Alex Iskold from ReadWrite Web writes about how blogging may be currently in the digestion phase. He thinks blogging is just not that hot anymore.
I think blogging is hotter than ever right now.
Why do I think this?
1. When I tell people I have a marketing blog, and I work in advertising I do not have to spend 20 minutes explaining the difference between my day job and the fact that I have a blog on the side.
2. I can now freely talk about the platform of communication that I believe marketing.fm has become and the networking benefit I receive out of it without getting ridiculed (ok, maybe the ridicule is not gone entirely but almost)
3. The barriers to entry to start a blog are lower than ever before. You have free options like WordPress.com, Tumblr, LiveJournal
, and many more. Creating a blog is no longer the hard part – contributing good content is.
The definition of blogging is changing.
The other day I was having a conversation with a friend of my family who is a real estate agent who is updating connections and networking on Facebook. He says that he posts anecdotes from showing houses, new listings, and his thoughts about current market conditions all on Facebook. When I asked him if he had a blog he said “what for? I do not want to blog.”
Without realizing it, he was already blogging on a new platform with a closed wall around his content to a targeted group of opt-in recipients of his messages.
Micro-blogging is now a common practice among many people that do not have the time or motivation for a full blown blog post. Just checkout services like Jaiku and Twitter.
Blogging is in a growth phase.
I believe that blogging is in a growth phase because it has taken on many new forms. You can micro blog on Twitter, instablog on Tumblr, or selectively blog on a social network like Facebook. Each is a web based log of activity, event, or update for others to consume.
The semantics are changing but the principles remain the same. During any period where a technology breaks away from its original confines causes people to think of its eminent death. I think quite the opposite. I believe blogging is currently in a growth phase and will be for some time. Every time I think that blogging or RSS have reached a new peak, I only have to speak with someone smart that has no idea about either to realize that blogging has only scratched the surface of what it will one day become. I do not know the figures of what percentage of content is currently user generated (and unpaid) but I believe it is set to skyrocket in the next 5 years.
