Posts Tagged ‘bloggers’

Blogging at its root is simple: it is words on a (web)page, put together and reachable by anyone with internet and your blog address. There are life bloggers, business bloggers, mommy bloggers, pet bloggers, food bloggers, pretty-much-anything-you-can-think-of bloggers, and every single one of them is doing the exact same thing: putting words on a screen for their readers to see. Blogging is not segregated. There is no restrictions to whom can have a blog. It is not picky on what is written or how often. It doesn’t require advanced degrees and (judging by some of the posts I have stumbled across) doesn’t even require a firm grasp on the language it is written in. Blogging is open to the world, and because of that, bloggers seem to be taking over.

But, because there are no set rules for joining or leaving, and there is almost no limit to what can be done with a blog, I often struggle to explain what blogging really is about.

Everyone has their own ideas – Ask 5 people and you will get a different answer every time, depending on whether or not they have a blog, what type of blog they have, or the types of blogs they read. The only comment I hear regularly is that a “blog is a way to communicate quickly with a large group of people”. Which, of course, tells us nothing. Even my own explanation – “A blog is a means to communicate with an audience who is interested in you, your service or your products. It creates a 2 way communication, opening the conversation and allowing you and the reader to learn” – isn’t perfect because it doesn’t incorporate all types of blogs, only the ones I know.

So let’s get talking, I want your thoughts! No matter which type of blogs you read or write, your voice needs to be heard. So tell me…

What do you think blogging is really about?

*image credit to The Glamorous Life’s Shirts

The final post topic I gathered from my readers and followers was from Angry Julie (the first two were from @HealthOC and @Hagre). She is convinced the world is dominated by bloggers and wanted to know my thoughts.

I think I agree! Why you ask?

Let’s start by looking at the sheer statistics (stats from Techcrunch, Technorati, comScore and FutureBuzz):

• 133,000,000 – number of blogs indexed by Technorati since 2002
• 346,000,000 – number of people globally who read blogs
• 900,000 – average number of blog posts in a 24 hour period
• 1,750,000 – number of RSS subscribers to TechCrunch, the most popular Technology blog (January 2009)
• 77% - percentage of active Internet users who read blogs
• 81 - number of languages represented in the blogosphere
• 59% – percentage of bloggers who have been blogging for at least 2 years

Need more convincing? Let’s look at the State of the Blogosphere and who these bloggers really are:

• Two-thirds are male
• 60% are 18-44
• The majority are more affluent and educated than the general population
• 75% have college degrees
• 40% have graduate degrees
• One in three has an annual household income of $75K+
• One in four has an annual household income of $100K+
• More than half are married
• More than half are parents

If all the facts aren’t working for you, let’s look at facebook and twitter for a minute. Think about tweets, status updates and timelines…how many links do you see on a daily basis? How many of those sites are run on a blog platform? If you said “almost all”, you’re right. It is rare to see links to “websites” any longer, even if you are referring someone to a product, you tend to send them articles (blogs) vs static sites (websites).

But, it’s not just the sheer volume of blogs anymore, it’s the volume of the voices. People blog about products, whether they like them or not. For example, when the new iPad hit last week, there were articles everywhere about it…and the majority of those articles were written on blogs! Who does the iPad need to impress? Those bloggers! What about something non techie, like a new food item? Doesn’t need to worry about bloggers right? Wrong. According to Technorati, there are over 33,000 blogs dedicated to just food (and the statistics are the same for almost all genres). Bloggers are the new journalists. They can write from anywhere, say (almost) anything about you, and are easily accessible. And if the blogger is popular? Their blogs can often outrank the “normal” articles on any given topic!

But of course, this is just what I see.

What do you think? Are bloggers running the world?

Last night, I attended my 4th Blog Crush meetup, and each one keeps getting better. The group is managed by Suzanne Broughton, the brilliant photographer and writer behind Alive in Wonderland. This time, the event was hosted at A’s Restaurant (what used to be the Arches) in Newport Beach. They were so welcoming and actually let us get behind the bar and make some drinks. Jeff Sipper of Sipper Photography and I were a great bar-tending team (and may have been a bit heavy handed )!

*Updated with pictures from Sipper Photo!*

The attendance was awesome and it was so fabulous to see some of my favorite bloggers and meet some of the ones I had been wanting to meet for awhile….I’d love to link to all of  you, but honestly, there are just so darn many of you!! So, add a comment at the end of the post with your url, introduce yourself to the crowd and let me know where you’d like to see the next event, so I can pass it on to Suz!

Today, problogger listed some of the best articles from some of the best bloggers and asked us to take a look. See which ones resonated, which we liked/disliked and why. I took a quick through the list and noticed a couple things right away. First, I have read all of them. Second, these are all articles from the other side. That means these are all articles they wrote after they were popular. I would love to see a post before they were – and then after they were, compare writing style, etc. No disrespect to any of these bloggers, they are all incredible and have done extremely well for themselves in the blog community, but none of these articles were actually life changing for me. What has changed my life was the combination of tactics in each of them, mixed with my own research and effort. I would definitely recommend reading these, but my thoguht is – the thing that will change your life as a blogger is YOU, not something you read. Although, meeting Chris Brogan in person and getting to talk about my style and my blog did change my life. Not because he is an amazing blogger, but because he is an amazing person who was willing to talk with me and help me to discover my true passion as a writer. Anyway, the point is, the way to be a better blogger is not by reading the best, but working to become the best yourself. Again, I would still recommend reading the blogs below, as they do have really good information, just don’t expect them to change your blog overnight…
Seth Godin from Seths Blog

• How to Get Traffic to Your Blog
• How to Send a Personal Email
• First, ten

Rand Fiskin from SEOmoz

• 21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic
• Blogging in an Oversaturated Market is Usually a Poor Decision
• 21 Tips to earn links and tweets to your Blog Posts

Skellie from Skelliewag

• A Complete Guide to Finding and Using Incredible Flickr Images
• How to Start or Start Over Building Your Personal Brand
• 25 Paths to an Insanely Popular Blog

Chris Garrett from ChrisG

• Grow your google authority
• Diggbait, Linkbait, Flagship Content and Authority
• The art of getting things wrong

Yaro Starak from Entrepreneurs Journey

• How To Write Great Blog Content – The Pillar Article
• Why Don’t Bloggers Understand Email Marketing?

Jeremy Schoemaker from Shoemoney

• My Top 10 Worst Ideas to Make Money
• Why You Should Embrace Negative Press

Maki from Dosh Dosh

• 6 Fool-Proof Steps to Make More Money With Your Website
• Rethinking Blog Comments: Much More Than Just A Quick Way to Get Web Traffic
• You’re Not Just a Writer, You’re the Editor-in-Chief.

Liz Strauss from Successful Blog

• 10 Reasons Readers Don’t Leave Comments
• The Secret to Massive Digg/StumbleUpon Traffic Without Spamming
• 7 Great Ways to Connect with Other Bloggers While You’re Out Reading Blogs

Daniel Scocco from Daily Blog Tips

• 43 Web Design Mistakes You Should Avoid
• How to Find Advertisers for your Website

Chris Brogan from ChrisBrogan.com

• 50 Ways to Take Your Blog to the Next Level
• 40 Ways to Deliver Killer Blog Content
• 27 Secrets to Power your Community

What do you think? Any of these blogs change your life? Or have a story about when something did?