Staying Old School: A Paean to the Blogs of Yore
I didn’t start this blog in the heyday of blogging, back in the late 90s and throughout the 00s.
Nope, a slow adopter, I waited until 2012 to launch what was at first a site just with my name on it and that only evolved into its current state as Observing Leslie.
Yet, despite its evolutions in format and name, the site very much has the form of an old-school blog.
Say what?
Many people—the ones who don’t express surprise that anyone still blogs—ask what I mean by “old-school blog.”
Let’s revisit the heady debut of blogging when a larger group than only the tech-capable could start one. I remember having a folder of bookmarks on my computer browser back in the days of dial-up Internet that I would check daily for new posts. Later, I had an RSS feed that alerted me to new posts on blogs I followed. (These types of readers still give blog readers the best way to ensure they don’t miss posts; read my article about how to follow sites other than via algorithm-driven social media feeds.)
I didn’t know personally any of these bloggers when I started following their blogs (even if I met some of them in person later); I found the blogs from word-of-mouth, whether in person or via other blogs I followed. Social media in its current form didn’t exist yet, don’t forget. When I found blogs interesting or engaging, , either in general or on a topic of common interest, I bookmarked them.
The blogging world evolved from there; when some blogs achieved enough popularity to spin off book deals and other commercial prospects, businesses got into the mix. Then search engines gained technological power, making ensuring sites—whether business and e-commerce sites or personal blogs—had optimization for search engines critical to getting “found.”
What it meant to optimize a site for search engines never felt entirely clear to anyone—even the experts—and it continually shifted and continues to shift. Entire companies and professions now revolve around “SEO,” or search-engine optimization.
When the corporatization began, blogging changed character entirely from people posting essays and diaries and recipes and opinion pieces and short stories—simply to share and connect and have fun—to people and businesses posting for branding and marketing and, well, profit.
And then social media hit the landscape. People moved there for the wild-and-woolly wilderness of play it provided—at that time and, alas, only for a time. Social media platforms ultimately finished off blogs, which had already started to suffer from commercialization.
But here’s the thing: I really miss old-school blogs.
Many times (currently several times a day, in fact) have I gotten offers from businesses about commercializing this site. Many times (quite often, actually) I’ve had people tell me I need to “monetize” this blog.
And I haven’t and I won’t.
Though I do sometimes wonder why I bother. Blogging takes work, after all. And in addition to the time cost, it has financial cost as well.
And then I’ll receive an e-mail or a comment from someone responding to something I figured I’d tossed out into the void on this site, never to interest anyone. Some of these people even stick around, return to the site on occasion to see what’s new, and sign up for the Letter and even respond to it.
And all of that? All of that keeps me going. That stuff makes my day. My week, even.
Yet here I am looking ahead at another blogging year—the year ahead takes me solidly into the site’s second decade of keeping this blog—and I wonder, as I do every year, how to increase conversation and connection with my regular readers and how to find more kindred spirits out there in the world who wouldn’t mind stopping by this site once in a while and even “chatting” via comments and e-mail.
Not that anyone has to do so, but because I love it when they do.
So I figured I’d toss out to my readers a few of the questions I pose myself, in hopes for feedback and insights from what’s proved an amazing group of smart and interesting people:
What do you like best that I post here currently?
Of what I share, what doesn’t interest you quite as much as the other stuff?
What would you like me to write about more often?
What don’t I write about that you’d like to read?
Do I post too frequently, not frequently enough, or just the right amount?
In posing these questions, I risk inducing people to tell me how to better “market” or “promote” this blog. Please understand that while I know about many opportunities to do so, I don’t ask for that advice here. (Also: Do recall that I’ve spent the majority of my career in marketing—so I likely know more about it than most.)
I really do quite simply want to know what of what I write my readers enjoy most and what they enjoy least—and what they would like to hear about that I haven’t addressed to date.
Do I promise that I’ll take all the advice given? Nope. Could be I don’t feel qualified to cover the topic proposed or could be I consider the subject too private or could be that I don’t find the inquiry personally interesting enough to do the necessary research and writing and editing and formatting and all the rest of the work that goes into each one of these articles.
If you have any thoughts to share, please do! You can toss them into the comments below or you can send me an e-mail via the Contact form on the site, if you prefer that route.
I look forward to reading your notes!