Anne Handley has been asking experienced bloggers a simple question – What’s the Biggest Lie About Blogging? – the response has been most interesting and well worth the read.
I love Jeremy’s list at the end – 40 lies in all. Here’s a few of his:
1. Blogging’s just a fad.
2. Always maintain a hostile relationship with your audience.
3. Don’t ever admit you did something wrong.
5. Don’t have a personality if you’re blogging for business.
9. Without open comments, it’s not a blog anyway.
12. Fast is better than right.
13. It’s impossible to make money blogging.
22. Competitors will steal your ideas.
23. You need to be able to write to blog.
32. Too many people are already blogging; you can’t cut through the noise.
33. You have to be an A-List blogger or there’s no point.
34. The best way to get attention is to attack, attack, attack!
36. Bloggers are good looking, funny, and are the life of any party.
Head over to Anne’s post and tell her what you think are the biggest lies about blogging.
About “it’s impossible to make money blogging.” Isn’t that one just ignorance, rather than a lie?
I’d say it’s inaccurate. rather than a lie.
“impossible” should be replaced by “difficult”
Thanks for the flag, Darren. I loved David Armano’s wisdom: “Starting a blog is a lot like starting a relationship. When I first fired up Typepad—it was so easy that it seemed like the equivalent of getting hitched in Vegas. Now that I’m past the Honeymoon—sometimes I wake up to my blog and think ‘who the hell are you’??”
Isn’t THAT the truth…?
: )
How else do you become an A-list blogger than blogging? That’s why I do it.
Hmmm…not sure I agree with all of those. I suppose it’s true that you don’t have to be a good writer to blog (#23), but it definitely helps if you expect me to pay more than one visit to your blog. Number 36 is definitely no lie either.
I feel that many people take blogging as writing online diary. So, when I tell someone I am a full time blogger with two blogs, they think that I am writing just my daily activities. Many of them, actuually get shocked when I direct them to my blogs.I write about Asian Business and it has nothing to do with what I did today.
I would not say that this perception is a lie but certainly a very expensive ignorance for new bloggers like me. If many of my friends knew what was blogging, then I would surely get many more visitors every day for my blogs. In western countries, many people know about the nature of blogging but not in the third world countries.
But # 36 seems absolutely correct and total truth ;-)
blogger are good looking.. just look at me.
[…] Biggest Lies About Blogging Man, I love Problogger.net sometimes. They have some of the most interesting articles and links to other very interesting articles. One such article comes from Anne Handley who has been asking bloggers a simple question “What is the Biggest Lie About Blogging?”. What a stir such a question can make. […]
23 – I’m not a writer, I’m a blogger
33 – Oh Good, cause I’m not an A-lister either.
36 – Not me either, Wife says I flunked charm school.
I love the word impossible. It’s music to my tenacious ears.
Anyway, in Jeremy’s list I notice alot of focus on the writing issue. Most great writers are idea people, who simply move their ideas. If you have an idea you can write. If you have an imagination you can write.
We all have ideas and imaginations. What we often don’t have is time.
– Terry