TechWag

If you are a “breaking news blog” then this is true, but not necessarily true for just about every other kind of blog out there. There are things you can do about this that can lead to greater value for the company and for the blogger. While many bloggers want to be the “first to break news,” fewer bloggers go for the in-depth interview or research into the object. Breaking news is just that a quick 1000 to 1500 word essay on how cool something is.

If you are a big professional blog, your words carry a lot of weight, and more than one company has been crushed under the many comments about a product on the blogosphere. Understanding how blogging works means that you might not get there first because you do not have the relationships, but it does not mean that you cannot go more in-depth on a subject that a “breaking news blog” cannot do. Leveraging this understanding, you as a blogger can go more in-depth on a subject that someone else has spent time on breaking.

For example when Sprout Widget Maker came out, many blog sites covered the news , and there was a general rush to the door. One web site then took it a step further and made a video of how simple it was for a project manager to make a widget, using sprout. Both paid off heavily for Sprout, and for all the bloggers out there, that covered the news.

The in-depth interview happens, but not as often as a quick blurb about something, many blog entries are just a few hundred words. Techdirt has made it a habit and a style to cram as much meaning into as few words as possible like Slashdot . There are benefits though to being linked by Slashdot called the “Slashdot effect .” While Slashdot did a quick blurb, the resulting flood of traffic can be of a huge benefit to a blogger, and in some cases can kill your web server by sending too much traffic to it. Being linked by Techdirt is also beneficial, as you learn that writing additional commentary on things, or having a well thought out in-depth article on something can be in some ways more beneficial that “have to be first.” Depending on what kind of blogging you want to do, being there first might not be the way you want to go.

While you might be quick on the meme of the day, asking yourself why you are blogging, or what do you are your voice to add to will also help narrow down what kind of blog writing you do. Odds are highly likely that you do not have and will not have the resources, connections, and money to be a “heard here first” blog for a long time. Given that, with your relations, your ambitions, and your ability to write a well thought out article, eventually you might be able to be there first. There is always more to a story, and this is not a bad way to get started blogging.

You can talk about or blog about the things that are happening in your world. Many of the more interesting blogs go deeply into a subject trying to help users understand technology, business, politics, pets, or anything else that can be blogged about. Being there first is not always the end all be all of blogging. Some bloggers are dedicated to the idea of being first and giving first impressions.

However, the adoption curves for technology or anything new, a new product, a new anything always favors the middle adopters. Being there first might get you attention, but solid blogging and sometimes the solid audience comes from the middle set of adopters who are getting a new for them technology now. By having a blog that goes deeper into the story, you might be able to get a better more long lasting audience over the topic than a “must be there first” blogger would get. It is a business model that is well worth considering.

There are a number of excellent blogging tactics that you can use to get to a story early on, one is to use Twitter , and follow the public time line to live blog something going on, and the other is to use Google Trends to discover what is popular. However, stepping too far outside your blogs niche can be problematic for the blogger looking to develop a standard audience and a reliable audience. If one day you are talking about technology, the next about a natural disaster, and the next about education, it can be difficult to keep the same audience if your blogging is all over the map. Using these tools can help you scoop a story, but always make sure that the data fits into your niche.

Sometimes it does not matter if you were first either, other more popular established blogs will still post the story, and they are not obligated to even know you were first with the story . Although sometimes if you are loud enough with the scoop, or the scoop is important enough, other bloggers will give you credit for being the first on the story . There are a number of approaches, but generally, when starting off, the in-depth blog can help you become a better writer, establish a blogging schedule, and help you become more organized towards your blogging.

tags: better,blogging, first, article, maybe, not, news, blog, niche, google, trends, twitter, interview, widget

Tags: web 2.0, technology, Participation, business //