Is blogging all about Ambition
Excerpt from a soon to be printed book Book and Bust in the Blogosphere.
While the definition of a blog is something that someone does to have a voice, there is one thing that is noticeable between a professionally run blog like ITToolbox, Techcrunch, Read Write Web is that they have all adopted some form of a business model.
The business model that they have adopted helps fuel their growth and their independence for the writers at those blogs. These blogs also have plans and ambitions to be the best in a category that they can be, top in their category, top in breaking news, or the top social network for a type of data or information. They often hire good writers or have good writers initially “guest blog” on their site, and do everything they can do to either break the news first, or develop a community of professionals around a subject topic.
For some of the top bloggers, they are coming from a traditional journalism or media past; they already know how to write for a mass audience. They already know what they have to do to be the best, have quality control on the articles, and in many ways develop a community around the blog itself. Professional blogs, or professional team blogs all rely on quality, an understanding of what people are looking for within a particular niche, or have worked on funding, revenue models that support the way that professional blogs have developed over the last few years.
They have also developed a “brand” around their name, when you talk about Robert Scoble, you do not just read the blog, and the reader has an opportunity to meet the person behind the blog. He writes from a personal viewpoint that is both journalism and personal viewpoint over what he thinks and sees as he discovers new companies or new technology products. New companies or new technology products often seek that kind of attention because Robert Scoble and a Brand and as a Person has the ability to drive sales. He also drives opinions about what is early adopted, or what is “hot now” within the realm of technical bloggers. He is also deeply involved in the blogging community and takes on issues that concern all bloggers, like the blogging code of conduct , and when bloggers are behaving badly . When you read his blog, you think you see the person behind the blog; you get an opinion and one that is often well balanced and heavily cross-linked to other bloggers to support or defend a concept.
When you look at Techcrunch, you see the brand from a group blog that is all about being the first to break news on a subject. Techcrunch does not run a story second, the site, and the owner Mike Arrington is considered a power broker in the world of technical blogging. As much as the “Huffington Post” is the equivalent power broker in political blogging, with a future that has great ambition and plans for what will happen next . Being able to focus on the ambition, be the best you can be in a category, and then work very hard to get to the top. Many bloggers fall by the way side, with failed projects that litter the internet where ambition and ability to execute did not happen .
A personal blog is something that people come and go from, they are used to work out personal situations, or to keep track of notes of things that are going on in someone’s life. Usually these blogs are on Live Journal, Microsoft Spaces, Blogger, Facebook, MySpace, WordPress, and a host of other blogging platforms that people can use to start up a blog, write furiously for a week, or for a month or more, only to abandon the blog much later on. Some sites like Live Journal have book authors that keep up with the blog on an infrequent basis, some writers like John Scalizi and his “Whatever” blog is used to help drive community for his writing.
The “Whatever Blog” is a personal blog, where he talks about the things that are important to him, without advertising, and without an obvious money motive. You can catch nuances into his life that are something that we all at some point deal with, that are addressed with a large amount of humor . There is no ambition to be the next Robert Scoble or Techcrunch, this is his way to connect with fans, and the blog reflects that viewpoint. Fans love it as much as Robert Scoble’s fans love his web site, different audiences, but same idea, connecting with friends, family, and fans, from two different approaches that work for each case.
For the digital archeologist, personal blogs provide a current into more personal thoughts those things that are influencing people at the time it was being written, while the professional blogs based on industry are important for keeping track of what subsets of society thought were important at the time. Personal blogs are rarely linked unless there are discussions about a common cause, like cancer, or used to support fans over a subject/person/personality, and then suddenly that personal blog can be catapulted into the worlds view, heavily linked and show up more prominently in Google search results. A professional blog starts with the idea of collecting cross-links and back links to their stories. Personal blogs are usually first person with few standards on how the English language is used, professional blogs are about quality writing. Depending on the blog, the reason why it was started, the goals, dream and execution, why someone starts a blog is all about ambition.
tags: boom and bust in the blogosphere, book, excerpt, techcrunch, arrington, problogger, robert scoble, fan, important, survivor, interesting
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