Are most blogs boring?

I said over at JT's blog today that most blogs are boring. Is that a slam, or if that a mere fact?

Judge for yourself. There are more than 112.8 million blogs in existence today (in English, per Technorati; there are allegedly 72 million blogs in addition to that in Chinese, but most of you don't read Chinese, so that's not a relevant fact)

112.8 million blogs. Now, seriously: my blog has a faithful following of about 300 readers and 100 linkers -- and that puts me in the top 5% of all blogs. If you do all the math there, that means that if I am at the very bottom of the top 5%, 107,160,000 blogs have fewer readers than I do.

With that point in mind, consider a second point: how many blogs do you actually read? I glance at all the blogs in my blogroll about twice a month, but on a daily basis I read about 6 blogs -- two of which I write (unless you count the meta). Anybody actually read more than a dozen blogs a day?

The question "why?" then has to be answered, and the obvious first "why?" is that you only have so much time. Right? I have 15 minutes a day to catch up on things, and that means I can only read so much. But the other ridiculously-obvious answer is, "and these are the only blogs I can stomach or that can hold my attention."

If there were more blogs which you found interesting, you'd get them on your RSS or something. Subscribe to updates and read later. But you don't -- because most blogs are -boring-. YAWN!

That said, the take-away here is not, "stir up more controversy to get more readers" -- because that approach to blogging is, in fact, disreputable. Michelle Malkin blogs like that; the watchblogging community blogs like that (gut check: when was the last time any of them blogged about something positive they enjoyed?); don't you go and blog like that. But what you can do is learn to write better prose. You could write better prose, you know: you just have to read a little and write a little more.

I was on the phone with somebody yesterday, and he said something I think the rest of you should think about. He said that he's always surprised to meet most bloggers because they are -nothing- like the blog they write. His meaning was that most bloggers are a lot more interesting in person than they are on their blog.

Isn't that a shame? Well, shame on us, people. Blog better -- it is actually in you to do so.

Improve your blog in -one- easy lesson

If you want advice on how to improve your blogging (apparently, it's going around), here's my lesson in one entry:

Learn to write like this, including having the same degree of passion for the subject, knowledge of the matter, and clear-sightedness on a worthy target. Whoever that guy who wrote that is, he knows how to write clearly and courageously.

You can turn the snark setting down maybe one notch if you aren't a genius with the snark. Otherwise: that how it's done.

A New Blog

Not for nothin', but I started a new blog -- you know, because I'm bored and I have so much free time.

But here's the thing -- this is a blog you will actually use. I call it GiMP Univeristy because it's a blog about how to use the complete-free tool known as the GiMP to produce better graphics for your blog (or whatever).

Not everyone can afford Photoshop, after all. Everyone, however, can download the GiMP and use it to do better than MS Paint allows.

Wow. UPGRADE.

AOMIN.org has, after like three decades of purple and gold heresy, UPDATED ITS WEB TEMPLATE.

WOW.

WOW!

Kudos -- that's the best upgraded template of 2008 so far. It may win an award -- especially if it's the percent of improvement that's measured.

too many inside jokes

I was chatting this weekend with a friend who I catch up with about once a year, and he told me this blog has too many inside joke to follow -- new readers can't come up to speed, and it's a little tedious.

Wow. And he likes me. I guess I have my first new year's resolution: get the blog missional.

As if "missional" isn't its own inside joke ...

Sweet

Great post at the New Attitude blog.

BR-549

This has been bothering me for quite a while, but I am just now getting to blogging it. And it's hardly pressing stuff, but it's what I'd call an unsolved mystery.

Here's a Google Analytics snapshot of the traffic to my blog:



Lots of traffic from Seattle, lots of traffic from what appears to be the Twin Cities, GTY is obviously not watchng what people do during work hours so there's lots of hits from SoCal. Yeah, so what, right? "So what" is that it seems nobody west of the pan handle of Oklahoma, East of California, or south of the Canadian border (see the graphic for what I'm saying here -- don't ask for GPS coordinates) is reading my blog.

Now, I thought it was me and that somehow I had alienated the Cornhuskers and the Jayhawks and the Mormons and whatever, but here's the TeamPyro snapshot:



Nearly identical. Sure: the Pyro map reflects about 10 times the traffic my site gets, and there's obviously not the appeal to the Seattle crowd or the forward-thinking Baptists in Minnesota, but look at that bizarre "no readers" zone. Do these people not have the internet? Are they Pelagians or Catholics or something? How's it work out that nobody in the Great Plains reads blogs?

