I spent more than a little time clicking that little "next blog" button at the top of my screen tonight. I didn't count the number of blogs I glanced at, but I'm sure it was more than 50. It didn't take long to discover some trends.
1. The majority of what I saw was in a foreign language. Foreign to me anyway... Primarily Spanish (I think), but with a dose of some Asian languages and a couple of Eastern European.
2. Photography blogs are popular. I could even tell the ones that were in a foreign language.
3. A healthy mix of personal and professional blogs, although there were a few that handled both. Not many that were obviously selling something though. It seemed to be people trying to make a hobby a little more worthwhile than just a pastime.
4. Then there were the topical blogs. Talk about very specific! I mean really, one just for the vegetarian haunts of Singapore? Maybe that's a really popular topic there, but who knew...?
5. Then there were the travelers. I don't know where the people started out, but there are more than a few that use blogs to archive their adventures. I think that's cool!
6. Then there are the family blogs. Most I saw were handled by the wife/mom, but a few seemed to be a hub & wifey collaboration. What a great way to keep family & friends up to date! Lots of good amateur photogs out there too! I did notice however that family blogs had mostly other families in their 'blog friends' list. Not saying there's anything to that, but thought it was something to mention. Although I'm certain it's just a means to show off the kids. :)
7. Women. Most are written by women. In fact...I would guesstimate that 80% of them are. Where's all the guys! I found a couple by guys and subscribed, so maybe I'll find that elusive male blogger network that must be as prolific as the female one.... Yeah, right.
It was interesting...to say the least.
EDIT: I forgot about the student's blogs! I think it's a fantastic idea for students of creative studies to use blogs as their portfolio. There are quite a few young people that seem to be far more self aware than I remember being at that age. Go for it!
I've noticed many of these same trends over the years. #7 has been true since the beginning and photo blogs are popular because they don't require a lot of writing. Post a black and white picture of a dog with a pensive look, crop it just right and call it art.
ReplyDeleteFunny... I was going to suggest aliencg's blog as a guy blog... but he's here commenting. Ha.
ReplyDeleteAnother couple are Throwawayblog by dmarks and Suldog by himself. All three have different styles. I like them all.
The reason I showed up here is to ask about the RSS thingie you suggested at Raising Sunny. Where exactly do you find that?
Nice post. Thanks!
Hello Ananda girl!
ReplyDeleteAbout that RSS thingie...
Just a quick thing on RSS in general: Most sites now have something they call a RSS Feed. For instance, a news site might have a RSS Feed that give access to a simpler version of the news they post on their main site. No ads, fewer graphics, etc...
As it relates to blogs: In your Blogger dashboard, you have the blogs that you follow. If you go to Google.com, you'll see some hyperlinks at the top right corner. Under the "more" link, there's another link, "reader". If you click that, you'll find the Google RSS Reader. The address for it is http://www.google.com/reader
If you open that and are already signed in to your Google account, it will automatically find the blogs you've subscribed to through your Blogger dashboard. It does pretty much the exact same thing, but it doesn't cram it into as small a window and it will keep track of what posts you haven't read yet. It looks almost exactly like your email inbox.
Hope that helps. Thanks for reading my stuff 'n junk.
Interesting observations. I wish the next blog thing would have a way to weed out the ones in Sanskrit or Klingon.
ReplyDeleteNo kidding, dmarks! I was hunting around for the search options, but apparently there aren't any available with the 'Next Blog' button.
ReplyDelete