“BLOGS THAT DIED TOO YOUNG”
http://ontheblogheap.blogspot.com/

I think that people that want to just express themselves and be social will tend to gravitate toward more immediate media, such as Twitter, Facebook or YouTube. As I mentioned, I don’t really consider them blogging.

I think the big attraction to blogging is not only in expressing yourself but in attracting an audience that listens to you expressing yourself. While this may not be for money, it will usually have some motive attached to it.

Maybe the number of people who blog strictly for making quick money out of it will diminish, but the blogging as a whole will be here for a long time.

Wow! You should have made your own post from that one.

Overall I think we’ll see a lot of blending between different forms of blogging and social media. As you indicated, anything that sells products well will make money.

1. We are now moving into the phase of viral marketing via online marketing media. Hollywood, Record labels, and even national tourism companies are now putting their advertising dollars into viral videos instead of traditional advertising.

2. Businesses are starting to catch on that blogging can boost their traffic and sales by over 100% and more. As blogging becomes more competitive, blog owners will begin to start selling a product / service for more profitability. Problogger and Copyblogger are great examples. While they have kept their main sites free of advertising, they have branched into a variety of other online businesses selling content blogs and Teaching Sells.

3. I have mentioned in a post before that blogging will not become obsolete because internet giants are ensuring they don’t go away for their profitability. Google for one. The bulk of their income is generated from Google Adwords. They own sites like Blogger and YouTube and are aggressively buying over social communities. They have a lot invested in the business of blogging, and will keep devising new technologies / programs to keep it alive as long as they can.

I do think that the personal aspect will stick with blogs since that’s what sets them apart from other media. What I see leaving the scene are “What Me and My Cat Had for Supper” posts. These will end up on social networking sites.

I don’t see an end to blogging in away, regardless of what the doomsayers are preaching. Like you said, it’s changing and I think it’s for the better.

I think that the barrier to entry will remain low for blogging so new people will be coming into it all the time. That’s why I don’t see a huge dropoff in people blogging although the criteria for success will probably be higher and what people tend to blog about will be more niche oriented.

Thanks for stopping by.

Blogging has changed from being predominately personal journals to being primarily a niche oriented publishing tool. Some people seem to think this indicates blogs are becoming obsolete. I think it simply means they’ve grown up.

Burnout is a common reason for dead blogs. I’ve had a few where I’ve gotten burned out with them but I’m hoping the wide open format I’m using here will keep me motivated.