1 00:00:02,480 --> 00:00:05,480 Speaker 1: Get in touch with technologies with book style from how 2 00:00:05,559 --> 00:00:16,599 Speaker 1: Stuff foks dot com. Pay there everyone, and welcome to 3 00:00:16,720 --> 00:00:19,120 Speaker 1: tech Stuff. My name is Jonathan Strickland and joining me 4 00:00:19,200 --> 00:00:22,720 Speaker 1: as always is Lauren Vocabum. And today we wanted to 5 00:00:22,760 --> 00:00:28,920 Speaker 1: talk about blogs. Blogs. Yeah, exactly, you know, what what 6 00:00:29,360 --> 00:00:32,519 Speaker 1: are they? How they get started? Kind of? I mean, 7 00:00:32,520 --> 00:00:34,600 Speaker 1: it's it's it's a difficult thing to talk about because 8 00:00:34,600 --> 00:00:37,680 Speaker 1: it's sort of a trend and really it's it was 9 00:00:37,680 --> 00:00:40,840 Speaker 1: a lot easier to identify after it had become a thing, right, 10 00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:42,920 Speaker 1: and it's it's really a big thing. I mean, there's 11 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:45,320 Speaker 1: a whole bunch of them out there. It's basically changed 12 00:00:45,400 --> 00:00:48,680 Speaker 1: the way that we participate in and consume news media 13 00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:53,200 Speaker 1: and uh and even pursue interests that are outside the news, 14 00:00:53,320 --> 00:00:56,560 Speaker 1: things that aren't necessarily what what I guess the mainstream 15 00:00:56,560 --> 00:01:00,080 Speaker 1: would consider newsworthy, but depending upon your interests might be 16 00:01:00,280 --> 00:01:03,840 Speaker 1: very relevant to you. Right, So, very specific types of 17 00:01:04,080 --> 00:01:06,959 Speaker 1: interest groups have their own types of blogs, and um, 18 00:01:07,160 --> 00:01:10,200 Speaker 1: they covered just about every subject. And really, when you 19 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:13,120 Speaker 1: think about it, this is an extension of something that 20 00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:16,640 Speaker 1: people have been doing for centuries, which is mostly just 21 00:01:16,760 --> 00:01:19,840 Speaker 1: recording their own thoughts. Yeah, I think I think that 22 00:01:19,959 --> 00:01:22,760 Speaker 1: for yeah, millennia. In fact, it's about how long people 23 00:01:22,760 --> 00:01:25,920 Speaker 1: have been doing that. You know, caves, the original blogs, 24 00:01:25,959 --> 00:01:30,640 Speaker 1: maybe the cave blogs, but but but digital blogs as 25 00:01:30,640 --> 00:01:33,280 Speaker 1: we know them. It actually kills me thinking about this 26 00:01:33,400 --> 00:01:36,640 Speaker 1: because I sort of grew up using them. I mean 27 00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:38,720 Speaker 1: not not when I was a child, but certainly through 28 00:01:38,800 --> 00:01:43,120 Speaker 1: high school and college because they started in about and 29 00:01:43,160 --> 00:01:44,560 Speaker 1: this is one of those times what I'm about to 30 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:47,640 Speaker 1: see Jonathan's I start twitching because that that is not 31 00:01:47,760 --> 00:01:56,640 Speaker 1: when he was growing up. Necessarily I got married. Ah yeah. 32 00:01:56,720 --> 00:01:59,760 Speaker 1: But and to be fair, before anyone starts writing in 33 00:01:59,760 --> 00:02:01,840 Speaker 1: and saying, hey, I know that there were blogs that existed, 34 00:02:03,400 --> 00:02:05,600 Speaker 1: but that is that is the first time that that 35 00:02:05,720 --> 00:02:10,680 Speaker 1: someone called a dated personal content update a weblog, right 36 00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:14,359 Speaker 1: web blog. So so like in the documentary series Star Trek, 37 00:02:14,639 --> 00:02:17,560 Speaker 1: where you had the Captain's log, where the captain would 38 00:02:17,639 --> 00:02:19,520 Speaker 1: keep a log of the events that we're going on, 39 00:02:20,080 --> 00:02:22,840 Speaker 1: usually with some sort of snarchy comment directed at some 40 00:02:23,200 --> 00:02:25,320 Speaker 1: poor crewmember who may or may not been known as 41 00:02:25,360 --> 00:02:29,239 Speaker 1: Wesley Crusher, then um, yeah, it's same sort of things. 42 00:02:29,360 --> 00:02:32,079 Speaker 1: In this case, it was generally speaking, at least in 43 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:35,200 Speaker 1: the early days of a sort of a personal diary 44 00:02:35,280 --> 00:02:37,320 Speaker 1: kind of thing that you just wanted to share with 45 00:02:37,560 --> 00:02:40,480 Speaker 1: a larger audience, or maybe a collection of links to 46 00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:42,840 Speaker 1: things of interest that you had found around the internet. 47 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:45,560 Speaker 1: You know, a little bit curation going on there as well. 48 00:02:46,320 --> 00:02:49,560 Speaker 1: But but the person who coined this term was Jordan 49 00:02:49,639 --> 00:02:54,400 Speaker 1: Barger of robot Wisdom. Okay, important, And that was December 50 00:02:54,400 --> 00:02:57,160 Speaker 1: seventeenth actually, And what I what I loved about doing 51 00:02:57,400 --> 00:02:59,880 Speaker 1: this episode is that the dates are so concrete because 52 00:02:59,880 --> 00:03:02,160 Speaker 1: it was on the Internet and it was necessarily recorded, 53 00:03:02,160 --> 00:03:04,960 Speaker 1: and so everything is extremely clear cut. It's much easier than, 54 00:03:04,960 --> 00:03:07,400 Speaker 1: for example, when we were researching Tesla and everything was 55 00:03:07,480 --> 00:03:13,440 Speaker 1: kind of like how this thing happened? It was yeah, yeah, 56 00:03:13,520 --> 00:03:18,200 Speaker 1: and and and before you start asking, well, I'll ask Lauren, Lauren, 57 00:03:18,320 --> 00:03:21,960 Speaker 1: So where did blog come from? A blog came a 58 00:03:22,040 --> 00:03:25,720 Speaker 1: little bit later, I think, uh maybe maybe a ninety nine. 59 00:03:26,160 --> 00:03:28,720 Speaker 1: Peter Merholtz joked that he was going to pronounce it 60 00:03:29,120 --> 00:03:33,560 Speaker 1: we blog in instead instead of a weblog, weblog, it's 61 00:03:33,639 --> 00:03:36,760 Speaker 1: blob blog because it was becoming a community. And so yeah, 62 00:03:36,760 --> 00:03:39,680 Speaker 1: so that was shortened down to blog and then bloggers 63 00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:42,960 Speaker 1: were and of course we have variations on this already. 64 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:45,880 Speaker 1: I mean there are people who do video versions of 65 00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:49,360 Speaker 1: a blog, video logs, blogs, blogs, and then, of course 66 00:03:49,840 --> 00:03:53,800 Speaker 1: Felicia Day, the Internet darling, a wonderful person. I've met 67 00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:56,440 Speaker 1: her a couple of times, very nice lady, love uh. 68 00:03:56,480 --> 00:04:00,400 Speaker 1: And she has her own video log that she calls 69 00:04:00,440 --> 00:04:05,680 Speaker 1: a flog for Felicia's log, not that she actually flogs people. 70 00:04:06,200 --> 00:04:07,760 Speaker 1: As far as I know, she has not done that. 71 00:04:08,080 --> 00:04:10,119 Speaker 1: But not not not not on the air. I'm gonna 72 00:04:10,120 --> 00:04:13,640 Speaker 1: stop conjecturing about Felicia Day. I haven't seen every single episode, 73 00:04:13,680 --> 00:04:15,320 Speaker 1: so I can't say for certain, but none of the 74 00:04:15,320 --> 00:04:21,239 Speaker 1: ones I watched involved any actual flogging. Um. But moving 75 00:04:21,279 --> 00:04:24,039 Speaker 1: back into the history of blogging, I'm sorry you just 76 00:04:24,040 --> 00:04:26,720 Speaker 1: shorted out my entire my entire brain with that one. 77 00:04:27,080 --> 00:04:29,920 Speaker 1: But it happens. Yeah, yeah, back into it, back into 78 00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:32,680 Speaker 1: the history there. Um But what long before Felicia Day 79 00:04:32,720 --> 00:04:35,000 Speaker 1: was was doing whatever it is that she does on 80 00:04:35,120 --> 00:04:40,680 Speaker 1: her her own uh flogs? Uh. Peter Merho coined the term, 81 00:04:40,760 --> 00:04:45,479 Speaker 1: and also the year that basically blogging as we know 82 00:04:45,600 --> 00:04:50,440 Speaker 1: it sort of launched, Uh, Pyra released blogger that's h 83 00:04:50,640 --> 00:04:54,880 Speaker 1: V Williams and Meg Horahan. Does that sound like a 84 00:04:54,880 --> 00:04:56,920 Speaker 1: way that you might pronounce that name. That's that's just 85 00:04:57,120 --> 00:05:01,160 Speaker 1: how I would pronounce it. So excellent. Uh, Rock Soup launched, 86 00:05:01,839 --> 00:05:06,360 Speaker 1: Brad Fitzpatrick starts started live Journal, a few of those 87 00:05:06,400 --> 00:05:11,000 Speaker 1: really basic, original big ones. Yeah, the big platforms, and 88 00:05:11,240 --> 00:05:15,440 Speaker 1: these were important tools because you know, I know it's 89 00:05:15,440 --> 00:05:18,640 Speaker 1: hard for people to imagine it now, people who weren't 90 00:05:18,920 --> 00:05:22,400 Speaker 1: using the web when it first started. Uh, And it's 91 00:05:22,520 --> 00:05:25,240 Speaker 1: it's something that you don't run into these days. But 92 00:05:25,839 --> 00:05:29,000 Speaker 1: when when web pages were first a thing, they tended 93 00:05:29,040 --> 00:05:31,800 Speaker 1: to be static. So you would create a web page 94 00:05:31,839 --> 00:05:35,000 Speaker 1: and you wouldn't really change it very much because for 95 00:05:35,080 --> 00:05:37,720 Speaker 1: one thing, it was a real hassle to do it. Oh, sure, 96 00:05:37,920 --> 00:05:40,120 Speaker 1: you might add a page, or you might update it, 97 00:05:40,240 --> 00:05:42,679 Speaker 1: you know, once every once in a while to include 98 00:05:42,680 --> 00:05:45,560 Speaker 1: new information, but it certainly wasn't daily, right, It wasn't 99 