Blogging a Dead Horse :: What’s Next for Business Bloggers?
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I usually like to tie up my posts in a nice, neat little bow, and I wasn’t able to do that on this one. I’ve been thinking about this for months, wondering how to articulate both my uncertainty about the sustainability of our industry, as well as my belief that work with a purpose will triumph over all. But the more I wrote about it, more questions came up than answers.
I’ve been blogging now for just over two years. In that time, I’ve read some of the most brilliant work ever written on the subjects of internet business, social media, marketing & making money online. I’ve even written a couple of those.
But I’m having a hard time lately finding anything really new & innovative to read on the subjects. I mean, what can you say about making money blogging that Darren hasn’t already said? Or on WordPress that Lorelle hasn’t already said? Or on social media that Chris Brogan hasn’t already said? Or on community that Liz Strauss hasn’t already said? And I could add 50 more names and topics in that paragraph.
Granted, there is some value in putting your own voice and spin on existing information. Hollywood makes most of their movies that way - and most of their money that way. But at that point people aren’t buying content, they are buying an experience. People go to see Disney movies not because they think they will hear a story that they have never heard before. They go because they know that Disney, no matter what story they tell, knows how to make that story entertaining.
But I’m beginning to feel like I’m hitting a saturation point lately. There’s only so many ways to spin a story before you recognize the material.
Boy meets Girl.
Boy and Girl fall in love.
Boy pisses off Girl.
Boy works hard and gets Girl back.
The End.
Ultimately, we will go out of business unless we continue to provide value to our readers & clients. But in an information-saturated age, it’s getting harder and harder to provide more value than other people in your niche.
I Really Want to Know What’s Next for Business and Marketing Bloggers
- How can you and I continue to stay one step ahead when the web 2.0 market already got to web 4.0 yesterday?
- How can we prevent becoming one big echo chamber?
- What are you doing to stand out from the crowd and offer more value than the next person or company?
It’s a lot of questions, and I only have one answer for you - Love. Work without passion, voice without inspiration and action without heart can be the nails in your coffin.
But before you accuse me of getting all kumbayah on you, I have to add that I don’t think that Love is the answer to everything. You can’t pay the bills with a hug, you can’t buy your groceries with a love note. There has to be some practical action & application to how we work, how we move forward as entrepreneurs, consultants and professionals as our markets continue to evolve.
What do you think?
- Is blogging about blogging, making money online, and business strategy dead?
- How can we innovate when innovation has become normal, expected, even a little boring?
- How do we pour more love and passion into our work while tempering that balance with practical business strategy?
- Is our work really all about conversation and connection? How do you translate that to dollars?
And I think most importantly:
What can we do to continue to make a measurable difference with what we are saying, writing, or speaking?
Sparkplugging Founder Wendy Piersall is dang passionate about helping people start & grow a business while maintaining life balance (somehow). 
I love your question, Wendy
For me the core of the answer is simple, it’s the details and execution that’s complex…it’s about relationships.
Business will always be about relationships. Blogs, and other social media, are about relationships. So they should fit together quite well.
What I think has happened is that blogs were so easy to start and traffic so easy to get that many small business owners lost the focus. The metric for success is not about traffic - it’s about the bank account. When you’re promoting a business, that’s the only metric that really matters.
So I see social media evolving. And I see service providers using their blogs to build relationships, create communities, develop loyalties and soft market their services.
Dawud Miracles last blog post..Why You Need To Meet Your Target Audience Where They Are
The very fact that the storyline you described still makes big bucks for Hollywood year after year shows that there is always a market for the same basic idea given unique or at the very least, interesting spins.
It is our voice that makes the difference. Our tone will resonate with readers that other blogs have failed with, we will explain things in such a way as to give aha moments to readers who have heard the same thing many times. Haven’t we all experienced that? Sometimes it’s just timing - the reader is at the perfect moment in his/her life to hear our message, sometimes it’s the examples we give, sometimes it is because we do not make the assumptions of knowledge that others make.
It is all about perception - as long as both my community and I believe that the horse is still hale and hearty, then we can carry on beating it.
Katherine Reschkes last blog post..Summer goals
Very provocative thoughts, Wendy. Although I don’t run a business blog, I may have a thought or two worth sharing.
For me, it’s the story.
Though the stories I tell may fall into similar categories, and illustrate the same principles from time to time (and really, how could they not?), it’s the story’s context that keeps it fresh each time.
Add to that my desire to inspire others to tell their own stories - well, in my mind (which is occasionally a very strange place, I admit), it creates continuation, and an unlimited future “market”.
I think what Dawud says is correct - after everything is said and done, it’s the relationships that count. As I see it, story-telling is a way to build a bridge with the reader, and that results in relationships.
Robert Hruzeks last blog post..You’re Being Watched
I don’t think blogging about blogging, business or marketing is dead. Although I don’t blog about those things, I see the future as these blogs get more specific and give case studies in their blog posts - saying “how to” instead of “what to” do.
