As an oldie in this online world (tongue firmly in cheek) I've seen many trends come and go. I've seen new technology take off, new platforms arrive and other platforms disappear. I've seen algorithms change how we do things, I've seen trends which we're told we must do right now.
But the one thing that I've heard the most is that blogging is dying.
The micro-blog, aka Instagram and Instagram Stories, is removing the need for longer form posts.
During 2016 and 2017 there was a huge surge in blogs teaching us how to grow our traffic, how to write really good content and sell products through our blogs. We had the rise of the webinar. Boxes on websites for us to pop in our email address so we could get free 'cheat sheets' in order to 10,000 X our web traffic. We were told we must niche. And so on.
And I was caught up in it. I thought that was the way you had to do things.
It became very sales driven and, quite honestly, made me feel a bit icky.
Then there's the working with brands. What became the occasional post became more regular (incidentally I'm not talking about anyone in particular here more of a sweeping generalisation as a reader of blogs). I might follow 20-30 blogs in my Feedly or Bloglovin' account and half of them are sponsored content. How much of that can we consume? Again it's sales driven in a slightly different way.
Then there is a need for fast content. Fashion and beauty seem to be a good example where the consumer either a) only reads a blog post when they're looking for a review of a particular product or outfit or b) consumes all the latest looks through Instagram and Snapchat.
At one point it seemed like everyone had a blog. The market was saturated. Voices were straining to be heard. People were looking for magic formulas to grow their traffic because without traffic they had no sales or didn't have decent enough stats to work with brands.
Then people started to see their traffic drop off.
And I've a number of thoughts as to why this might be as an observer and participant of this online world:
1) Their blog is in direct competition with their own social media stream. Maybe their Instagram or Twitter is just too good.
2) Maybe they've changed circumstances. Whereas once they wrote about one particular subject, changes in their personal life mean they write about other interests. Sometimes the audience moves with them. Sometimes they drop off.
3) If a blogger 'niches' in one particular subject and the readership or industry shifts and consumes information in a different way then they might see a decrease in traffic to their blog. And I think this might be the case with beauty and fashion.
4) Readers aren't traffic. They're an audience. They're readers. Human beings. If you treat them as mere traffic and 'disrespect them' they'll stop reading. And, as Jen of A Beauty Junkie in London said on Wanderluce's latest podcast, your readership is your value. If you mislead them and don't declare a sponsored post then they'll go elsewhere. And your value will decrease substantially.
5) Blogging in the long-term isn't about getting as much out of the reader as you can. They aren't cash cows. It's about engaging them, taking them with you on a journey. Treat them as a cash cow and they'll go.
6) Maybe, just maybe, as well as it being a subject thing, it's also a generational thing. After questioning whether there is ageism in blogging in a recent post I've been amazed and delighted with the comments and interest I've received both here and on Twitter. Maybe a twenty-something prefers the quickness of Instagram and Snapchat but someone in their 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s prefers slowing down with a longer form blog post. (And yes, people in those age groups do read and write blogs.)
7) Or maybe it's the type of post. Product reviews used to be a big thing but not so much any more.
8) There's a growth in video on YouTube and the spoken word via Podcasts. It can be similar content to a blog post but executed in a different way. Personally I love the variety but feel they can still fit into the blogging model.
9) We, as readers, are becoming more discerning. No fuzzy pictures on Instagram. No wobbly shots on YouTube, decent sound quality on podcasts and a captivating voice that's well written with decent grammar on blogs. Which inevitably means some bloggers will not last the test of time.
10) Second guessing an audience and getting it wrong. As I mention in my creative blogging e-course, the first person I write for on my blog is me. It's my way of making sense of my thoughts (like with the ageism blog post and this one). It's my way of telling stories. Hopefully, by blogging those stories I'll find readers that enjoy reading them. Trying to guess what you, my lovely readers will enjoy, is stressful and practically impossible (unless of course, I ask you, and personally I find those questions and polls slightly irritating but that might be just me!) Plus, you might not know what you want to read until you read it.
11) As Hayley Hall says in her blog post about the death of blogging (and it's really good you should read it) "We're overwhelmed with information and opinion, so we have to pick and choose." And I think we, as bloggers, shouldn't be afraid of holding both hands in the air and yelling, in as nice a way as possible, here, I'm over here. You have to market yourself. And not just expect to be discovered.
The number of different platforms can make for an interesting online experience for the reader. But, for the writer and blogger, relying on just one platform can be a dangerous game. Look at all the drama around Facebook in recent weeks. We don't know how that'll play out, and it's unlikely they'll disappear. But - what if they did? Would Instagram, who they own, go wth them?
I love blogging. I love the creativity of it. I love the way it has encouraged me to try new things. I love receiving comments and being part of a community. Since being pregnant with my first child 15 years ago I've felt the need to express myself by writing things down. When I don't write I don't feel myself. Having an audience makes it even more rewarding. So I won't be taking my blog anywhere anytime soon.
Want to know more about blogging for creativity?
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