00:05:45,560 --> 00:05:48,080 Speaker 1: And it wasn't a log right right. You were generally 100 00:05:48,200 --> 00:05:50,920 Speaker 1: either replacing something that was already there, or you might 101 00:05:50,960 --> 00:05:54,480 Speaker 1: add a paragraph, but you're not creating a log of 102 00:05:54,200 --> 00:05:58,480 Speaker 1: of of entries. You are just editing one page over 103 00:05:58,520 --> 00:06:00,800 Speaker 1: and over, maybe adding another page like a link you 104 00:06:00,880 --> 00:06:03,000 Speaker 1: might link to a second page or whatever. But it 105 00:06:03,440 --> 00:06:05,920 Speaker 1: was not easy to record a series of events because 106 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:09,400 Speaker 1: the tools weren't there. So you start seeing the development 107 00:06:09,400 --> 00:06:12,000 Speaker 1: of these tools and the distribution of these tools that 108 00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:15,800 Speaker 1: make it easier for people to have this outlet to 109 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:18,719 Speaker 1: to communicate. Right before then, even if you did want 110 00:06:18,760 --> 00:06:21,359 Speaker 1: to create a log, you could certainly do so yourself, 111 00:06:21,400 --> 00:06:23,520 Speaker 1: but you had to code it yourself, and so only 112 00:06:23,560 --> 00:06:26,479 Speaker 1: people who were pretty well familiar with that web programming 113 00:06:26,800 --> 00:06:29,120 Speaker 1: languages were going to be doing that, right Yeah, And 114 00:06:29,120 --> 00:06:32,200 Speaker 1: and this is I mean, you know, it's it's easy 115 00:06:32,240 --> 00:06:34,440 Speaker 1: for us to take for granted now, but trust me, 116 00:06:34,480 --> 00:06:36,880 Speaker 1: if you had been surfing the web back when I 117 00:06:36,920 --> 00:06:38,760 Speaker 1: was first starting the web, and I know some of 118 00:06:38,839 --> 00:06:40,960 Speaker 1: my listeners, I know you guys were there with me, 119 00:06:41,520 --> 00:06:43,200 Speaker 1: it was just such a totally different world. It is 120 00:06:44,360 --> 00:06:47,080 Speaker 1: impossible for me to think of, based on my first 121 00:06:47,080 --> 00:06:49,480 Speaker 1: web page, that I would be able to have an 122 00:06:49,480 --> 00:06:52,960 Speaker 1: outlet that would allow me to update so frequently and seamlessly. 123 00:06:53,200 --> 00:06:55,720 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, absolutely. And I guess it's a good good 124 00:06:55,760 --> 00:06:58,560 Speaker 1: thing to point out that blogs tend to have a 125 00:06:58,680 --> 00:07:02,919 Speaker 1: similar UH structure, in the sense that whatever was the 126 00:07:02,960 --> 00:07:05,839 Speaker 1: most recent post tends to be at the top of 127 00:07:05,920 --> 00:07:10,400 Speaker 1: whatever the blog is, and then the earlier posts are 128 00:07:10,480 --> 00:07:14,360 Speaker 1: chronologically ordered in reverse order, so the earliest blog post 129 00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:16,680 Speaker 1: is at the bottom of the chain, so it might 130 00:07:16,720 --> 00:07:20,920 Speaker 1: be several pages back, depending upon the layout of the blog. Now, Lauren, 131 00:07:21,640 --> 00:07:25,440 Speaker 1: I didn't ask you this before the podcast Excellent pub Quiz. 132 00:07:25,560 --> 00:07:28,480 Speaker 1: Did you have a live journal account? I, in fact 133 00:07:28,600 --> 00:07:31,360 Speaker 1: did have a live journal account. I created mine in 134 00:07:31,400 --> 00:07:34,120 Speaker 1: two thousand three. I you know, I don't even know 135 00:07:34,160 --> 00:07:36,240 Speaker 1: when I created mine. I I can't remember the last 136 00:07:36,240 --> 00:07:39,120 Speaker 1: time I logged into mine. I logged into mine while 137 00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:41,080 Speaker 1: researching this article, and that was the first time that 138 00:07:41,080 --> 00:07:43,680 Speaker 1: I had logged in. I switched from from live journal 139 00:07:43,680 --> 00:07:48,160 Speaker 1: to blogger maybe around two thousand seven. I want to say, well, 140 00:07:48,360 --> 00:07:52,360 Speaker 1: live Journal, the last time I remember looking at it, 141 00:07:52,360 --> 00:07:55,160 Speaker 1: it looked like it had really started to lose a 142 00:07:55,160 --> 00:07:57,600 Speaker 1: lot of the community that was there. I mean, obviously 143 00:07:57,640 --> 00:07:59,720 Speaker 1: I was not the only person to have drifted away 144 00:08:00,440 --> 00:08:02,720 Speaker 1: from that platform, but I do remember back in the day, 145 00:08:03,080 --> 00:08:06,200 Speaker 1: the live journal was one of those places that almost 146 00:08:06,280 --> 00:08:07,960 Speaker 1: all of my friends had an account their. In fact, 147 00:08:08,200 --> 00:08:10,920 Speaker 1: to uh, you know, a lot of us didn't have 148 00:08:10,960 --> 00:08:13,640 Speaker 1: access to things when I first came out, like Facebook, 149 00:08:13,640 --> 00:08:16,840 Speaker 1: because we were not in college and Facebook was reserved 150 00:08:16,840 --> 00:08:19,000 Speaker 1: just for college students. In the early days, right right, 151 00:08:19,040 --> 00:08:22,440 Speaker 1: And and Facebook wasn't a blogging platform either, right, Yeah. 152 00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:24,800 Speaker 1: I think when I first got on Facebook, and I 153 00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:27,520 Speaker 1: didn't I I also didn't get on Facebook until only 154 00:08:27,560 --> 00:08:29,280 Speaker 1: just a couple of years ago, actually really like two 155 00:08:29,320 --> 00:08:32,199 Speaker 1: thousand nine, I want to say, um, but but when 156 00:08:32,200 --> 00:08:33,560 Speaker 1: I was first using it, I feel like a lot 157 00:08:33,600 --> 00:08:36,360 Speaker 1: of people were moving there from live journal, and therefore 158 00:08:36,400 --> 00:08:38,480 Speaker 1: we're using it like they were using live journal. They 159 00:08:38,520 --> 00:08:40,880 Speaker 1: were posting a lot more notes and more long form content, 160 00:08:41,320 --> 00:08:43,760 Speaker 1: and and over time I think that that's really shortened 161 00:08:43,800 --> 00:08:47,440 Speaker 1: down to to this sort of micro blogging that's occurring today. Yeah, 162 00:08:47,480 --> 00:08:49,240 Speaker 1: and we'll talk more about that when we get into 163 00:08:49,280 --> 00:08:54,000 Speaker 1: what the state of the blogosphere is today. But yeah, 164 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:57,320 Speaker 1: in those early days, it was really exciting because what 165 00:08:57,440 --> 00:09:00,720 Speaker 1: this blogging world did was it opened up the world 166 00:09:00,960 --> 00:09:05,360 Speaker 1: of publishing in a way online publishing to an enormous 167 00:09:05,760 --> 00:09:08,200 Speaker 1: crowd of a huge audience. It gave voices to people 168 00:09:08,200 --> 00:09:11,000 Speaker 1: who you who you might never have read anything from before, 169 00:09:11,080 --> 00:09:15,000 Speaker 1: and also let you It wasn't until that Opened Diary launched, 170 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:18,360 Speaker 1: which started really allowing people to comment on other people's blogs. 171 00:09:18,400 --> 00:09:20,760 Speaker 1: Before then, it was a little bit like the way 172 00:09:20,760 --> 00:09:23,320 Speaker 1: that tumbler is today, Like you might see something and 173 00:09:23,360 --> 00:09:26,720 Speaker 1: then take that link and repost it and post your 174 00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:28,960 Speaker 1: own comments about it and start a conversation that way. 175 00:09:28,960 --> 00:09:32,400 Speaker 1: But it wasn't. It wasn't until it was really um 176 00:09:32,440 --> 00:09:35,480 Speaker 1: that there were tools out there for for incorporating comments 177 00:09:35,520 --> 00:09:39,000 Speaker 1: and to create a dialogue as opposed to just shouting 178 00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:42,959 Speaker 1: into the atmosphere and hoping people are hearing you, right, um, yeah, 179 00:09:43,080 --> 00:09:47,480 Speaker 1: And that's another really key component to what makes blogs 180 00:09:47,640 --> 00:09:51,800 Speaker 1: so enduring. And uh, you know, what was also interesting 181 00:09:51,840 --> 00:09:55,920 Speaker 1: to me is that blogs were being used not just 182 00:09:56,000 --> 00:09:58,280 Speaker 1: by by folks like like me and you, Lauren, before 183 00:09:58,320 --> 00:10:02,600 Speaker 1: we were big time podcast stars. They were being used 184 00:10:02,760 --> 00:10:07,400 Speaker 1: by you know, by by actual celebrities or by writers, journalists, 185 00:10:07,600 --> 00:10:10,920 Speaker 1: people who already had outlets, but they were using blogs 186 00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:13,880 Speaker 1: to express themselves in ways that they might not otherwise 187 00:10:13,880 --> 00:10:17,040 Speaker 1: be able to, or to provide more context to whatever 188 00:10:17,040 --> 00:10:19,760 Speaker 1: it was they were doing. We even began to see 189 00:10:19,800 --> 00:10:23,360 Speaker 1: early early on companies get interested in blogs. It became 190 00:10:24,160 --> 00:10:28,120 Speaker 1: a possible outlet for a company to have a dialogue 191 00:10:28,120 --> 00:10:31,679 Speaker 1: with either customers or potential customers, right the same way 192 00:10:31,679 --> 00:10:33,760 Speaker 1: that it gave people that you might have never listened 193 00:10:33,800 --> 00:10:36,800 Speaker 1: to a face on the internet. It also gave company 194 00:10:36,800 --> 00:10:38,760 Speaker 1: companies kind of latched onto it and said like, hey, 195 00:10:38,800 --> 00:10:42,000 Speaker 1: we can use this to to allow people to see 196 00:10:42,080 --> 00:10:44,640 Speaker 1: us at a more ground level, a more human level. Yeah. 197 00:10:44,679 --> 00:10:47,200 Speaker 1: And and and in fact, a lot of companies, especially in 198 00:10:47,200 --> 