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Quo Vadis Blogosphere?

Sometimes I like to take a step (or two) back from it all and go over my old posts and try to see what the general trends are that I’ve been writing about lately. I know we do a lot of navael gazing in the tech blogosphere and maybe more so than in other blogging communities. Yet, I think sometimes it’s useful to think about the grand scheme of things.

In this post, I just want to highlight what I think are the major issues that are facing us as a community right now. I don’t have the crazy illusion that I can speak for everybody – so these are purely my own personal observations.

Echo Chamber and Information Overload

In between our favorite watering holes of TechMeme, FriendFeed and Twitter, we have created a perfect echo chamber that can be very hard to break out of. We are already producing so much content that it’s hard to keep up with even half of what the tech blogosphere produces – yet at the same time, we also all sometimes tend to congregate around the same topics (think ‘bitchmemes’ on Fridays).

There is a lot of recycled content (= me-too blogging), yet a lot of good, new content can (no matter what the optimists say) be left unread. No singled blogger (except for Mr. Scoble) can really keep up with it all anymore and so as we retrench to the common denominators (Mashable, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Scoble, etc.), new bloggers have a harder and harder time breaking through. Some of that is mitigated by the arrival of FriendFeed, where shared items have the same weight as a users own new blog posts – but finding those new items can be hard. We need to keep making an effort to help new bloggers get heard by actively looking for them and promoting them whenever we can.

The Plight of the Solo Blogger

At this point, there are once again less solo bloggers (pro and amateur) in the Techmeme Top 100 than before. It’s close to impossible for a solo blogger to make a living in the tech blogosphere. Advertising doesn’t cut it. Maybe that’s ok for a lot of people – but those who want to take their passion to the next level should have a chance to do so. An individual blogger just can’t compete with large mega-blogs that are able to pump out content 24/7. Part of the solution is joining a blogging network, but in the long run, there has to be another solution as well. Or maybe it’s just not possible for the solo blogger to make this a business and we do indeed have to start working for the ‘man…’

Advertising

Close related to this is the low return on advertising on blogs. Blogger have very few options beyond Google’s AdSense – and even those don’t bring in much more money than AdSense does anyway. You can start selling links, which gives you a stable, yet small, income – but that’s frowned upon for good reason. The online advertising market is suffering from the Google monopoly. Maybe a blogger could arrange a monthly sponsorship, but how many bloggers have enough pull to make that happen?

Comment Fragmentation and FriendFeed

I know a lot of people who really don’t want to talk about this anymore, but with FriendFeed and other aggregators slowly becoming more and more important and as users are using them more and more as social networks, this remains a major issue. Today, with Disqus, Sezwho, and Intense Debate, we have a wide variety of solutions to outsource our commenting system – but more and more, the conversation has moved away from our blog. I’m fine with that, but many bloggers see it as a challenge. There are some plugins that put FriendFeed comments on your blog – and while they work well enough, this is not a very graceful solution, as your blogs comments and the FF comments remain seperated.

Micro-Blogging vs. Full Blogs

Maybe this isn’t much of a question anymore, but there used to be a lot of talk about this (esp. with Twitter being down so often lately). How many bloggers end up writing more on Twitter than their own blogs? What makes a blogpost worthwhile over a Twitter post?

Sailors are naval, gazers are navel. : )

it's also hard for the solo bookwriter to make a nice living as a bookwriter. Everyone who's a waiter in LA hoping to be an actor/actress mostly won't make it, same for stand-up comedians, same for singers, same for artists, same for lots of professions. Just because it can be done, doesn't mean everyone can do it.

Whether you can or cant — that's a function of many things, but it's not a function of Techmeme or Adsense or FriendFeed. That's “victim mentality” talk and you are no victim (and I mean that in the nicest possible way).

Sailors are naval, gazers are navel. : )

it's also hard for the solo bookwriter to make a nice living as a bookwriter. Everyone who's a waiter in LA hoping to be an actor/actress mostly won't make it, same for stand-up comedians, same for singers, same for artists, same for lots of professions. Just because it can be done, doesn't mean everyone can do it.

Whether you can or cant — that's a function of many things, but it's not a function of Techmeme or Adsense or FriendFeed. That's “victim mentality” talk and you are no victim (and I mean that in the nicest possible way).

