April 28, 2006

a blog gets the audience it deserves

PT just asked me the follo­wing que­tion:

What exactly is the use of blog­ging if you have no idea often who it is you are tal­king to? In other words — are they bright? Are thay sane? Are they know­led­ga­ble about the things they pur­port to be? If it is simply an uncon­tro­lled medium through which anyone can say anything then it seems to me it will become no more than a modern day Tower of Babel.
I do howe­ver accept that the tech­no­logy is here — but how to make it really useful?

The short ans­wer is; a blog gets the audience it deser­ves. If the peo­ple rea­ding and lea­ving com­ments on your blog are a bunch of losers and idiots, it might have more to do with the qua­lity of what you write, and the vigi­lance with which you moni­tor your com­ments, than any limi­ta­tions of the media.
You’re right, the tech­no­logy is there. Everything else is up to you.

8 Responses to “a blog gets the audience it deserves”

  1. john says:

    Abso­lu­tely right! As a neophyte, I still think the tools for monitoring/gauging one’s audience and the accom­pan­ying tricks of the trade remain a little obs­cure for the non geek.
    But I’m lear­ning that an audience grows through word of mouth regard­less of comments.

  2. john t unger says:

    So harsh, Hugh. So abso­lu­tely true

  3. Agarda says:

    [ are a bunch of losers and idiots ]
    [ are a bunch of losers and idiots ]
    [ are a bunch of losers and idiots ]
    Or
    [ They don’t give a shit ]
    [ They laugh at the car­toons ]
    [ They come they go ]
    ?

  4. You’re right on tar­get. You can read any blog and see the corre­la­tion bet­ween the qua­lity of writing/big ideas and the harsh­ness of the comments

  5. Brooks Moses says:

    Agarda: We come and go, and don’t even talk of Michaelangelo?

  6. pt says:

    Not sure that any of these com­ments really ans­wers what I was trying (perhaps rather inef­fec­ti­vely) to ask — perhaps that only pro­ves Hugh’s point — but I don’t think so!

  7. why does blog­ging have to be use­ful? does “the use of blog­ging” mean ‘how can imake money from it?’ does it mean ‘how can i get the grea­test num­ber of peo­ple to look at what i’m doing?’ why do you care what peo­ple think? in order to change your blog to make it what your audience wants? there are billions of peo­ple on the pla­net. which ones are you trying to impress and/or make money from? aren’t you just doing what you do? i hope you are enjo­ying it. i found this blog through another blog (culturalsnow.blogspot.com) and am enjo­ying it very much — i like the art, i like the atti­tude towards art. i think it’s very funny. since i like fin­ding things i like, and this blog is one of them, it’s quite use­ful to me :}
    for me, my own blog is just another way of doing the things i do. that’s good enough for me

  8. Toby says:

    hugh — this post cries out for a gaping void cartoon!