Remember Blogging and Podcasting

I know there's always some kind of sync between us. I recently wrote a Blog post titled, Are You Excited To Be Here? (http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/are-you...). The point? People Blogged and Podcasted because they "could" not because they "had to."

I "have to". I'm a writer and a communications guy at heart. I'd be Blogging and Podcasting even if there wasn't a "publish" button, simply because I love to write stuff down or have a conversation about it.

Like you, there are some great Bloggers and Podcasters who have slowed down or disappeared, and that makes me pretty sad.

What makes me happy is knowing that someone like you cares enough to come by and read what's on my brain... thank you :)

Looks like you and Mitch have a case of BSP! (Blogger Sensory Perception)

I guess it depends largely on where your heart is... in the writing, just communicating, or in the ping-pong. Most folks will find a platform that suits them... but I agree, I do miss one of two really good bloggers who post less, or post shorter.

Truth is, I read stuff all the time, love it, and then think to write about something related days later. Probably I owe Mitch a link to that post. In fact... *fix fix*

Chris, very timely as I was planning to write about this in the next day or two. Why Twitter is replacing blogging for some people is something I will never understand. Twitter is great for a quick note due to its 140 character limit. However, having "conversations" or even trying to put an opinion together on twitter is near impossible. Maybe I just use twitter differently than a lot of people.

The only thing I could understand is the time that twitter and friendfeed take away from blogging. They can be a serious investment of time.

This mirrors something I was thinking about last week. Here you speak of former bloggers that have moved on to micro blogging and the like. At least they are still around.

Last week, a podfaded show started towards making a comeback. It was a pretty popular show in the early days and I missed it when it quit. I was really happy to see that it was starting up again. It is Me and the Bean.

But, seeing that show come back made me think of a lot of the shows that were around in the early days, late 2004 -2005. There was a totally different feel back then, better feel actually. Much tighter community.

I have to admit, I got bummed for the rest of theat day missing the first days of podcasting, back when it was all new and we all had hopes of how it would play out.

But hey, things change. Hopefully people will find their way back to regular blogging, but at least you know where they are. A lot of those early podcasts just disappeared, along with the creators.

I know I just dropped episode #378 of the main show and have several new shows, such as the Animated Adventures, so I am not quitting anytime soon.

Just make sure you don't stop either.

Twitter reminds me of email on a VAX terminal.

I sort of think of platforms like twitter as an evolutionary improvement of email. Evolutionary, because a couple of key improvements have been forced: a character limit to keep it brief, and a subscription ("following") model to keep the noise down.

Now that I am thinking/writing, this is more a throwback than an improvement. This is what email was before rich text and html formats, and before spammers.

Is this what they were referring to five or six years ago when the prognosticators were saying RSS would kill email?

I have to say, I would be pretty sad if the rich texture of the well thought out word lost its way to the veneer of things like twitter. I'm not saying that it doesn't have its place, but it would be sad if it was the only place there was.

Definitely is a trend of bloggers fading. I agree that microblogging is way easier. The other thing I'd mention is blogging is several years old now, and people change. I think the minority are able to stick with blogging - heck, anything - for longer than a few years.

What's interesting, Chris, is that Mitch and I had this conversation over lunch when I was in Montreal recently. For a writer, writing is what we do. Also, in many ways, you don;t know what you're thinking until you write it.

I know that many people are inspired to insights and action from my posts - even as they, admittedly, tend to comment less these days. I must admit that conversation is more fun when there is one outside my head ;-) To those who still like to read posts, do come in and comment - it really makes a difference in terms of taking the conversation to a new level.

If you'd like MORE Valeria in your life, check out Marketing Over Coffee :-)

Seriously! Sometimes I feel like I am blogging in an empty room - the conversation has significantly moved off of blogs and onto Twitter, especially for my regular readers. There are times when I have gotten more comments about a post on Twitter than I have on my blog.

I miss everyone too. :)

I'm still here Chris, and writing almost daily. Is anyone listening? That is certainly the case, and of the folks I have talked to, my writing is making a difference, so I can be grateful for that impact.

