In Over Your Head

Where the fuck are the great blogs

Ok, so me and Chris are chatting right now over the first draft of our final chapter and there’s a “Resources” section, of course, where we’re wanting to write all of these great blogs that we love.

Thing is, I’ve got like… 3, and I subscribe to 250.

Chris reads over 700. He can’t name any he really loves either.

So what’s the deal exactly? Is it like, we keep trying with our blogs and missing the mark? Have all the great posts been written? I know that usually, I subscribe to a blog because of one or two great posts, but then it just never keeps up, almost ever.

Why?

Do you have any great blogs? If you do, please enlighten us, because I’m seriously in the dark here.

Posted

in

by

Joe Gannon

Comments

23 responses to “Where the fuck are the great blogs”

  1. Yann Ropars Avatar
    Yann Ropars

    Thanks for the laugh. I was looking at your cluster map on the bottom left here. You need to write more blogs about north east Ukraine here and Central Africa… just saying.

    cheers
    http://twitter.com/yannr

    Reply
  2. janet Avatar
    janet

    hi julien – just joined twitter and just saw Chris Brogan’s tweet and just clicked on and just decided to read your blog and so here i am answering your shoutout.

    personally, i think the randomness of the above transaction is the randomness of good blogs, which
    is why it’s going to really take a long time to learn the medium.

    just look at early TV. it was basically radio with a camera. it’ll come, but i’ve only found two blogs i ever return to, and those are just minor.

    i hit blogs and learn and then leave, which i think might be many people’s tatic at this point.

    it takes a lot of sweat, skill, money and effort to capture people’s imagination and following, randomness can get it’s attention.

    thx for asking the q: it’s a good one.

    janet

    Reply
  3. Louise Fletcher Avatar
    Louise Fletcher

    It depends. Can they be about anything?

    If so. I think Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish is a genuinely great blog that never gets stale.

    Reply
  4. Amber Naslund Avatar
    Amber Naslund

    You know, I think the blogs I think are “great” are so because they have flashes of brilliance. If they were stunning all the time, it just wouldn’t be real somehow.

    I skim a lot of blogs. Several hundred. So it’s the posts that are great, not the blogs. No one is brilliant all the time, but the ones that stop me in my tracks are the ones that make me stop skimming and start reading. Really reading. And thinking.

    Some have more consistently great *moments* than others. But if you’re asking for a blog that’s always amazing, I don’t think it exists. They’re written by humans, after all. We can’t wow you all the time. 🙂

    Reply
  5. Christopher S. Penn Avatar
    Christopher S. Penn

    I read a metric crapload of economics blogs. Mish’s Global Economic Analysis, Financial Armageddon, etc. Mitch is always a good read, as are you and Brogan.

    I do this exercise twice a year with all my new media – I unsubscribe from everything. Then without looking, I resubscribe to what I can remember. If I can’t remember it, I don’t resubscribe to it because it wasn’t that important to begin with, clearly.

    Reply
  6. Julien Avatar
    Julien

    @chris penn — that’s good advice.

    @amber – why not? the economist is always good.

    Reply
  7. Gavin Heaton Avatar
    Gavin Heaton

    If it’s quality, then I love http://andasifbymagic.com and http://adliterate.com

    Reply
  8. gregorylent Avatar
    gregorylent

    it’s all group mind in action ..

    it is the voice, not voices, that are important ..

    Reply
  9. Brent Morris Avatar
    Brent Morris

    Off the top of my head, without digging through my feed reader, thr only thing that comes to mind is http://www.raphkoster.com/

    He’s a game designer and has been writing about game design theory, community building and virtual worlds and always stays interesting for me.

    Reply
  10. Annette Schwindt Avatar
    Annette Schwindt

    The thing is that we are all humans. So if we write blogposts we cannot be brilliant all the time. Which means one would rather remember (and maybe love) a blogPOST than an entire blog.

    So probably your question needs to be changed to: What blog has offered me the most interesting blogposts – or – Which blog makes me think/laugh/agree/contradict/comment most?

    Just my five cents… 😉

    Reply
  11. Clyde Smith Avatar
    Clyde Smith

    Great blogs in general or great blogs in terms of your book agenda? Is this the prelude to death of blogging rant?

    By any chance have you just assumed blogs were great and now are moving towards a position like, “that’s like being an email expert, f*ck you,” to possibly misquote your buddy.

    Could you take that stance and still promote your book via blogs?

    Doh! Catch 22!

    I’ll be back with a list. I couldn’t bear to watch you guys embarrass yourself on your own blogs with a “blogging is dead” position!