I'm hoping the subject line will cause some controversy and they'll start visiting. Wish me luck, and Garretson, SD, population 1165? sa-LOOT!

Hot Spots

Coupla things going on in the Theoblogosphere that I think you might find interesting:

The Pulpit blog is considering John MacArthur's affirmation that Calvinism demands pre-mil eschatology. They are fielding questions there, and because Nathan B is running the show over there, it will be informative, I am sure.

For those still somewhat giddy over the topic of baptism, the FV/paedo/credo thing is going full-tilt in the meta of the linked post at Doug Wilson's blog. Who knew that when you get down to the question of what the church ought to be doing, you have to concede that the only way the church can do it is if it is full of regenerate people? Well, Paul knew that -- that's what he told the Corinthians, anyway.

I tell you this because I am tied up today and it is unlikely that I will be blogging much. But I want you to be stimulated so that you will return to catch a fix.

Session 2: What a blog is

You thought I forgot about this, but I didn't. We're in the middle of my personal GodBlogCon with everything you need to know about blogging, and the deal is this: we're only going to talk once about the medium of blogging, and the rest of the time we are going to talk about the method and objective of blogging.

To start talking about medium, read this state of the blogosphere report from Technorati. It has some nifty charts and a lot of really-boring junk. BORING. But this kind of information only comes sandwiched between the stale bread of statistics.

Let me give you an example:

The Low Authority Group (3-9 blogs linking in the last 6 months)

The average blog age (the number of days that the blog has been in existence) is about 228 days, which shows a real commitment to blogging. However, bloggers of this type average only 12 posts per month, meaning that their posting habits are generally dedicated but infrequent.

The Middle Authority Group (10-99 blogs linking in the last 6 months)

This contrasts somewhat with the second group, which enjoys an average age not much older than the first at 260 days and which posts 50% more frequently than the first. There is a clear correlation between posting volume and Technorati authority ranking.

The High Authority Group (100-499 blogs linking in the last 6 months)

The third group represents a decided shift in blog age while not blogging much more frequently than the last. In keeping with the theme of the maturation of the blogosphere, it seems evident that many of these bloggers were previously in category two and have grown in authority organically over time. In other words, sheer dedication pays off over time.

The Very High Authority Group (500 or more blogs linking in the last 6 months)

In the final group we see what might be considered the blogging elite. This group, which represents more than 4,000 blogs, exhibits a radical shift in post frequency as well as blog age. Bloggers of this type have been at it longer – a year and a half on average – and post nearly twice a day, an increase in posting volume of over 100% from the previous group. Many of the blogs in this category, in fact, are about as old as Technorati and we’ve grown up together. Some of these are full-fledged professional enterprises that post many, many times per day and behave increasingly like our friends in the mainstream media. As has been widely reported, the impact of these bloggers on our cultures and democracies is increasingly dramatic.

A note on Ranking

For those of you who are new to Technorati's ranking systems, we establish a blog’s authority (or influence) by tracking the number of distinct blogs that link to it over the past 6 months. In this chart, we’ve looked at folks with at least 3 links or more and grouped them into four separate categories. In total, we’re looking at about 1.5 million blogs of the 57 million total. Even though I labeled the first group as the "Low Authority" group, given that these people are in the top 2% of all of the blogs that exist, the concept of "low" is purely in relation to the other groups above.

Now, for some of you, your eyes have already glazed over -- and you people will never be better bloggers. It's a shame really, because some of you are really cool people.

But here's the deal: regardless of the TTLB ranking system, Technorati is the gold standard of measuring influence in the blogosphere. Why? Because they are earning a living exploiting the way the blogosphere works -- and N.Z.Bear, whom I respect as a pioneer, is simply part of one clan in the blogosphere which is quickly becoming irrelevant. So the way Technorati measures influence tells us something about how we must -- if we are going to use blogs as a medium -- operate to gain influence and authority in (for lack of a better term) the discussion.

Let's get serious for a minute: PostSecret has almost 12,000 unique inbound links. Don't pretend you don't know what that is -- you've read that blog. It's not even designed very well -- it uses a standard Blogger template, which is serviceable, but it's completely no-frills. But in that, it's in the top 100 blogs based on the Technorati influence metrics.