For example, instead of saying, commenting is good - give an example for people who don’t have time - like use google alerts to get emails on your niche topic and then comment on those blogs (which is what I do for my workout playlists blog *plug*). Or apply ideas to a niche - which I think is going to be a huge direction. Eg. how to monetize traffic on a food, auto, ebay, craft etc. blog and give examples of people who successfully do so.
It’s not dead, but it definitely make it harder to get to the top. (But staying at the top might be relatively easier, since it’s harder for others to get to the top.) All the stories have already been told, so it’s all about how you tell it. Also you can make it relevent to the modern times. They already have Romeo and Juliet, but you can be the first one to tell a story about two lovers not being able to reach each other because of a glitch in the cell phone network. (Or if that’s already written by someone, you can talk about an alien hijacking digital information causing their skype to fail, I don’t know.)
Kelvin Kaos last blog post..Vietnamese Water Puppetry
I like Robert’s comment: it is the story. And I’d like to add: it’s the way the story is told. Darren Rowse has his own way of putting things, and Barbara Ling has her way of putting things, and I personally prefer her way. Just my 2 cents!
Ulla
Ullas last blog post..Off-Topic - What I learned from Ants
Yes and no. Every day, I feel like I’m putting up something that’s just a hair different than something else I said a few years back (doing my “best of” post did a lot to cement that feeling). And yet, there’s still someone new coming to the story.
So YOU are performing the same old numbers, but the audience? They’re experiencing it for themselves.
Stay on the stage. It’s not the same old.
Blogs are still so new, I think (hope!) they will continue to change and adapt to a format that makes more sense for them. Here are the two main ways that I think they need to change:
-Reruns: The “way it is” now is that one blog can never, ever repeat content. As the history grows longer this just doesn’t make sense. Most people have not been with you since day one, and have not gone back and read everything you’ve ever written. I think it would make more sense for blogs to operate more like TV shows, sometimes the article is new and sometimes it is a rerun. Yes, sometimes you tune in and get a rerun you’ve already seen. You may skip it, or you may watch it again. Or it could function like a magazine. Magazines don’t run the exact same articles again but if you viewed issues that are 3 years apart you would see some content that is more or less the same. Marie Claire is not afraid to run ANOTHER article about how to apply mascara. Inc is not afraid to run ANOTHER article on how small businesses find funding.
-Encyclopedias: Blogs like copyblogger have now gotten to the point where there are so many rock solid how-to articles that much of the site would really function better as a static knowledge base than it does as an ever-growing blog. Blogs will pick the must-read or all-time top content but for the most part they are not a good format for systematically learning a topic, even though the content is there. I would love it if copyblogger had an encyclopedia site and a separate blog with more topical entries (or just the newest encyclopedia entries). Entries could be combed through every quarter and the topics that have lasting power would be added to the encyclopedia, the others could just stay on the blog.
Lauras last blog post..Website Success Is In The Details
Hmmm . . .I’m still a newcomer to the blogging world, but already I’ve felt like there is quite a bit of repetition out there, and I’ve just scratched the surface.
Funnily enough I find myself wanting to post about blogging (rather than my intended subject) because I have learned so much and still don’t know much, much more! I have yet to find a “how to blog” resource that assumes you know absolutely nothing; everyone seems to slip into jargon or make assumptions about experience online. I think there’s an opportunity there . . .
I enjoy your blog, Wendy, because you talk about personal experience, motivation (or lack thereof!) and use a broader lens than other sites I look at.
Ann at One Bag Nations last blog post..“You Have to be Really Organized”
“Everything that can be invented - has already been invented” Attributed to Charles Duell, Commissioner of the United States Patent Office, 1899
I think we can say he has been proven wrong
graywolfs last blog post..Michael Gray for President
Chris kinda took the words out of my mouth. I’m starting to see that there’s real value in being somewhat repetitious, simply because the audience is always changing — and, hopefully, always growing.
As long as you don’t lose your passion for what you’re saying, I really think it’s okay to beat that dead horse every so often.
Matt McGees last blog post..SMX Local/Mobile Conference Looks Good
Hi Wendy,
I’ve been thinking about this yesterday and wondering how to comment without saying something I’ve already said.
I think we have learn now not to take ourselves so seriously and get back into the marketing mix. Millions of people still haven’t heard about what’s happening online or how relationships here are changing the way business is being done. We have a chance to reach and share what we know, but reaching means that we have to learn how to talk to them and let them know what benefits are here.
This is not a dead horse. It’s the elephant in the room. Thanks for keeping it alive.
Liz Strausss last blog post..Take 5 Minutes to Find a State of Blogger Wellness
It’s the personal stuff that keeps me connected to certain blogs– even when a topic has been served ten times over.
Karen Putz / DeafMoms last blog post..What I Learned From… My Dog
I am loving this post. My thought is to constantly reinvent. True, in our world innovation is almost expected, but those who innovate will survive. I like that phrase there is “nothing new under the sun”. I think it’s in the delivery that makes things new and interesting. Many people used to hear stories around the fire thru oral traditions. Now we experience them in movie theaters, DVDs, books and blogs. And sometimes around the fire before we join hands and sing…. kumbayah….
Brandies last blog post..“Just For Now”: Putting Things Off