The world of blogging sure does seem to be getting more and more…echoey. Whether I’m looking at blogs I’m subscribed to, blogs I happen upon, or blogs I’m connected to in other ways, the following seem to be the main areas of focus:
1. Content Marketing – any angle of content marketing!
2. Pinterest
3. Google – whether it’s G+, SEO, etc.
4. Facebook timeline
There’s certainly nothing *wrong* about any of these topics. They’re all important. Well, Pinterest I’m still debating about, but generally, they’re all important. They all could be useful. But there’s just SO MUCH about each of these 4 topics. I find myself getting kind of bored.
Of course, it’s easy to understand why this happens. If you look at any of these posts, they seem to get a lot of comments, a lot of “buzz.” They are the hot button issues of the day, so Google loves them, the retweeters love them – it’s easy to get traffic when you’re writing about a topic that (in an MC Escher kind of way) is already on everyone’s mind. Even more, if a big name blogger has blogged on the topic and you link to their post, you might get on that person’s radar. It’s a self-fulfilling echo chamber of a problem.
In the face of all of these similar posts, I’m finding that I want to write about something entirely different. If my readers can find 15 posts in a second about one of these topics, do I really need to add a 16th for consideration? And am I really going to do a better job of covering something like Content Marketing when there’s a whole host of people writing for the Content Marketing Institute? Somehow, I am thinking maybe not.
At some point, writing the popular post may become the same thing as writing a post that isn’t the most valuable thing you have to offer. The information can get more and more diluted. A quote of a quote of a quote can get tired and meaningless. You might get more traffic, but the readers may be less appreciative of that which you are offering.
Is that a good trade to make?
Now of course, everyone has their own perspective on things. There’s a lot of debate about Pinterest. There’s a lot of debate about Google and Google Plus. There’s even a fair amount of debate about how useful Facebook’s Timeline feature is. But with so many people offering their perspectives, is it essential that you add yours to the mix? Will that extra drop of water change the ocean for the people you are trying to serve with information?
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like the blogosphere is becoming more about outdoing each other on the same topic rather than actually offering information about … something else. Maybe that’s just the nature of the beast, but it seems like diminishing the value of our own content just to get more eyes on that content is a silly trade.
What do you think?
Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bertozland/33402924/ via Creative Commons