In what I can only assume was a piece of linkbait (because they can’t be serious), Wired Magazine ran a post by Paul Boutin (who writes for Valleywag) which basically discourages anyone from creating a blog and encourages anyone with a blog to call it quits. Isn’t Wired Magazine just a giant blog by the way? Same with Valleywag…I know, genius isn’t it?
Here’s a direct quote from the article:
“Writing a weblog today isn’t the bright idea it was four years ago. The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge. Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths. It’s almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers. And why bother? The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter.”
First of all Paul is correct about one thing, that there is a lot of garbage (or noise/spam) out there, spammers and bots diluting the amount of quality content. But then again, you don’t have to read the spam and auto-generated posts now do you? It’s not that hard to find quality content sites out there.
To be honest I think the advice that Paul gives is probably some of the dumbest advice I have ever heard. Can you really be telling people to not create a blog (or use other social media platforms?). My blog was created roughly 8 months, through that blog I have been presented with unique business opportunities and partnerships which I would have never gotten otherwise. Not to mention the fact that my blog traffic has been growing at a solid rate month after month. Had I listed to Paul I would be stuck reading the junk that he’s out their spewing.
Paul neglects the fact that it’s not always about what you say but how you say it. People read blogs for information and a unique perspective. You can cover the exact same stories as every major tech blog out there, but if you add your own personality and your own perspective then I guarantee you that you are going to have readers. What Paul says is the equivalent of telling of a child “you can’t be an artist, you’re never going to make any money, stick with math and science.” Look, if you’re passionate about something and you have something to say, then don’t let anybody in the world stop you. Go out there, work your ass off and make it happen!
Starting a blog and joining social media platforms is a great idea (if you haven’t done so already) because you get to control your online presence and market yourself. I have a great community of readers and twitter followers (thanks guys!) and I rank #1 for my name “jacob morgan.”
Paul’s biggest critique is that blogs are “so impersonal,” I don’t think that’s true at all, I interact with and respond to every single email, comment, question that I get. If you think a blog is impersonal then maybe you should change the way you are interacting with your readers. Also, it’s not just about the blog, the conversations take place on twitter, facebook, linkedin, etc. So just because someone isn’t leaving you comments doesn’t mean they aren’t talking about you. A blog is just one way to interact and communicate.
Another genius quote from the article is as follows:
“That said, your blog will still draw the Net’s lowest form of life: The insult commenter. Pour your heart out in a post, and some anonymous troll named r0rschach or foohack is sure to scribble beneath it, “Lame. Why don’t you just suck McCain’s ass.” That’s why Calacanis has retreated to a private mailing list. He can talk to his fans directly, without having to suffer idiotic retorts from anonymous Jason-haters.”
Now, I don’t consider my readers the “net’s lowest form of life” at all, in fact I think I have some of the most clever and creative readers out there, I say this because I have interacted with many of you (via email, comments, etc). To me it sounds like Paul has an ego problem and he can’t handle any negative comments about him (and we all know Jason Calacanis has the biggest ego of all). You have to remember that with social media you are opening the doors to both positive and negative comments, you aren’t going to just have someone praise you 24/7, that’s now how the world works. I’ve had people disagree with me and call me out an all sorts of stuff, but that’s what it’s about, it’s the interaction that matters to me and the connections/relationships that I can build.
This blog is a real life case study of why you SHOULDN’T listen to the article that Paul wrote for Wired Magazine. In fact this blog is a real life case study of why you SHOULD go out there and create your blog, join social networks, build your online presence, provide quality content, and network/build relationships with as many people as you can. If I was able to do it then I’m sure you can as well. I’m definitely not planning on pulling the plug on this blog, but thanks for the “great” advice Paul.
Google your name, what do you see? I know exactly what I’m going to see when I Google my name, I control my online presence/identity and I use social networks to build my personal brand…do you?
Thanks for reading
what did you think of the Wired Magazine article, do you agree or disagree, why?
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