Laura at 11D has an absolutely terrific post up about how the blogosphere has changed over the last six or seven years. The upshot is that it's a lot harder to make it big in the blogosphere, while the old A-listers are burning out. Blogging more than a thousand words a day, every day, is mentally exhausting, and if you aren't getting paid for it, eventually, your life intrudes.
Back in the day, new bloggers were emerging all the time. Now it's happening much more slowly, and the old bloggers have gravitated to various professional positions. Is the new media revolution over?
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Is the new media revolution over?
Oh yeah. If recent history is any indication, things will stop changing and settle down any moment now, now that this one medium has matured. :-P
It's a good thing you're getting paid for it!
The revolution ain't over till the tall lady stings.
I wonder what the average lifespan of a blog is. I just passed my one-year anniversary on my blog, and while it's been mostly pointless, it did give me the idea for a business I am starting now. So if that works out, it will be worth it. But aside from that, it has been fairly pointless.
So, new media and old media are both dying. Lovely!
I know my blog was pointless and made possible only by the fact that I was doing lousy work at my real job at the time. I believe I was up to 25 or so loyal daily readers by the time I had to give it up. I once got 700 from a Den Beste link, my best day ever. I never went back because I was trying to do better at real life and I didn't have time for it.
I'd do it again, though, if someone paid me.
Interesting post, I wonder just how many abandoned blogs are out there cluttering the internet? Reminded me of John Scalzi's typical blog life cycle: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2009/06/07/
Thanks for linking to that.
You get what you pay for, or, anything you get for free,
is worth what you paid for it. More succinctly: TANSTAAFL.
So, what would _I_ pay for, and how much ?
I would pay for documented verification of claims,
what treasure salvors call provenance:
Are 25% of female ER patients in for spousal abuse ?
Is IQ proportional to thickness of cerebral cortex ?
Was the Honduran Congress/Military acting legally ?
I would pay for an instructional/analytical site
which taught one how to recognize logical fallacies,
and provided analysis of the more difficult cases:
Who shaved the Barber ?
Has he quit beating his wife ?
Can one increase public works and lower taxes ?
Is the historical record of the Patent Office's
actions and decisions in accordance with their
Constitutional mandate ?
I would pay $100/month to a site like that;
How many like me would it take to fund one ?
Jerry Pournelle's blog, or blog-like website, has been going for 11 years now. It replaced his Byte column, and is kept open on the public radio model. I suspect it's a model of future journalism.
Yes,
remember list servers and dial up modems when BPS was all the rage?
We are the blog, resistance is futile.
Bingo: Dr. Pournelle may have been the first Blogger.
His sites on the Byte (magazine) Information Exchange (BIX)
were cutting edge, back in the day: threaded comments,
commenters expert in political, military, scientific, legal
and computer affairs (all volunteers/enthusiasts).
One of the paid websites I would support is a "reloaded"
version of those sites, with capability for parallel
comments, with 20 years of parallax;
Start with the thread on Gulf War I.
So, you unemployed professionals, work your networks;
Put together a group with the same spectrum of expertise,
selecting your legal and political protection with extra
care, because the way that you will know you are successful
is that the State will descend on your cringing heads like
the proverbial ton of bricks.
It depends on the blog. A lot of lefty blogs are way down, but Instapundit and Hot Air are stronger than ever.
My blog passed the four year mark earlier this year. It was never conceived of as a stand-alone endeavor; more of an artist's notebook and PR vehicle for my films. It has proved useful on both accounts.
Much to my surprise, I started up two new blogs this Spring; one devoted to an academic project and the other to a person project. Both tie into my larger efforts as an artist, but both have distinctly different missions from the original "Art & Business of Making Erotic Films" blog. In a strange way, these new venues, and the compartmentalization they offer has made working on the original blog easier.
As to what the future holds financially, who can say? None of my blogs have advertising. The measure of their success comes at the end of each day, week, year, when we look at what was accomplished, whether or not the accomplishments were fulfilling, and whether or not enough money came in to sustain the enterprise. Anything -- even the most pleasant and fulfilling work -- can get to be a grind.