Silly Old Twit

Most of us start blogging as a result of hearing a friend speak of their blog or perhaps we hear something about it on the radio. But however we first hear about it we all do the same thing. We go to a blog site take a look at some of them and were hooked. If someone was however to ask us why we want to blog that would be quite difficult to explain. Is it vanity or something else? Whatever the reason we go ahead and do it. We tell ourselves that we just want to blog but it’s not quite as simple as that. The truth is that that first time we checked out our first blogs we were in fact looking at successful blogs. Because that’s what you see when you look at your first blog directory.
There are millions of new blogs started every day. This is not an exaggeration , there are quite literally over a million started each day but only a handful are listed in the first page or two of a directory and the rest we never see. So when we take our first look into the blog world it’s those few successful blogs we see and nothing more. And it’s those few that we want to be like. We do not spend an hour going down the list until we get to the bottom and then say , “This is what I want to do”. This is very important for anyone starting a new blog or for anyone who is taking a second look at one they already have. This is where all the problems begin.
In real life we don’t just look at something and say that we are going to do it. There are a hundred and one things which we realise that we may not be able to do or will require a hell of a lot of hard work. But when we look at our first blog we do just that , we assume that we can do it , that anyone can do it. It cannot be repeated often enough that the first time we come across blogs we are in fact seeing successful blogs. And operating a successful blog is not much different to running a successful business.
The people who run Boing Boing and all the other better known blogs are professionals. They didn’t just decide one day that it might be fun to have one. Most of them have either an IT background or have been doing quite well at some aspect of journalism for years before they get into blogging. And this doesn’t just apply to those at the very top but to practically all the blogs that you will be exposed to. Plenty of these folks will tell you otherwise but don’t believe a word of it.
You will no doubt have come across those blogs which give advice on blogging and tell you that all you need to do is learn a few techniques and you can be just like them but you must keep in mind that these bloggers have a vested interest in saying this. They want you to come back to their blog and so they tell you what you want to hear. This is part of the reason that most people think of the blog community as very friendly. Everyone helping everyone and all that. But you should try to bear in mind that these same people are total strangers. They don’t know you and probably never will so the relationships you may make through blogging are by definition superficial.
To put this whole matter of blogging in context we have to take a look at the World Wide Web itself. The Internet was born out of the American Arms industry. It’s birth had nothing to do with idealism or the free exchange of information. It certainly had nothing to do with altruism. There was no noble cause behind it. The arms industry is for those who may have forgotten it a deadly business. And of course the Internet is not free. You may have thought it was but that just shows how clever these people can be. It’s there to sell you something.It exists to get your money and for no other reason. All those free services you avail of are designed to draw you in. This is their sole purpose. The free blog that you signed up for is part of this Internet culture. It exists only in so far as it helps to spread and sustain that same culture. And the idea that you can exchange information and express any opinion on it is nothing short of an allusion. It is a very clever allusion and has taken in many who should know better but this yet again just shows how clever the people behind it are. And the World Wide Web itself has to be seen within the context of the bigger world it is part of. While you are being bombarded by propaganda about the free exchange of information and all the problems that that may bring for society the reality is that your day to day freedoms , the one’s you take for granted , are being eroded. There are a whole range of things that you may now not even express an opinion about and freedom of speech as we knew it just ten years ago is a thing of the past.
None of this is to suggest that you should not blog or that it’s somehow all pointless but it’s important that you understand what is behind it all. You can still blog just for the pleasure it brings you and if you create a good one you may end up with a handful of loyal readers. But if you wish to go beyond that , to attract a major audience , to make a real impression then it’s vital that you know the rules of the game. My next post on this subject will be about some of the practical steps to take to achieve this. In the meantime if you missed my first post on this you can find it here.