Saturday, September 17, 2016

Are we doing enough to help new bloggers?

This post is fuelled by my bad conscience and some comments from my last post.

It seemed that there is a general sense of more blogs closing down compared to new ones surfacing. This discussion got plenty of really thoughtful comments.

Some of the comments made me sad. Not because they were written in a harsh language or were rude in any way, but because they were from people who had experienced so little interest in their blog that they decided to shut it down.
I think that all people deserve a chance, and one of the comments was that some of the more established blogs could be better at promoting new blogs.

That particular comment was spot on regarding my blog. (Not that my blog is the most read or best established). But I have a pretty short list of blogs that I follow compared to many other blogs.

My thoughts regarding this list have always been that I couldn't honestly claim to follow a list of 50 blogs. Those that are on the list I really do try to read whenever I have switched on a computer.
I guess that back when I started the blog I also thought the blogs that I read would sort of "define me" in the woodworking community. Kind of similar to what car you drive and what music you listen to etc. - rather childish when I think about it, but it is the fact.
Besides, if I stated that I read a blog, I felt like I should be able to recommend it. If I didn't like to read it, then I probably wouldn't recommend it. Because I was afraid that if someone followed one of my leads to a blog and those people didn't like what they read, well, then maybe they would take me for a total untrustworthy fraud. So sticking to a couple of proven blogs and a few new ones seemed like a safe bet.

But.. I do read other blogs too, and some of those are well written and informative, but I just never seem to get around updating my blog list, also due to my idea that I should really read the ones on my list.

I remember back when starting my blog, if a "real new person", i.e. not one of your close friends, but someone you had never met commented on you blog. That feeling was fantastic. And the first time your status system revealed that a couple of readers had found you from another real woodworking blog. Not some shady pizzaunderwearexoticdate.com robot site. When you clicked on that link and saw the name of your blog mentioned in someones blog list - wow it was just like having the correct answer in chemistry class.

I would like other bloggers to experience that feeling, so I am going to make a new list on my blog called "blogs you should try to read". And I'll try my best to become better at updating this list, and comment on not so well established blogs.
If by doing that I can make someones day a bit brighter - well then it has all been worth it.

Being on one or the other of my blog lists shouldn't be seen as a quality stamp or lack of the same, but merely a fact concerning how often I have read it
So please don't feel offended if you blog appears on the "blogs you should try to read" list. It is NOT my way of pointing out which blogs are more established than others.



26 comments:

  1. I hate pizzaunderwearexoticdate.com!

    In all seriousness, I started thinking about writing a blog when Christopher Schwarz said it was a great way to save woodworking for the future. I had no idea anyone would actually want to read my drivel. When they did, it was a great feeling.

    We should definitely comment on as many blog posts as possible. There is no better way to motivate someone to continue posting.

    I feel that blogging makes me a better woodworker, because I am putting my work and opinions out there for all to see.

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  2. Don't we all hate that site :-)

    I like to think that my pitiful efforts on making boxes out of used pallets will make a lot of people feel better because the have access to wood of a higher quality than pallet wood. Hopefully that can inspire them a bit. If they happen to have 4 chisels at their disposal, they also out-chisel me when I am out at sea.

    In terms of commenting, We should all strive to become as good as St. Ralph. He sets the bar pretty high!

    Cheers
    Jonas (webmaster of pizzaunderwearexoticdate.com)

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  3. A lot depends on why you blog. My blog is an electric version of my older paper journals, a way to record what is happening and what I'm doing at any time of my life. Some times entries are personal and of little interest to anyone, sometimes they maybe of general interest such as posts on motorcycles, photography, airplanes, woodworking and art.

    I enjoy blogs that are similar such as "The Valley Woodworker" which not only has posts about the history of tools but also gives glimpses of Bob and Ruddy's life. All that said, keeping a blog running is not easy. The current blog was started in '05 and has seen several change of direction and I expect it will see more. With the changes I expect readership changes as well with readership going up or down.

    Does it matter if anyone reads the blog, not really. What matters is I can look at some of the early posts and remind myself of what I was doing and when I was doing it. But it is enjoyable to read comments and establish a dialog with the few who comment.

    ken

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    1. Hi Ken
      I use my blog too as a bit of diary, and I once in a while browse through old entries.

      I guess it is natural that a blog changes a bit in direction every now and then, and I know that horses and carpentry occupies a fairly large part of mine. But like you say, it depends why you write it in the first place.

      Coming to think of it, I think that a strictly "how to blog" might get a bit dull after some time. A lot of the charm by a blog is to hopefully get an idea of the person behind it.

