In what I can only assume was a piece of linkbait (because they can’t be serious), Wired Magazine ran a post by Paul Boutin (who writes for Valleywag) which basically discourages anyone from creating a blog and encourages anyone with a blog to call it quits. Isn’t Wired Magazine just a giant blog by the way? Same with Valleywag…I know, genius isn’t it?
Here’s a direct quote from the article:
“Writing a weblog today isn’t the bright idea it was four years ago. The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge. Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths. It’s almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers. And why bother? The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter.”
First of all Paul is correct about one thing, that there is a lot of garbage (or noise/spam) out there, spammers and bots diluting the amount of quality content. But then again, you don’t have to read the spam and auto-generated posts now do you? It’s not that hard to find quality content sites out there.
To be honest I think the advice that Paul gives is probably some of the dumbest advice I have ever heard. Can you really be telling people to not create a blog (or use other social media platforms?). My blog was created roughly 8 months, through that blog I have been presented with unique business opportunities and partnerships which I would have never gotten otherwise. Not to mention the fact that my blog traffic has been growing at a solid rate month after month. Had I listed to Paul I would be stuck reading the junk that he’s out their spewing.
Paul neglects the fact that it’s not always about what you say but how you say it. People read blogs for information and a unique perspective. You can cover the exact same stories as every major tech blog out there, but if you add your own personality and your own perspective then I guarantee you that you are going to have readers. What Paul says is the equivalent of telling of a child “you can’t be an artist, you’re never going to make any money, stick with math and science.” Look, if you’re passionate about something and you have something to say, then don’t let anybody in the world stop you. Go out there, work your ass off and make it happen!
Starting a blog and joining social media platforms is a great idea (if you haven’t done so already) because you get to control your online presence and market yourself. I have a great community of readers and twitter followers (thanks guys!) and I rank #1 for my name “jacob morgan.”
Paul’s biggest critique is that blogs are “so impersonal,” I don’t think that’s true at all, I interact with and respond to every single email, comment, question that I get. If you think a blog is impersonal then maybe you should change the way you are interacting with your readers. Also, it’s not just about the blog, the conversations take place on twitter, facebook, linkedin, etc. So just because someone isn’t leaving you comments doesn’t mean they aren’t talking about you. A blog is just one way to interact and communicate.
Another genius quote from the article is as follows:
“That said, your blog will still draw the Net’s lowest form of life: The insult commenter. Pour your heart out in a post, and some anonymous troll named r0rschach or foohack is sure to scribble beneath it, “Lame. Why don’t you just suck McCain’s ass.” That’s why Calacanis has retreated to a private mailing list. He can talk to his fans directly, without having to suffer idiotic retorts from anonymous Jason-haters.”
Now, I don’t consider my readers the “net’s lowest form of life” at all, in fact I think I have some of the most clever and creative readers out there, I say this because I have interacted with many of you (via email, comments, etc). To me it sounds like Paul has an ego problem and he can’t handle any negative comments about him (and we all know Jason Calacanis has the biggest ego of all). You have to remember that with social media you are opening the doors to both positive and negative comments, you aren’t going to just have someone praise you 24/7, that’s now how the world works. I’ve had people disagree with me and call me out an all sorts of stuff, but that’s what it’s about, it’s the interaction that matters to me and the connections/relationships that I can build.
This blog is a real life case study of why you SHOULDN’T listen to the article that Paul wrote for Wired Magazine. In fact this blog is a real life case study of why you SHOULD go out there and create your blog, join social networks, build your online presence, provide quality content, and network/build relationships with as many people as you can. If I was able to do it then I’m sure you can as well. I’m definitely not planning on pulling the plug on this blog, but thanks for the “great” advice Paul.
Google your name, what do you see? I know exactly what I’m going to see when I Google my name, I control my online presence/identity and I use social networks to build my personal brand…do you?
Thanks for reading
what did you think of the Wired Magazine article, do you agree or disagree, why?
I agree with you wholeheartedly. I just started my own blog about personal branding and controlling your online presence/reputation, and I feel like your response is right in line with mine. If you start pulling the plug on your blog and your profiles and just stick to the one hot medium (e.g. Twitter) you're KILLING your personal brand. Even if he's right (which he isn't) and no one is reading your blog, and no one cares what you're writing if it isn't 140 characters or less, Google cares. All of those things he bashes are online assets that need to be looked after, not thrown to the wayside. I'm glad you started with the first thing that hit me when I read it, “Isn't this a blog telling me that I should shut down by blog?”
I just started a blog 2 weeks ago. I will not be shutting down. Sorry, Paul.
Thanks for writing about this, Jacob. I saw the Wired article yesterday and completely dismissed what they were saying.
It's amuses me that they are telling me to stop blogging on a blog. It's like when people announce they are leaving twitter forever on twitter. And I should stop blogging because Calacanis did? Puhleez …
The article also smacks of early adopter-itis. “Well, we were blogging 4 years ago and now it's becoming mainstream so it's time to move on.”
There is an awful lot of crap out there and spammers and trolls but that doesn't mean we should stop what we're doing – especially if we enjoy it.
And no one has ever left a comment on my site telling me to suck mccain's ass. I kinda wish someone would (now, don't run over there and do that Jacob 🙂 because it would make me laugh so hard.
I actually enjoyed reading the article. Essentially, I agree with what you're saying; the notion of pulling blogs when they are becoming truly mainstream is shortsighted, however I would definately recommend reading the article to anyone that has not yet done so. The problem with current social media opinion is that most people seem to agree with one another. Whilst agreement is good, we need controversial content such as that referenced here to stimulate debate. Only by recognising both sides of the argument can we expand our knowledge of the subject.
