What’s the future of Blogging?

27 Responses so far | Have Your Say!

Marko Novak | September 13th, 2007 at 12:56 am #

Only the biggest blogs will stay online.
KiwiPulse | September 13th, 2007 at 3:55 am #

Our technologies is advancing and the tool that we use today will probably change in a near future. I visit Problogger.net every day. His weekly video is quite interesting and make me want more! I can imagine the future of blogging as a online video broadcast. Where the bloggers will be the celebrities of this new media.
HairySwede | September 13th, 2007 at 6:00 am #

Blogging will peak in a year or two when more and more of the population realizes the power of blogs. After that though, the blogosphere will become so saturated that it will lose value and people will move on to other mediums leaving bloggers looking as if they are old and outdated.
TextAdSearch | September 13th, 2007 at 7:39 am #

It’s certainly here to stay. Blogs will become more interactive and more social as we have seen this year with the growth of myBlogLog et al.
Supernegro.com | September 13th, 2007 at 7:52 am #

HairySwede stated that he forsees blog peaking in the not too distant future and then burning out as people move on to other interests: I respectfully disagree.

I think blogs are the New York Times and Chicago Tribunes for an entire generation of readers. My cousin, for example, hates reading the newspaper, but stays on top of current events by readin the Huffington Post and other political and pop culture blogs. If anything, I see it growing as more people want to put their voices into the world. I forsee more bloggers using the power of video and podcasts to complement the blog, but the written words will be here for a long time to come.
GnomeyNewt | September 13th, 2007 at 9:57 am #

Tv News is just another show, something you might have heard before but they are sometimes not driven directly by the “news” they are reporting but by other factors such as sponsors. Blogging however opens up a new platform for anybody to talk about news and share honest reviews and opinions. Though, I can say that blogging can get just as shady as tv news, it is cheaper and easier so I think there will always be a new voice out there.

I disagree with Mark Novak that only the biggest blogs will stay. This does not account for the countless personal blogs out there and bloggers who don’t blog to make money. Also, I am moving more toward smaller blogs everyday as I feel sometimes popular blogs are turning into that “tv news” syndrome I talked about earlier. I like to discuss topics in an environment that does not have another motive other than sharing great information and sharing each others opinions, such as this post encourages.
Matthew | September 13th, 2007 at 2:57 pm #

I think you are the future of blogging. Running multi-author blogs will be even more popular since they are easier to run and maintain. A lot of the better blogs that are coming out now have more than one author and/or offer guest posting frequently.

Starting blog about your blog seemed to be ahead of it’s time, but I think its finally getting the notice it deserves, and I think there is more to come.

That’s the future of blogging.
Tibi Puiu | September 14th, 2007 at 5:49 am #

This is a very relative and unpredictable question. It’s like asking what do you think you’ll be doing in 10 years? But I’ll have a go and make a guess.

1. There are currently literally million of blogs out there, in under-developed countries the number of internet users is increasing very rapidly, so the demand will exceed the supply, but not for very long. Like in real life People will have a lot of things to choose from, so they analyze their niche that are interested in and only pick the best.

Competition has grown ever fierce and will grow as well. It’s not like 5 years ago when blogs were a novelty and you could’ve made easy money through them. Now it’s though to get on top and in the near future it will be even harder as competitors grow in numbers.

So what the future of blogging? I would say it’s a bright future, I predict that 1/5 common internet users will have their own personal/related to their needs blog, the market will grow and grow to a unpredictable level. Thanks to search engine ever changing algorithms, young bloggers are given the chance to rank, so it’s not a monopolized market. Only the best stay on top.
Ty | September 14th, 2007 at 6:30 am #

The future of blogging is that the platforms will have more anonimity and bloggers will bring about greater social changes.
HairySwede | September 14th, 2007 at 7:45 am #

In response to Supernegro.com. I see the blogosphere running over with so many good feelings and optimism. Just like the technology sector did before the bubble burst a while back. As Web 2.0 moves to Web 3.0 and the internet gets smarter I think blogs will be less relevant.

That being said, I just started blogging and am really enjoying it!
Blend | September 14th, 2007 at 2:28 pm #

What is the future of Blogging?

