Thoughts on the Blogosphere 2.0

Insights from one of the old-timers in the blogging world:

1. The A-List Doesn't Matter Anymore… Most of the A-List bloggers aren't all that influential. When I surveyed key journalists…they preferred the niche blogs, which brings me to the next topic.

2. It's all about niche blogs. If you have a particular expertise and unique perspective, they you can quickly gain a following. Everyone else is out of luck.

3. Norms and practices… Bloggers do not link to each other as much as they used to. It's a lot of work to look for good posts elsewhere, and most bloggers have become burnt out…

4. Blogger Burn Out… It's a lot of work to blog. Most bloggers, and not just the A-listers, spend 3-5 hours every day blogging. That's hard to maintain, especially since there is no money in this… But it's hard to volunteer that much time over a long period of time. The spouses tend to get annoyed.

5. Reader burn out… In the past, if I was linked to by a big mega blogger, it meant 10,000 new readers in one afternoon. Now, a link by a mega blogger sends over a couple hundred readers. Readers are probably tired out of trying new stuff…

6. MSM yawns… Blogging is no longer the cool, hot thing.

7. Huffington Post. It has sucked up all the readers…

8. Twitter and Facebook. I don't really need to explain this one.

9. Link Monitoring. In the past, I could easily figure out which blogs had linked to me and then send them a reciprocal link. For whatever reasons, Google Blog and Technorati aren't picking up the smaller blogs, and I have no idea who's linking to me.

More details at 11D, along with reaction and commentary. If point #2 is true, then TYWKIWDBI is dead in the water...