While away in Anguilla, I missed a bombshell. Jason Calcanis, one of my favorite bloggers, has given up blogging. He wants a more direct connection with a small number of e-mail subscribers.
Reading between the lines of his original post and his e-mailed comments later, it seems to me that he just got tired of blogging. Blogging is hard work. Some quotes from his announcement and his first post-announcement e-mail...
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... at some point you have to hang it up
... the right decision for me and my family
... the blogosphere is so charged, so polarized, and so filled with haters hating that it's simply not worth it. I'd rather watch from the sidelines and be involved in a smaller, more personal, conversation.
... this is a very personal choice that I've discussed with my family, and it's the direction we want to go.
... there has been a deep qualitative change in the nature of the [blogo]sphere.
... the effort put into being heard has eclipsed the actual hearing.
... Bloggers spend more time digging, tweeting, and SEOing their posts than they do on the posts themselves.
... Excelling in blogging today is about link-baiting, the act of writing something inflammatory in order to get a link.
... open-media (i.e. blogging) has turned into an excuse for bad behavior.
... subjecting yourself to the trolls and haters who have taken up residency there.
... Comments on blogs inevitably implode, and we all accept it under the belief that "open is better!" Open is not better.
... Running a blog is like letting a virtuoso play for 90 minutes are Carnegie Hall, and then seconds after their performance you run to the back Alley and grab the most inebriated homeless person drag them on stage and ask them what they think of the performance they overheard in the Alley.
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And his first e-mail about this decision, which of course is reprinted in a blog (!), is available here.
I wouldn't go so far as to agree with Jason, but the virulent response to his retirement, nastiness all around for the most part, pretty much says it all.
Blogging is not dead. But its spirit is on life support. More importantly...
As outlined in blogorbuild.sitesell.com, blogging is just not the right vehicle for most small businesses. I'd never base/start an online small business with a blog (exceptions being if you want to be the cutting edge, deliverer-of-news-and-commentary, but that's just not a model that interests me -- too much high-pressure treadmill-running).
But there are people (with the time and inclination) and businesses for which it may make sense to add a full-blog onto a prospering theme-based content site. Infin It! is the perfect way to do that.
It's fascinating to watch a big name in blogging talk about the "elephant in the room" that no one wants to notice. It's sad to watch the nasty comments validate that elephant.
When we launched blogorbuild.sitesell.com, which also talked about that elephant, it caused a few nasty blog posts/threads. No one refuted the points with any real solid debate, just kind of went into "reflex bashing mode."
There were, in fact, more balanced ones that recognized the solid points we were making. Those threads were testimony to the power of a well-run blog. But as Andy Beard said... "It takes work."
More work than it needs to, I believe. I think Jason simply came to a very basic conclusion...
"Enough."
All the best,
Follow Ken at Twitter
Ken,
I couldn't agree with you more on this.
I tried two blogs in my SBI sites. They were fine, and attracted good traffic, but the fact is that keeping a blog is hard work, and I am looking for a way to wrap my current blog up.
I have not made an entry since April. Thankfully, the site itself is still attracting traffic and making money (yippie!), but if I was to do the site again, I would not include a blog. Period.
Blogs create an expectation that content is to be created frequently and periodically. Whilst some webmasters can keep up with this expectation, I think it is better to have an evergreen site and, once it is established, add more content whenever possible... without the expectation to do so periodically.
I guess there is a question to be discussed here: once you have a blog attached to your site, what are the possible strategies to de-blog your site?
Any thoughts/advice/recommendations?
Jeff
Posted by: Skinny Jeff | July 29, 2008 at 12:38 AM