Bloggers were once on the fringe of society. They were those strange people that had their heads buried in their CRT monitors all day, ranting and raving about their everyday misfortunes. It was unfiltered, unabashed, and completely uncensored. They didn’t care if readers disagreed with them. They didn’t care if it hurt their RSS subscriptions or Alexa rankings. These days, blogging is quite the different exercise.
Now bloggers are those “normal” people who have their eyes buried in their LCD monitors all day, happily telling one another that they are making good posts, commenting on celebrity gossip and how to make money online. Maybe they’re blogging from a MacBook, sipping on a latte at the local Starbucks. Yes, things have changed. It went from dark and insightful to overly bright and cheerful.
It’s ironic, really, because blogging used to be an emotionally charged event that gave us a deep look into the blogger’s soul. Today, with the advent of Google Adsense and the proliferation of affiliate marketing, blogging has become a business like any other. I’m not saying that monetizing your blog is a bad idea — I’m just as guilty of trying to make a buck to two off of my blog as anyone else — but when the money-making aspect takes precedent over personal expression and the entertainment of your readers, something has gone horribly wrong. Like Lemmy-wrong.
I’ve been accused of being a pessimist, seeing the worst of things out there and not believing in the power of positive thinking. I beg to differ. I feel that I am a realist, because when there are millions and millions of blogs out there, only a very small percentage ever become a Darren Rowse or a John Chow. Or even a Darren Barefoot. It’s not that you shouldn’t try — you will never succeed if you don’t put in the effort — but you shouldn’t go in with an expectation for success either.
Emo music is known for being very emotionally charged, angry at the world, slitting their wrists to feel alive. Tickle Me Emo from Mad TV depicts this lifestyle quite well. The way blogging is going now, it seems to be the polar opposite. Instead of being unrealistically negative, the comments I find on many blogs — John Chow‘s in particular — can be overly positive. Seeing short comments like “Great post!” or “Another fantastic entry, John” is nothing out of the ordinary. Is this a bad thing? I’m not sure. But I get the same gut reaction to that as I do to the annoying person who is over-the-top positive all the time.
Has blogging become the anti-emo? Chime in with your thoughts below.
Personally, I think the best blogs are the ones that have a personal touch but not…too much. I want my readers to know who I am so that I can prove I’m not some kind of blog robot but a blog is seriously not a place to tell the world how you’re feeling depressed and how your parents don’t understand you. Why? Guess what, emo kids…the world doesn’t care.
I think it’s because blogging has become more mainstream and more people are using it as a business tool.
I also think this generally our view because…well, folks like me and you, Michael, are a bit older and we’ve outgrown teenage angst and couldn’t care less what our parents understand. We’re also…well, me and you aren’t quite dot com moguls as of yet but I consider folks like us to be rather relatively successful and we really have no reason to be depressed and angry at the world other than when a bunny gets sick, the Canucks lose one game out of twenty or some bastard incorrectly tells you Top Gear has been canceled.
And if you get kicked in the chest as a result… and even then, I’m smiling.
That’s sound advice. I didn’t start with the expectation (or even a conception) of success, I just kind of stumbled into whatever success I’ve managed to cobble together.
Well thus far, I’d say that you “cobbled together” a fair share of success. It’s unrealistic to expect success, given that less than 1% of all blogs ever “make it”, so to speak.
The emo stuff is now far gonelike everything else Bloggers now are also trying to make big money (most of them plan to leave full time job by makin enough money from blog) and blogs do dgrade with the money effect, you friend is an example (i think you got whom I meant)
I started my blog to make money….huge mistake. I have a successful ecommerce store and a growing forum. I’m going to stick to those for making money. I am going to keep blogging, though. It helps me relieve stress and keep track of my life.
ALL YOU! That’s what a blog should be. Nobody can tell you who you are.