00:10:50,959 Speaker 1: the tech sector, which again should be no surprise, but 199 00:10:51,040 --> 00:10:53,000 Speaker 1: in the tech sector, a lot of companies began to 200 00:10:53,840 --> 00:10:58,160 Speaker 1: allow their their employees to blog and even created or 201 00:10:58,240 --> 00:11:00,920 Speaker 1: provided tools for them to do so. Not that it 202 00:11:01,000 --> 00:11:03,520 Speaker 1: was a compulsory thing, but they were allowed to and 203 00:11:03,559 --> 00:11:06,200 Speaker 1: they didn't necessarily have to blog about what it was 204 00:11:06,240 --> 00:11:09,439 Speaker 1: they were doing. So it wasn't like a corporate sponsored 205 00:11:09,760 --> 00:11:11,800 Speaker 1: you need to go out here and message that this 206 00:11:11,880 --> 00:11:14,000 Speaker 1: next product that we're coming out with is awesome and 207 00:11:14,080 --> 00:11:16,400 Speaker 1: let people know. It was more like, no, if we 208 00:11:16,480 --> 00:11:19,280 Speaker 1: give them the tools, they'll they'll they'll do it. They'll 209 00:11:19,280 --> 00:11:22,640 Speaker 1: do it themselves. They'll they'll talk about what they're interested in. 210 00:11:22,800 --> 00:11:25,600 Speaker 1: Occasionally that might be something that we are specifically doing, 211 00:11:25,960 --> 00:11:28,400 Speaker 1: but if it's not, that's okay. And uh, and so 212 00:11:28,440 --> 00:11:32,600 Speaker 1: it really helped engender the spirit of blogging. Yeah. Yeah, 213 00:11:32,640 --> 00:11:34,679 Speaker 1: and you know, I don't think that I don't think 214 00:11:34,679 --> 00:11:37,480 Speaker 1: that the original creators of all of this, expected it 215 00:11:37,559 --> 00:11:40,480 Speaker 1: to to grow in such a ridiculous way. Um, I've 216 00:11:40,480 --> 00:11:43,320 Speaker 1: got a quote from from me from Mega Horahan, and 217 00:11:43,320 --> 00:11:45,800 Speaker 1: I really hope that's how you say her name. She said, 218 00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:48,439 Speaker 1: we joked about the idea that people could start change 219 00:11:48,440 --> 00:11:51,240 Speaker 1: in far away places and revolutionary things would happen. But 220 00:11:51,280 --> 00:11:53,440 Speaker 1: to see that it's actually happening, I get a thrill. 221 00:11:53,520 --> 00:11:56,319 Speaker 1: I see it everywhere. Yeah, and and that's that's so 222 00:11:56,400 --> 00:11:59,959 Speaker 1: much fun. I mean, that's and and to really understand 223 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:03,360 Speaker 1: and why blogging is important and to understand its impact, 224 00:12:03,760 --> 00:12:06,200 Speaker 1: all you really have to do. You know, we've been 225 00:12:06,200 --> 00:12:11,640 Speaker 1: talking about, well we all know what happened in two thousand. 226 00:12:11,760 --> 00:12:14,920 Speaker 1: That's the dot com crash. So you have all these 227 00:12:14,960 --> 00:12:19,199 Speaker 1: big web companies that started up and uh and and 228 00:12:19,400 --> 00:12:24,280 Speaker 1: they had inflated stock prices, they didn't have proven revenue 229 00:12:24,320 --> 00:12:28,479 Speaker 1: generating models. There are all these issues that that combined 230 00:12:28,520 --> 00:12:31,719 Speaker 1: to make a bubble that burst, and then you had 231 00:12:31,720 --> 00:12:34,600 Speaker 1: the dot com crash and as a result, lots of 232 00:12:34,600 --> 00:12:37,920 Speaker 1: different companies went under. This is also the dividing line 233 00:12:37,960 --> 00:12:40,640 Speaker 1: between what some people call web one point oh and 234 00:12:40,679 --> 00:12:45,760 Speaker 1: web two point oh. Now those are mainly marketing terms. Yeah, 235 00:12:45,760 --> 00:12:49,119 Speaker 1: it's it's no riley thing. It's sort of like a buzzword. 236 00:12:49,160 --> 00:12:52,120 Speaker 1: But but it does give you a useful shorthand to 237 00:12:52,160 --> 00:12:57,120 Speaker 1: talk about certain aspects of web pages that became um 238 00:12:57,640 --> 00:13:03,320 Speaker 1: more important than others. So, for example, the old static formula, 239 00:13:03,440 --> 00:13:05,880 Speaker 1: that web page that you put up and you only 240 00:13:05,880 --> 00:13:09,680 Speaker 1: occasionally tweak but you don't really have any dynamic elements 241 00:13:09,720 --> 00:13:13,480 Speaker 1: on it, that was shown to not be a very viable, 242 00:13:14,160 --> 00:13:17,600 Speaker 1: long lasting strategy. It was much more interesting to have 243 00:13:17,640 --> 00:13:20,040 Speaker 1: a dynamic kind of web page where things were changing. 244 00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:23,079 Speaker 1: It gave people a reason to return to that website. 245 00:13:23,080 --> 00:13:25,280 Speaker 1: It gave it which gives you more ad revenue by 246 00:13:25,320 --> 00:13:28,880 Speaker 1: the way, and and I mean, obviously money is one 247 00:13:28,880 --> 00:13:31,560 Speaker 1: of those things that's underlying all this, but even beyond that, 248 00:13:31,679 --> 00:13:37,439 Speaker 1: it creates that amazing thing that all companies strive for engagement, 249 00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:43,240 Speaker 1: where people are wilfully coming to your website and engaging 250 00:13:43,280 --> 00:13:45,720 Speaker 1: with you, hopefully in a positive way. And so the 251 00:13:45,760 --> 00:13:49,959 Speaker 1: blogs show they had these elements built in. Like there 252 00:13:50,040 --> 00:13:52,880 Speaker 1: was the element of expression. You are able to blog 253 00:13:52,920 --> 00:13:56,199 Speaker 1: about whatever you like. You can change dynamically. You can 254 00:13:56,280 --> 00:13:58,960 Speaker 1: update several times a day or a week or whatever. 255 00:13:59,000 --> 00:14:02,360 Speaker 1: However your sched to allows and like you were pointing out, Lauren, 256 00:14:02,720 --> 00:14:06,280 Speaker 1: the common ing feature was a huge part of what 257 00:14:06,320 --> 00:14:07,960 Speaker 1: web two point oh is all about. It is this 258 00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:10,640 Speaker 1: idea that there is a dialogue, it's not just a 259 00:14:10,679 --> 00:14:14,800 Speaker 1: one way communication. Another company that we talked about recently, Amazon, 260 00:14:15,640 --> 00:14:18,120 Speaker 1: one of the reasons that that people cite it as 261 00:14:18,120 --> 00:14:21,160 Speaker 1: a as a survivor of the dot com crash was 262 00:14:21,200 --> 00:14:26,760 Speaker 1: because it had that customer reviews. Yeah, which that that's 263 00:14:26,760 --> 00:14:31,040 Speaker 1: one of those elements that is often associated with web 264 00:14:31,080 --> 00:14:35,320 Speaker 1: two point oh. So blogging was really kind of a 265 00:14:35,600 --> 00:14:39,840 Speaker 1: an ideal representation of what web two point oh was 266 00:14:39,880 --> 00:14:42,720 Speaker 1: all about. And uh, I think that's one of the 267 00:14:42,720 --> 00:14:47,600 Speaker 1: reasons why the trend was not only surviving through the 268 00:14:47,640 --> 00:14:52,680 Speaker 1: dot com crash era, it was thriving so Unlike the 269 00:14:52,720 --> 00:14:56,400 Speaker 1: traditional websites that uh that that did not do so 270 00:14:56,440 --> 00:15:00,480 Speaker 1: well or the startup companies that ended up floundering, blogging 271 00:15:00,560 --> 00:15:03,960 Speaker 1: continued to do pretty well. And we're gonna talk in 272 00:15:04,040 --> 00:15:09,000 Speaker 1: a second all about how it blossomed from that little 273 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:13,360 Speaker 1: bitty plant of promise back in two thousand into the 274 00:15:13,680 --> 00:15:16,880 Speaker 1: enormous industry it is today. But before we do that, 275 00:15:17,120 --> 00:15:21,440 Speaker 1: let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor. Okay, 276 00:15:21,480 --> 00:15:25,240 Speaker 1: so back to the discussion about blogging. So around two 277 00:15:25,280 --> 00:15:28,040 Speaker 1: thousand we had the dot com crash and uh, and 278 00:15:28,120 --> 00:15:31,080 Speaker 1: blogging makes its way through mainly because again this is 279 00:15:31,080 --> 00:15:35,040 Speaker 1: a user generated sort of platform. It's it's not reliant 280 00:15:35,040 --> 00:15:38,120 Speaker 1: on some other company other other than the fact that 281 00:15:38,480 --> 00:15:41,720 Speaker 1: the platforms themselves were developed by other companies, right. But 282 00:15:41,760 --> 00:15:43,680 Speaker 1: you know, and someone has to host that web space, 283 00:15:43,800 --> 00:15:46,440 Speaker 1: and there was all kinds of advertising that was worked 284 00:15:46,480 --> 00:15:50,040 Speaker 1: in slowly over the years. So in two thousand three, 285 00:15:50,320 --> 00:15:53,280 Speaker 1: Google acquired Piro, which again were the people who had 286 00:15:53,320 --> 00:16:00,240 Speaker 1: launched Blogger, and they actually made Blogger free to use 287 00:16:00,320 --> 00:16:03,520 Speaker 1: at that point, right right. I think before then, well 288 00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:06,200 Speaker 1: that there had been paid tiers. I think most most 289 00:16:06,800 --> 00:16:10,000 Speaker 1: blogging platforms had paid tiers. There there was some kind 290 00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:13,600 Speaker 1: of free for use thing and then a premium users 291 00:16:13,160 --> 00:16:17,040 Speaker 1: us get extra space, etcetera. Right right right? Um? Well, yeah, 292 00:16:17,040 --> 00:16:19,200 Speaker 1: that and that was huge. I mean, with Google behind 293 00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:22,720 Speaker 1: the the company that created a blogger, then that meant 294 00:16:22,760 --> 00:16:26,800 Speaker 1: that it definitely raised the visibility even beyond what it 295 00:16:26,840 --> 00:16:30,600 Speaker 1: already was. Yeah, it raised the visibility enough that by 296 00:16:30,640 --> 00:16:33,400 Speaker 1: two thousand four, um, there are about ten million blogs 297 00:16:33,400 --> 00:16:36,840 Speaker 1: in action around the world. Um and blog in fact, 298 00:16:36,840 --> 00:16:39,440 Speaker 1: became Miriam Webster's word of the year. It was those 299 00:16:39,600 --> 00:16:41,440 Speaker 1: you know, it was a buzzword. Was everyone was was 300 00:16:41,480 --> 00:16:44,160 Speaker 1: kind of participating this. Uh. It was the year of 301 00:16:44,240 --> 00:16:48,520 Speaker 1: the US presidential election, and both major political parties gave 302 00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:51,480 Speaker 1: credentials to bloggers at their conventions. Well, we'll get into 303 00:16:51,480 --> 00:16:55,120 Speaker 1: some discussions about blogging versus journalism, I'm sure, because there 304 00:16:55,160 --> 00:16:58,160 Speaker 1: are a lot of discussions to be had. Uh, keeping 305 00:16:58,200 --> 00:17:01,440 Speaker 1: in mind that some journalists are bloggers. Some some bloggers 306 00:17:01,440 --> 00:17:04,359 Speaker 1: have graduated if you want to call it, or maybe 307 00:17:04,359 --> 00:17:09,000 Speaker 1: it's a lateral move. It's a different things that to 308 00:17:09,080 --> 00:17:12,119 Speaker 1: be a blogger, you just need a platform. Now, to 309 00:17:12,119 --> 00:17:15,400 Speaker 1: be a great blogger, you need lots of talent and 310 00:17:15,560 --> 00:17:19,480 Speaker 1: thoughts exactly, but you but really just to be a blogger. 