Where Did All The Bloggers Go?
There’s a great post at the moment over at the sassy Finding the Money about What Frustrates You The Most About Blogging?As Lora_3 put it in the comments,
“The lack of discussion. Really! How many times do any of us Comment and say “I disagree!” Sometimes the whole PC post and comments get me down. Fight it out, talk it through and have light placed on a different view point.”
How absolutely, positively, hitting the nail on the head in a most remarkable way true! It really p*sses me off sometimes that the blogosphere is becoming all too politically correct and that bloggers are becoming rather restricted and reserved in what they say.If I read “I’m kind of sitting on the fence on this one” one more time, I’ll scream!!
Web 2.0 seems to be a lot more reserved and cautious than it’s predecessor and I believe this is devastating the blogging community. What happened to the good ol’ days of blogging your honest, unedited opinions and being safe in the knowledge that nobody was going to come knocking on your door armed with a baseball bat to disagree with you?
Why is it happening?
Sadly, I think a lot of it comes down to money! Advertisers will not be attracted to a site that has a lot of negativity and rants and given the extent that advertising has seeped into the blogosphere, it seems to have influenced a lot of writings on a lot of blogs. I feel a lot of bloggers have become more concerned with blog monetization than blog quality.
It’s not just the blogs with big sponsors either as even through basic Adsense advertising, the name of the game has become to increase traffic by putting on a happy face to promote your blog and have it seen in as many places as possible. This gives rise to the quick and easy “I agree” or “Nice blog” comments that are seen all too often. What is the point of these comments? Pure…self…promotion! Can you imagine having a conversation with someone about your opinion on a topic and all they reply with is “I agree”! You’d tell them to go get an opinion!
But then there’s social networking and building a “community” around your blog. I think these are great concepts but having negative content on your blog would make it incredibly hard to achieve these concepts. Who would join a community where there is a chance the owner may abuse them in a post? But do you really want a community of sheep-like followers? How far will you sell out to make money online?
While most of the posts on this site are of a “positive” nature (that’s just the way I am!), the few “negative” posts that I’ve made have resulted in me receiving messages saying “this will hurt your blog” or it will “give your blog a bad reputation“.
I’d rather have a reputation for being honest and not afraid to put opinions and feelings out there than a reputation as being a “safe, advertiser-friendly” blog.
But hang on, this site’s about making money online isn’t it? Yep. Today’s lesson is to keep your posts professional, neutral and un-opinionated. I’ve written this post as an example of the sort of things that you shouldn’t be writing (ahem…yes..sure….that’s it…) about. Go ahead…sell out…the advertisers with be lining up to get on your blog.
Who dares comment?
Rich people subscribe to Cash Quests
I dare! The whole blogosphere is commercialized so it’s no wonder that comments are going in the same direction.
What really p*sses me of are those top commentator widgets. It’s incredible what bullsh*t people write to get their name on the sidebar! Of course, there are some professionals amongst them, but they’re a minority.
piSs & LovVe
by Alex
I absolutely agree about those widgets Alex! Writing ‘I agree’ 200+ times should label you a “top” anything.
It’s amazing how on some of the really popular blogs, some people are writing 200+ comments in a week! That’s (counts fingers and toes…)around 30 a day!! Unbelievable…!
Kumiko
xo
by Kumiko
I disagree!
(now dare to approve this comment)
by Stretsh
Then again, this makes me wonder how many people actually wrote “I disagree” and it just gets axed by the moderator before it even sees ligh…
Of course there’s also the peer pressure from the “I agree. You are so awesome” commentors… much like in real life.
by kelvinkao
I don’t think the top commentator widget is crap. You have control over your own blog, and if you don’t want somebody promoting themselves by leaving two-word comments, then don’t approve the comments! Also, you have the ability to delete comments as you see fit.
I think its a good way for those who help add substance to your site to promote themselves. I have no problems giving a link out to my top interactive readers.
by Brian Auer
What absolute rubbish you write … it’s, it’s such utter … No, it’s no good, I can’t really disagree with you - sorry!
