It's all over; blogging is in it's dying moments - or so it would seem if you believe all the tosh that is being spouted in newspapers, magazines and online. In the past week or so I've read a whole load of drivel saying that blogging is ending, that blogs are just places where cranks hang out and that "citizen journalism" is reducing standards. Sunday's Observer Newspaper in the UK revealed that a new book is due out in June which claims that blogs and the web are "destroying culture" and "ruining livelihoods" - oh honestly...!

There is clearly a growing trend of "anti-blogging" feeling and comment, so if you were to start blogging now you would enter a potentially negative environment if you announced your new blog. But, thankfully, the sensible editors at Business Week magazine have poured some sense into the debate. What they show is that the number of blogs which are "active" is slowing down. In other words, the negativity about blogging is actually causing an increase in quality, not a reduction, because people are polarising to those blogs which are useful, beneficial and interesting.

So how can you benefit from the changes in the "blogosphere" if you want to start a blog, or you want to enhance your existing blog? The answer is don't blog....! Instead, use blog technology to add material to a standard web site (just as I do here). Don't call what you do a "blog", instead write "articles". Incorporating your "blog" within your web site is much more beneficial as it separates what you do from "blogging". So, you won't get linked with the negativity surround blogs as you won't have a "blog"; you'll just have a regularly updated web site and will be in the Business Week definition of an active organisation.

Today I'm speaking in Southampton on this very topic: I'm being billed as the speaker who will help businesses make more money from their blogs and my number one message will be "don't blog"....!

Labels: blogging, future, speaking

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