-> I think people are using Twitter and other social go-betweens b/c like you said, it is faster and more well, like regular conversation. But the Twitter experience is not a lasting experience, like a blog post can be.

Not enough thought processes go into 140 little characters.

Each has it's own use, right?

Rock on,

lawton

No more twitter feed - original ideas from now on, not re-tweets

quantity vs value = value wins

Twitter type sites only work if your blog is intended to be just that...a blog. If you have an online newspaper or magazine as I do, it's virtually impossible to do so! Posts are too long!

Your comments are in line with a number of other pieces I have read recently which suggests the number of blogs actually being written is falling. Is this because of the lure of other tools or are people falling out of love with their blogs? I personally prefer the freedom a blog provides you on length over the 140 characters which can be frustrating.

My personal blog (which I have been maintaining since 2000) has not been updated for quite a while thanks in part to using Facebook and in part to not prioritising it during an intense period in my life.

However as I am currently starting up a new company (spun off in a new direction from my old company) I am now looking at starting a new business based blog.

I think that it is perhaps the intention behind the blog that affects whether people move to social media instead. If the main reason you blog is to keep friends updated about what's going on in your life, then Twitter and Facebook etc can do the job easier and allow you a richer interaction with your friends. If you use your blog as a means of self expression, promotion or to make money in some way then you're more likely to keep on blogging as it's more visible through search engines etc, is more possible to mould into your own personal brand and is probably the right tool for the job.

I've read many blogs lately about blogs being replaced by e-mail newsletters. I've also commented on several that I will not subscribe to an endless amount of e-mail newsletters, so if many of the bloggers I follow opt to head in that direction, they will lose me. There's a fine line between my Inbox/BlackBerry and my feed reader. You can't be in both, unless you're super-compelling or giving away free money.

I think that when starting out many do not realise the time and commitment that blogging requires. Both in the actual writing and searching out fresh content, consistently and often enough and long term. It is hard work. ... and I think people just get tired or get distracted.

But there's nothing more depressing than a deserted blog of several months or even weeks. I post to my personal blog, (very niche and which I started 3 years ago) every week. I used to blog 3 times a week, but decided that was the quickest way to burn out. Like many I also work full time. So I let my readers know my blogging frequency was changing and they were cool. The interaction became stronger and more frequent if anything. They now carry on conversations on it without me needing to reply to every post as I used to. My only regret is that I don't have time to visit all the blogs of those who visit and comment on mine... another essential part of blogging.

I am also quite active on Facebook, and I haven't found it detracted from blogging at all. I use it very differently to blogging.
I am just about to try Twitter but for business stuff(time will tell if it's a good idea or not), and I am thinking of starting a new marketing related blog. But knowing the time commitment has made me delay because I know what it's going to involve. Twitter won't replace blogging... I look at it like my FB status updates.

There are some who advocate farming out your blog posts, but since blogging is a form of personal expression this won't work for my personal blog and I'm not too sure if it will for my business related one either. But it solves the issue of content frequency.
It would be a shame if blogs faded (personally don't think they are) because in many cases they are freedom from listening to the controlled media.

I've just went the other way, I'm trying to reduce the twitter, link and limited effort posts on my blog. It felt spammy and I was called out for the just lack of effort. We are all busy, but here is my evolution of thought which made me change my mind on how to address and engage on my blog:

There is just so much content which isn't interesting, including tweets.
http://spatiallyrelevant.org/2008/07/14/nothing...

I realized I should stop contributing to the fluff.
http://spatiallyrelevant.org/2008/07/24/less-fl...

I also realized that I other people have good things to say, perhaps more so than me.
http://spatiallyrelevant.org/2008/08/03/great-i...

I've already posted 1 of them and have handful of other inquiries, so not sure where this comment is going, but while there may be a sea change underway for platforms, I think that is like the cool kid early adopter folk mainly.

Good post, sorry for the multiple links, but thought it would interesting to share my evolution towards a re-invigorated approach to my blog and ensuring sustained mediocrity.

~jon