I wrote something about this over at CV and even submitted it to slashdot. I think the Gawker model is exploitative and dangerous.
At SXSW you said that the best way to make money was with good content. Now these idiots are paying for quantity, not quality. We'll all suffer in the end.
symbianguru
· 1 year ago
Never in my career did I have an issue with working too much. I've always been a strictly leave at 5-530p guy, until I started blogging. I quickly noticed that I was working 12-14hrs/day. One of the best things I started doing was literally setting a timer. I'm only allowed to blog for 8-10hrs/day, after that, I turn off the volume on my laptop and close the lid. Period.
I can still blog at night, but no more than 8-10hrs/day, broken up however is appropriate. I've actually noticed I'm more productive because there's less dilly-dallying, since I know I only have a set amount of time.
And yes, I agree 100% with you, Scoble. Everything'll kill you if you give it the chance. Remember when chewing gum would kill you?
Tales
· 1 year ago
Admit it, you were in the coffee shops all the time:) there was no time to blog. j/k
Robert Scoble
· 1 year ago
Tales: we didn't visit a single coffee shop, unfortunately. Only two nights in Amsterdam. First night Rocky and I were totally jet lagged. Second night we partied all night with geeks at the conference after party.
Chris
· 1 year ago
I was banned something like a year ago because that cartoon lady was e-fighting with me. I am breaking the ban to say that we're up and running in SoCal starting next week. http://kepler.sos.ca.gov/corpdata/ShowLpllcAllL... We'll be at Adtech on the 15-16 visiting clients and Duc from Rubicon Project passing out business cards. We're doing a large jobs site based on YUI. As per the topic, I found that blogging was lame, and stopped. It was probably the biggest waste of time I've encountered. It's different when they pay you though, so I have no comment on sponsored blogging. I guess it's as good as doing anything else for money.
Pamela Skillings
· 1 year ago
You really have to admire some of the bloggers who find time to offer insightful posts several times per day.
But I have seen the other school of thought work effectively (Robert Scoble case in point) - of offering a thoughtful post every few days.
You're better off posting a longer 500-2000+ word evergreen article twice per week - that is ofcouse if your niche lends itself to it.
paul
· 1 year ago
If blogging was a killer you would have died long ago, or maybe you're a lolcat with 9 lives....
Alex Hammer
· 1 year ago
Robert, you are a smart man, with a good sense of balance (perspective) along with your extreme dedication. You may amount to something (lol, as you already very well have).
Barbara Duck
· 1 year ago
Yes I agree, blogging has brought a lot of great people together and a great way of sharing information. On the subject of drinking the water, I see it this way, the folks are flushing the wrong drugs down the pipe, we get antibiotics and pain killers in the water; where's the Prozac to calm the anxieties of the bloggers?
A little demented humor on the items at hand:) We all do need to force ourselves to take a break here and there too...good point.
Martin
· 1 year ago
I'm confused. I read the NY Times article, and don't see Scoble's name mentioned at all. Where does it say that you are going to die if you blog?
You clearly don't "blog" to the extent that sites such as Gizmodo or Techcrunch do. Your model is obviously sustainable.
Short version: the article isn't aimed at blogs like yours.
Florian Hollender
· 1 year ago
Gosh, I even named my blog KillerConsultant ... so this means I am doomed for sure, right?
Seriously though - looking at the NYT article and OM's post (http://is.gd/4pO), I think as screenworkers we are in danger to ignore our natural rythms, be it because we blog for fun after work, because we blog for money, or because there just is no sleep in the internet.
Rich Miller
· 1 year ago
Blogs are simply the new form factor for journalistic excess and exhaustion. Reporters at newspapers and magazines have never had any trouble working themselves into serious health problems when driven by the nature of their jobs or size of their ambitions. You think politial reporters covering campaigns don't wind up overtired and overcaffeinated? I worked in newsrooms for 20 years, and saw plenty of this.
Many journalists are adrenaline junkies, and blogs, RSS and 24-hour news channels make excess more accessible. That holds true in both newsrooms and home offices.
2xvoice
· 1 year ago
The big political economy question is: Who's making the money while all these blogger schlepps wear themselves out? Freelancers used to work their butts off for peanuts. Now we have bloggers, MySpacers, Facebookers, etc., working even harder and not getting paid at all, yours truly included. Just goes to show you: Writers are sluts -- we'll do anything to get, um, published. Victor Kulkosky http://outofmymindblog.wordpress.com
Bam Azizi
· 1 year ago
It is my personal opinion that while there are many blogs coming out with the intention of global success, however in the near future we will see a huge rise locally operated and targeted blogs for every city on this planet. This movement basically eliminated the need to read news papers!
That's why NY Times is picking on blogs
charlieoliver
· 1 year ago
Honestly, those with health issues are no different than every other middle-aged man with health issues who does nothing to rectify the issue. These men probably aren't much different than the average workaholic who needs to have his health looked at, basically all this article did was define blogging as a job with the possibility of there being workaholism associated with it. These guys are addicted to their jobs.
