Monday, June 11, 2012

The Shine is Worn Off

Are blogs dying out? I wonder. I subscribe to many blogs for one reason or another and one trend I’ve noticed is that many of the people who used to blog religiously three times a week or more, only blog every so often now, or hardly at all. And I know of some writers who’ve actually shut their blogs down claiming its stealing away time from their writing.

What’s an author to do? Does a publisher still want an author to have a blog? Is a blog with only a few followers better than no blog at all?

Perhaps people are tired of trying to come up with more amusing anecdotes after working at it for years. Let’s face it. Life has its boring moments. A lot of times it’s ugly or harsh, not cute and funny. Not to mention private, pain-filled or (insert other angsty adjective here) and not the proper fodder for an audience. If you don’t have a platform, like say, marketing, best-selling, self-pubbing, etc. What are you going to talk about? And beyond that, who will care?

The list of promo places just keeps growing and growing. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Goodreads, Pinterest, Amazon and other forums, and let’s not forget the blog tours which actually market your latest release. The list just keeps growing and spreading. Like crabgrass. Now I don’t mind most of these places. In fact I like most of them because I’m insatiably curious and want to know what’s going on pretty much everywhere. You never know when you’ll come across fodder for another story.

No one can deny they are a time sink. And yes, I’ve tried a kitchen timer, monitoring the time spent at each site and charting it, etc. And it doesn’t matter how you slice it, the time spent on marketing just keeps expanding. I think we’re lucky as authors to have all of these options. BUT, that being said, does blogging still play a viable part? Do you feel it’s still a valuable part of your marketing program?

8 comments:

  1. I'm going to go with the old "everything in moderation."
    I like to blog and I still like to read them - but I too have recently made the move to cutting down to one regular scheduled a post a week and then I only blog more if the mood (or the inspiration) hits me.
    Yes, it's a time thing.
    But, I don't think I'm ready to give it up. I still think it's great addition to the more static website.
    Doesn't really answer to question, but it's I got at the moment. LOL.

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  2. I'm a newbie at blogging (I've only been doing it a few months) so I like it. The shiny gloss is still there. I follow several blogs and look forward to the posts. I can definitely see the benefit of having a blog spot with multiple authors, but would hate to see blogging disappear altogether.

    I find the time sink in social media sites. There are far too many with a new one always springing up around the corner. That said, I love Twitter!

    How did I find this blog post? From your tweet, of course! :)

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  3. I agree, Deb. I'm not ready to give it up either. It's still the only place that really lets me spout off in as many paragraphs as I need. LOL! Thanks for stopping by. :)

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  4. Hi Mae Clair! I love your name, btw. I don't think blogging is leaving any time soon. Perhaps those who've been doing it a long time and don't see the benefit are moving on to other media.

    I still follow a lot of blogs that have hundreds or thousands of followers, so it does work for some. And I like following shiny new bloggers too. :)

    Thanks for letting me know you checked out the Twitter link. It's really encouraging to know somebody's paying attention. I appreciate you taking the time to comment.

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  5. I'm with Mae Clair, I've only been blogging since January and I want to see if I can grow my blog large enough that I can say I have a platform. I found out about this post from a Tweet.
    I see you're a JR Ward fan. So am I. I love, love, love the brotherhood.

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  6. Welcome, Monique! You've got a great looking blog. I really enjoyed the post about paying taxes. It looks like you're off to a great start.

    Yes, ma'am. I do love me some brothers. I'm bummed I haven't been able to get to Tohr's book yet, but I will. :)

    Thank you so much for stopping by!

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  7. I think blogging started as a way to share information with a group of people when eamils and basic websites just didn't cut it. And I still think that blogging serves that same purpose, but for short shout outs, there's Twitter, and if there's pictures involved, Pinterest, and for reaching out and making a connection, Facebook. (we are all becoming pinblog-twitfaced with all these media options, lol)I still think blogs are valuable for when you have an excerpt, idea to share or promote, or an update to make, but blogging everyday? Even when reading blogs, I limit it to checking once a week for updates. Time is always a factor, isn't it? Great blog today!!! :)

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  8. I'm one of those putzes who've fallen off the wagon, mostly because of time, partly because of the vision issues... but it's hard to get back into the swing of things. A couple times a week, some idea for a post hits me, but honestly, I get to the computer to write it and have a bajillion other things waiting for my attention, so I forget. Perhaps it's 40s-onset-Alzheimer's?

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