The Always-On Innovation Summit just devoted it’s last session to the Blogosphere, but some “brand name” bloggers, like Jeremy Zawodny are already predicting blogging would peak soon … others are wondering if it already has.
I don’t believe either. Blogging may soon not be the “hot, new thing” ( in fact I am sure it no longer is, by the time I jump in on something, how could it be new …)
Those of us that find Blogging a good way of self-expression will likely not abandon it.
Others blog as a from of ongoing career-management – get your name known, “become a brand” (thanks, tompeters!).
If you want to be “in” some Entrepreneurial circles, better be a blogger… just look at what Joe Kraus says about his hiring criteria.
That leaves the commercial crowd – blogging for $$$. Blogging networks grow like mushrooms, their content is often not determined by the author’s desire to communicate but by what areas help maximize ad revenue. Don’t get me wrong: many of these networks actually provide high-quality information… but with some others, content is secondary, just an excuse to display ads.
I expect to see a spectacular hypergrowth- peak-crash-burn cycle in this segment. The barrier of entry is low, and I suspect this will be just like the day-trading phenomenon: with news like Jason Calacanis hitting $1M or “ProBlogger” Darren’s record Adsense check sooner or later many in corporate America will see blogging as a way to get out of the cubicle and make easy money, then … well, we know what happened to daytraders.
Few will make a decent profit, most will burn, the real beneficieries will be, just like with daytrading, the platform/infractsructure/tool providers. I wrote about one extreme example here.
When the $$ crowd is gone, blogging will be back to what it’s meant to be: a way of self-expression, communication, professional/social networking, exchange of ideas. Which is perfectly right with me.
Technorati Tags: Blogging, Blogs, Marketing, Weblogs, Daytrading, Social Networking, Business Networking, Software, Social Software
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