On his ever-interesting and informative blog, John Robb sets out his personal blogging arc, reflecting five years of blogging, in a post called “The Two-Way Attention Economy?” It’s fascinating reading as an alternative to all of the “blogs as necessary marketing” pieces that you see so often these days. Yes, blogs can be a marketing vehicle, but many long-time bloggers will probably recognize the arc that Robb describes (except for being one of the top 100) and point to similar conclusions.
The money quote:

My personal arc (over 5 years of blogging) is as follows:
1) reluctantly started blogging.
2) found I enjoyed it.
3) was ranked for a bit of time in the top 100 blogs. This was nice. It was also nice to have a high Google rank. That partly faded because a) I didn’t care about it and b) the level of competition rose quickly.
4) found something more useful. An open online identity (my name is on the blog) yielded work, contacts, and recognition that anonymity doesn’t provide. That benefit doesn’t require a high ranking to accomplish.
5) found that the blog is as much for me as anyone else.
6) enjoy the response that other people have to my thinking. As long as there a few fellow travelers out there with me, that is reason enough to write.

Robb is one of my favorite bloggers and this post, especially point #6, strikes me as spot-on correct.
I wonder how many other long-time bloggers trace the same type of arc.
[Originally posted on DennisKennedy.Blog (https://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/)]
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