What happens when you write 11,000 blog posts?

[Read the post]

4 Likes

You’d damn well better get a badge…

21 Likes

I can relate to this, I wrote over 9.200 blog posts for Cute Overload. Alas, site shut down two months ago, or I’d still be turning out kitten posts.

11 Likes

Ah, the WD-40 thing.

Speaking of lubrication, that straw holder “orders page” now redirects to a list of Turkish escorts.

1 Like

I’ve been reading a lot of entrepreneur blogs. Writing a bunch of content is a mistake a lot of people make. You really only new a small set of good content that you market the shit out of. People always forget the sales and marketing part of a business.

The question is, how to do the marketing?

oh, you sir just need to join about 4 or 5 Facebook groups for entrepreneurs. That is all they talk about.

Look up “sales funnel”

1 Like

After 16,000 blog posts for Neatorama, I suppose that I’ve learned:

  1. How to write not-terribly very quickly and with little inspiration and rest.
  2. How to spot what will draw traffic and what won’t–and that I will routinely fail to predict this. For example, I saw Prancercise long before it went viral and ignored it because I thought it was a dead-end.
  3. How to distance myself from the news media. I’m not a journalist and I’m very careful not to call myself that.
  4. Like Biggs, how I sometimes help people. Artists in particular have sent me emails and tweets thanking me for bringing their work to public attention–often directly attributing my quick post to income in their pockets. That’s a good feeling.
10 Likes

Now, that’s a belittling euphemism…

6 Likes

“There is nothing healthy about this lifestyle. Either accept that or get out now.”

It’s an added risk of economic insecurity generally. We let people who have big student loans and who work for spoiled rich kids “organize” the economy.

2 Likes

Nooooooooooooooooo! :scream:

Sigh…

4 Likes

You learn that the media is broken and you are mostly the cause. I’m
sorry. I worked for Gizmodo where we started a new, flippant version of
the standard tech writing that once graced the pages of actual paper
magazines. We wrote so much that we got cocky and conceited and annoying
and we hated our subjects for their earnest desire for coverage. We
invented the listicle. We invented the gift guide. We mostly invented
the sponsored post. We brought about the move from media to social media
and we reacted by creating awful headlines and writing terrible prose. I
tried to stay above the fray but it was really hard. Now everything is
broken and sucks. I’m honestly really sorry. When I left Laptop Magazine
to go to Gawker I didn’t think we’d end up with all these bullshit
click-bait headlines like “This Woman Pulled Her Guts Out Through Her
Belly Button. What Happens Next Will Give You Chills.” Seriously. Sorry.
This is what happens when you monetize over all else.

Gee, what a surprise. [/sarcasm]

4 Likes

[quote=“11K post blogger John Biggs”] I didn’t think we’d end up with all these bullshit
click-bait headlines like “This Woman Pulled Her Guts Out Through Her
Belly Button. What Happens Next Will Give You Chills.” Seriously. Sorry.
This is what happens when you monetize over all else.
[/quote]

Thank goodness this has never happened at Boing Boing :smirk:

6 Likes

True that. Would be quite disappointing.

2 Likes

In before the “Yeah, but BB does this fer evar!” post…

Oh…wait…

1 Like

Meh. I’ve written more than 11,000 posts and many millions of words for my blog (golfblogger.com) since 2004. Since I’ve done that as a hobby in the evenings after work, I really don’t see 11K posts as that big a deal.

Burnout. That’s what happens.

3 Likes

Let me check out your blog…

“World Golf Championships – Dell Match Play Preview Video”
“Puerto Rico Open Preview”
“Explaining Match Play – WGC Dell Match Play Championship Edition”

Verrrrry disappointed. After 12 years your blog still uses simple factual titles that actually tell me what’s in a post rather than emotional “curiosity gap” titles? No Stack Social store? No outrageous photos? What kind of monster are you???

:smiley:

Not obligatory, I just like it:

5 Likes

I’m the kind of horrible person that assumes my readers have some intelligence. :wink:

But seriously, I was trained as a news writer at a time when we still wrote on Selectrics and did paste-ups on blue boards. I just haven’t mastered (nor do I care to) the skill of deceptive click bait.

Thanks for looking at the blog and recognizing its virtues. :slight_smile:

4 Likes

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.