5 Blogging Myths that Need to Disappear
As an active blogger, my passion for blogging tends to come up in conversations with friends, colleagues, and clients. One thing I’ve noticed is that many people still have a misinformed view of blogging. They believe these blogging myths that have been drilled into their minds ever since the blogging phenomenon began some years back.
Here are the top 5 blogging myths I still hear to this day:
• My niche doesn’t have room for another blog—This one is 100% B.S. I see “blogging experts” spreading this misinformation all the time, and I couldn’t disagree with it more. Just because there are thousands of blogs on a particular topic doesn’t mean there isn’t room for one more blog. Sure, most topics have been discussed to the point of exhaustion, but the best bloggers know how to provide new, interesting viewpoints and fresh information that breathes new life into the topic. If you’re not afraid to be yourself and to give your own unique opinion on topics, there’s room for you in the blogosphere.
• My target audience doesn’t read blogs—If this was 2002, I might agree with you. But it’s 2009. A study conducted in March 2008 found that 346 million people worldwide read blogs. If I was a betting man, I’d say that number has increased since that study. Even if your target audience isn’t the type of person who would subscribe to and follow a blog on a daily basis, he or she likely still uses Google or other search engines to find information. Guess what? Optimized blog posts tend to rank well in the search engines.
• A blog will take my business to the next level overnight—On the flipside, you have people so consumed by the social media phenomenon that they believe starting a blog will cause their business to instantly boom overnight. Sadly, that’s not how it works. Success with blogging requires a long-term commitment to writing quality posts, promoting your content, and building relationships with your readers.
• If you build it, they will come—I wish this was the case, because it would save me a lot of time. Simply writing and publishing a post will not earn you an audience. You have to network with other bloggers, promote your posts via social media channels, reach out to new readers, and promote your blog through other online channels. For your first few weeks as a blogger, you might just be talking to yourself. That’s okay. Stick with it, and do the right things to build up your subscriber base.
• I need to be controversial to stand out—Once upon a time, a friend told me that controversy, not content, was king. While the occasional controversial post could get your blog some major attention, you don’t have to write one piece of flamebait after another to stand out. I’d much rather read a blog that provides a well-reasoned, highly informative viewpoint than one that just tries to stir the pot by being controversial.
Which blogging myths would you add to this list?
October 12th, 2009 at 8:25 am
Eric,
Your last point is so true. Not going to mention any names but I remember awhile back coming across what I thought was a great post/blog and then I started to notice that all the posts were controversial in nature. That was basically the style of the blog and that does get tiring after awhile.
October 12th, 2009 at 9:46 am
[...] 5 Blogging Myths that Need to Disappear [...]
October 14th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
I might disagree with you on the 2nd point. For my cursor site…I really don’t think this type of audience would be interested in my type of blog which mainly consists of boring updates. Some sites just can’t use blogs…you can blog about stuff but it doesn’t really go well with the site.
Found this post at technorati. =D Clicked it and it was a pretty good read so I thought I leave a comment.
October 16th, 2009 at 4:58 am
This post got me thinking. Like Animated Cursors I found you through Technorati, and after two years of blogging I’m starting to grasp how to get value from Technorati in terms of search and connections. I agree that a niche isn’t finite. Although like any social space if you’re saying something in it, it does need to stand out in terms of quality and value for the reader. Salience will get a ‘hit’ but meanigfulness and usefulness will generate endurance (dare I say popularity. I certainly go along with the myth if ‘get into social media and make millions’ line. This is the territory of snake oil salesmen – beware.
Since I’ve been blogging I think most of us have been trying to ‘make sense’ of the phenomenon. What is does and who it does it for. I don’t think there is one overarching explanation. The ’sphere is as diverse as the people who use it.
My latest ‘insight’ is to think of comments not as ‘comments’ but as micro posts in themselves. In this way they become extensions of your blogging activity. (Inspired by Dawkins and his idea of the extended phenotype) So comments are an extended ‘memeotype’ something influenced by your blog but built beyond its confines.
October 16th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Eric,
Very well said, you give me hope. I see hits on a regular basis from people in Europe and Asia using “Google” to find things and I collect “translated” versions of my website. I’m always flattered when someone has a look at my particular corner of weird and deranged street.
Aggregators and Google are the big unknowns. Aggregators might go away if news outlets begin charging for content and Google is always shifting the way that it evaluates information–I’ve read where page rank might end up being irrelevant. Well, thank you very much, I’ve just spent two years trying to raise mine!
I would add, always remember that readers are looking at what you said months ago. If they detect that you’re a fraud and a hypocrite, they’ll call you out.
October 16th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
All good points. It is taking me much longer than a couple of weeks of just writing for myself. Wish you would share a typical time line to get a decent number of readers. I have also heard that many more people read than comment. That seems to be true for my blog, or is it a myth and it really IS just me?