Blogging is dead they say. Move to Twitter, move to FriendFeed… Some bloggers are just lazy I think… I say long live blogging! Download the “WordPress Blogging” ebook now for free (or read on).
It’s easy to just write 140 character updates all day long. It’s easy to copy / paste a piece of text you have read somewhere and write your two line comment on it. If you’re too lazy or you find it too hard to write consistent blog articles that your targetted audience finds useful, maybe blogging is not for you. But that doesn’t mean that blogging is dead.
Social media helps your blog grow
Twitter, FriendFeed etc. should in no way replace your existing communication channels like a website or a blog. You cannot get much across via social media. And with the speed and real-time of social media sites, your work there will very fast go into the lost archives and never be seen again.
There must be a balance between tweeting and blogging. Real-time social media and a blog work very well together and doing it right, it can help you establish a presence in your field and give you a much larger exposure. See more on marketing on Twitter.
Blogs put your work into a permanent form
It is very important to put your work in a permanent form. You do not do this by tweeting or writing status updates. With Twitter you would have to repeat your work over and over again to be able to create any value as tweets get archived very easily.
It is all about now. Lifetime of a tweet is some 15 minutes. After 15 minutes you will not get many retweets anymore, replies to it or clicks on the link.
When you put your work in a blog post format, it is there forever. You can put it in a sidebar, you can put it as a sticky post, you can put it in pages, you can bring it back to your front page. And Google finds it easily.
It will be there for a long time and it will continuously help and provide value to people and help build your name and authority.
Tribute to WordPress blogging free ebook
As a tribute to blogs, bloggers and the best blogging platform WordPress, I have now collected a lot of info for begginer bloggers on how to blog and put it all in an ebook format. And it is free! The blogging e-book features:
- Why you should be starting a blog
- How to install a blog with your own domain name
- All the settings and SEO work you need to do as soon as you create a new blog
- All the best plugins that you can use to customize and improve your blog
- How to make your blog secure
- Introduction to writing content and starting to get visitors
Download WordPress Blogging Ebook now and please share this with your friends!
Image by Faith Goble.
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{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Great kick off advice for someone contemplating blogging. You're spot on with regard to the power and longevity of blogging compared with much social software. Put the apps to work as a team and you're using them all to the best advantage.
PS I've posted a link to this post on my Friend Feed stream. Hope it helps.
Nice ebook, I like the color layout. Good info.
Thanks for share, Marko. Sure I will read and spread this useful ebook to my readers.
Now this is what I call a “call to arms” to kickstart blogging again and make sound advice to anyone who wants to start it. However, calling the concentration on microblogging like Twitter or FriendFeed “laziness” a bit harsh. I'd say that people simply jump on the next big thing, treating it like a fad. Only those who treat their blogs seriously will continue blogging; only those who wish for a more in-depth way to express themselves will pick it up. I mean, how many blogs written like a tween diary do you want to survive? Let them tweet all they want and drop the “diary”…
By the way, that's a nice ebook. Still has some sound advice even for steady bloggers!
OK I'm downloading the free blogging Ebook now. I agree I think twitter is cool for sure but in now way does it replace blogging. I view twitter as a way to grow my blog but not to replace it. Agree 110% with this post.
Yeah, I guess you are right. Blogging was never the perfect platform for people that just wrote about mundane daily life things. Twitter is a much better place for that. But if you are serious, if you want to make a side income, if you want to promote your skills, a blog is what you need.
Thanks for the ebook Marko!
I believe there's no chance that twitter or friendfeed can replace your blog. A blog is a blog and this is your “main” stage. Others are just secondary.
Keep it up! God Bless!
JeD Chan
Marko, This eBook is an excellent follow up to your Twitter Marketing eBook. Lots of great information that new bloggers will find very, very useful. Wish I had a resource like this when I started blogging. Well done.
Regarding the demise of blogging, I think we will see just the opposite. Beyond the sites that look like a standard blog many people are also using WordPress blogging software to create inexpensive, easy-to-maintain static web sites. Basically using blogging software as a very effective Content Management System (CMS) that makes changing web site content much easier and less costly. So I think WordPress usage will continue to grow dramatically for the foreseeable future. My two cents.
Definitely! Being able to create a more static website is getting easier with WordPress and different plugins and as you say it is a very cheap and easy to maintain way of creating a website. I am also moving in that direction bit by bit with for example more emphasis on my consulting services and my products on the front page to explain new visitors what the site is about.
Hey Marko, enjoyed this article. Social media is still new and people are excited about it. There really is no comparison to blogging. It's like comparing the society page to a novel. Social media sites will come and go, blogging is here to stay.
Blogger has the facility to post from the mobile phone. So lazy bloggers can write their story from mobile and make their blogs interesting. So people who tweet all day, can use this facility.
The other thing is to have small laptop like TOSHIBA NB200-10G Netbook which I carry in small bag and have a mobile broadband. Then the blogging will be an interesting activity, the thoughts can be compiled when they are generated and published on the move.
Blogging will live and continue….
Marko,
Long live blogging… thanks for sharing the E-book resource. Social networks will come and go, the next best startup could hit the scene in a few months. Blogging is here to stay, that doesn't mean it won't experience changes… which remain to be seen.
-Mig
Very nice long live blogging Tips – thank you for the Free WordPress Ebook
You had a great point about not replacing your blog with social media. I have an analogy, twitter(social media), as a wrench is to a plumber. One cannot acheive great success without the other.
To be honest with you, this is probably one of the best free ebooks (not about make money blog) that I've ever read. I realized some stuffs with your ebook and Im really happy to recommend it to my readers as well
I am glad you liked the book Melvin. Thanks for sharing it with your readers.
great thoughts. I get between 15 – 20% of my traffic to my blog from twitter. Facebook sends about 30% and Linked In another 15% Google is the highest source, which surprises me.
Great read! But ummm…. where is the Twitter id comment plugin? Can’t find it anywhere. Oh well.