The benefits of said job as you stated here only make it more addicting because there ARE positive benefits to all of the social media.
Whats next, "In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Twitterers Tweet Till They Drop " They'd probably have to go back to the editor for the title though, too many T's.
Bob
· 1 year ago
Hmmm...I read that whole article, then read this blog post, then went back and RE-READ the article, and sure enough not once is your name mentioned. An article about blogging where Scoble's name is NOT mentioned? That's gotta hurt! I know it's tough to get your head around, but not every blogging story is about YOU.
sahabat88
· 1 year ago
its difficult to manage both blogging and actvity in several day. dobt push your self to blogging,..i think is really great blogging is colour your life. salamhangat>/a> :D
Forget dying...the NYTs should have added a piece about the DEPRESSION bloggers endure when they don't receive comments.
Neal
· 1 year ago
You may die but in your blog you will live forever. 500 years from now schoolchildren and historians will be mousing on you.
Or not.
Christopher Coulter
· 1 year ago
What did I do instead?
Flap around all over the net, putting out fires over the Shel dust-up. I thought with Fascompany, you'd have a stable environment to finally get it right. Microsoft was too political, Podtech was clinically insane, Fast seemed ideal. But no, shaky phone cam videos, with the usual-suspect rambling-boring tech interviews and Shel proving he was a bad host choice, second by second. With Loren's triumphant return, satire extraordinaire. Great entertainment at least.
all work kills us, its just how the system works, blogging dosent differ from dying as a cubicle monkey, in a car accident, in a war, etc...studies show people before organized agriculture, industrialization, and nation states lived longer and happier...the new York times is just trying to shut down the greatest threat to its company and that is blogs, bloggers and blogging...don't let some sleazy corporation stop the revolution!
All Comments
At SXSW you said that the best way to make money was with good content. Now these idiots are paying for quantity, not quality. We'll all suffer in the end.
I can still blog at night, but no more than 8-10hrs/day, broken up however is appropriate. I've actually noticed I'm more productive because there's less dilly-dallying, since I know I only have a set amount of time.
And yes, I agree 100% with you, Scoble. Everything'll kill you if you give it the chance. Remember when chewing gum would kill you?
j/k
http://kepler.sos.ca.gov/corpdata/ShowLpllcAllL...
We'll be at Adtech on the 15-16 visiting clients and Duc from Rubicon Project passing out business cards. We're doing a large jobs site based on YUI.
As per the topic, I found that blogging was lame, and stopped. It was probably the biggest waste of time I've encountered. It's different when they pay you though, so I have no comment on sponsored blogging. I guess it's as good as doing anything else for money.
But I have seen the other school of thought work effectively (Robert Scoble case in point) - of offering a thoughtful post every few days.
You're better off posting a longer 500-2000+ word evergreen article twice per week - that is ofcouse if your niche lends itself to it.
A little demented humor on the items at hand:) We all do need to force ourselves to take a break here and there too...good point.
You clearly don't "blog" to the extent that sites such as Gizmodo or Techcrunch do. Your model is obviously sustainable.
Short version: the article isn't aimed at blogs like yours.
Seriously though - looking at the NYT article and OM's post (http://is.gd/4pO), I think as screenworkers we are in danger to ignore our natural rythms, be it because we blog for fun after work, because we blog for money, or because there just is no sleep in the internet.
Many journalists are adrenaline junkies, and blogs, RSS and 24-hour news channels make excess more accessible. That holds true in both newsrooms and home offices.
Victor Kulkosky
http://outofmymindblog.wordpress.com
That's why NY Times is picking on blogs
These men probably aren't much different than the average workaholic who needs to have his health looked at, basically all this article did was define blogging as a job with the possibility of there being workaholism associated with it. These guys are addicted to their jobs.
The benefits of said job as you stated here only make it more addicting because there ARE positive benefits to all of the social media.
Whats next, "In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Twitterers Tweet Till They Drop " They'd probably have to go back to the editor for the title though, too many T's.
salamhangat>/a>
:D
I am guessing you just included yourself amongst those "tens of thousands of bloggers" ... that's fair.
http://ideaburger.blogspot.com/2008/04/dark-sid...
Jay, from Bangalore
Or not.
Flap around all over the net, putting out fires over the Shel dust-up. I thought with Fascompany, you'd have a stable environment to finally get it right. Microsoft was too political, Podtech was clinically insane, Fast seemed ideal. But no, shaky phone cam videos, with the usual-suspect rambling-boring tech interviews and Shel proving he was a bad host choice, second by second. With Loren's triumphant return, satire extraordinaire. Great entertainment at least.
http://dailycrud.com/
http://collegemogul.com
The theme of the article was balance - which is a good topic anyways.
However, the generalization across the blogopshere was a stretch. My take on the article is here:
http://blog.lifebeyondcode.com/2008/04/06/nytim...
My $.02 of course.
Best,
Raj