311 00:17:19,520 --> 00:17:22,040 Speaker 1: Anyone with an access to a platform can be a blogger, 312 00:17:22,400 --> 00:17:25,359 Speaker 1: you know. But to be a blogger who who creates 313 00:17:25,840 --> 00:17:28,960 Speaker 1: newsworthy or at least information that is interesting to read 314 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:31,160 Speaker 1: and is useful, then you have to have this talent 315 00:17:31,200 --> 00:17:36,680 Speaker 1: and ability. Um and and journalists, true journalists, if we're 316 00:17:36,760 --> 00:17:38,800 Speaker 1: using the word the way it was meant to be used, 317 00:17:39,080 --> 00:17:41,119 Speaker 1: have to go through quite a bit of training to 318 00:17:41,200 --> 00:17:43,600 Speaker 1: get to a point where they are able to craft 319 00:17:43,640 --> 00:17:46,919 Speaker 1: a story properly. Um. And you know, I'm not saying 320 00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:50,520 Speaker 1: that that that I idealized journalists or I don't consider 321 00:17:50,560 --> 00:17:53,160 Speaker 1: myself a journalist. I'm a writer. I'm not a journalist. 322 00:17:53,440 --> 00:17:55,440 Speaker 1: I don't think even I don't think I'm even a writer. 323 00:17:55,520 --> 00:17:57,120 Speaker 1: I mean, you know, it's as I read some cool 324 00:17:57,119 --> 00:17:58,800 Speaker 1: stuff online and then I say it to you guys, 325 00:18:00,040 --> 00:18:03,000 Speaker 1: hopefully relatively pretty ways. But but yeah, there there is 326 00:18:03,040 --> 00:18:06,439 Speaker 1: a difference, right journalism, especially if you're talking about investigative journalism, 327 00:18:06,440 --> 00:18:08,840 Speaker 1: that there's a very specific set of skills that go 328 00:18:08,920 --> 00:18:13,240 Speaker 1: along with that. And it's a discipline. And I dropped 329 00:18:13,240 --> 00:18:16,440 Speaker 1: out of journalism in school, so you you know about it. 330 00:18:16,520 --> 00:18:20,240 Speaker 1: You you you lack all the discipline you need because 331 00:18:20,760 --> 00:18:24,520 Speaker 1: you didn't That's okay. I never went to journalism school, 332 00:18:24,560 --> 00:18:26,800 Speaker 1: and yet I was occasionally put into the role of 333 00:18:26,880 --> 00:18:30,199 Speaker 1: journalists and I learned how hard that job is. And 334 00:18:30,240 --> 00:18:33,520 Speaker 1: so there's there's not I don't know if it's as 335 00:18:33,680 --> 00:18:35,639 Speaker 1: pronounced now as it used to be, but I remember 336 00:18:35,680 --> 00:18:37,639 Speaker 1: the first time I went to c e. S. There's 337 00:18:37,680 --> 00:18:41,159 Speaker 1: the reporters section, the press section, and then they had 338 00:18:41,160 --> 00:18:44,760 Speaker 1: a blogger lounge, and your badge determined which of those 339 00:18:44,800 --> 00:18:47,000 Speaker 1: you went into, whether it was the press lounge or 340 00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:49,320 Speaker 1: the blogger lounge. And it just felt like there was 341 00:18:49,320 --> 00:18:54,280 Speaker 1: this crazy division there, some class division. I'm picturing free 342 00:18:54,280 --> 00:18:59,440 Speaker 1: martinis and and sorts of things and press side and 343 00:19:00,040 --> 00:19:03,679 Speaker 1: exactly I got the press badge. Yeah, so I was 344 00:19:03,680 --> 00:19:06,920 Speaker 1: in the press section and and I didn't know any better. 345 00:19:07,119 --> 00:19:09,760 Speaker 1: I didn't know blogging from journalism. I was. I was 346 00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:11,840 Speaker 1: a writer for How Stuff Works, which was, you know, 347 00:19:11,880 --> 00:19:15,400 Speaker 1: writing articles. Uh, But even then, I felt like there 348 00:19:15,520 --> 00:19:18,119 Speaker 1: was a bit of classism there. Um. I think that 349 00:19:18,240 --> 00:19:20,639 Speaker 1: might be less so today. And part of that is 350 00:19:20,680 --> 00:19:23,840 Speaker 1: the changing nature of blogging. And and again we'll talk 351 00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:27,080 Speaker 1: about that. But two thousand four, when that that era 352 00:19:27,200 --> 00:19:29,280 Speaker 1: you're talking about, that was also the same year that 353 00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:34,800 Speaker 1: Technicoty released their State of the Blogger Sphere report. Right 354 00:19:34,840 --> 00:19:38,159 Speaker 1: well around around that election, rather Gate happened. And this 355 00:19:38,240 --> 00:19:39,800 Speaker 1: was when I don't know if you remember this or not, 356 00:19:39,880 --> 00:19:42,639 Speaker 1: but this this is when um CBS wound up redacting 357 00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:46,639 Speaker 1: a report that had been made off of unauthenticated documents 358 00:19:46,840 --> 00:19:50,160 Speaker 1: after blogs challenged it. And that's crazy, I mean, I mean, 359 00:19:50,200 --> 00:19:54,320 Speaker 1: that's that's wonderful. I mean that is driving investigative journalists well. 360 00:19:54,359 --> 00:19:56,800 Speaker 1: And there was also the year that we saw started 361 00:19:56,840 --> 00:20:01,080 Speaker 1: seeing reports on events be four of the mainstream media 362 00:20:01,160 --> 00:20:04,560 Speaker 1: picked it up. So bloggers would, especially for very very 363 00:20:04,760 --> 00:20:07,800 Speaker 1: niche oriented blogs. There was, um, there were these blog 364 00:20:08,040 --> 00:20:12,280 Speaker 1: blogs that were all about bicycles, right, so they're all 365 00:20:12,280 --> 00:20:14,879 Speaker 1: about bicycling. You wouldn't think that this would be a 366 00:20:14,880 --> 00:20:18,240 Speaker 1: blog that would break a news story, but they did. 367 00:20:18,440 --> 00:20:22,080 Speaker 1: Back in two thousand three two four. Uh, there's a 368 00:20:22,200 --> 00:20:26,600 Speaker 1: bike lock company, uh, and they create a product called kryptonite. 369 00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:30,440 Speaker 1: And back at this time that particular lock, this Kryptonite lock, 370 00:20:31,240 --> 00:20:35,400 Speaker 1: it was discovered that you could pick the lock using uh, 371 00:20:35,640 --> 00:20:40,080 Speaker 1: pretty handily available materials and without too much trouble. This 372 00:20:40,119 --> 00:20:41,719 Speaker 1: is a huge deal. I mean, this is a company 373 00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:45,080 Speaker 1: that's marketing its product as being something to secure your bike. 374 00:20:45,240 --> 00:20:48,000 Speaker 1: And anyone who owns a bike knows like these can 375 00:20:48,040 --> 00:20:53,800 Speaker 1: be really expensive and and and very attractive targets for thieves. 376 00:20:53,840 --> 00:20:57,080 Speaker 1: So when that information broke in the blogs, it was 377 00:20:57,160 --> 00:20:59,960 Speaker 1: in the blogosphere for like a week before the mainstream 378 00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:03,400 Speaker 1: media picked up the story. So we're already seeing, even 379 00:21:03,400 --> 00:21:05,920 Speaker 1: in these early days, that blogs are playing a role 380 00:21:05,960 --> 00:21:09,679 Speaker 1: in breaking the news, not just you know, regurgitating it, 381 00:21:09,720 --> 00:21:12,720 Speaker 1: which is again another common perception of blogs is that 382 00:21:12,760 --> 00:21:15,800 Speaker 1: they'll they'll look at some news reports only re reporting 383 00:21:15,840 --> 00:21:19,320 Speaker 1: everything right, right, not adding any other commentary, because that's 384 00:21:19,320 --> 00:21:21,280 Speaker 1: not what people do all the time on the internet. Yeah, 385 00:21:21,320 --> 00:21:23,960 Speaker 1: that's not that's not entirely true. But um, but so 386 00:21:23,960 --> 00:21:27,000 Speaker 1: so what did what did this technicraty report this first inaugural? 387 00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:29,720 Speaker 1: The first thing it said was that the first inaugural. 