Thank Jacob great response
My comment to Paul,
I was sad upon the reading your article in Wired, http://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/magaz… titled,
Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004
I HOPE that you aren't serious about people expressing their selves in word. It reminds me of people that are frustrated with change and growth that happens to all forms of art and technology. Keep on writing Paul. Stop worrying about everyone else. We are just as frustrated as you but, never tell anyone to quit, that would keep us from discovering a better way of doing what we do.I do not in any way represent the writers of the blog world but, I do read and if you tell them to stop writing I would be out of entertainment and would have to start writing and blaming you for all the gloom and doom. Please don't write so sad and critical of us non writers trying to find our way in blogging. Some of us are just slow and late bloomers that may surprise you one day and quote your article about how it inspired us to not do what you suggested and become happy and successful despite your advice.
I can't say it any better than you already have. Staggeringly bad advice.
Well put Jacob. The only thing worth taking away from the Wired article is that the on-line environment is different than it was in years past. These days one doesn't just start or run a blog, one connects with their readers and other bloggers through Twitter and Facebook and create a community (sound familiar?) around the blog. If one tried to start a blog now and didn't want to do the other stuff, then they might want to heed Mr. Boutin's advice.
hey bill,
yep, it is a bit ironic that a blog is telling you to shut down your blog isn't it? I dont think paul really thought about his post before he wrote it. it sounds like he is having trouble managing a large blog and dealing with comments. however, managing that and completely shutting down a blog are 2 different things. It would have been better for him to give advice on how to deal with negative feedback or standout from the spam content out there.
Congrats on the new blog! and im glad you're not shutting it down.
thanks for reading and commenting bill, great to hear from you
you are very welcome, it's a shame that they wrote that. you would think that a company like wired would shoulder some of the responsibility of encouraging blogging and online branding, not vice versa,
oh, and you have a new comment on your blog 🙂
thanks for stopping by again!
hey chris,
i really think the article was written as a piece of linkbait. having said that it is always a good idea to discuss both sides of the issue, however paul was very one sided and superficial in his post.
it did spark some interesting discussions though, but the advice, especially during our current economic times, was stupid.
thanks for reading and commenting!
hey eric,
thanks for sharing and well said. as i mentioned to chris above, i really think the article was written as a piece of link bait (hope it was). reading the post and thinking about it is like telling people to stop eating because they're going to get fat. it just doesnt make any sense.
i wonder if he got enough hugs as a child…
thanks for reading and commenting!
hey chuck,
it was wasn;t it? almost make he hesitant to call it advice, more like verbal abuse.
thanks for the comment chuck
hi fran,
yep i agree, there wasn't much value in that article. it neglects the other elements that need to be incorporated for social media. i mean, i really can't think of a single person who has JUST a blog without a facebook, twitter, linkedin, etc.
let's hope nobody heeds his advice 🙂
thanks for reading and commenting fran!
VERY NICE BLOG
ITS VERY — USEFUL
THANK YOU……….
I'm of the opinion that the 'self' in 'self-publishing' defeats articles like the one in Wired before they're even written. It's my expression and I can decide where I want to do it.
Now, if all I'm looking for is a chance to get Internet Famous then, yes, I'd better be out in front of the crowd. But if I'm looking for a chance to have interesting discussions with people then I'll choose the medium that best facilitates that according to my needs.
your very welcome 🙂
hi John,
couldn't agree with you more and wired should have done a much better job with article, i still find it amusing that a blog is telling bloggers to stop blogging, where's the sense in that?
blog on!
thanks for reading and commenting john
Hah! Indeed, Jacob. Moments after seeing that Wired post (you may have tweeted about it), I went to the site, registered, and posted a comment. The guy is nuts. Nuff said.
Jacob, I actually think I agree with the Wired article — let me clarify what I think he's talking about in the article. We talked about the article quite a bit at the Ignite office, and I made the point that I think the old form of blogging has gone out the window. Blogging first started as a single person writing down their own thoughts and pushing them out. It wasn't quite a business tool so much as it was a personal tool. I think the personal tool angle is dying (or is at least changing form), and its shifting towards other uses. Blogs will certainly go on, but just for other reasons — namely, exactly what you pointed out: developing brands. Someone like Calacanis already has a brand and doesn't need the help of a blog anymore, but for many of us, and for a lot of major businesses, blogs make A LOT of sense.
ya i read your comment, i think a lot of people disagree. the post was pure linkbait.
thanks for the comment!
hey jeremy,
there are different types of blogging yes, but i dont think it's fair to say that personal blogging will die and will shift to business blogging. businesses will use it for business and individuals will use it for their own thoughts.
some of the top blogs out there are personal individual blogs or collections of interesting thoughts and ideas that people put together. building a personal brand is an individual blog, just like this one.
im convinced that the article was just a pure piece of linkbait, i corresponded with seth godin on this and he agrees that the wired article is way off and was just used as a way to get readers and links.
thanks for the comment!
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I wouldn't be so harsh as to say that the guy is dumb to ask bloggers to stop blogging. I think he was just trying to say that it is not so fruitful or meaningful to own a blog as it was 4 years back. I guess he did not choose the right words or put it the right way.
I wouldn't be so harsh as to say that the guy is dumb to ask bloggers to stop blogging. I think he was just trying to say that it is not so fruitful or meaningful to own a blog as it was 4 years back. I guess he did not choose the right words or put it the right way.