Blog Power - Forbes Attack of the Blogs
Deliberately down day Saturday - not as in depressed as in not actively working (just a bit of reading). Sometimes it is productive to have a down day.Fairly productive day today although, as often, I overscheduled or underestimated how long it would take to get things done. Read 2 books (more on those later), cleaned my den and filed stuff, read 25 magazines (I was behind), moved 1/2 full cord of wood, ran 6 K (slow), did a lot of email, played with spreadsheets. One of my favourite sayings is "People tend to overestimate what they can do in a day and underestimate what they can do in a year (or a decade)."
One of the magazines I read was Nov 14th Forbes. The cover story was "attack of the Blogs." The article was generally anti blogs and told of horror stories of anonymous bloggers ruining people's reputations. All I can say is:
1 - it is not that easy to get a wide enough blog readership to have an impact. With the number of blogs coming online now, it will only get harder.
2 - How much stock do people put into anonymous bloggers (although the article did talk of impersonators also)? As media continues to proliferate, people will continue to discriminate and become even more skeptical and questioning of the source of information.
3 - Is Forbes concerned that Blogs are a new media that might challenge traditional media?
4 - as Seth Godin (0ne of my favourite authors) says of blogs "they need to have an edge to get readership." Controversy and points of view are edge.
5 - Does the conventional press not have the same power to ruin (or make) a reputation? Media comes with power and responsibility.
Somthing to think about. Are blogs becoming more mainestream?
posted by Jim Estill @ 8:23 PM 
2 Comments:
As the author of another blog, I agree that getting (and keeping) a readership is a big task. Even though my blog belongs to a site that will bring people to it for research into mortgage information, the blog itself does not get as much attention (or 'hits) in general as the rest of the site -- and only gets more hits when I write on a topic that is either quite controversial or deals with somewhat shady dealing in the world of mortgages. Otherwise, it's a very quiet place... MLA
I think the article had some merit, but I agree that as more blogs come out, the impact of any blog is less. I think maybe the businesses think people take blogs more seriously than they actually do. I mean, I wouldn't believe a blog that is always full of controversy. If my friend posted about a bad experience, yeah I'd believe him, but if the blog claims to be pointing out the scum, well then they are looking for controversy and will find some..
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