There's nothing at PostSecret that's changing the world, and it's only interesting is a very skank, reality TV kind of way -- the way the first MTV "Real" show was "interesting". Yet it's got 12,000 inbound links?

Listen: Mark Driscoll's site theResurgence.com has "only" 1,100 inbound links -- and it is 10,000 times more edifying than PostSecret. What's up with that? Has the word simply not gotten out about Pastor Driscoll's blog, or is the problem that we Christians are actually ill-informed about how, exactly, to make get a blog distributed in the bandwidth?

Personally, I think it's the latter. And we're a funny lot. We're willing to call Hugh Hewitt and Michelle Malkin and Scrappleface "GodBloggers", but on the flip side those kinds of "GodBloggers" are completely unwilling to link to (for example) aomin.org or TeamPyro. Their reasons are, well, their own, but the bottom line is that they want to be affiliated with the political idea of God and not the actual person of God because frankly, somebody might get hurt.

In that, Mark Driscoll ought to have a broader platform than he does -- but he needs a network of people who are like-minded to get him circulated.

Here's the real rub: there's a guy out there who calls himself "Arklahomboy", and his blog -stinks-. Content? Nope. Design? nope. Train of thought? Nope. So how does this guy have over 300 blogs linking to him, placing him in the top 8,000-ish blogs in the blogosphere?

It's simple: he joins aggregators. That's not very complicated, is it? He sends out an e-mail, drops a piece of code into his sidebar, and viola: he becomes "more influential" at the drop of a hat.

Now, I have said all of that to say this: the key to having an influential blog is shameless self-promotion. If you cannot do that, you will never be an "influential" blogger. And for some people, I think that's fine. What we do not need in the world today is more "Aklahomboys" who make one-line posts and belong to 6 aggregators and somehow turn up on the radar but have nothing to offer.

Shameless self-promotion is easy if you have a radio show or a nationally-syndicated column. Or a really large church. Or you have published a book. Having a blog after you have one of these things is really a self-promotion of an almost-egregious kind. Seriously now: we buy your books, and we listen to your radio show. Did you not get in all the things you had to say? But there they are: blogging for some reason, and the reason is transparent: to maintain a certain level of public awareness and hype. One talks about his blog on the radio show, and then about the radio on the blog, and about the book on the blog, and then about the blog in the book ... geez, bub: is it about you or what?

I take a like of ribbing from my internet friends about my blog because the self-promotion is so obvious. Listen: DUH! The only way -- the only way -- to get part of the podium in this medium is shameless self promotion. Some people take the coward's way out and join 2 or 3 (or 6) radically-different aggregators to get as much coverage as possible, and others of us -- me in particular -- join one reasonably-large aggregator (so my blog is not constantly timing out trying to run the javascript for the aggregators) and then promote the junk out of what we have.

It sounds tawdry, doesn't it? A little earthy and shameful? Listen: if, after the commensurate level of self promotion, you turn out a blog like "Rant Fever", it is more than a little tawdry: it's downright narcissistic. No questions asked.

But if, while you are tossing out hooks to see where you can get some linkage, you are blogging about Christ, and about the Gospel, and about sinners, and about the church, and about the Gospel, and about Christ, and about marriage in that context, you got your hands a little dirty for the sake of raising Christ up for sinners to see him.

So your medium is this: get your blog connected to the blogosphere -- don't hide it under a bushel. All the other stuff you do has to be done in a public way, but if you're going to get connected, do it with gusto. Just do it.

That's the medium. In the next session, we're going to talk about methods. There's meta open for Q&A, so step up to the mike, speak clearly, and remember to ask your question in a way the panelists can answer.

UPDATED: JD Hatfield pointed out, by way of Socratic questioning, that the right thing to do for this session is to establish an aggregator to show everyone how cool and easy it is to join one, and to get a blogroll going for people who are actually blogging about God. So I'm about 30 minutes away from having an aggregator ready for public consumption, and when it is actually ready, you can find out how to join right here.

JOIN MY BLOGROLL!

Yeah, so what's a "blog roll" and how, exactly do I join?

A "blog roll" is a scrap of javascript code which, when you place it in your web page, lists all the member links of people who are, in turn, running the blogroll on their web page (usually: their blog). It's useful for improving your visibility on the web, especially in Technorati rankings (hubba hubba).

