It seems as though I’m always late to the party. In September 2010, I launched Dating Dementia when there were already close to 150 million blogs in existence. Now, just as I begin to hit my stride, I learn blogs have probably had their day in the sun and now are on the way out.
Damn.
Evidently, fewer people are starting blogs, more and more blogs are being abandoned and only 37% of companies even have a blog today — down from 50% in 2010. Recently, in USA Today, a headline proclaimed “Blogs are slogs, so companies just quit.”
Ouch.
In this same article, USA Today reporter Roger Yu writes: “With the emergence of social media, more companies are replacing blogs with nimbler tools requiring less time and resources, such as Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter.” Not to mention, Google+, Pinterest, Quora, as well as whatever will be the next big social media thing. Yu summaries in his article that the obvious downward trend, “…is consistent with the broader loss of interest in blogging among all consumers.”
Sigh.
Yu reports some really big companies, like Bank of America, have dropped their blogs entirely. OKCupid, The dating website published a popular blog ranked one of the 25 best by Time magazine in 2011, but this year it stopped posting.
Yikes.
Personally, I’ve noticed bloggers I follow are narrowing their focus in order to better market their writing. Others, who were maintaining several blogs, have pared down to just one.
It’s certainly true that blogging takes time, energy, commitment and a bit of money. At first, I was looking at my Dating Dementia as a potential source of income. Could I make a living from my blog as a few blogging superstars do? As I near completing my second year of blogging, I think I know the answer.
Nada.
Adjusting my viewpoint, I now see Dating Dementia more as a labor of love. It’s an outlet for me to express my creativity and connect with other writers online as well as in person at blogging confabs. I also have to admit it is really, really cheap therapy. Other bloggers will know what I mean about the therapy.
For now, I’m going to hang in there with my blogging. Perhaps the natural weeding-out process is good and those who keep slogging away will even attract larger followings. Wouldn’t that be nice?
Absolutely.
So, yes, I was once again late to the party. However, “better late than never” is my mantra. I’m enjoying every single minute of my own blogging party, and I’ll probably be the last to leave.
This whole topic about midlife and boomer women and new lifestyle alternatives has been my passion for what seems a lifetime. So glad to see this topic NOW.
I am so passionate about "all things alternative lifestyle options" that I wrote a book in
Why would you want to make up with a boyfriend that keeps ignoring you? His stonewalling means he is not boyfriend material anyway.
OMG... watermusic you're making me LOL... I just gave up perfection about 5 years ago... and I swear my life is easier in many ways and more fun... but every now and them procrastination (perfection) tries to raise her head...
Thanks for sharing 
Nancy, I’ve had my blog, Lesa’s Book Critiques, for over 7 years. I began it as a labor of love, as you said, where I could share my love of books. As long as I have readers who are as excited about books and authors as I am, I’ll probably continue to blog. As you said, good therapy!
Nancy, don’t worry. Remember that defensive - tho catchy – song, “Rock and Roll is Here to Stay”– ? And lo and behold it’s still with us after all these years…..
I began writing to achieve catharsis on a thorny problem, and it worked! Catharsis in some form may be why many (most?) of us blog. Nothing to be ashamed of, and even if we don’t have 1000 hits a day it’s still an honorable pursuit, much like being a diarist (think of Frida Kahlo, Sylvia Plath, Ann Morrow Lindberg, Alanis Morrisette…).
I’m headed for NYC as the only one of four women panelists who makes no money from my blog. I confess to starting out with the impossible dream – a first-line publisher would find my wisdom so compelling I’d be signed up for a hard-cover book within months. But I’m not a very good self-promoter, and even if I were, I wouldn’t be the next Margaret Atwood.
Realistically? If we apply our culture’s next-big-thing perspective….blogs could be a yesterday thing pretty soon.