The world in general, though, has gone too PC, well it definitely has in the UK. If you say anything a little out of line you will be identified as racist, ageist or some other ‘ist’.
As for blogging, yes, money does play a part. Look at all of the sponsored posts and links.
We must, however, say what we think but not just for the sake of doing so.
Mike.
by Mike Perry
I echo both your sentiments. If you go over to Chow’s site or Rowse’s. There are so many “fan club boys” posting comments that don’t really have any value. “Congrats John, you did it again”, “You are so evil”, “I hope I can have 1% of your traffic”, etc, etc.
They still have some good comments and questions (nothing too negative though), but the other 90% is fluff. I guess that is the price you pay for having the success that they have had. People just want to get a link and comment on there.
Kudos for righting this article, this is why I read your blog kumiko.
by Neil
I also dare to comment. I happen to agree with you and think that you’re exactly right about the reason for all of this - money.
For the time being I’ve decided to try and stop monetizing my blog so that I can concentrate more on creating quality content and increasing traffic.
This will also allow me to say what I want on my site. I never intentionally go out of my way to slam someone or something, but I completely reserve the right to.
Great blog, Kumiko.
by Rod
I agree
LOL Kidding!
I think it isn’t just about trying to appease the advertisers but a lot of it just comes down to routine. It is all to easy to make a few happy clappy posts and forget you ever had an opinion about anything!
I hope it never happens to me, if it does you have to promise to slap me out of it!
MattJones@affiliatescamguide.com
by matt608
I just wrote a long-winded comment and then when I clicked on “publish my comment”, I got one of those nasty server error messages. Argh!
The Coles Notes version: Too many people have an overly positive outlook on life and there is a lot of shameless promotion out there.
I think I’m going to make a blog post about this.
by Michael Kwan
You know, a funny thing is that some of the “big names” in our niche are fairly starving to be challenged. For instance, Darren Rowse has left comments on my blog several times when I’ve been critical of him, even when my readership was miniscule. The Copyblogger guy even came on once and dared to call me a “smartass” (the nerve).
On the other hand, newer bloggers often don’t have the first clue what to about disagreements in comments. About 20% of the comments I leave on other blogs are of the “I disagree” variety, and the blogger usually gets so defensive that there’s no point in continuing the discussion.
So, I think the lack of real debate often comes from ignorance of its value, rather than a calculated plan to maximize revenue.:)
-j
by John
John - You??? A smartass???? Did he even ready your blog????
Good points. While it shouldn’t be done ‘just for fun’, there is a lot more fun to blogging when there is disagreement, controversy and debate. I guess a lot of the “big names” are missing out on it! Poor guys…crying into their six figure checks…
Rod - great point and well done for taking the step away from monetization. I’m thinking of doing the same but given the theme of my site it’s going to require a lot of reworking! You hit the nail on the head by not intentionally going out of your way to slam someone but reserving the right to do so.
Michael - Overly positive outlooks indeed. Are blogs a true reflection of the population?
Piss and Love,
Kumiko
by Kumiko
A thought-provoking article, Kumiko. My blog is a bit more informative than, uh, dialogue-ish, but there have been times where I could have written a “controversial” statement but opted against it; not so much for advertising reasons, but because I didn’t want to risk ticking off and alienating any readers with ideologies opposite of mine.
But then I got to thinking about Josh Gruber’s Daring Fireball, one of my favorite Mac blogs. Gruber has occasionally posted about his political ideologies, which are at odds with my own, and the things he have said have annoyed me quite a bit at times… but I still keep his site in my feed reader, because his “on-topic” posts are too good to pass up.