Thanks for the navel correction

I agree with you when it comes to the “just because it can be done, doesn't
mean everyone can do it” – and I also don't think its a function of
Techmeme, Adsense and FriendFeed. But I do think it's a legitimate question
to ask if it can be done at all – by anybody – and if it can be done – what
does it take? (by the way – I'm not thinking to make a living out of this,
so I wouldn't feel like a victim anyway

Thanks for the navel correction

I agree with you when it comes to the “just because it can be done, doesn't
mean everyone can do it” – and I also don't think its a function of
Techmeme, Adsense and FriendFeed. But I do think it's a legitimate question
to ask if it can be done at all – by anybody – and if it can be done – what
does it take? (by the way – I'm not thinking to make a living out of this,
so I wouldn't feel like a victim anyway

“what does it take?” is a great question and a legitimate one, but asking if it “can be done at all?” is like asking whether being an actor, singer or stand-up comedian can be done. Of course it can be done! Slim chances though.

It's really hard to break into a crowded field — especially where the barriers to entry are incredibly low — without being exceptional in some way.

If you were thinking to make a living at it, what if anything would you do differently?

“what does it take?” is a great question and a legitimate one, but asking if it “can be done at all?” is like asking whether being an actor, singer or stand-up comedian can be done. Of course it can be done! Slim chances though.

It's really hard to break into a crowded field — especially where the barriers to entry are incredibly low — without being exceptional in some way.

If you were thinking to make a living at it, what if anything would you do differently?

[...] joke about moving CenterNetworks to FriendFeed sounds a less like a joke!  Similarly, the arguments around comment fragmentation take on a whole new spin, let alone the ideas of comment ownership, product evangelism and [...]

I do think that for a lot of people the question really is 'can it be done at all,' but you are probably right that asking' what it takes' is the more interesting question here.

To do this to make a living, you probably have to a) spend a lot more time on it b) push advertising a lot harder c) network more online and offline
(conferences etc.) d) come up with great content 24/7 e) have a whole lot of luck (and there is probably a lot more others can think of) – or be hired by the big guys… basically, I would continue what I do, but I would have to at least quadruple my efforts and probably lose the sense of joy I have in doing this in the process.

I should probably think about this a bit more – maybe I will write another post about it after I get some more caffeine into my system

I do think that for a lot of people the question really is 'can it be done at all,' but you are probably right that asking' what it takes' is the more interesting question here.

To do this to make a living, you probably have to a) spend a lot more time on it b) push advertising a lot harder c) network more online and offline
(conferences etc.) d) come up with great content 24/7 e) have a whole lot of luck (and there is probably a lot more others can think of) – or be hired by the big guys… basically, I would continue what I do, but I would have to at least quadruple my efforts and probably lose the sense of joy I have in doing this in the process.

I should probably think about this a bit more – maybe I will write another post about it after I get some more caffeine into my system

I think that the blogger-coder teams will dominate in future

I think that the blogger-coder teams will dominate in future

[...] joke about moving CenterNetworks to FriendFeed sounds a less like a joke!  Similarly, the arguments around comment fragmentation take on a whole new spin, let alone the ideas of comment ownership, product evangelism and [...]

[...] joke about moving CenterNetworks to FriendFeed sounds a less like a joke!  Similarly, the arguments around comment fragmentation take on a whole new spin, let alone the ideas of comment ownership, product evangelism and [...]

If you don't love what you do, you can't possibly survive. Because –as you point out — the odds of doing well are pretty long. Better have a well-developed taste for your topic and strong coffee.

If you don't love what you do, you can't possibly survive. Because –as you point out — the odds of doing well are pretty long. Better have a well-developed taste for your topic and strong coffee.

Like espresso…all day, everyday, 32 hrs a day.

Like espresso…all day, everyday, 32 hrs a day.

All the computers on my LAN have coffee names. There's a reason.

All the computers on my LAN have coffee names. There's a reason.

oh..haha..my bad *rolls eyes* (i always have to talk outta line..its my *uhem* forte' i believe. like a calling).

oh..haha..my bad *rolls eyes* (i always have to talk outta line..its my *uhem* forte' i believe. like a calling).

[...] enough, Frederic had just the prior week written a post in which he noted: It’s close to impossible for a solo blogger to make a living in the tech [...]