AFTER I FINISHED READING more than 200 comments to Una Mullally's post on Irish blogging, I realised that blogs in Ireland are no longer friendly hitching posts in cyberspace. Today, many of my respected conversationalists use other methods, such as Qik video clips at left. Five years ago, you could click through Irish blogs and get an interesting digest of things worthy of consideration by local newspaper editors. Some of the topics encouraged quality debate and discourse but with micro-content options like Twitter and Facebook, there's a less compelling social reason to run a blog today. When you consider the phenomenal growth of Facebook in Ireland and look at the sustained development of Twitter, it's easy to see where new bloggers encamp today. If you're thinking about hanging out online, you're probably going to hang out on Facebook or send a few tweets to people in your own time zone. And when you interact that way, you'll get faster feedback. In a lot of people's minds, that means you're getting better social interaction than with a longer blog post. So from my seat, a place where I teach third level students how to blog, I'm using a list of bloggers who use Twitter as the first port of entry for newbies. I'm also showing unfamiliar students newsfeeds on Facebook and daily digests on LinkedIn. Both of those places incorporate a flow of interesting points percolating in from well-written blogs.
Several of Ireland's leading lights have packed in their blogging. Some bloggers just got tired of commentors who didn't know how to engage with polite conversation. Blogorrah shut down in mid-2007 as its publishing empire started wobbling. Sinead Gleeson stopped in June 2008. Sarah Carey turned off comments about that time, then shut down in December 2008. Una Mullally stopped in March 2009, Annierhiannon in September 2009, and Rick O'Shea dropped his blogging tools back into the Roadcaster this week. These were well-written blogs I miss reading. I'm sure a lot of reasons exist in the real world to discontinue writing online. I know there are easier ways to share lifestreams than personal weblogs. That's Steve Rubel's point from his Posterous pulpit. I also think there's a more compelling social imperative when you can tap and share your location with a little shout-out to friends through Twitter, Foursquare, or Gowalla. There are none of the annoying blogging gatekeepers leaving snide comments on music sites like Blip.fm or Last.fm. It's easier to see meaningful creativity on Flickr or Pix.ie with none of the grandstanding that discussion boards, mailing lists or high-traffic Irish blogs can bring to your browser. People new to blogging can see all these alternatives and if they want to share a few moments with others online, they'll find many more options than I had when I started blogging in 2001.
I'm still blogging away because I'm introduced to someone new every week who rings my phone or takes time to find me in an industry meet-up because of something I've blogged. I've also started using my blog to support important academic tasks in our third level creative multimedia degree programme at Tipperary Institute. I believe friendships formed through blogging are stronger than relationships developed from Twitter. Family members who read my daily blogging from eight time zones away have pointed out several monetisation channels that I need to explore. The longer I stay online, the more attractive my blog becomes to commercial brands interested in placing paid sponsorship inside my archives. Since these kinds of by-products also appeal to local members of the Clonmel Chamber of Commerce, I've already pushed forward and made some money. As far as I can tell, I'm far away from the EUR 800 monthly revenue that some Irish bloggers are generating from blog pages alone. That's the target--make $1000 monthly from content that sits on some of the 11,800 InsideView.ie pages. And if I hit that target, I might offer a training course that showcases the methodology.
In the meantime, you can help my goal by visiting my blog every day and by subscribing to its newsfeed.
Postscript: Within two hours of posting this item, I got my first request from a PhD candidate for paid copywriting. Blogging can pay for itself.
Previously: "Real-time blogging, 8 Aug 09.
Why not Twitter? My life is worth more than 140c.
PaulBoutin -- "Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004" in Wired, 20 Oct 08.
Niall Harbison -- "What's between blogging and Twitter" on 8 Jan 10.
Jim Carroll -- "Omphaloskepsis for the Nation" in an Irish Times blog entry, 12 Jan 10.