      Back when I started, the number of views mattered more to me than they do today. But I still like to be able to see that someone out there is reading my stuff.

      But if I was a person considering if I should start a blog, and looked at popular blogs as a reference, then I guess it would be kind of a blow - if no one ever visited mine or commented on it.

      Quite often reading all the comments to posts is more interesting than the original post itself. Kind of like a debate, the question might be fairly straight forward, but the views upon it may differ wildly from one another.

      Brgds and safe driving in your new motorhome.
      Jonas

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  4. Do they deliver pizza? Oh, yah, i hate that site too :-)

    I hear you Jonas but im not sure the readership levels should be the motivator. If it is then they would quickly loose my interest. I too have a short list of blogs i follow, but i read more of course. The ones on my list are the ones i always read first thing.
    The ones i tend to follow tend to wave subjects with human life, you know, real people. I have never met most, except Ralph, but feel like i know them all pretty good. Good people.

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    1. Hi Bob

      That page seems to be all over the Internet :-)

      I don't think that reader ship levels should be the prime motivation for writing a woodworking blog. If that was the case you would probably be better off with the pizzaunderwearexoticdate blog.
      But I could tell from a couple of the comments on the previous post, that it had made some people stop blogging. So it must mean something, maybe not as the initial motivator, but more like a continuous reassuring that you are doing something right.
      Feeling that you are getting to know some of the other bloggers is definitely a good thing. My family is getting used to that I talk about other bloggers and what they have been up to, just as if I was talking about a neighbour.
      I haven't met many bloggers in real life though, but the ones I have met are nice people.

      Brgds
      Jonas

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  5. I like that you have started this conversation Jonas. From the onset I have followed any blog that has solid content. As such, my list has more blogs than I can possibly read every day (although I wish I could). The reason I did this was in the hopes that it may lead someone visiting my blog to find yet another blog that they otherwise may have never stumbled across. Not that there is a lot of traffic on my blog, but every little bit helps. Plus, when I get the time, I back track through blogs that I haven't read in a while.

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    1. Hi Greg

      bloghopping (if that is even an official term) can be very rewarding. Like you say, you can't have all the blogs listed yourself, and once in a while you happen to find a blog that is right up your alley.
      Norsewoodsmith, Unpluggedshop and Woodspotting also need a place to find inspiration for new blogs to add to their pages.

      I try to back track a bit, but I rarely turn on a computer while at home, so there is often some entries that I miss out on. But when I do get to read the blogs, the blog archive can be a great help to give a bit of information on what I might have missed.

      Brgds
      Jonas

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  6. Having the correct answer in Chemistry class was pretty rare for me, too.
    Most of the blogs I read were found in the listings of other blogs, so adding more to your list sounds great. I encourage other bloggers to occasionally remind their readers how much comments mean to them - as was said yesterday, I assumed you were all happy just seeing the page hits.
    One other thought is for bloggers to occasionally mention other bloggers worth visiting in a blog, not just in the listings. That's probably the 2nd best source I've had for new people to follow.
    I really appreciate the time and effort all of you put into these, on top of everything else you do. You're greatly blessing many of us as well as each other.
    Jeff

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    1. Btw, I noted 11 new (to me) blogs to check out just from reading your previous blog and the comments.

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    2. Btw, I noted 11 new (to me) blogs to check out just from reading your previous blog and the comments.

      Delete
    3. Hi Jeff, that is an excellent point. My blog has been mentioned a couple of different times by different bloggers. I think I will try to make a regular habit of re-posting or mentioning great blog posts by others.

      Delete
    4. Hi Jeff

      Directly mentioning other blogs is a fine idea. I have done it occasionally, when some other blog post inspired me.

      I am glad that you found some new blogs to test out.
      I had to visit a couple of different other blogs to find some of them. Brian Eve (Toolerable) has an extensive blog list, so I got dome of them from his page.

      Brgds
      Jonas

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  7. Remember Mr. Ed the horse? I try not to comment unless I have something to say, but I will try to offer support and encouragement more often.

    I think that as a society we are slowly transitioning from the written word to audio and video. My jaw drops when I see the number of views a video on Youtube gets as compared to a blog post of equal quality on the same subject.

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    1. Hi Andy
      I must confess that I mostly use Youtube for listening to music. And a lot of those comments are pure BS.
      So I never pay much attention to comments there.

      I too have previously mainly commented if I had something to say, but once in a while a simple encouragement is all that is required. I often find that posts regarding some history related subject can be hard to comment on except for something like "thanks for sharing".
      Brgds
      Jonas

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  8. Remember Mr. Ed the horse? I try not to comment unless I have something to say, but I will try to offer support and encouragement more often.

