Stop Blogging. Fred Wilson has.
Seriously, though? I don’t actually mean either of those things.
Fred Wilson, notorious movie pirate and even more notorious venture capitalist, has decided to curtail—or at least slow—his blogging. Fred, of course, lives in a space that most of us do not, so when Fred Wilson decides to stop talking about something that he’s hitherto been passionate about, the impact it has on his business is minimal.
You probably can’t say the same.
A couple of years ago, I asked whether the world has too many blogs. My answer now, as it was then, is that if you think a huge number of people are hanging on your every word and can’t wait for you to publish whatever is on your mind, you’re likely deluding yourself.
On the other hand, if you realize that the old saw about “publish or perish” that was once true for professors has become true for most businesses, then you need to blog. Blogging will get you traffic. Traffic is good (read: long tail marketing).
Yesterday at Gadgetwise I came a cross this piece on the “facial unlock” feature in Android phones. Gadgetwise is a blog published by The New York Times, hosted under the auspices of the New York Times web site, and I’m guessing available for inclusion in the print edition of The New York Times if Times editors ever find anything worth printing in the Gadgetwise content.
The Gadgetwise piece disturbed me on a few levels, and I commented:
If you see something on the Internet, it must be true.
Right?
It seems that at The Consumerist and at The Huffington Post, “it must be true” is what passes for journalism. Go ahead; check either the Consumerist or Huffington Post links and you’ll be treated to video from the CBS TV affiliate in Dallas Texas, showing you a piece purporting to tell a story.
Oh, it tells a story. CBS11 Dallas/Fort Worth, The Huffington Post, and Consumerist are all in the same business, and it isn’t journalism.
When I was The Computer Answer Guy (OK, when The Computer Answer Guy was a media personality—I’m still The Computer Answer Guy), I did a weekly radio program that ran on several terrestrial radio stations and reached a large audience across the globe via the Internet. One day in, oh, 1996 I was speaking with the owner of the radio station that I broadcast from, and he said something that stuck with me.
Broadcasting is dead; everything is about narrowcasting
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