388 00:21:30,600 --> 00:21:32,760 Speaker 1: The first thing it said was that from June two 389 00:21:32,800 --> 00:21:35,800 Speaker 1: thousand three to October two thousand four, the number of 390 00:21:35,840 --> 00:21:38,720 Speaker 1: blogs increased by a factor of eight eight times the 391 00:21:38,800 --> 00:21:42,479 Speaker 1: number of blogs, so so in in uh, you know, 392 00:21:42,680 --> 00:21:46,320 Speaker 1: a year's time essentially, um. And that they reported that 393 00:21:46,960 --> 00:21:51,679 Speaker 1: twelve thousand new blogs were being created each day, not 394 00:21:51,840 --> 00:21:57,359 Speaker 1: blog posts, blogs, so it said there's an averagely it 395 00:21:57,400 --> 00:21:59,920 Speaker 1: averaged out to a new blog created every seven point 396 00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:04,920 Speaker 1: four seconds. Four hundred thousand posts were being created each day, 397 00:22:05,160 --> 00:22:09,800 Speaker 1: which averages out to four point six uh posts per second, 398 00:22:10,119 --> 00:22:13,359 Speaker 1: so not you know, not every four point six seconds, 399 00:22:13,359 --> 00:22:16,160 Speaker 1: four point six posts every second. We're going up now. 400 00:22:16,200 --> 00:22:19,480 Speaker 1: They did also point out that just under half of 401 00:22:19,520 --> 00:22:24,240 Speaker 1: the blogs that they were tracking um about them had 402 00:22:24,359 --> 00:22:27,440 Speaker 1: not had an update in the last three months, which 403 00:22:27,640 --> 00:22:30,560 Speaker 1: that's a That's another another facet of blogging is that 404 00:22:30,600 --> 00:22:32,560 Speaker 1: it's something that a lot of people get into and 405 00:22:32,560 --> 00:22:36,639 Speaker 1: they experiment with and then maybe lose interest with. Yeah. Yeah, 406 00:22:36,680 --> 00:22:39,560 Speaker 1: not everyone obviously, but there's there's It's definitely one of 407 00:22:39,560 --> 00:22:41,840 Speaker 1: those things that a lot of people try and then 408 00:22:42,080 --> 00:22:45,080 Speaker 1: a smaller percentage stick with it. And and with any 409 00:22:45,119 --> 00:22:47,479 Speaker 1: with any daily journaling kind of habit, I think you know, 410 00:22:47,520 --> 00:22:49,680 Speaker 1: it takes what like sixty six days of doing something 411 00:22:49,760 --> 00:22:52,360 Speaker 1: in a row before your brain really like an average 412 00:22:52,400 --> 00:22:54,560 Speaker 1: of that, before your brain really kicks into a habit 413 00:22:54,760 --> 00:22:58,680 Speaker 1: something something like that. Yeah, And and most bloggers even today, 414 00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:03,280 Speaker 1: if you follow the the different metrics that technicrati UH 415 00:23:03,400 --> 00:23:06,760 Speaker 1: ends up following, don't blog once a day. They're blogging 416 00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:10,080 Speaker 1: maybe three times a week. So you know, you're talking 417 00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:11,760 Speaker 1: about it takes even longer for you to build that 418 00:23:11,800 --> 00:23:13,920 Speaker 1: in if it's it's something you actually have to think about, 419 00:23:13,960 --> 00:23:16,200 Speaker 1: it's not something that you're just you know, compelled to do. 420 00:23:16,760 --> 00:23:19,639 Speaker 1: But yeah, that there were some interesting things from that 421 00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:22,760 Speaker 1: first UH State of the Blogosphere. Their last, by the way, 422 00:23:22,800 --> 00:23:26,639 Speaker 1: State of the Blogosphere was in eleven. And the reason 423 00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:29,640 Speaker 1: why that was the last one is that the nature 424 00:23:29,800 --> 00:23:33,040 Speaker 1: of blogging was changing so much that Technorati came to 425 00:23:33,080 --> 00:23:35,920 Speaker 1: the conclusion that calling the report the State of the 426 00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:40,520 Speaker 1: Blogosphere was no longer truly accurate. Yeah, yeah, that it 427 00:23:40,560 --> 00:23:43,760 Speaker 1: was just that it doesn't encompass what's really going on 428 00:23:43,840 --> 00:23:49,320 Speaker 1: because social networking has caused such a huge disruption in 429 00:23:49,440 --> 00:23:53,480 Speaker 1: the way that that individuals and companies and organizations approach 430 00:23:53,600 --> 00:23:58,280 Speaker 1: online interaction that blogging was too narrow a focus. However, 431 00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:02,040 Speaker 1: in that report, uh, they identified bloggers and they put 432 00:24:02,080 --> 00:24:06,320 Speaker 1: them into five categories. So your five categories of bloggers 433 00:24:06,359 --> 00:24:12,280 Speaker 1: are hobbyists DING, part time professionals DING, full time professionals DING, 434 00:24:12,320 --> 00:24:18,080 Speaker 1: corporate ding, and entrepreneurs DING. And so out of those 435 00:24:18,160 --> 00:24:21,000 Speaker 1: five different types, they said that the hobbyists were the 436 00:24:21,119 --> 00:24:25,320 Speaker 1: vast majority. They represented six of the blogging population. So 437 00:24:25,359 --> 00:24:28,160 Speaker 1: these are people with personal blogs. It may be about 438 00:24:28,280 --> 00:24:31,320 Speaker 1: their own lives, it may be about their community, it 439 00:24:31,400 --> 00:24:35,520 Speaker 1: may be about specific interest they have, but it's it's 440 00:24:35,520 --> 00:24:38,000 Speaker 1: a hobby. It's not their job. The part time and 441 00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:44,960 Speaker 1: full time professionals, uh, they were only getting a small 442 00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:47,480 Speaker 1: amount of money from blogging. Like in almost every case, 443 00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:50,959 Speaker 1: blogging was not their prime source of income, right, right, 444 00:24:50,960 --> 00:24:53,320 Speaker 1: because that's really difficult. For example, you know, I've had 445 00:24:53,359 --> 00:24:55,640 Speaker 1: that blogger blog for a few years. I have made 446 00:24:55,640 --> 00:24:58,040 Speaker 1: a grand total of I think twenty two dollars and 447 00:24:58,119 --> 00:25:00,960 Speaker 1: eight cents on advertising on its. Well, you are below 448 00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:04,120 Speaker 1: the average the mean, Well, I should say you blow 449 00:25:04,200 --> 00:25:08,080 Speaker 1: the mean the mean income non salary. So this is 450 00:25:08,119 --> 00:25:10,280 Speaker 1: this is someone who's making money from their blog. But 451 00:25:10,280 --> 00:25:12,720 Speaker 1: there it's not a sound it's not part of their 452 00:25:12,760 --> 00:25:15,840 Speaker 1: their professional role. So it's you can't because otherwise you 453 00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:17,479 Speaker 1: have to figure out, like, well, what percentage of your 454 00:25:17,480 --> 00:25:20,359 Speaker 1: salary is at, and that would be impossible. But but 455 00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:23,280 Speaker 1: for people who are making money directly from blogging, the 456 00:25:23,359 --> 00:25:29,080 Speaker 1: mean salary in seventeen thousand dollars seventeen thousand one dollars, 457 00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:32,440 Speaker 1: so seventeen grand a year. Oh, I mean, you know 458 00:25:32,480 --> 00:25:34,680 Speaker 1: that's that's not good. But you know, next next to 459 00:25:34,760 --> 00:25:37,359 Speaker 1: my twenty two dollars, that's pretty okay. I mean, you know, 460 00:25:37,480 --> 00:25:40,879 Speaker 1: I'm and granted I blog, maybe you can you can 461 00:25:40,920 --> 00:25:42,880 Speaker 1: go find it if you really want to know. It's 462 00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:45,520 Speaker 1: I blog maybe three times a year these days. So 463 00:25:45,600 --> 00:25:47,680 Speaker 1: I assume that they're posting more often than that, but 464 00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:52,960 Speaker 1: right right, um, probably. But the the other elements of 465 00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:56,040 Speaker 1: the report that were kind of interesting to me report 466 00:25:56,119 --> 00:25:59,320 Speaker 1: where that so the professional bloggers were about eighteen percent 467 00:25:59,560 --> 00:26:04,520 Speaker 1: of the overall blogging population, corporate bloggers about eight percent um. 468 00:26:04,680 --> 00:26:07,640 Speaker 1: And that could be that it was corporate bloggers where 469 00:26:07,640 --> 00:26:10,200 Speaker 1: identify as people who blogging was part of their job, 470 00:26:10,280 --> 00:26:14,560 Speaker 1: but it was probably not the primary, uh job role 471 00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:16,359 Speaker 1: they had. It was just something they had in addition 472 00:26:16,400 --> 00:26:18,720 Speaker 1: to everything else they do, right, I imagine, especially by 473 00:26:18,760 --> 00:26:20,840 Speaker 1: two thousand and eleven, more people were being hired on 474 00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:24,840 Speaker 1: as a social media experts uh, as an umbrella rather 475 00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:28,239 Speaker 1: than just bloggers. How you would come to that new 476 00:26:28,320 --> 00:26:31,639 Speaker 1: social media at your year it's the entrepreneurs made up 477 00:26:31,640 --> 00:26:37,160 Speaker 1: about so corporate eight percent entrepreneurs. But then you think, okay, well, 478 00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:40,520 Speaker 1: if you are someone who's your your role is to 479 00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:44,080 Speaker 1: create new business, like you are a visionary who's out 480 00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:47,480 Speaker 1: there to try and build something that did not exist before, 481 00:26:47,520 --> 00:26:50,399 Speaker 1: blogging is a great outlet to be able to connect 482 00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:53,119 Speaker 1: with people. Absolutely, yeah. It lets you get your personality 483 00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:54,879 Speaker 1: out there and kind of build yourself into that, you know, 484 00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:57,600 Speaker 1: hopefully rock star status that people are going to want 485 00:26:57,720 --> 00:27:00,400 Speaker 1: your products because they're your products, not just because they're 486 00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:03,000 Speaker 1: cool products. I mean hopefully that too, right, right, Yeah, 487 00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:07,440 Speaker 1: to identify with like a particular lifestyle or personality type, 488 00:27:07,480 --> 00:27:10,440 Speaker 1: that kind of thing. Um. Yeah, And and they Tangnaratti 489 00:27:10,520 --> 00:27:13,960 Speaker 1: also broke down some demographics. Uh. This is all based 490 00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:16,720 Speaker 1: off surveys that Technaroti put out too. So when I 491 00:27:16,800 --> 00:27:20,200 Speaker 1: give these percentages, it's based upon the survey responses they received. 