It is our belief that blogging hasn’t come close to reaching critical mass. At this year’s South by Southwest Interactive, it was on everyone’s lips, sure, but, let’s face it: what else would a crowd of geeks discuss (yes, we know, there was plenty of that going on as well)? So before the majority of the world discovers the magic ‘sphere, an entire generation of bloggers will be burnt out and weaning themselves from their addiction. They will be the web’s Velvet Underground.
Why is this happening? It turns out that some blogs are the victims of their own success:
Billmon’s [Whiskey Bar] inability to keep up with the demands of moderating comments in the face of a job, family and other responsibilities is just one manifestation of a problem increasingly faced by popular daily bloggers: burnout. While they enjoy what they’re doing, many find that keeping up with the pressures to post regularly and to be sharp, witty and incisive is often too much.
Yeah, we get the sharp, witty, and incisive thing. It’s rough. Our advice: don’t even try. Not worth it. Follow our lead and go for dull and factual. And, for heaven’s sake, don’t be so darn predictable:
“I know that if I go more than about five or six hours without posting, or telling people that I’m not going to be blogging for the rest of the day,” said [Glenn] Reynolds [Instapundit], readers e-mail him and say, “You haven’t posted anything in five or six hours. Are you OK?”
There is a cure for blogging burnout (isn’t it amazing how we have a solution for everything? How is that we are not as famous as Dear Abby?). Control your destiny. Step away from the blog. Hire a guest blogger (we’re not sure about this concept, but have come to accept it as something normal, sort of like when we get a substitute mailman). Post less often — they’ll get used to it. Pretend you live on a desert island and can only devote a small amount of time per day to your blog. Or start a blogging equivalent of a flame war and force all your readers to abandon you in a huff. Yes, we’re trying to offer solutions that fit all personalities.
Remember bloggers: every kid who reads your blog is going to start their own.
- Bloggers Suffer Burnout
- Whiskey Bar (closed, but you can peek in the windows and admire the neon)
- Instapundit