    I think that as a society we are slowly transitioning from the written word to audio and video. My jaw drops when I see the number of views a video on Youtube gets as compared to a blog post of equal quality on the same subject.

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  9. Congratulations for your wonderful idea, Jonas and thank you for your kind thoughts and words.
    Best regards from Italy,
    Andrea

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    1. Hi Andrea
      Thanks for helping in bringing this to my attention.
      Your blog is also added to the list of blogs that you should try to read, so if you decide to try out blogging again, it should surface in the blog roll.

      Brgds
      Jonas

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  10. Thanks for the mention and the link!

    I've been blogging for about 8-9 months now and it's encouraging to see the blog starting to get some mentions and links.

    I originally was writing long posts in forums detailing my work as I built projects, and they would get a lot of direct feedback. Problem was that once the post is off the first or second page it's practically gone forever, so months of work detailing process disappears into the internet abyss. Blogging helps to prevent that since I can now create an archive of my work and people can check it out at their leisure, rather than having to stumble upon it at the right time.

    That seems to be occurring now, with people checking out some of my older posts and commenting on them. They originally went barely noticed getting maybe 85-100 views.

    Thank you again!

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    1. Hi Brian.

      Glad to be able to help.
      I agree that fora's can contain a lot of "hidden" information that only surfaces if you happen to search for the exact title or by just sheer luck.

      I try to label all my entries, that way anyone reading a post regarding e.g. one of my projects involving children, can just press that label, and all the posts with that label will appear.

      Thanks for commenting.
      Brgds
      Jonas

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  11. I think a lot of people have started blogging (incidentally, does anyone else hate that word as much as I do?) thinking they'll immediately have hundreds of followers, and get disheartened when they don't. The fact is, building a large, consistent audience takes one of two things:
    1. Hard work, good writing, interesting topics, and frequent posts, or
    2. Luck.

    Actually, I'm pretty sure it needs both.

    I never really went looking for an audience for my blog, because I knew I wouldn't post regularly. (It turns out I've been quite successful in not finding a large audience, by the way.) I've tried setting schedules for myself, but I never keep them very long. In the end, I knew I was writing mostly for myself, and a little bit for people who would be looking for reviews of some low-end tool that none of the big sources have bothered to review.

    So a lot depends on why you're doing it. People who are looking for fame or ad revenue get disappointed and stop pretty quickly. People who are looking to get their thoughts out where maybe a few like-minded folks will find them keep posting, and enjoy the occasional comment as proof that someone out there found them.

    In short: I love it when people comment, but that's not why I'm writing. I'm writing because I want to write.


    And now I'm going to go take some photos so I can finally write the piece that's been banging around in my head for a week.

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    1. Hi Andy

      Thanks for a great comment
      I don't like the word "blogging" very much either. But then being an oldschool person I don't like many new things :-)

      I really like your short explanation of why you keep writng a blog.
      I think that anyone reading will pretty quickly notice if the writer likes to write, or if it is just done rather mechanically.

      If people are looking for ad revenue, I think woodworking blogs is a lousy choice.

      I once blogged about just that subject, and it seemed at that time, that the general consensus was that no one liked to see ads on woodworking blogs.
      http://mulesaw.blogspot.no/2013/07/woodworking-blog-ethics.html

      Brgds
      Jonas

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    2. Jonas,

      No problem, and thanks for replying!

      I agree: If you want ad revenue, a woodworking blog really isn't the way to go. I've considered doing an Amazon affiliate account, but it seems like a fair amount of effort for probably no gain. 8-)

      I think the problem with ads on blogs is that they've gotten extremely intrusive. When they were just a narrow column on one side, I didn't mind them at all. Now they make noise, flash, pop up and block what you're trying to read, and take over a huge portion of the page. So I installed AdBlock Pro, which means I don't mostly see them even if they're there.

      -Andy

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    3. Hi Andy

      I have never tried to install adblock, but I once in a while wish I had the guts to do so.

      The Amazon affiliate account might make sense if you regularly do book reviews. But I am afraid that you are correct in the assumption that there will be very little gain.

      Brgds
      Jonas

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  12. If you're using Firefox or Chrome as a web browser, installing AdBlock is very easy. I turn it off for a lot of websites I want to support, but that's easy... click the icon, and click "Disable for this page".

    I've reviewed a few tools that Amazon sells, but that's about it. So yeah, it hasn't really seemed worth it. I'm also a little uneasy about trying to make money by writing reviews. Even if that's not what I'm doing directly, it kind of feels like it is.

    -Andy

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