492 00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:24,800 Speaker 1: They may not be truly reflective of reality, right, but 493 00:27:25,320 --> 00:27:27,800 Speaker 1: but I know the people who responded. Three fifths of 494 00:27:27,920 --> 00:27:31,560 Speaker 1: them were mail so uh so more than half of 495 00:27:31,600 --> 00:27:34,360 Speaker 1: the respondents are mail. Uh. And most of them were 496 00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:38,000 Speaker 1: between the ages of twenty and forty four. One third 497 00:27:38,160 --> 00:27:43,199 Speaker 1: of them were over forty four, so uh not as 498 00:27:43,280 --> 00:27:46,320 Speaker 1: many younger bloggers. Uh. And in fact, that might be 499 00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:49,280 Speaker 1: an interesting thing to watch in the future to see 500 00:27:49,320 --> 00:27:53,000 Speaker 1: if blogging becomes less important over time as the as 501 00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:56,400 Speaker 1: the population ages, because it may be that younger people 502 00:27:56,560 --> 00:27:59,080 Speaker 1: don't pick up blogging at all and they adopt some 503 00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:01,720 Speaker 1: other format. Uh. And we'll talk a little bit about 504 00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:04,680 Speaker 1: some of that. Yeah. Well, just just another quick fact 505 00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:07,640 Speaker 1: in there. Um. As of two thousand and ten, according 506 00:28:07,720 --> 00:28:11,200 Speaker 1: to a Pew Internet research blogging was in decline among 507 00:28:11,440 --> 00:28:13,440 Speaker 1: twelve to thirty three year olds, but on the rise 508 00:28:13,480 --> 00:28:17,719 Speaker 1: among year olds. Yeah, yeah, there you go, and uh 509 00:28:18,560 --> 00:28:21,760 Speaker 1: it says, uh the the report from Technology I'm going 510 00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:24,680 Speaker 1: to quote directly here. It said a large number of 511 00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:27,879 Speaker 1: respondents who are blogging more are driven by both personal 512 00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:31,399 Speaker 1: and professional benefits to do so, along with their interactions 513 00:28:31,560 --> 00:28:37,560 Speaker 1: with their audience. Many corporate bloggers and entrepreneurs say they 514 00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:40,160 Speaker 1: are blogging more because it has proven to be valuable 515 00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:42,920 Speaker 1: for promoting their business and also valuable to their profession, 516 00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:48,080 Speaker 1: which is respondents. And and that they noticed that people 517 00:28:48,080 --> 00:28:51,640 Speaker 1: who said they were not blogging as much mainly cited 518 00:28:51,880 --> 00:28:56,040 Speaker 1: the reason of I need more time, like's it takes 519 00:28:56,120 --> 00:28:58,960 Speaker 1: up so much time and I don't want to sacrifice 520 00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:00,760 Speaker 1: that time. I need to spend time with my family 521 00:29:01,200 --> 00:29:05,280 Speaker 1: for those people who you know value that I don't. 522 00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:08,120 Speaker 1: I don't know any of those. Or I need to 523 00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:10,040 Speaker 1: spend more time on Twitter, or I need to spend 524 00:29:10,560 --> 00:29:13,400 Speaker 1: becausit my wife's blog with this point is what I do. 525 00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:17,480 Speaker 1: UM anyway, that I found it really an interesting report, 526 00:29:17,720 --> 00:29:21,440 Speaker 1: especially when you start breaking down those demographics. And now 527 00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:25,640 Speaker 1: today they have Technarotti does a new kind of report. 528 00:29:25,720 --> 00:29:27,480 Speaker 1: It's not again not called the State of the blog 529 00:29:27,560 --> 00:29:30,160 Speaker 1: is Fear anymore. Now, it's called the Digital Influence Report, 530 00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:35,360 Speaker 1: and they identify uh, entities, whether they are people or 531 00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:39,280 Speaker 1: organizations or whatever, that they call influencers, and then they 532 00:29:39,400 --> 00:29:42,880 Speaker 1: look at how the influencers are using various outlets on 533 00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:45,480 Speaker 1: the Internet to connect to their audiences. And blogging is 534 00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:48,840 Speaker 1: one of those outlets. It's not the only one, it's 535 00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:51,560 Speaker 1: still one of the most popular ones that are being 536 00:29:51,640 --> 00:29:54,640 Speaker 1: used by companies right now. And uh, it's interesting to me. 537 00:29:54,800 --> 00:29:59,120 Speaker 1: I was looking at their their statistics. They say that 538 00:29:59,400 --> 00:30:04,440 Speaker 1: eight scent of the top influencers blog for themselves. So 539 00:30:04,880 --> 00:30:09,160 Speaker 1: even if they're not blogging for their company or whatever 540 00:30:09,760 --> 00:30:12,480 Speaker 1: right they are, they do maintain a blog. And out 541 00:30:12,520 --> 00:30:16,280 Speaker 1: of the ones who are blogging, of them have more 542 00:30:16,360 --> 00:30:20,600 Speaker 1: than one blog, but fewer than six, so between between 543 00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:24,800 Speaker 1: two and five blogs that they maintain themselves. And um 544 00:30:25,160 --> 00:30:26,800 Speaker 1: and out of all the people who are blogging, a 545 00:30:27,040 --> 00:30:30,400 Speaker 1: six of them prefer to use text still to blog, 546 00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:34,720 Speaker 1: so they're still writing out these posts use video. So 547 00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:36,960 Speaker 1: video blogging. While I think of it as being this 548 00:30:37,120 --> 00:30:41,719 Speaker 1: huge thing, only a tiny percentage of all bloggers are 549 00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:43,800 Speaker 1: really using it. I'm kind of the opposite. I always 550 00:30:43,800 --> 00:30:45,479 Speaker 1: think of it as a very fringe sort of thing. 551 00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:47,280 Speaker 1: But but that's because I don't like my computer to 552 00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:49,840 Speaker 1: make noise at me. So yeah, I don't listen, I 553 00:30:49,840 --> 00:30:51,840 Speaker 1: don't watch. I don't watch as many videos as perhaps 554 00:30:51,920 --> 00:30:53,520 Speaker 1: I think it's because I know a lot of video 555 00:30:53,640 --> 00:30:56,640 Speaker 1: bloggers at this point, and so it's it's just it's 556 00:30:56,680 --> 00:30:59,080 Speaker 1: just sample. Yeah, it's just always in front of me. 557 00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:01,240 Speaker 1: So that's why, that's why I think of it as being, 558 00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:05,280 Speaker 1: you know, a larger thing. And then only four use audio. 559 00:31:05,760 --> 00:31:08,560 Speaker 1: So we're in a we're in an elite for you, 560 00:31:09,200 --> 00:31:11,760 Speaker 1: although what we do is not really blogging, right, No, no, 561 00:31:11,880 --> 00:31:14,280 Speaker 1: it's not. It's it's not it's well, it's probably more 562 00:31:14,320 --> 00:31:16,320 Speaker 1: personal than than a lot of you guys want to hear. 563 00:31:16,400 --> 00:31:19,880 Speaker 1: Sometimes apologize for that, but but but actually, I mean, 564 00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:22,280 Speaker 1: you know, the entire point of blogging is personal. Way 565 00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:24,400 Speaker 1: back in two thousand six, Time named their person of 566 00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:28,080 Speaker 1: the Year. You, Yeah, I remember, I remember people getting 567 00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:31,520 Speaker 1: a little snarky about that. People on the Internet got snarky. 568 00:31:31,640 --> 00:31:33,800 Speaker 1: Well not just on the internet, but yes, particularly on 569 00:31:33,880 --> 00:31:37,360 Speaker 1: the Internet. Yes, but it was not restricted to the Internet. 