According to a 2008 survey by Technorati, which runs a search engine for blogs, only 7.4 million out of the 133 million blogs the company tracks had been updated in the past 120 days. That translates to 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...TYWKIWBI feels a certain sympathy for those inactive bloggers. Especially during these idyllic days of a Midwestern late spring/early summer it's difficult to remain indoors, and the time required for blogging has already pulled me completely away from a different hobby that I previously thoroughly enjoyed.
Not all fallow blogs die from lack of reader interest. Some bloggers find themselves too busy — what with, say, homework and swim practice, or perhaps even housework and parenting. Others graduate to more immediate formats, like Twitter and Facebook. And a few — gasp — actually decide to reclaim some smidgen of personal privacy...
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.” He added, “There’s a joke within the blogging community that most blogs have an audience of one.”
Others simply tire of telling their stories. “Stephanie,” a semi-anonymous 17-year-old with a precocious knowledge of designers and a sharp sense of humor, abandoned her blog, Fashion Robot, about a week before it got a shoutout in the “blog watch” column of The Wall Street Journal last December. Her final post, simply titled “The End,” said she just didn’t feel like blogging any more...
Even more frustrating for a blog like this one that incorporates such a wide range of topics is the vast supply of material available. I'll blog 5 or 10 items a day, but bookmark an equal number of equally-interesting items planning to use them later - a "later" that never comes. With perhaps a thousand links now sitting there staring at me, the knee-jerk response is to blog the "easy" ones - the two-headed snake or the funny cartoon - things that require less thought (and time) than a piece on Guantanamo or Iran or the economy.
So starting this week I'm going to change my strategy. I'll limit my blogging hours, and I'm also going to work my way through the backlog as best I can, posting some and discarding others. I hope I'll be able to spend the appropriate time to discuss the plight of the Uighurs or type up those passages from a recently-read book. I don't know that this approach is any better or worse than what I've done in the past, but it's a measure that I hope will allow me to continue blogging and not join that group of a hundred million burnouts.
hey, whatever you do I'll be grateful. Over the last few months since I found you I can't count how many TIWKIYDB. stay sane
ReplyDeletephil
gf accounts for one of those dead blogs, but I make it up by actively posting 2 blogs
ReplyDeletehttp://pirateneo1.blogspot.com/
http://ariesworld1.blogspot.com/
I agree with Anonymous--I really enjoy your blog, and would be distressed if you decided to quit.
ReplyDeleteI must say, it's true that many people abandon or delete their blogs. Or, as I have seen, some blogs are simply "spam" blogs meant to be abandoned when no longer useful.
ReplyDeleteBut there are some blogs that I find very intriguing (yours being one of them). Those blogs I check frequently for new content. However, my personal blog is different in many ways.
I don't maintain my blog for the "readership" (I think that includes 10 people, if I count my mother). I maintain my blog as a personal account of ME. There are a number of entries that are actually kept "private," which means I am the only one to see them. In this way, my blog becomes a journal where I share some content, but not all. I don't feel obligated to post because I don't have some dedicated readership who might be disappointed if I didn't.
It is quite freeing to ignore who reads my stuff and simply write what and when I feel.
You could always offer your backlog to some of those bloggers who've given up; maybe they'd start posting again if they had some good material!
ReplyDeleteAnd you could then focus on new and more important stuff. Have you been following the uproar in Iran?
I discovered this blog only a couple of weeks ago, but I seriously doubt you're capable of writing an UNinteresting post. Whatever you write, I'm gonna read it.
Count me in as a voice of support. I'm very particular about the blogs/newsfeeds I allow in my newsreader; there is simply too much out there and not enough time to read it all. Prioritizing must take place. I enjoy TYWKIWDBI, despite the finger-breaking name -- it is the only "general interest" blog that I read. Keep it up, but keep yourself happy, too.
ReplyDeleteI love what you do and learn so much from your blog. i tell everyone about it.
ReplyDeleteIt's true, sometimes blogging can be very demanding and time-consuming. You end up putting a pressure on yourself, and sometimes, it can be too much. But being someone always looking at a glass half full, I should be happy to see that so many bloggers found their way to "real life", away from a computer ;-)
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