Every so often, I read a blog post that triggers a million thoughts. It’s awful because usually the thoughts have nothing to do with the original post– only my own circling mind.
That, in itself, is a post. I have countless examples of how my inspiration spleen is broken. It just doesn’t function the way it should. I remember putting down a book of wisdom from the Dalai Lama, to listen to show featuring the insights of Muhammad Ali. I remember hearing a sitar for the first time and being inspired to learn about all types of wood.
What can I say? The spleen wants what the spleen wants.
The point is (though there are a lot of points in this post) is that weeks ago, I read a post over at the Midlife Crisis Crossover about the Curse of the Follow Button. In it, he broke down the fates of his first 177 followers.
Based on my criteria that someone who hasn’t posted since August is inactive, or as Dave called it, “dead”, we ended up with three categories. We also put people without blogs in the “dead” category, and those whose sites are completely deleted.
That leaves us with Dead, Alive, & Spam.
Randall started blogging in April, I started in August, both in 2012– which makes me think in another 4 months my percentage of living bloggers will drop considerably.
There’s a bright side, though– while going through the names, I realized that often even bloggers who no longer maintain sites are still active readers. Also, because I counted people who appear to have never had blogs as “dead”, you can assume for the massive miscategorization of grandma.
“I used my internet address to read Rara’s www blog site, and left some spaces blank, and now she thinks I’m dead! Can I hit backspace?”
Sorry, Grandma.
There’s a diminishing return on survival rates across the board– whether you are talking about hobbies, or projects, or even careers. That is to say, if only 50% of people last a full year at something, then even more than 50% will drop out in year two. This happens until a point of no return is reached and a person will be devoted to said hobby forever and ever.
This point is different for every type of devotion.
My questions are then– how long do blogs survive, and what is the point of no return?
Once friends pick you up and carry you, there’s only really one place you can go from then on. Forward.
If I make it to year two, will making it to year five be a breeze?
I think I need some long-term bloggers to chime in on this.
Another thing I noted while marking my bloggers as dead or alive, was how many blogs I ran across where I actually couldn’t tell if it was alive. I had to click the most recent post and read the date in the browser to determine whether or not it qualified. Some of those people posted just a week ago, but there’s something I tell my web clients all the time– and it’s that inactivity stinks.
It’s hard to explain. How could someone possibly know that you aren’t paying attention to your blog? You blog every Tuesday, let’s say, but you haven’t been around in two weeks thanks to scheduled posts.
Your readers can smell it.
Every room-that-should-be-full-but-isn’t looks like this. Run away!
It’s the same in real life. When you walk into a house that you assume people are in, you can always tell when it’s empty. This sensation has nothing to do with logic. Maybe they’re in the back room, maybe they’re outside– but no, you know the house is devoid of life. It’s your animal senses kicking into gear. You know the house is empty, so you shut the door and skedaddle. There’s nothing more off-putting than the feeling that people should be there, but aren’t.
The same goes for websites. If you leave it untended, with no sign, people will sense it. They’ll close that tab, and run away.
And now that I’ve given myself the chills by typing dead so many times, and by searching for pictures of empty homes, I think I’m going to go that direction myself.
Run away!
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How long have you been blogging? Have you reached the point where stopping doesn’t seem plausible? How long do you think the life span of a blog is, versus the blog-span of a blogger? Do posts often inspire a collection of roundabout thoughts in you, too?
Oh, and don’t forget to go say hi to Randall. I might be cursed if you don’t! http://midlifecrisiscrossover.com/2013/09/21/the-curse-of-the-follow-button/