570 00:31:37,720 --> 00:31:39,800 Speaker 1: Well sure, but you know, just just as a kind 571 00:31:39,840 --> 00:31:43,520 Speaker 1: of signpost of of how big it was. Then, I 572 00:31:43,960 --> 00:31:46,160 Speaker 1: think that that the fact that that that a publication 573 00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:50,600 Speaker 1: like Time picking that up. Yes, well it was it 574 00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:54,680 Speaker 1: was our time. Literally, I'm just gonna I'm I'm shaking 575 00:31:54,760 --> 00:31:56,479 Speaker 1: my head. There should be some kind of sound effect 576 00:31:56,520 --> 00:31:58,560 Speaker 1: for when Lauren shakes her head that Time was on 577 00:31:58,640 --> 00:32:02,320 Speaker 1: our side. Yes it was. It just makes me think 578 00:32:02,360 --> 00:32:04,960 Speaker 1: that you're that demon from Fallen This is bad. Well, 579 00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:07,840 Speaker 1: I haven't thought about that in a long time, I 580 00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:10,280 Speaker 1: speaking of Time. Sorry for that all that. That was 581 00:32:10,360 --> 00:32:16,120 Speaker 1: a ridiculous, uh little tangent. But yeah, the changing nature 582 00:32:16,120 --> 00:32:19,280 Speaker 1: of blogging is is happening right now. I mean we're 583 00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:23,000 Speaker 1: seeing lots of other products coming out that are making 584 00:32:23,080 --> 00:32:27,920 Speaker 1: blogging transformative. So things like tumbler. Oh yeah, yeah, which 585 00:32:28,120 --> 00:32:31,600 Speaker 1: which debuted in two thousand and seven, I believe, Yes, 586 00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:34,440 Speaker 1: I found it then. Yeah, it's it's actually been around 587 00:32:34,480 --> 00:32:36,440 Speaker 1: for a few years, quite a few years now when 588 00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:39,080 Speaker 1: you think about it. But it's it's like I really 589 00:32:39,480 --> 00:32:41,360 Speaker 1: wasn't aware of Tumbler. I mean, this makes me a 590 00:32:41,480 --> 00:32:43,400 Speaker 1: terrible tech guy, right, but I wasn't really aware of 591 00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:46,000 Speaker 1: it until a couple of years ago. I don't. I 592 00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:47,680 Speaker 1: don't have data on when I on when I launched. 593 00:32:47,680 --> 00:32:50,560 Speaker 1: I think I probably launched my first tumbler around two 594 00:32:50,640 --> 00:32:52,560 Speaker 1: thousand eleven, I think the same year that I went 595 00:32:52,640 --> 00:32:56,880 Speaker 1: to a WordPress. So yes, another another platform that a 596 00:32:56,960 --> 00:33:00,680 Speaker 1: lot of bloggers have adopted. The interesting thing I find 597 00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:03,000 Speaker 1: about a lot of the platforms you see today are 598 00:33:03,120 --> 00:33:06,120 Speaker 1: that they give you a great deal of flexibility and 599 00:33:06,240 --> 00:33:10,200 Speaker 1: how your your blog appears to the to the viewers. 600 00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:12,520 Speaker 1: So you aren't you know. When we think back to 601 00:33:12,560 --> 00:33:14,800 Speaker 1: the live journal days, there was only so much customization 602 00:33:14,880 --> 00:33:17,120 Speaker 1: you could do. If you could code your own if 603 00:33:17,120 --> 00:33:18,640 Speaker 1: you wanted to, you could always get back into the 604 00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:20,760 Speaker 1: HTML and do what you wanted if you knew how 605 00:33:20,840 --> 00:33:24,400 Speaker 1: to do that or uh yeah, yeah, yea one yeah. 606 00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:25,920 Speaker 1: Once you got back into the back end, you could 607 00:33:26,040 --> 00:33:29,120 Speaker 1: you could alter it a bit. But even even with that, 608 00:33:30,600 --> 00:33:34,080 Speaker 1: there was a certain kind of structure that, you know, 609 00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:36,320 Speaker 1: when you saw it, you'd think, oh, they must be 610 00:33:36,440 --> 00:33:39,200 Speaker 1: using live journal, you know. But but when you get 611 00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:43,000 Speaker 1: into some of the modern blogging tools, you might visit 612 00:33:43,040 --> 00:33:45,880 Speaker 1: a site and have you know, not even realize that 613 00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:48,560 Speaker 1: it's built on one of these platforms because they are 614 00:33:48,720 --> 00:33:52,760 Speaker 1: that versatile. Yeah, there are. They're actually sixty one million, 615 00:33:53,040 --> 00:33:58,640 Speaker 1: seven thousand, hundred and fourteen word press sites currently on 616 00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:01,120 Speaker 1: the Internet. I bet that at that number change between 617 00:34:01,120 --> 00:34:03,520 Speaker 1: the time you said it and the time that people 618 00:34:03,600 --> 00:34:05,719 Speaker 1: heard it. I'm absolutely sure. I mean, and to be fair, 619 00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:07,800 Speaker 1: a lot of those are corporate. I mean, we ourselves 620 00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:12,000 Speaker 1: have a couple of corporate WordPress sites. Yeah yeah, yeah, 621 00:34:12,080 --> 00:34:16,360 Speaker 1: and uh and so I mean it's clearly really revolutionize 622 00:34:16,440 --> 00:34:18,520 Speaker 1: this whole process. And then you have other tools out 623 00:34:18,520 --> 00:34:23,399 Speaker 1: there too, like Pinterest, which isn't really a blogging platform blogging. Yeah, 624 00:34:23,560 --> 00:34:25,880 Speaker 1: you know, it allows you to post new things and 625 00:34:25,960 --> 00:34:28,319 Speaker 1: to comment on other people's posts kind of sort. It's 626 00:34:28,320 --> 00:34:31,680 Speaker 1: it's mostly um kind of mean sharing the limit and 627 00:34:32,040 --> 00:34:33,520 Speaker 1: I think that you know, I don't know, it's it's 628 00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:37,359 Speaker 1: the state of blogging is very very short these days, 629 00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:40,440 Speaker 1: and you know, people want to be able to do 630 00:34:40,560 --> 00:34:44,359 Speaker 1: things very quickly and to consume things very quickly. I think. 631 00:34:44,880 --> 00:34:48,239 Speaker 1: So you do have some pretty big sites that have, 632 00:34:49,360 --> 00:34:52,040 Speaker 1: uh that are a cross between a blog and say 633 00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:55,239 Speaker 1: an online magazine, so that they're updating more frequently than 634 00:34:55,280 --> 00:34:58,040 Speaker 1: a magazine. Would you know, traditional magazine. You think of 635 00:34:58,080 --> 00:35:01,560 Speaker 1: it coming out on a monthly mon flee basis something 636 00:35:01,640 --> 00:35:04,560 Speaker 1: like that. But then you've got websites out there that 637 00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:11,040 Speaker 1: have really flashy uh interfaces and design, and so they 638 00:35:11,160 --> 00:35:13,400 Speaker 1: kind of give you that magazine field, but they're updating 639 00:35:13,600 --> 00:35:16,480 Speaker 1: on a daily basis, multiple times a day. So I'm 640 00:35:16,480 --> 00:35:19,040 Speaker 1: thinking of things like the Verge, which is an example 641 00:35:19,080 --> 00:35:21,360 Speaker 1: I use all the time. But it's because I genuinely 642 00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:23,920 Speaker 1: go to that site a lot. It's very it's very 643 00:35:23,960 --> 00:35:28,160 Speaker 1: well done, and and so you know, it has elements 644 00:35:28,200 --> 00:35:32,160 Speaker 1: of blogging in it. I wouldn't call everyone they're you know, uh, 645 00:35:32,560 --> 00:35:35,160 Speaker 1: just a straight up blogger. Some of them, you know, 646 00:35:35,239 --> 00:35:38,360 Speaker 1: maybe the term journalist is more relevant. I mean. And 647 00:35:38,480 --> 00:35:41,560 Speaker 1: here's another interesting thing I found about blogging. A lot 648 00:35:41,800 --> 00:35:45,200 Speaker 1: of the people who responded to the surveys and technicraty 649 00:35:45,280 --> 00:35:49,040 Speaker 1: identified themselves as being uh people who had worked in 650 00:35:49,080 --> 00:35:54,719 Speaker 1: traditional media at some point, um like professional full time bloggers, 651 00:35:54,840 --> 00:35:57,319 Speaker 1: and half of all corporate bloggers said that they had 652 00:35:57,360 --> 00:36:01,320 Speaker 1: worked for a monthly magazine in the past. So slightly 653 00:36:01,440 --> 00:36:04,960 Speaker 1: more than half of these professionals at some point or 654 00:36:04,960 --> 00:36:08,640 Speaker 1: another traditional journalism. Some of them might have been also, 655 00:36:09,239 --> 00:36:11,400 Speaker 1: we're blogging at the same time as working at them. 656 00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:14,240 Speaker 1: But yeah, it's done a big surprise because the public 657 00:36:14,320 --> 00:36:19,320 Speaker 1: publishing world has gone through such tumultuous uh issues in 658 00:36:19,480 --> 00:36:23,160 Speaker 1: the past few years. We've seen publication houses closed down, 659 00:36:23,960 --> 00:36:27,080 Speaker 1: We've seen companies really downsize, so those people in the 660 00:36:27,120 --> 00:36:31,000 Speaker 1: downfall of print and and even yes, the great paper 661 00:36:31,080 --> 00:36:37,880 Speaker 1: revolution of twenty oh nine and I made up um yeah, no, 662 00:36:38,320 --> 00:36:40,839 Speaker 1: but no, there really has been a lot of of uh, 663 00:36:41,760 --> 00:36:44,520 Speaker 1: you know, turnaround because we've seen a lot of layoffs 664 00:36:44,600 --> 00:36:48,080 Speaker 1: things like that. So um, journalists, many journalists have turned 665 00:36:48,120 --> 00:36:51,919 Speaker 1: to the blogging world because I mean, that's that's where 666 00:36:51,920 --> 00:36:54,960 Speaker 1: their skill set is, and this provides them the opportunity 667 00:36:55,080 --> 00:36:57,880 Speaker 1: to continue the work that they've trained for and that 668 00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:00,160 Speaker 1: they love. Yeah, and and they still want to mean 669 00:37:00,239 --> 00:37:03,440 Speaker 1: people do still write and consume long form. I mean 670 00:37:03,520 --> 00:37:06,000 Speaker 1: I always tag them long reads