To join, e-mail me at the e-mail listed at my Blogger profile (click on my picture in the sidebar for my blogger user page to come up). But before you do that, make sure you understand the following:

[1] Your blog must be at least 6 months old and demonstrate some current level of activity. You don't have to post every day, but you do have to post weekly.

[2] Your blog must be a blog about the Gospel. By that I mean this: I'm going to google your blog, and if you never mention Jesus, or the Gospel, or the Bible, or God -- or if you only mention them as explitives -- you're not going to get added to the blogroll. If you want to know what I mean when I say "the Gospel", I have a statement of faith linked in my sidebar. Read that, and if you can't say you agree with it, you probably don't know what the Gospel is.

[3] Your blog must show the aggregator on it. What that means is that you are going to add the code for the aggregator before you send me your e-mail request, and when I google you for content, I'm going to check your homepage for the blogroll. That way, when I activate you on the blogroll, you will already be up and running.

[4] You will be patient. I will update the blogroll weekly, and if you can't wait until the weekend to get added, you are probably addicted to the internet or have an urge control problem. My time as blogroll administrator is on a volunteer basis, and you need to respect that.

[5] You will also keep it clean. If I get any complaints about the content of your site, you'll get delisted. Keep it clean. If you don't know what that means, or you want to test the limits, don't submit your site.

The name of the blogroll is "Scum of the Earth" -- a reference to 1Cor 4. That's what's going to pop up when you load this blogroll on your blog, so if you don't like that title, you prolly shouldn't ask to be on the blogroll.

I know I sound somewhat prickly about this, but here's what I think: I think we ought to have some idea what we're standing for and talking about when we call ourselves "GodBloggers" or somehow try to self-identify with Jesus. If you think you have something cool to say about current events also, that's sweet: just don't forget that we're banding together to blog for Jesus here, and if you want to be a Malkin or a Hewitt, go join Pajamas Media.

The code for the blogroll is this:
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="http://rpc.blogrolling.com/display.php?r=7aa7eb5ad9c3180c47a4e2ae3f58e274" ></script>

Drop it into your blog, e-mail me, and let's get busy.

Session #1: practicum

This is what I'm talking about -- honest to God blogging.

[$] Free Blog Advice

Listen -- I may not be the hottest ticket in blogging, but I'm in the top 10% of all bloggers in the TTLB ecosystem no matter how you slice it, so I must be doing something right, right?

So I have this small morsel of advice for anyone striving to write a blog that's not in the dregs of the blogosphere. It's not much advice, and it's not really theopneustos if you see what I'm saying, but it is a valuable piece of advice:

If you ever feel motivated to write a blog entry with the subject "This is where I am Right Now" (or words to that effect), stop what you are doing and get a job or something, OK? Get a hobby.

To put this into perspective, as I post this entry, technorati says there are roughly 18.5 million active blogs with a network of over 1.5 billion links in the blogosphere. Think about that -- 1.5 billion links. Now, of all those blogs and all those links, how many of those people do you know personally? If we count all the people who would recognize your from church and all the people who would recognize you as a person they go to school/work with, I'll bet we could say that about 1,000 people "know" you. Now if all of them have an active blog, that means that 0.005% of all bloggers know who you are -- about one in every 20,000 bloggers. That's not very many.

And of that number, I'll bet not 5 of them thought to themselves today, "Hmmm. I wonder where [your nAme] is right now?" So the information in a blog post with the subject "This is where I am Right Now" (or words to that effect) is a post that nobody really wants to read.

We don't care.

That's not cruel or calloused: that's life. We don't care where you are right now -- unless you're hurt and you're in need of help and somehow the only way you can call for help is via T1 line because the phone is broke or underwater or something. And if you're needing help, "This is where I am Right Now" (or words to that effect) is an ineffective title. "I'M BLEEDING" or "THE WATER'S GETTING HIGHER" or "911! I NEED HELP RIGHT NOW!" is a lot more likely to draw attention than "This is where I am Right Now" (or words to that effect).

Get yourself together. Just because you can blog doesn't mean you must blog. Maybe you just don't have anything to say -- and that's fine. It's not a sin to be silent -- in fact, it is a virtue to be silent when you ought to be silent (cf. Prov 12:23).

Try it out. It might work for you.