So perhaps I’m just being paranoid…
Michael Kwan: You should be able to just click the “back” button to go back to the page with the comment form on it. If your browser’s any good, it will have saved the contents of the post in the cache, so you can just copy and paste it.
by Garrett Albright
Garrett - Yeah, lots of people have given advice saying you can really alienate your readers if they disagree with you. But I’m not sure if ‘alienate’ really equals ’send away’. They may not comment, but as you implied - I doubt they’d leave.
I read lots of blogs that have quite different thoughts to my own and that’s why I like reading them. Reading a blog that has the same thoughts as my own doesn’t help me or teach me anything.
It hardly compares, but you can’t understand WWII without reading about what the Nazi’s were thinking.
Kumiko
by Kumiko
I think there is disagreement and then there is personal attack. I recall one comment on John Chow’s site where the commenter wrote something along the line that he wished JC choked on his own blood.
JEez. That’s freaky shit. In fact, that’s Seriously Freaky Shit. Then there’s Darren Rowse who wrote about having someone stalk him? Or threaten him? I can’t recall the details. These kinds of things encourage a more PC and vanilla response to posts.
I haven’t written any “I disagree with you” comments which is in keeping with my personality. If I do disagree I certainly wouldn’t write it in a way that was a personal attack.
I have gotten a couple of comments that didn’t agree with the post in question. I allowed them because I feel that I not everyone has to agree with me.
I don’t believe that I’ve allowed the little effort I’ve taken to monetize my blog to affect my writing. In fact, when I’ve written something that touch on something I felt would be cheapened by an ad, I have not included one.
I have noticed at how the more popular blogs are about blogging and increasing traffic.
by Ms. Q
I’d agree to agree with you to disagree whomever disagrees your post. However, I’d disagree to not disagree with you if you disagree people disagreeing other posts!
Because here’s the thing: people read what they want to read, about things that they like. If it’s downright awful from the beginning, they won’t even bother to finish reading it, let alone leaving any comment. Which means that I like your post here, finished reading it, and am now leaving a comment because I agree with what you wrote!
Does that mean that I’m just trying to build my rep and getting a link back to my blog? Well, sure, which is why I’m going to leave my blog’s URL at the bottom! And what is so wrong about that? Aren’t we supposed to be helping each other climb up the ladder here? You’re not going to tell me that you’ve never left a comment on someone else’s blog only for the sake of promoting yours?
Do you even remember what the first comment you gave me on my blog was? You asked me to participate in your pagerank contest! What do you call that? And all I had done was tell you that I wrote a short article about your blog and that I’d love it if you could help me learn more ’cause I’m such a newbie! I even put your link as my fellow money makers’ list, for god’s sake!
I don’t give a damn about your pagerank contest! My country is banned from PayPal anyway! I just want to learn how to get my blog to start making money for me! And I want to learn it from someone who’s already done it.
It was nice that day knowing that someone actually left a comment on my blog. It was a lot nicer knowing that it was you! Seriously, Kumiko, I expected something more than just an invitation to your contest.
Anyway, nice article! I agree with you bla..bla..bla.. and feel free to visit my blog at http://money-in-blog.blogspot.com. Have a good day!
by Michael A. Setyaputra
Michael - Now that’s what I call a comment!!
I’m sorry you misread my first comment on your blog as simply an invitation to my contest - you’d already written about my site and I was telling you how just by adding your prediction you could have entered the comp. Considering you’re trying to promote your blog and looking to make some cash I thought i was doing you a favor.
Don’t get me wrong - self promotion isn’t a bad thing. I love it! Have I ever commented just because I wanted to promote my site? Sure. But I’ve never done it with a simple “I agree” or “Nice blog. Check out my site”. I’ve always left a decent contribution - just like you have here!
Kumiko
xo
by Kumiko
90% of all comments in the entire blogsphere are “Bush is evil”.
Of the remaining 10%, 9% are AGLOCO spam from some 18th level “Johnny come lately” who thinks he is going to be an Internet millionaire.
The remaining 1% of all blog comments come from my brilliant mind.
The rest of you are wrong. Good luck with AGLOCO!
by Jack