northumberland this year too, for the same reason as you. I really should have gone for a proper holiday abroad last year.
Aileni - I don't think I fit into any of the categories. I think I am much too random :-)
Post a Comment