Last decade saw some paradigm shifts in terms of user generated content. Initially, the internet speed was lower and the technology was still developing so the most dominant medium that a user could consume was words. Blogs became the coolest thing to have. This was the first time that the written word was conveyed so easily from the author to the readers without the intervention of editors. Since there were no restrictions, blogs embodied every form that the users could think of – personal diaries, travelogues, musings, op-eds, fiction and so on. In the absence of anything else, users would get up in the morning and read blogs, comment on them and write their own blogs.
At around the same time, marketers realised the potential of blogs and jumped in with SEO. Since the invention of Page Rank, Google is in a constant battle with the spammers who are trying to game the algorithm. SEO was a mixed bag – some people making genuine efforts to reach a wider audience through quality content and the spammers getting to the top page with new tricks every time. Some of the suggestions made by the get-popular-quickly SEO marketers were strange. For instance, find out which keywords are hot and write about those topics. This is putting the horse before the cart. Or don’t write on too many topics, stick to a niche. I could never do any of those things.
With internet speeds increasing and technology progressing faster than ever, audio-visual content became dominant – the era of YouTube and podcasts. If you look at this journey carefully, it becomes clear that while the content was generated by the user, its format was always decided by technology and the latest, most popular platform available. For instance, the popularity of TikTok has engulfed everything else right now and videos under one minute are the dominant mode of expression. For longer videos, I have already written about the power of YouTube.
So where are the blogs? Well, niche rules so blogs catering to say, recipes (pun unintended) or DIY are quite popular and they are very useful as well. Blogging itself has generated a huge niche where top bloggers blog about best marketing strategy to showcase your content. These can be useful when needed but I don’t need to read them everyday.
What I am looking for in blogs is ‘food for thought.’ I realised quite early that I cannot employ many of the strategies suggested for SEO. As a result I have not earned any money from this blog till date but that’s fine with me. I write here because I love to do it. The amount of pleasure and creative satisfaction that I get from writing articles such as this one cannot be quantified. The ads you see are just a fun experiment, I will remove them if I feel that they are spoiling the user experience. This goes against the most popular advice, “turn your passion into a source of income.” Nope, I am keeping my passion separate from my income.
For me, an ideal blog is the one where text is the dominant medium. I don’t mind images or videos but they should not overpower the text, unless the blog/post is exclusively about photography. What are some of the other things that I look for in a blog?
The topic should be interesting.
This is obvious. I don’t want to read about evolution of clothes over the centuries or the best method for fishing. Those topics do not interest me. Also, I am not interested in simple collection of information, there’s Wikipedia for that. I am looking for a new thought or a new way of interpreting things.
No pop-ups.
I think we, as a society, have to make a decision about pop-ups. The following words have never been uttered in human history, “Don’t you just love pop-ups?” Pop-ups are a contradiction in terms. You invite the user to your website so that she can consume the content and then you interrupt her while she is doing it, not once but several times.
1. Allow notifications? – No sane human would say yes to this question.1Unless its your uncle who has just learned to surf the web and says yes to every pop-up just to be polite. Guess who he calls to clean up his phone? 🙂
2. Subscribe to newsletter? – You know, I might have done that if the request was made in a nonintrusive manner but now, definitely not!
3. Accept all cookies? – huh?
4. Buy my book? Donate? Visit my GoFundMe page? Buy me a cup of coffee? Walk my dog? Pet-sit my cat? – see no. 2
The blogs I regularly read do not have any of these.
Most of the times, they do not show up in search results because they are not concerned about ‘keyword management’ or ‘best content placement strategy to synergise and optimise user engagement and CTR to achieve world peace.’2Fun fact : You can insert ‘synergise’ in a marketing document almost anywhere as long as all grammatical rules are followed. Sometimes they are even using an old theme that has not been updated.
None of that matters. What they have instead is great content. Content that is interesting, and makes you pause and think. My goal is to achieve the same with my blog; that when the reader leaves, she has a new thought, no matter how tiny, or a new way to look at things. It need not be a life changing paradigm shift but it needs to be at least partly original. And no pop-ups.
Imagine the internet as a busy street. As you are walking down the street, ads are vying for your attention. Pop ups accost you at every corner. Breaking news is being shouted at top volume. Suddenly you see a dark alley and you enter. You see a small room. Outside, on a blackboard is the topic for today and the speaker’s name, written in chalk. You enter the room. It’s not crowded, just a handful of people are listening to the speaker who is saying some interesting things about an interesting topic.3 This is not an entirely imaginary scenario. I get a similar feeling while listening to Prof. Alessandro Barbero talking about medieval history on YouTube.
And it’s quiet. There are no distractions. That is my idea of an ideal blog. A quiet corner on the busy internet street. I don’t spend all my time there. The busy streets of internet also provide lot of value and information and in fact, are essential for survival in a digital age. But it’s a nice place to visit once in while when you want to relax and think.
You may see an ad just after this. Ironical, huh? Well, at least it’s not a pop-up.
