Last week Matt Dabbs and Jay Guin published a list the Top 25 Church of Christ Blogs. Thanks for visiting this blog enough that it made the list! Be sure to check out the rest of that list. There is much good reading to be found there!
I’ve been contemplating whether blogs are dead or alive. As we all know the time of the blog explosion is past. For a while there new blogs were popping up every day. Then came the discipline of writing something often enough for people to stop by. Creating a blog? No sweat. Keeping a blog going – requires a lot of thought and effort. Many blogs gathered dust after a while, having been abandoned by their hopeful authors.
Then along came incredible growth in other means of social networking such as Facebook and Twitter. (Yes, there were others but these became predominant.) Then arose the need for a new kind of service that ties them all together so you do not have to keep up with several sites or post separately at several sites. In the past year, though, the folks over at Facebook have managed to create an internet space that is neatly saturated with everything we want to do on the net (mostly). So is that a blog killer? Hardly.
I think Facebook has given blogging a new resurgence of interest. Networked Blogs is a Facebook app that feeds your blog posts into the Facebook news stream. It is true that the stream is busy, and it would be easy to miss that notification that you have a new post. But it is there. If I were serious about never missing a post on a particular blog, I would use a reader such as Google Reader to keep up. But the Networked Blogs app does give you exposure to a group of people who may not read blogs often.
I looked at the list of the Top 25 Church of Christ Blogs on Networked Blogs. Most of them are there, allowing me to follow them from my Facebook account. Those that have not made that connection may be non-Facebook users (is there such a thing any more???). Time to get on board folks! It will give you opportunity to share your excellent writing with a wider audience.
I also notice a large number of blogs that do not have a SHARE THIS button on their blog. This allows readers to share your post on a large number of social networks. That is a must have! It is fairly simple to add via a text widget in your sidebar.
So, if blogging was lagging, it is now flying! Thanks to excellent work being done by authors … and by the use of social network sharing opportunities such as Share This, Networked Blogs, Twitter, and Facebook.
Thanks for reading,
John
Once people started using Facebook to connect I noticed a massive drop-off in blogging. I think what remains are us “power bloggers” (gee, that sounds cool!). I now blog on a handful of platforms and social networks. Those for whom blogging was either just a phase or a means to stay in touch with others have moved on. Also, blogging as such has become incorporated into social media as part of an overall package. Sort of like Networked Blogs, which you mentioned. The same is happening with Twitter, the short message model and live updates now being a cornerstone of social media. A few years ago this didn’t exist. Now it’s expected.
By the way, I really like your new blog design. One little problem: It may be my Chrome brower, but I couldn’t type in the comment box. The cursor kept returning to the web address field when I tried to type. I typed this in a text editor and then pasted.
Hmm… I use Chrome too…will have to check that out. Thanks for the comments – your observations are excellent. jd
I had the same experience in Chrome (once I logged out) and then tried it in IE with no problem. Thanks for noticing that. jd
I have been blogging now for 13 months. I enjoy writing and most of my posts are scripture related mixed with everyday living. I’m not a scholar or theologian, just a woman trying to understand, rightly divide and put into practice what I read from scripture. I probably benefit the most from what I write as I put a lot of study into each post.
I have thought about giving it up, it is very time consuming and quite honestly, while my “traffic map” shows a lot of people from all over the world end up on my blog, there are only three or four people who every bother to comment. When I first started blogging I purchased the CD’s which you and Trey had from the Tulsa Workshop in 2009. One of the tips was to read other blogs and post comments, which I have done from day one, and you are correct in saying, there are some great blogs out there.
People like to be encouraged, and a lack of comments could be one reason so many people have quit blogging.
As you mentioned, Networked Blogs and Google Reader are great app’s. There are a lot of resources available to bloggers and a lot of great widgets. I have not stepped into the Twitter world, not sure if I ever will. :)
Good post John, and good information.
Thank you Janice…and you have a wonderful blog! Keep it up! As you said you get the best benefit of all, and you never know who – around the world – you are blessing. jd
blogging is SO MUCH MORE FUN then logging or jogging :)
Amen sister that is my theeeme song! jd
I just discovered that WordPress has built in a function that allows you to publicize automatically via FB and/or Twitter – that makes me happy.
I’ve never been a great blogger – no internet at home makes blogging a lot less fun. But I hope to do more when we move back into town.
I think I agree with you and Adam’s thoughts – blogging exploded, and has now swung back to a hapy medium.
Gotta run – landscaping for gospel meeting!
Thanks Nick! Trim well! jd
Nice new theme!
Why thank you Chris. Wish I could take credit for it. It’s one of the beautiful free blog themes out there. jd
John, a number of years ago when I first began my blog, you wrote me a note of encouragement regarding the blog. Then you put me on your blog roll which just amazed me. I felt as if I were fumbling around in the dark with this blog. You provided some real encouragement in this which no doubt helped me to continue.
You are one of the long time bloggers and you do it very well. Thanks for your encouragement and for your persistence.
Wow! Thanks Jim! I certainly think your blog has been and remains one of the premiere Christian blogs out there. And you have an iPhone app…turning green here! Love ya brother! Keep up the great work! jd
I still blog. My Facebook time is limited for a couple of reasons…the most important being that the time on Facebook is monitored by the computer police at work. That coupled with limited internet access at home leaves me using the computer less and less as a social outlet. I still blog mostly to help me preserve some thoughts and memories. I still keep up with Google reader, although I don’t comment as much as I used to….
Thanks for your efforts in bringing a group of Christ followers together through blogging and Facebook. Otherwise I would not have met some wonderful people!!
Donna, there’s no question that blogging brought together a group of believers who have blessed each other beyond measure. I’m glad that we met through this avenue. jd