Consider this:
A small town newspaper, with one reporter, one editor, one distribution manager, one advertising manger and one printer (all of whom are the same person) produces one edition per day.
The ONLY people who read this edition are the OTHER small town newspapers (those that also have a single reporter, editor, etc. all of whom are also a single person).
Imagine a network of small town newspapers that are read ONLY by other small town newspapers.
Does that strike you as strange? This is blogging.
Wouldn’t you, as a small town news/editor producer, want to have your paper read by other folks besides the editor of just the next-town-over newspaper? I would think that as a custom content provider you’d want to infiltrate other markets that are NOT just small town newspapers, right?
Something’s wrong here. It’s like were all just piranha (some small, some huge) all swimming in the same stretch of river. All feeding off of each other. What sense is that?
Why would I care that what I write is read by the next-town-over’s sole reporter/editor? Their town’s people ain’t gonna buy a copy of MY paper. (Nor will they actually by a copy of that editor’s paper…)
Blogging, as it turns out, is this incestuous, internally facing universe of people, writing, not for the world, not to be read by the “public”, but to be read by other bloggers — other small town newspaper reporters.
That seems like a broken model to me.
Anonymole - apocryphal agitators 
Haha! There is indeed something in what you’re saying 😀 This is why social media and SEO is important, though. My Facebook readers aren’t usually bloggers, and I’ve just started out on YouTube, which has a totally different audience… And a lot of my followers on WordPress does not really publish anything either, really. But indeed, we need our fellow bloggers 😉
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In reality, and knowing the editor and sole publisher and really good photographer of the Canadian Record, Canadian, Texas and married to someone who worked on digitizing the SMU collection, there is a mechanism. That is operated under and driven by the Digital Humanities project, an umbrella over Digital Scholarship and historical archiving which is a HUGE can of worms. Want to read most of the small town newspapers? Google Texas Portal. Pick one. I’m sure there’s one where you are.
I keep following, getting kicked out. By cosmic design?
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Hmm, no, unless you’ve earn some “brownies-made-from-shit” points somewhere along the line and WP has it out for you, cosmically speaking. I’ll check though.
Texas Portal… is that anything to do with Goatse?
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No, that’s one of the Dakotas…
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It all depends on motivation. I do it as an outlet and also as an attempt at interaction with less prejudices and expectations than “real life”. One can end up relating to and learning from people we’d normally never spend time with.
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Well, blogging isn’t the only thing like this… Fashion shows are only watched by people who make clothes or sell clothes. People who read academic papers are people who also write/hope to write academic papers. Even some of the big newspaper articles are written for the sake of appraisal by other journalists. I do agree with you that it’s unhealthy though and creates a vulnerable system, in general, but blogging is mostly for fun, so I don’t think it’s an issue. A niche hobby is just that – and you can’t necessarily expect the wider population to get it, imho
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You do have a point.
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I’ve thought of this before, actually. I have a group of readers who are not bloggers, but still friends and family. In fact, before I starting interacting with other bloggers last summer I had a year and a half of content read ONLY by friends and family. Back then, that was enough.
And I thought, “why would I care if other bloggers read what I write?”
But the most fun I’ve had in this was interacting with other bloggers. So, I suppose, it’s all a matter of perspective.
I look at the blogosphere, now, as a sort of advanced social media, and as a vast writing club. For those who wished to get published in some way, this is a great testing ground (as George pointed out), for others it is a way to discover the works of other writers, and for folks like me it’s a fun (and often insightful) way to mingle with bright people.
So, I say, take from it what you want. I don’t think the model is broken, it’s just a different model. 🙂
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OK, not broken, per se, but shifted considerably from what a blog’s intent was originally out there to do (way back when Web Logs were discovered/dreamed up).
It is a club now. In fact, we’re rather surrounded by these clubs. An internet of memberships. (Waxing nostalgic here, ignore me.)
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No, I think I agree with that. Obviously, I don’t know the original intent, but it was probably to spread the thoughts of the individual to a wide and diverse growing internet public. But I think it became more social media than news outlet, per se. Just like every Facebooker is read by other Facebookers, every blog is read by bloggers. Or, at least, most of them. Some of them “break through” to the public.
And I would venture to say that most who blog, despite what most might say, would love to be the next to be “discovered.” For money, for fame, or just for validation.
But I don’t think the “inbred” nature of the blogosphere actually invalidates its uses. Some do indeed gain what they need from one another out there and, like other forms of electronic interaction, friends and relationships are made.
But, great insights! Like I said, I’ve thought quite a bit about this myself. 😉
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Nah, I’m gonna buy your book bro. And, as I’ve stated many times, it’s not about the blog. It’s about the book. Which is why my posts are only up for 3 days, max. I DO appreciate the feedback i receive from my posts and that was an unintentional consequence. I don’t care how many “followers” I have…that’s meaningless. Just sayin’ I enjoy posting my “first draft” just to “test the market.” All FYI.
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But, who reads your drafts? The public — in general? Or wordpress bloggers? (exclusively?)
This post was just something that kind of shocked me as I thought of it. My old blog was just a web page — for anyone to read. Here? It’s just other bloggers who read it (if anyone does at all.)
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Bloggers read my drafts, of course. At least it’s audience that’s writing, and many are trying to get published. Or have gotten published, like yourself. Good enuf for me, for now.
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Here’s another blogger trying to get a book deal on “InkItt.” Follow the link in her blog and see it for yourself. This is exactly the audience I want… you, and people like her!
https://hlsailer.wordpress.com/2018/04/08/yeah-book-update/comment-page-1/#comment-740
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Question..and apologies if I’ve missed this..what are your reasons for blogging? Just interested to know?
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Blogging – Mostly a personal diary. For years I just wrote things that nobody ever read. Just me unpacking my brain on to the page.
And a “blog” back when I started was just a web page. WordPress, specifically, now, is more a club for bloggers. Sure, many people, and companies have public blogs that are not member oriented. But here? It’s pretty much a solid 100% bloggers only thing.
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