Hypocritical Blogging

Friday, March 31, 2006

As I sat here reading over 100 RSS feeds, I just had a realization: I’m a hypocritical blogger.

I post regularly and expect hundreds of people to read what I say.

Yet, I read (scan) hundreds of blogs thinking: “That’s crap. That’s stupid. Oh that’s very interesting! Why’d that person post that? Why do people think that’s so clever?” I’ve been going through blogs lately wondering: why do I do this when so much of it is of little value to me? I spend a lot of time reading and at this point I don’t even know how much of that will continue…

But, at the same time I want people to come back to my blog and read what I’m saying, find it useful, and leave insightful responses. How can I expect bloggers to read what I say if I refuse to read what they’re saying?

I think the simple answer is (for me, not everyone): quality over quantity. This simple rule applies to my subscribers, traffic, links and –most importantly– content.
With that in mind I’m thinking I’ll be shifting my writing style…

..and reading style.

Some of the first to leave my reader? Sad to say but it’s the A-listers, like Steve Rubel, Robert Scoble, and Jason Calacanis.
Why get rid of these guys? They’re clever, sure, but:

• they largely point to content I can find elsewhere
• there’s just way too much stuff
• egos are a bitch and get in the way of a blog’s quality sometimes

You can tell the difference between those blogging for blogging and those blogging for an audience. Seth Godin is my favorite blogger becuase he’s short, sweet and his posts are full of greatness.

Guy has been dropped because, although he’s got good stuff:

• you can find it all in his books
• everyone else quotes his latest posts
• it takes a long time to read everything he says

But, hey, he got his link like he asked…
[tags]blogging, blogs, communication[/tags]