My blog is one month old. My 30-day trial at TypePad is up, so this is where the rubber hits the road. Do I forgo a monthly hot-chocolate at Tully’s and invest that into my blog? The intense thrill, the rush of blood that I get when I get an email saying “new comment” on my blog supercedes the yummy milk-chocolate that Tully’s produces down the street. So, in case any of you were holding your breath, I’ll be back.
The reasons I listed in my I’m live, welcome world post haven’t changed much. My blog has introduced me to people who I otherwise wouldn’t have met; offered me new ideas; and changed my opinion as a result of comments. I will continue to blog to further these good things. The only thing that would stop me is lack of time, but that shouldn’t be an issue.
I will take this opportunity to comment on the blogesphere:
1. I have had a hard time enlisting regular readers who do not have aggregators because they do not read enough blogs to invest the effort. This has resulted in mostly other bloggers being my primary readers. In other words, this isn’t mainstream. Duh.
2. There seems to be a “I’ll rub your back if you rub mine” tendency when it comes to cross-linking among blogs.
3. The newspaper is not dead nor will blogs destroy traditional media. Traditional media will adapt. Blogs will adapt. But they will not become an indistinguishable one.
4. Are bloggers going to be content when they find out they only have a few regular readers? Will a shakeout occur at which point a couple hundred popular bloggers emerge as the authorities and the rest fall off the radar screen completely?
5. When will tight integration between a social networking service and a blogging service come about? I don’t think Always-On is there yet.
Glad to hear you’re going to stick with us Ben, I’ve enjoyed reading your material.
In regards to your point about being unable to attract regular web browser readers I doubt we’ll see regular traffic from that group until RSS is directly integrated somehow into IE or Windows. With the infatuation Microsoft has with blogs at the moment I’d say RSS integration is a certainty for Longhorn. When that happens things are bound to get interesting.