Bla-Bla-Bly
Bob Bly needs to read better blogs… and learn about RSS.
My buddy Scott Ginsberg (y’know him — that guy with the nametag) sent me this link to an article by Bob Bly with a negative stance on blogging. He just doesn’t see the value.
In the article, Bob Bly states one of the problems with blogs (versus e-zines) is that people have to proactively search to find if you’ve posted new content.
Helloooo? Any quick research on blogging will alert you to the availability of RSS feeds. If he was reading blogs, didn’t he wonder what all those little XML and RSS buttons were for?
I think in Bly’s case RSS stands for “Really Silly Statement.” Why should I let your e-zines clog my mailbox when I can simply go to my news reader when I want to read the lastest edition of my favorite blogs?
I also don’t have to worry about what you’ll do with my email address (especially when people unsubscribe to your e-zines in favor of reading content via RSS). I don’t have to give you “squat” in the way of personal info if I want to subscribe to your RSS feed. That’s a distinct advantage in our World-O-Spam.
Bly also mentions that he has yet to meet anyone who’s realized a positive return on investment directly attributed to their blog. C’mon! There are folks out there making income using ONLY their blog! Technically, anyone using a free blogging site and sells a book via their Amazon Associates program has just experienced a positive ROI, but I know that’s not what he meant.
Look to people like Hugh MacLeod, Jim Kukral, and my aforementioned friend Scott Ginsberg. These were all really smart people offline, but once they took their ideas to the blogging world, they “tipped”. They are all providing valuable blog content and receiving a fair number of blog-related buyers. Hugh will end up with a book deal within the next six months, simply because he started sharing his insight (and really cool cartoons on the backs of business cards!) with everyone in the world via his blog, GapingVoid.com
Bly says this near the end of his editorial:
“The problem is that there is already too much content, and we don’t want or need more. Analysis, wisdom, insight, advice, strategies, ideas – yes. But raw information, data, or content – no. And from what I can see, blogs serve up almost none of the former, and tons of the later. “
What crappy blogs has he been reading???
I can find more relevant and timely information on a blog than in a monthly magazine (be it print or e-zine) . Blogs are “now” — RIGHT now — and no publishing tool currently exists that can get new information and ideas to their subscriber base faster than a blog combined with an RSS feed.
Of course, Bly completely lost me after he said he can’t find enough “…wisdom, insight, advice, strategies, ideas…” in most blogs. Simply scroll down my long list of links to find new ideas and insight all day long!
Who in their right mind says they can’t find any new ideas?
Apparently someone who is only obsessed with old ideas.
