Please, step away from the camera, and go back to writing.

“And who gets to define what is original? I mean, Local TV news just regurgitates what the national news says - should we silence local news?”
But they aren’t blogs, and their raison d’etre is differnemt. blogs are suppossed to be your thoughts, not others. They are suppossed to be your ideas, or your unique input on other’s ideas.

“But the fact is that it just seemed to cut at the average blogger and that I just don’t get.”
The idea that it is insulting to people is silly. Criticism means to offer a critique, to offer advice on improving. 99.9% of bloggers would improve if they stepped away from the keyboard and thought long and hard about what they are trying to say, to whom and why.

Without a focus on the reasons for blogging, there really is no point.

Why do we blog? What is the point? What are we, collectively, trying to achieve?

The view that this is anyone telling anyone else to give up is not the case. It is about finding your blogging “soul”, that little thing that makes your blog worth reading.

Everyone SHOULD have a go blogging, but only if they have something to say. IF you don’t, then don’t say anything. Don’t fill your blog for the sake of it, actually say something.

Or respond to what others say. Where is the conversation if we all talk, all about the same thing in the same way?

That, the repetition and unoriginality, that is stopping, not increasing, the conversation, by increasing the noise.

I figure the readers are the ultimate barometer of the success or failure of a blog, a blog post, a book or an article. Either they read it or they don’t.

Perhaps bloggers with nothing original to say should take a look at their traffic logs. If they are low, then a simple cost-benefit analysis suggests that there is likely something better they could do with their time. If, however, the numbers say other folks are interested, perhaps it is worth the regurgative effort.

The act of writing should be, in and of itself, an exersize in original expression. That’s what it’s all about eh? Most of the time, there are only two or three major stories worth looking at. Given the number of bloggers out there, it is little wonder there is so much repetition of coverage. Some will be good, others will not. As a reader, it is up to you to judge (like, literally) by spending time on a page or leaving a page to never return again.

All that said, there is little more I could add except to recommend reading Bill’s post (above) a second and third time. I think he is absolutely correct.

Fortunately, I don’t see this as the case. My own experience with blogging has taught me that the best bloggers are inclusive, open and welcoming of newcomers. Remember, the folks who comment on the more popular blogs are your ‘clients’. Alienating them by saying “don’t speak unless you’re spoken to” is hardly a good way to market your brand, win loyalty, or create an appealing place to be. Without those readers, your blog has just ceased to have a function, unless it is for you and your buddies to read. My understanding is that blogging is meant to create community and is not about behaving like a 7 year old who wants everyone to play only his games and doesn’t want to play anyone else’s games.

So, to Michael - remember what your mother said; that your readers, who are also bloggers, are you guests. They are the GUESTS, Michael. You should play their games sometimes, too.

I don’t know if Michael realizes how self-important he came off sounding in the video. In general, I enjoy his posts. But I do not like a spirit of segregation in any type of human interaction. I don’t like the concept of a-list and b-list people.

I like the idea of equals talking to one another. Whether you have a PHD in SEO (and none of us do) and the other fellow just learned what a Title Tag is yesterday afternoon, chances are, each party will learn something if they are willing to share and listen.

Blogging is a chance to begin conversations, and an opportunity to find a voice of your own. The effort in finding and deciding what to post is part of that, and sharing news with your readers, determining what is important enough to post about is one of those parts. Acting as a filter for the news is important in its own way.

The “step away from the keyboard” video disturbed me. I want to see people develop their own voices, their own perspectives, their own interests. I want to see them try out new things, and take a few chances now and then. Rather than stepping away, it would be great if people would spend a little more time sitting at their keyboards and thinking about how they can grow as a blogger, as a communicator.

A couple of articles that I turn to every so often for inspiration are these two:

10 Tips on Writing the Living Web

and

Ten Tips For A Better Weblog

I’ve written to a few blogs over the past five years or so. Some of the most effective blogging I’ve done was to take the news and regurgitate it. Instead of just a short blurb with a link though, I would add a few links to resources that the newspaper didn’t include, to original resources, and insert a little taste of opinion to show that I read the articles and resources and had an opinion and some thoughts on them.

I hope that Michael Gray’s post didn’t discourage people. I hope that this post doesn’t discourage them either. I want to see people grow and thrive, and if that means starting out by posting everyday, writing about the news, and spending some time finding their own unique voices while they are doing so, then I’m happy to see that.

Rather than telling people to stop, why not post a friendly comment and ask some questions? Show them that you are interested in them, and their opinions? Encourage our bright voices of tomorrow as they grow, and I think that we all grow.

Next came the ads. This, to me, is the tipping point, when blog life as we knew it changed forever. Now, it takes some time to find which blogs are worth taking a moment of your time each day.

More and more people are choosing quality over quantity, and value things like trust, honesty, credibility and intent.