For me I think. We don’t know what is going to be because blogging need hard work and a lot of patience.

The future of blogging are on the bloggger hand. The good blogger will give the big and great impact to all internet user because people read what they write.
GnomeyNewt | September 14th, 2007 at 7:16 pm #

@HairySwede: I think your right that “the blogsphere is running over with so many good feeling and optimism”. I’ve been having a lot of discussion about how we need a devils advocate around here because it is hard to grow as a blogger or even just a person without some sort of constructive criticism. Anytime I provide feedback that is not “100% Good Job” I seem to get a little backlash from it. Also feels a little lonely in the sea of “good work” comments. However, I don’t think it will go on this way forever and make blogs less relevant. I think that blogs will grow with the Internet and become a lot more useful for all Internet users, not just other bloggers and hopefully this will bring in more of the constructive criticism that is needed.
HairySwede | September 15th, 2007 at 12:44 pm #

@GnomeyNewt I just think that as we move more towards the semantic web and the internet gets smarter there will be less use for the views and opinions of so many bloggers, I’m just not sure being more critical will have the desired effect of those very bloggers and change that.
Soccer Blog | September 16th, 2007 at 6:24 am #

There are hundreds of blogs around. And its getting very saturated.

So here’s a brief roundup:

Large blogs will get larger, as more traffic and links go their way.

Some of the large blogs will become portals. Problogger’s new homepage, and Shoemoney’s remake are a steps in that direction.

Small blogs will make enough money for some extra change, though not to pay the bills.

Also, short posts(the style of Twitter) will become popular for personal blogs, as no one wants long posts about what you did or what your dog did.

RSS feeds will decline,and podcasts will rise,as feeds require dedicated time but podcasts can be heard, for example while driving or exercising.

Users will depend on news blogs more than online newspapers, as they have the old style whereas blogs have a refreshing style in terms of design, writing etc.

AJAX will be used for functionality in blogs, rather than design bling-blings. Mainly AJAX for user-interaction.

Designs will move away from Web 2.0 styles, as bloggers get used to requests of simple, lightweight designs with readability.

WP alternatives, notably Habari will get popular with power users.

Non-techies will get used to AdSense etc. and these schemes will become less effective.
Supernegro.com | September 17th, 2007 at 9:34 am #

Perhaps the future of blogging is a network TV type structure where individual authors contribute content that’s published at a specific time slot. Foe example, on the hypothetical Blog Publishers’ Network, “The Food Blog” publishes content Monday-Friday at the 5PM time slot, while “The Sports Blog” has the 11PM slot. Ad dollars could be divvied up based on traffic + feed numbers.
HairySwede | September 17th, 2007 at 3:07 pm #

@supernegro Thats actually really interesting! Would there be a concern though that ads would become lesse effective as people got used to them much like what has happened with tv, now rather than relying on the primetime tv ad a lot of companies are moving towards product placement. I really do like the idea of publishin at a certain time though, seems like it would add something extra, make it an event.
Supernegro.com | September 18th, 2007 at 3:46 pm #

HairySwede, you bring up a good point about the ad blindness: what do you think would be a smooth way to incorporate sponsors into this hypothetical Blog Network that will be eye-catching but not ruining the blog experience? Could product placement still work?

Maybe The Food Blog could craft a recipe and as for the main image (or also shown in subsequent images) could be product placement for (as an example) Velvetta cheese. If the recipe requires cheese this could be an example of smooth and appropriate integration of ad and content.
Michael from Pro Blog Design | September 18th, 2007 at 3:46 pm #

Blogging will become more and more divided. The popular blogs will get more and more popular, whilst the number of failed blogs gets higher and higher.

Popular blogs will start blog networks, buying out smaller blogs. This will progress to a point where the majority of the A-listers belong to blog networks, or are attached to various companies (Editors in either case).

At that point, blogging has truly become online journalism and people will start to wonder what the hype about the freedom of blogging was really about after all.

(And none of that applies to non-money-making blogs, because they can’t sell out. )
Monika @ The Writers Manifesto | September 19th, 2007 at 4:23 am #

I barely flew through all the comments here as I have a burning desire to voice my opinion.

