Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

For what it`s worth, I think that blogs are a great communication tool and I currently subscribe to over 40 RSS blog feeds on various topics.  Unfortunately the Land of Blog is getting a bad rep because although anyone CAN start a blog, not everyone SHOULD (I can sing in the shower but no one is going to pay me to perform at Carnegie Hall).  I routinely add/delete several feeds every week and I`m looking forward to following nhgnikole`s blog but I routinely kill off any blogs that don`t provide fresh content or aren`t updated on at least a weekly basis.  That`s just me.  Blogs that I follow are ones that give me insight into topics I`m interested in (startups, home theater, technology) and I`m not interested in reading rants or hearing about Fluffy`s hairballs.

That being said, I agree that outdated blogs are an issue.  I`m tired of looking through search engine results where I end up on a blog that hasn`t been updated in three years.  Either the search engines should bury stale blogs on the 14th page of their results or blog sites should expire them after the content hasn`t been updated in over two years.  Maybe Blogworld needs a good old fashioned brushfire to burn off the deadwood.

I`m not interested in the common person`s blog. That`s my point.

Don`t look for the common and complain about it being subpar. Make it positive by finding the good ones and sharing with the rest of us!

If there are "common person blogs," then what are the "other` type? :-D

CraigL... I get your point. So just to make it clear for others... I would say a "common person`s blog" is a blog written by a columnist that just writes. No research. Just an opinion with no educational background or purpose to write the blog other than to say... "This is what I think."

Now I know nhgnikole`s blog is not of this nature. I know there are several bloggers with great skill and insight... As for my blog... it was a common person`s blog with a small amount of research. Not enough research, or writing skill to even keep my attention. That`s why it`s gone.

But getting back to this topic, It`s unfortunate that many bloggers today won`t maintain their blog. Eventually they will become bored and do some other `fad` thing. That`s when the "common person`s blog" shows it`s real downfall. The information will be lost. ...But just because I said, "...and do some other `fad` thing..." doesn`t mean I think all bloggers are just part of a fad. Music is a fad for some while others pleasure us with their poetry and melody.


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Vincent Wilcox (a.k.a. KRAKR)
Drummer
My band: Letters Make Words

So don`t you think it would make far more sense to write "articles," put them up on an area of your own Web site, where they would increase SE optimization, stay there, and not require maintenance? Then, if you want write opinions and editorials, maintain a diary or something?

For example, Nikole has some superb information about using various tools, or that analyze certain concepts. They`re currently in "blog" form, when they would do just as well as whitepaper articles. Right?

So she gets bored some day, and decides to blow off the blog. If the ongoing informative articles are in one place, with the general blogging diary stuff in the blog, nothing of importance gets lost. (LOL! I mean...longevity-type importance)

A few things happen here.

1) Technology changes. I used to have another company, and as part of that company website, I had a bunch of animal-related articles. I wanted to update the site because the code was very 7 years ago, and figured I would put it into a CMS for safe keeping. I realized that a whole lot of people linked to those articles, so just to be nice ... I put forwarders where all of the original URLs would be to tell you where these things were now.

However, keeping the old articles works great for this pet-related thing, because that information hasn`t changed in a long time. Should you be reading the same SEO articles that you read now in 5, 10, 20 years? Probably not. So there`s a good reason why topics like article marketing should disappear at some point.

2) People run out of money. In that above site, I can keep it going because basically I have a bulk hosting purchase - so one small site really costs me nothing. If I was paying for a site long after it had become useless to me, especially if it was high bandwidth, I might have dropped it.

3) People go on to do other things. There was a place called "Bullwinkle`s" a few blocks from my grandma`s house when I was a kid - you know, like the Bullwinkle and Rocky show? They had video games and pizza, and a stage where you ate that had live character shows and a water fountain thing that danced. (Like the Mentos stunts, only with water, coordinated to music.) I would have loved to take my kid there now, because I loved going there when I was a kid ... but it`s just not there. It`s a dance club that is definitely not for kids. The Olsen`s cherry orchard across the street? It`s a brand new huge Kaiser facility. The race track up the peninsula where they used to have stuff for kids on the track center? They are talking about tearing it down to put up condos. The point is this: things change, and people go on to do other things. It`s unrealistic to expect information to stay in one place forever. As I have now been using the internet for over a decade, the stuff I once knew is gone, replaced by new and different things. Try to not think of it as a fad, but maybe a career or market correction ... they stopped doing that which they either shouldn`t have been doing in the first place, or that which they decided they couldn`t excel at.

4) Businesses die. This happens more often than not ... if you are a small business and you`ve been making it for a few years, congrats! You are in the minority. A lot of them just disappear.

5) Businesses change. To be stale is to be dead in the business world. So when they go to redesign something, sometimes a few things end up misplaced or lost forever, especially when you have a really large site with a lot of content. That`s why there`s a search button!

And to answer Craig, the reason why I use a blog/CMS is so you can find things. If I put them in flat files, or whitepapers, or whatever else ... you`re never going to find that information. I guess then a bad link on Google isn`t an issue though, if you could never find it in the first place!

So, yeah. It`s not a "blog", it`s a "CMS". And what you do with it is your own deal - just try not to stink up the neighborhood with your useless ramblings. 

OK, here!

Here is a great thing about blogging:

linky loo

I figure I would join in as a host because, like you guys, I`m tired of all the bad stuff out there. I`d like to reward people making quality content with this program of recognition!

Okay, I understand the logic of doing blogs the way Nikole says above. But it comes down to the meaning of "blog." It also comes down to differentiating between an article, and a sort of editorial view of life---the blog entry.

I see articles about information as just that---articles. They`re not a diary entry, my view on some current event, or a general opinion. I see a whole lot more value to a Web site having articles written for that site, maybe by the owner or otherwise, by a writer, and then those articles staying on the site.

On the other hand, I rarely bother to read a site`s blog. What do I care? Unless there`s some sort of Table of Contents that shows me the writer is putting up articles, not blog entries, I don`t have the interest.

But another thing in Nikole`s post, that I`m maybe unclear about: As a developer, are you saying that you host some of the site`s content at your end? Is it your responsibility to keep some site`s articles active and alive? I don`t think I understand the process....?

Well the sites I am talking about specifically are mine.

But yes, I also maintain the hosting on about 20 sites across 3 platforms.

I think the dating on the articles is important in terms of relevancy, especially considering the topics of technology I write on. Articles on technology get outdated along with the technology.

But articles on technology don`t belong in a blog, any more than other articles on anything else. That`s, I think, my main point. Yes, an article should have a date.