Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Common sense is all you need for blogging success
Every day around 120,000 new blogs are created. There are now an estimated 75 million blogs available. Many of these are what are called "spam blogs" - these are blogs automatically created by software which have little if any content, but are stuffed with adverts. People arrive on these blogs, realise there is nothing of interest and click on an advert, thus generating revenue for the owners. Around 11,000 of these blogs are created each day as well.
Now there's another problem; according to web security experts, Scansafe, eight out of ten blogs are offensive. Even worse, one in every 15 blogs contains hidden software (known as malware) which can damage your computer. Many blogs, it seems, either use swearwords, carry offensive pictures or are so poorly constructed they can easily pass on viruses and other problems to a reader's computer.
Combine this with the huge number of blogs available it's easy to see why there may be the beginnings of a backlash against blogging. People don't have the time to read page after page of blogs; neither do they want to visit a blog thinking they will find something of value, only to read swearwords or see disgusting or irrelevant pictures.
Earlier this year ProBlogger Darren Rowse completed a survey of why people give up on blogs. Offensive content was high in the list; so too was irrelevant content and too much material. In other words, what readers want is something that is useful and interesting to them, that they can read quickly without being offended in any way. It's just common sense really.
So will there be a backlash against blogging? Almost certainly the millions of blogs in existence will get little readership; but those blogs that provide what the readers want, in the right amounts at the right time, will be the ones that succeed. As ever, understanding your readers is the most important task if you write a blog.
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