Does Blogging Matter?

Recently, my designer friend, oAk, asked me: what’s the point? He is starting out his blog at the bottom. He’s not “Internet famous” and doesn’t have a following to start with. And there are millions of design blogs out there that are all competing for the same visitors.

So the question arose: Does blogging matter?

There are well over 100 million blogs out there. Technorati doesn’t get them all, and they’re up over 130 million blogs. Toss in a reported 80 million Chinese blogs. Even though blogging hasn’t been around that long, it’s continued to balloon.

That’s a lot of competition. And you could make the point that everything that you say has already been said. So I’ll take that to heart and see what’s already been said.

Blogs have to work hard to gain credibility

There are so many voices now that you’ll struggle to find the good ones or even trust their integrity as voices. Every company has official blogs, which are generally assumed, sometimes unfairly, to be marketing rags; many people who once blogged for fun, now do so for big bucks, etc. (AppsLab)

Blogs can do things that traditional organizations can’t

A publication targeted at fashion bags would not have been economically viable in a traditional publishing model, but Bagtrends reaches a focused customer segment, which appeals to the organizers of Fashion Week. Similarly leading bloggers will influence brand perceptions and purchases through their recommendations: case in point, Guy’s detailed car recommendations, read by hundreds of thousand of readers (he is a top 50 blogger). (Eric Kintz)

Bloggers are part of the business world, one way or another

More and more advertisers (B2B and B2C) see the blogosphere as a must in their integrated plans. The utilization of blogs is critical, particularly in a growing world where social currency is more and more important. They are powerful communication and business tools which can connect with a variety of audiences for your brands/products/services. These audiences range from core customers to prospects to influencers to investors. (Will Waugh)

When Blogging Doesn’t Matter

Blogging doesn’t matter if you don’t invest in it. It takes time and consistent investment. Not just time, but sometimes money. According to Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere, blogs with advertising have an average annual investment in their blog of $1,800. And as the report says, it’s paying off.

Blogging doesn’t matter if you don’t know why you’re doing it. Niche blogs like Railstips.org and nonprofitchas.com were started as a way of separating specific content away from another, less focused, blog. Those niche blogs receive far more traffic than the originals: you can get a bigger following out of a smaller group of people. Decide on your goal and work toward that.

Blogging doesn’t matter if you paralyze yourself. It’s easy to get discouraged. Traffic doesn’t always come overnight, and there are bigger blogs with more subscribers. Or you don’t want to post because the article isn’t quite how you want it to be. So you’re not a top 50 blogger: you don’t have to be. You can make a big difference even with a couple thousand followers.

Most of all, blogging doesn’t matter if you don’t make anything of it. So you’ve created a great blog with thousands of feed subscribers, tens of thousands of daily pageviews, and frequent links from all the top blogs. Congratulations! Now what are you doing with it? Earning some money? Landing that job you want? Making a difference somewhere?

So, Does Blogging Still Matter?

In a later conversation, oAk answered the question for himself:

“It DOES for me. Because I have a very specific, clear goal: I want to brand myself as a great designer.”

Blogging can matter because it can move the needle somewhere, open a new door, or create value where it didn’t before. As for me? I’m writing for three blogs now:

• Non-Profit Chas Non-profit marketing, fundraising, and management
• grundyhome.com Web and marketing lessons in small business and higher education
• BlawgTips To help you blog better