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Seth Godin has a nice post today entitled "The noise tragedy of the blog commons." In it, Godin discusses the growing clutter of the blogosphere and makes a few predictions about what it will take to survive and thrive into the future.
I kinda, sorta wrote about this a few weeks back in an entry I titled, "Longterm blogospheric success resides in not sucking."
Godin says, "RSS fatigue is already setting in. While multiple posts get you more traffic, they also make it easy to lose loyal readers.
"Without friction, without a gate on the clutter, we clearly face a commons problem. Here, though, instead of people taking too much of a shared physical good because they have nothing to lose, the problem is surplus. By writing too much, too often, we're trouncing on the attention of the commons."
I couldn't agree more and am struggling myself to find the appropriate balance between too much and not enough; too long and too short. In the end, not sucking.
Our own industry of recruiting is struggling with the same issues, I'm sure. For example, Recruiting.com is becoming overkill for me (I don't speak for everyone, obviously), while I'd like more of ERE's David Manaster.
So what's the key to a blog built for longterm success?
Godin says, "I think the answer is subtle and simple: over time, as blogs reach the mass market, the number of new readers coming in is going to go down, and the percentage of loyal readers will increase. The loyal readers are going to matter more.
"Blogs with restraint, selectivity, cogency and brevity (okay, that's a long way of saying 'making every word count') will use attention more efficiently and ought to win."
Notice "controversial" wasn't mentioned? Here's to everyone finding their own private "subtle and simple."
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