The future of blogging will be a combination of the following but not limited to it as new technologies surface pretty much every day.

Blogs will be social networks were like minded bloggers come together and blog towards a common purpose. They rise of vlogs or incorporated video into blog posts will also be huge.

I also believe that bloggers will more and more shy away from advertising platforms like Goggle adsense as they don’t work for the masses but more so incorporate 3rd party advertising instead.

I totally disagree with those who said that small blogs are to go and only big ones are to stay. Small blogs can and will become trend setters by using various forms of attraction marketing such as competitions and allowing others to share the blog for revenue.

Blogging after all is about passion and sharing what we know with the world, it is also about networking with others and this will always be part of the future.

Gee, I better stop now otherwise I might have to publish a book on the subject.

Monika
HairySwede | September 19th, 2007 at 7:09 am #

@supernegro I think thats definitely possible. product placement is already popping up in virtual worlds and in video games. your example of a food blog posting a recipe would be very easy to put some product placement in just throwing out brand names for each ingredient that needs to go into the recipe.

I think the key is that, as you say, it has to be a smooth integration. consumers are becoming increasingly savvy and don’t want to deal with ads all the time. bloggers could potentially add some sort of interactivity to ads though by running contests like this or moving to even more blogs giving reviews on products as a sort of advertisement. as long as the reviews stay honest that could grow even more than it already is now.
Kevin | September 19th, 2007 at 10:24 am #

Enjoyed the comments so far.

Keep em coming
HairySwede | September 20th, 2007 at 4:18 am #

@supernegro I think your posting at a certain time could really work. I was just thinking tat you could say you post every day at 5 and then you will be online until 7 so not only is there a new post but then you can host a live discussion about that post for the next two hours. that way people get instant feedback from the author rather than having to wait for comments to trickle in.
Lucio | September 21st, 2007 at 1:09 am #

Look at blogs today. They incorporate the technology of the day. Podcasts, videocasts, it all the same.

It’s nice to think blogs are something new, but it hearkens back to the days of geocities and other personal websites. People want to share their thoughts, pictures, memories, opinions and hopes with others.

What will happen in the future? Blogs will morph with the technology. I don’t know where technology is headed 5 to 10 years ago, if I knew I’d be a millionaire, but I do blogs will follow along and be there, maybe not recognized in the same form they are today, but they’ll be none the less.

One prediction I can make is this: When I logged into my adsense the other day, I saw the most interesting things I’d seen. Adsense for Mobile Sites. Now that there is an advertising model for people to make money with mobile sites, not just the big boys have access to that market. Now everybody does. I think blogs are going find their way onto mobile phones and pdas.
Kevin | September 24th, 2007 at 10:39 am #

Only two days left in the competition. Good luck to everyone who has contributed to this
GnomeyNewt | September 24th, 2007 at 11:38 am #

I have to agree with a lot of what Monkia said. I just don’t think small blogs will ever go away. Small blogs are like public access stations imho and are needed. I personally don’t like visiting larger blogs where I don’t know anybody who is commenting and it is harder to keep that community feeling and communicate with the authors directly. So small blogs are here to stay, but they may take on a different role.

I also do agree with Michael that the bigger blogs will probably buy out some of the smaller blogs that are headed toward being bigger blogs. Creating a network of blogs makes sense and it would be much more desirable to combine a bunch of blogs that are doing great, instead of these blog networks that start up on every subject and just hire bloggers. Combine good blogs together would make a network full of passionate bloggers but still keep that community feeling and author connection that the bigger blogs suffer from.
David | September 25th, 2007 at 10:12 pm #

Blogs are the second edition to the information super highway. We as a society consume an ever growing amount of content on a daily basis. I do not see a decline in the blogesphere any time soon. Of course with all media online and offline it will continue to evolve to become something even better.

But I also see another side to this conversation, where the blogs of today will reshape the societies of tomorrow. With every new blog online it becomes an ever increasing endeavor for oppressive governments to control it’s subjects. Corporate entities will walk a straighter line knowing anything hidden will not stay that way.

So yes blogging will change shape, but at the same time change the shape of our world.