with with a tiny 671 00:37:06,080 --> 00:37:09,279 Speaker 1: bit of ironic eyebrow involved when I when I post 672 00:37:09,360 --> 00:37:11,640 Speaker 1: links like this on Twitter. But you know, it's it's 673 00:37:11,840 --> 00:37:14,200 Speaker 1: as as busy as everybody is. I think that there 674 00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:16,520 Speaker 1: is always going to be room for for a little 675 00:37:16,560 --> 00:37:19,480 Speaker 1: bit of that of that good old blogging style. I agree, 676 00:37:19,640 --> 00:37:21,680 Speaker 1: and uh, you know, it's it's about once a year. 677 00:37:21,840 --> 00:37:23,480 Speaker 1: I think back in two thousand eleven, it was inc 678 00:37:23,560 --> 00:37:26,239 Speaker 1: five hundred reported that blogging had leveled off and was 679 00:37:26,320 --> 00:37:30,279 Speaker 1: in decline among its its top companies. And you know this, 680 00:37:30,440 --> 00:37:34,080 Speaker 1: this sponded entire internet full of blogging is dead. OMG 681 00:37:34,480 --> 00:37:38,279 Speaker 1: kind of kind of articles and buzz And I think 682 00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:40,640 Speaker 1: that what really summarizes that is Mitch Joel of Twist 683 00:37:40,719 --> 00:37:46,439 Speaker 1: Image suggested, is blogging dead or are useless blogs dying? Yeah? Yeah, 684 00:37:46,680 --> 00:37:50,439 Speaker 1: there's still plenty of sites out there that I really 685 00:37:50,520 --> 00:37:53,520 Speaker 1: consider blogs and they're doing quite well. And there's still 686 00:37:53,680 --> 00:37:56,800 Speaker 1: a lot of people who are independently blogging, but I 687 00:37:56,880 --> 00:37:59,920 Speaker 1: think they do get you know, people get weeded out. 688 00:38:00,239 --> 00:38:02,440 Speaker 1: Like if you don't get a lot of visitors to 689 00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:05,160 Speaker 1: your blog, it could mean one of many things. It 690 00:38:05,239 --> 00:38:07,440 Speaker 1: might just mean that your blog has low visibility, and 691 00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:09,800 Speaker 1: it doesn't necessarily mean that you're a poor writer or 692 00:38:09,840 --> 00:38:11,879 Speaker 1: anything like that. It just means that, you know, people 693 00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:15,320 Speaker 1: are having a hard time finding your voice, or it 694 00:38:15,400 --> 00:38:17,440 Speaker 1: could mean that you're not a great writer. I mean, 695 00:38:17,600 --> 00:38:20,279 Speaker 1: it's it's something that's a possibility. It could be that 696 00:38:20,360 --> 00:38:22,200 Speaker 1: you know, you're not striking a chord. And when I 697 00:38:22,239 --> 00:38:24,840 Speaker 1: say you, I don't mean you, listener. I'm sure you 698 00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:30,879 Speaker 1: are an amazing la hopefully pathetically Yeah so. But yeah, 699 00:38:31,040 --> 00:38:33,440 Speaker 1: And if you're wondering why we even brought this up, 700 00:38:33,520 --> 00:38:35,759 Speaker 1: the reason why we brought it up is that, uh, 701 00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:40,200 Speaker 1: one of the social platforms I'm on that I'm sure 702 00:38:40,320 --> 00:38:44,440 Speaker 1: many of our listeners are on is linked In, and uh, 703 00:38:44,800 --> 00:38:46,480 Speaker 1: every now and then, you know, LinkedIn gave you the 704 00:38:46,520 --> 00:38:50,040 Speaker 1: ability to endorse people for certain skills. And I had 705 00:38:50,120 --> 00:38:53,440 Speaker 1: received some responses about people endorsing me for different things, 706 00:38:53,480 --> 00:38:55,600 Speaker 1: and I thought, you know, I hardly ever do that, 707 00:38:55,680 --> 00:38:57,760 Speaker 1: and I really should. I should pay it forward because 708 00:38:57,840 --> 00:38:59,160 Speaker 1: I know a lot of these people, and I know 709 00:38:59,239 --> 00:39:01,600 Speaker 1: what they're capable of. I should endorse them for the 710 00:39:01,719 --> 00:39:05,840 Speaker 1: things I know that they do. I could not believe 711 00:39:06,480 --> 00:39:10,319 Speaker 1: how many of my my links listed blogging as one 712 00:39:10,400 --> 00:39:15,520 Speaker 1: of their skills. Like, like it was back when I 713 00:39:15,600 --> 00:39:18,800 Speaker 1: made a resume, saying that you had a proficiency in 714 00:39:18,920 --> 00:39:23,200 Speaker 1: Microsoft Office was the thing. Today it looks like it's blogging. Wow, 715 00:39:23,400 --> 00:39:25,719 Speaker 1: that you just I'm not sure if you've if you 716 00:39:25,840 --> 00:39:28,640 Speaker 1: told me this before, about this, this genesis of this topic, 717 00:39:28,760 --> 00:39:31,920 Speaker 1: I have forgotten it completely because this is actively blowing 718 00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:33,680 Speaker 1: my mind. Yeah, and it was just one of those 719 00:39:33,680 --> 00:39:35,960 Speaker 1: things where as I was going down endorsing people for 720 00:39:36,200 --> 00:39:37,839 Speaker 1: the stuff I knew, because I mean, I'm only going 721 00:39:37,880 --> 00:39:40,279 Speaker 1: to endorse them for the stuff I know that they do, right, 722 00:39:40,400 --> 00:39:43,440 Speaker 1: I Mean, my credibility is something I take very seriously, 723 00:39:44,120 --> 00:39:48,040 Speaker 1: despite all despite all outward appearances. But yeah, I was 724 00:39:48,239 --> 00:39:50,800 Speaker 1: I was going through and I'm just like, wow, I 725 00:39:51,440 --> 00:39:53,880 Speaker 1: have never known this person. I mean, I'm sure they 726 00:39:53,960 --> 00:39:57,399 Speaker 1: have blogged, but I'm unfamiliar with their work. I didn't 727 00:39:57,440 --> 00:39:59,000 Speaker 1: know that that was one of their like top five 728 00:39:59,080 --> 00:40:03,200 Speaker 1: professional quality. Yeah, and and it was. It was repeatedly 729 00:40:03,320 --> 00:40:05,279 Speaker 1: popping up, and I think it's almost became like the 730 00:40:05,680 --> 00:40:09,160 Speaker 1: catch all, like better throw blogging in there. I mean, yeah, 731 00:40:09,480 --> 00:40:11,120 Speaker 1: that's that's crazy to me. I mean, you know it 732 00:40:11,280 --> 00:40:13,160 Speaker 1: certainly not begrudging anyone who does it, because a lot 733 00:40:13,160 --> 00:40:15,239 Speaker 1: of people are way more serious about blogging than I am. 734 00:40:15,280 --> 00:40:17,880 Speaker 1: I've always used it as a very personal, very hobbyist 735 00:40:18,040 --> 00:40:20,359 Speaker 1: kind of thing. Most of the time, I'm talking about 736 00:40:20,400 --> 00:40:22,920 Speaker 1: things that are completely off color or ridiculous, or I'm 737 00:40:22,960 --> 00:40:25,600 Speaker 1: just talking about OCTOPI I don't know, you know, it's 738 00:40:25,680 --> 00:40:30,520 Speaker 1: nothing octopus. An octopus can change its color and shape 739 00:40:30,560 --> 00:40:33,960 Speaker 1: and texture. That's very quickly, less than a second. You 740 00:40:34,120 --> 00:40:37,960 Speaker 1: clearly have blogged about this. No, I was the same 741 00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:39,799 Speaker 1: way like I was using until I worked for How 742 00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:42,560 Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I would use blogs essentially to I have 743 00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:46,279 Speaker 1: some ridiculous thought and I would have feel like a 744 00:40:46,400 --> 00:40:50,600 Speaker 1: compulsion to post it somewhere. So yeah, I honestly haven't 745 00:40:50,760 --> 00:40:52,680 Speaker 1: gone back and visited. The other thing is that when 746 00:40:52,719 --> 00:40:54,680 Speaker 1: I visited those old blog posts, I would read them 747 00:40:54,680 --> 00:40:58,800 Speaker 1: and think, man, I used to be funny. I'm like 748 00:40:58,920 --> 00:41:00,759 Speaker 1: that every five years, be five years, I can go 749 00:41:00,840 --> 00:41:02,319 Speaker 1: back and look at what I did five years ago 750 00:41:02,320 --> 00:41:04,400 Speaker 1: and think, Man, what happened? I used to be I 751 00:41:04,520 --> 00:41:06,239 Speaker 1: used to be really good. Probably just I just don't 752 00:41:06,280 --> 00:41:08,879 Speaker 1: remember anything that I've written more than three days ago. Yeah, 753 00:41:08,920 --> 00:41:10,160 Speaker 1: that's why I have to go back and reach it. 754 00:41:10,239 --> 00:41:12,239 Speaker 1: It's like a goldfish. I'm like, oh man, this is great, 755 00:41:12,280 --> 00:41:15,480 Speaker 1: oh man, this is great. Well, we think blogging is great. 756 00:41:15,680 --> 00:41:17,359 Speaker 1: We There are a lot of blogs that I visit 757 00:41:17,400 --> 00:41:19,799 Speaker 1: on a regular basis, and whenever I discover a new one, 758 00:41:19,920 --> 00:41:22,800 Speaker 1: I'm always excited. There's a couple of regional ones that 759 00:41:22,880 --> 00:41:24,919 Speaker 1: I go to all the time here in Atlanta because 760 00:41:25,480 --> 00:41:28,080 Speaker 1: it's a great way of keeping up with news about 761 00:41:28,280 --> 00:41:32,880 Speaker 1: various communities and when that Mexican restaurant's finally gonna open. Um. 762 00:41:33,320 --> 00:41:35,160 Speaker 1: It's a topic that we're really interested in. But if 763 00:41:35,160 --> 00:41:37,759 Speaker 1: you guys have any topics you think that we should cover, 764 00:41:38,200 --> 00:41:40,719 Speaker 1: I highly recommend you get in touch with us. Our 765 00:41:40,800 --> 00:41:44,360 Speaker 1: email address is tex Stuff at Discovery dot com, or 766 00:41:44,520 --> 00:41:46,120 Speaker 1: you can get in touch with us on Twitter or 767 00:41:46,160 --> 00:41:49,279 Speaker 1: Facebook or a handle. There is text up hs W 768 00:41:50,080 --> 00:41:52,560 Speaker 1: and Lauren and I will talk to you again really 769 00:41:52,640 --> 00:41:58,440 Speaker 1: soon for more on this and thousands of other topics. 770 00:41:58,600 --> 00:42:03,160 Speaker 1: Does it how stuff works dot com, um p check