I’ve been meaning to respond to this one for a while (ever since I saw the Wired post), and now I finally have the chance. Yes, it’s late, but better late than never :)

The post is here, and basically rambles on about how the blogosphere is becoming clogged and choked, and how professional bloggers (& news channels/magazines-turned-blogs) are dominating the SERPs. Henceforth and therefore, blogging for the average person is dead and gone.

Err, I disagree (and I’m not the only one). Very strongly, too. Firstly, I think Paul (the Wired writer) was referring to what I have unaffectionately termed a “splog”. Let me explain the overview of a splog’s lifecycle:

• Someone hears about blogging from a friend, or sees it on the internet
• He/she rushes to get a LiveJournal, Blogger, or Wordpress account.
• They make a few friends, then discover Entrecard
• Before long, the sporadic and poorly-written personal posts thin out (even further) to make way for paid posts by Smorty, PayPerPost, etc.
• The site itself begins choking up with AdSense, PepperJam, TextLinkAds, Spottt, and whatever else “makes money/brings traffic” these days.
• The splogger realises that blogging is not for them, that there isn’t a lot of money involved, and give up, leaving behind a dead spam magnet.

Those “blogs”, hell yes, they can go. If you’re going to try to make money blogging, you’re really gonna have more luck canvassing Monster’s job boards, or whatever’s available in your area. Making any serious money from those systems (ie, enough to satisfy the minimum payout limit) takes an incredible amount of work and dedication, because - as Paul put it - you’re already starting at a disadvantage.

Unfortunately, though, that’s not all the blogosphere is about. I firmly believe that reckless, large-scale advertising is ruining it for a lot of people, but there are a few that, for lack of a better word, don’t give a damn about that.

These people blog because there’s something to be said, and because there’s something other than money to be gained. For these people, the restrictive, overused, impersonal mediums of Twitter, Facebook and Flickr just won’t satisfy that need to express.

One of the things I hate the most about Twitter is the 140 character limit. No, I don’t think it’s clever, or that it “challenges you to say more with less”. I think it’s bloody stupid, actually.

Flickr? You can only say so much with pictures. Facebook? Facebook’s great for publicising content that you’ve got hosted elsewhere - ie, your blog. I’m not convinced that avid Facebook users have very long attention spans, especially given the sort of apps that went viral in the pre-crackdown era.

The thing with blogging is that it’s not for everyone. It’s so much more than just writing posts to a website - it’s about connecting. And there are some people that just aren’t made for connecting in this fashion.

If they didn’t start splogs and choke up the system, it would still be a clear, open and free system. But what about Google’s rankings, and the fact that TechCrunch, Engadget, WSJ, et al, dominate the rankings?

So what? Who ever thought that simply because a site doesn’t show up on Google page 1, that it doesn’t exist? Over 90% of the global internet populace use Search to find things they’re looking for - but many more than that actually follow the links they’re presented with. Browse, explore and connect.

And if you’re out there, you’ll be found. Google notwithstanding. As it stands at this moment, my blog recieves 93% of its traffic from Muti, Twitter, Entrecard and direct links. 7% Google (and mostly for irrelevant search terms).

This was a rather good presentation by Gary Vaynerchuk - “Building Personal Brand Within the Social Media Landscape“. A little on the long side (and his voice gets annoying, for me), but he said something that stuck with me:

If you’re putting out good shit, people will follow.

That’s what it’s about. Good content, well presented, will attract a lasting audience. Bad content riddled with ads? No wonder you’re getting nowhere.

So no, Paul, I disagree that blogging is dead. In fact, once we’ve gotten over this sudden bubble of new blogs, splogs, and other thus-yet-undocumented logs, blogging will be bigger than ever.