Last updated on March 21st, 2021 at 09:27 am
What keeps you up at night? Worries? Feelings of inadequacy?
I was going to hit the sack a half hour before I started writing this when I decided to check whether Drake’s family had responded to his cut “Too Much” from Nothing Was the Same*. Within minutes, I came across a CRWN interview between Drake and Elliot Wilson on where he’s at, what we can take away from “Too Much”, but what’s maybe most important, how to look at our lives right now.
*Go listen immediately if you haven’t already!
The Golden Age of Blogging is Dead and Gone
I’ve been working on blog posts, calculations and tools for ages to show it, but maybe it’s better to just come out and say it—the golden age of blogging is dead. Dead. It was this innovative new thing back when we didn’t have Internet behemoths like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter—but it’s not 2003 anymore. The Internet has changed — drastically—and its consumers crave something more. Something that resonates with them now instead of bloggers playing by rules made by the people who’ve already come and got their money. The bloggers who’ve already moved on to columnist positions, public speaking and TV gigs. The ones who knew that blogging alone wasn’t sustainable and reached for greater heights to avoid getting lumped in with everyone else.
It’s time to think up a new way to play the game.
The Game Has Changed
But that doesn’t mean that people don’t still want to hear stories—people still love stories… but little novellas like the ones I write might not get that message across anymore.
The Internet’s rife with possibility. We have HTML5, CSS3, jQuery and all sorts of other toys to play with to really test the medium—we just need to sit down, rethink how we get that story across, and push the hell out of that envelope**.
**Not that kids will know what an envelope is in another decade or two.
I guess all I’m trying to say is that if you’re trying to reach the top of the game as we know it, have fun—it only has so much longer to go.
New games. New rules. New tools.
It’s time to build a better blogosphere.
Let’s do this.
12 replies on “This Is It. Right Here. Right Now.”
In sum: your blog sucks. LOL
STEP YO GAME UP.
I like it though. People are boring.
HA! Always so blunt – I love it.
You’re right, though – it’s like with my recent outcries for a rival: when a system lacks an interesting character, the audience it seeks goes elsewhere.
I feel like that’s what’s going down right now.
I don’t think blogging is dead, but it’s certainly not the only thing that matters.
What do you think is next, Casey? Where is everything going?
If only I had an answer to that question, Casandra!
With YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, I think we can all agree that the power of many is winning the day, and no one can truly succeed in the SoMe environment by going it alone. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day to keep up. You need core ideas with varying perspectives and approaches to really make something spectacular, but that degree of teamwork seems counter-cultural to what we often see going on in the blogosphere.
What I do think, however, is that those who are willing to adopt an approach that benefits a group and not simply themselves are far more likely to reap benefits from it years down the road. You can do so much more in a collective when everyone’s on the same page and see each other as equals.
That’s where things need to go for further evolution.
As per how the content will look and be delivered, I have no idea. Maybe in a future post I’ll share some sketches of things I’ve been thinking of?
Thanks for prompting my word vomit 🙂
Hey Casey,
Sure things are different. They will continue to evolve and change. There will be an ebb and flow – sometimes more ebb less flow. That’s just the way it is.
Having said that. Not all blogging is dead. I thing blogging so you can get free stuff / “influence”, might be going by the wayside but, blogging to establish one’s authority or expertise on a subject – the sharing of valuable information. That will be here for a while yet.
JM2C
C. 😀
But Christine, there are so many more ways to get that message across these days. YouTube videos. A Facebook page. Twitter links to both. Sure, the blog is still useful, but is it as effective as it used to be? I suppose since we don’t have a definitive hub for things like stats, infographics and tutorials, that those will still have a place in the blogosphere, but thoughts? Opinions? Stories? I feel like they’re better off going where the people are in some ways, and that content creators switch it up to figure out better ways to engage them 🙂
We’ll see what comes next. I’d put money that the next “big thing” will push us farther away from blogging as we know it than we’ve ever been.
Sure, Video posts seem to have taken over the world but for those of us who have a face for radio… this may not be an option all the time. 🙂
1) A well rounded approach is always important. Use all relevant platforms to get key message out.
2) The ultimate goal is to always get people to your site (Should it be? A discussion for later perhaps?)
3) Sharing video on your blog… do it.
4) I honestly am not interested in watching videos and only videos for everything. Takes way to much time.
5) I can get through written information faster … and will little interruption to co-workers and others around me
6) Video doesn’t work for everyone yet. Especially not those while working in traditional / CONSERVATIVE workspaces. Back to point one.
7) Producing good video requires some skill… THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE who should just go back to blogging or get others to “Play” them on video. Ya know? 😉
More Cents.
C.
You made some good points above, Christine — so much so that I had to reference you in a reply to Justin below 🙂
As for my reply to you“:
Many bloggers kind of just give into their blogs and write without really considering what they want to do with their blogs. No goal in mind — they simply create for the sake of creating and want to test the waters and see where things go. (2) Obviously, you want to cover as many bases as possible when you create (1) (3), and figuring out where your time is invested best when you create is quite important as well (4) (7) — but the fact that video doesn’t work for everyone yet doesn’t mean that blogs have the reverence they once had (6).
What’s needed is greater content with greater impact — stuff that’ll rattle us to the core and force us to really question what we believe in and why we believe it. That’s the only way we grow.
Maybe content that’s so good that one day, we’ll be able to supercede time constraints and just draw people to the content instead of convincing them to.
Happy creating!
We’ve discussed this before, but I’ll reiterate here. YouTube is the future of blogging both in terms of creative content and in making real money.
My own blog is going to be adjusted into a video blog over the next few weeks as 2014 approaches. Details will come down the pipe soon.
Yeah, J, I agree that it’s unsurprising that the eldest of the big three social media properties makes for the next step from the blog, however, video isn’t all there is. As Christine stated above, video isn’t for everybody, nor everywhere — while visuals are the clear way to go in today’s world of content consumption, I think there’s still plenty of room for infographics, photo essays and other such content if it’s positioned correctly.
TL;DR: I think video’s only part of the picture, but not the entire answer to what we can expect the blog to turn into.
With that said, still expect more video from my direction as well when I get all this writing out of my system!
I am not a blogger, so can’t really comment on the blogging game other than to say that things tend to evolve over time, that is no different for blogging.
Thanks for the link to the Drake interview. I really enjoyed it. I loved the Jimmy Fallon performance, it gave me chills!
Bhupinder
@BhuDeo
Thanks for dropping by, Bhupinder 🙂
You’re right – things do naturally evolve with everything over time, and blogging’s no exception by far. I’m just feeling a strong pull toward taking things to another level, even if I have no clue what that level looks like 🙂
And yeah – I really liked this interview. I find that I’m trying to read between the lines with the content I consume these days and checking out a lot of stuff behind the scenes. I used to hate on Drake, but with Nothing Was The Same, I feel like I’m starting to finally find some appreciation for him.
Feel free to come back anytime, bro!