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Most Blogs Now Abandoned
The Narrative Fallacy writes "Douglas Quenqua reports in the NY Times that according to a 2008 survey only 7.4 million out of the 133 million blogs the company tracks had been updated in the past 120 days meaning that "95 percent of blogs being essentially abandoned, left to lie fallow on the Web, where they become public remnants of a dream — or at least an ambition — unfulfilled." Richard Jalichandra, chief executive of Technorati, said that at any given time there are 7 million to 10 million active blogs on the Internet, but it's probably between 50,000 and 100,000 blogs that are generating most of the page views. "There's a joke within the blogging community that most blogs have an audience of one." Many people who think blogging is a fast path to financial independence also find themselves discouraged. "I did some Craigslist postings to advertise it, and I very quickly got an audience of about 50,000 viewers a month," says Matt Goodman, an advertising executive in Atlanta who had no trouble attracting an audience to his site, Things My Dog Ate, leading to some small advertising deals. "I think I made about $20 from readers clicking on the ads.""
The dream is not dead, there never was one.. But what there is is a public, searchable record of things that people who have "abandoned" their blogs have magnanimously left online for all to search and see. As a system administrator, searching what Quenqua or Technorati deem abandoned has saved my ass more than a few times. Seems like a typical perspective on blogging that has been clouded by a few years of some major bloggers gaining commercial success. If you aren't a sell out, you aren't a blogger. No small timer's allowed. Come on, we don't all blog to get rich and famous, and I guess if that isn't in keeping with Technorati's business model (whatever that is) then bloggers are all failures in their eyes. I for one will keep searching and using blogs, however (in)frequently they might be updated.
How many of those 50,000 were spammers throwing junk on blogspot or other sites to get pageviews for spamvertising? They'll continue to make tiny amounts of money for the spammer community forever!
Scientists and psychologists have long proven that keeping a personal journal or diary to keep track of your accomplishments, failures, goals and dreams is a very beneficial.
So, blogging is still a good activity for people. Even if no one else reads their blogs.
As for the people who thought they could make a career out of it, well, they were just idiots.
1. Start a blog.
2. Start blogging.
3. ?
There is no four. I quit.
Sig this!
This is what I came here to say. I used to blog, mostly as a way of keeping in touch with friends and family that we aren't physically near. Some of them reciprocated with their own blogs.
Now, everyone that I used to interact with is on Facebook, so that's where I (and they) post. In addition, many of the blogs I might have followed (e.g. celebrities, causes, technology, entertainment) are now on Facebook as well.
It's not that blogs have gone away, it's that they and their audiences have transitioned to social networking.
When the "next big thing" comes along - like Google Wave - people will be lamenting that social networking has gone away. Change happens, and communications improves. It doesn't go away, it gets better.
Can You Say Linux? I Knew That You Could.