    [my tongue’s firmly in cheek but never in check!]

    Reply
  12. Bill Deys Avatar
    Bill Deys

    I think that for the most part a lot of people are writing a lot of good content. Problem is that it’s not consistent, you’ll get a dozen posts from one blog and a few are outstanding, the rest are OK.

    What I’ve found is best is connecting with people and reading their shared items through Google Reader. There are a lot of great blogs I don’t subscribe to, I get their top content shared by my “friends.”

    Also PostRank can help a lot!

    Reply
  13. Clyde Smith Avatar
    Clyde Smith

    The problem with a list of great blogs is that no one usually defines what they mean by great. So I’m presenting a random assortment of the first blogs I could come up with that I think are great based on three principles:

    I know it when I see it.
    It still makes me go, “damn, that’s a good blog”.
    If I can’t find it quickly, it must not still be that important to me.

    12 Great Blogs

    Counterfeit Chic
    http://www.counterfeitchic.com/

    FOBBDeep: Fear of a Brown Blogger
    http://fobbdeep.com/

    Global Guerrillas
    http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/

    introverted loudmouth, nice guy.
    http://introvertedloudmouth.blogspot.com/

    kiss my black ads
    http://kissmyblackads.blogspot.com/

    No Promise of Safety
    http://uliveandyouburn.wordpress.com/

    NotoriousBIG @ Twitter
    http://twitter.com/NotoriousBIG

    Paulconley
    http://paulconley.blogspot.com/

    ReadWriteWeb
    http://www.readwriteweb.com/

    Rough Type: Nicholas Carr’s Blog
    http://www.roughtype.com/

    Seth’s Blog
    http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/

    Wooster Collective
    http://www.woostercollective.com/

    Oh, by the way, Bloglines sucks ass!

    Reply
  14. Jim Milles Avatar
    Jim Milles

    Maybe y’all are just reading the wrong blogs. Here are some from my list of great blogs:

    http://www.addictedtorace.com/
    http://bgalrstate.blogspot.com/
    http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein
    http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/
    http://jonswift.blogspot.com/
    http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/
    http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/
    http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/
    http://trouble.pwblogs.com/
    http://thevanitypress.blogspot.com/
    http://www.feministe.us/blog
    http://www.feministing.com/
    http://pandagon.net/
    http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/
    http://www.theconglomerate.org/
    http://crookedtimber.org/
    http://www.marginalrevolution.com/
    http://hunterforjustice.typepad.com/
    http://www.schneier.com/blog/
    http://www.slaw.ca/
    http://gretachristina.typepad.com
    http://skepchick.org/
    http://www.newspaperdeathwatch.com/

    Plus, here are some really good blogs that should be better known:
    http://smittenkitchen.com/
    http://sarakorol.blogspot.com/
    http://www.watat.com/
    http://nylawblog.typepad.com/suigeneris/

    The one thing they all have in common is that they are not “about” social media or marketing. They simply provide good writing and valuable information. Some “do” social media well by having lively commenting communities, but others don’t. It’s all about the content.

    Reply
  15. Jim Milles Avatar
    Jim Milles

    Frankly, I get tired of all the discussion that assumes that social media equals marketing/branding/PR. PR is just one industry–one use–out of an infinity of possible uses of social media. “Social media experts” who conflate all applications of social media into marketing are marginalizing themselves and will in the long run make themselves irrelevant.

    Reply
  16. Rob McDougall Avatar
    Rob McDougall

    Top of my blog chart is KitsuneNoir – by which I mean that I find myself actually interested in the majority of what Bobby writes….

    http://kitsunenoir.com/blog

    That and ISO50:

    http://blog.iso50.com/

    I would agree with Bill that they’re not particularly consistent…!

    Reply
  17. Mack Collier Avatar
    Mack Collier

    I think that since we now have multiple channels to share conversations, the blogs may be getting the short-end of the stick sometimes. I know for me, a lot of my posts were inspired by conversations that happened first on Twitter. Around 2005 or 2006, if you wanted to have a conversation and express yourself, it had to happen on your blog. Now the blog is usually the 2nd or 3rd place a conversation happens.

    Probably my favorite blog of all-time was Creating Passionate Users, and of course Kathy isn’t blogging anymore, but she’s sparking some amazing conversations on Twitter. Her channel has changed as well.

    I think it’s not so much ‘what are the great blogs’ anymore, but rather ‘who are the great conversationalists?’

    Reply
  18. Phil Gerbyshak Avatar
    Phil Gerbyshak

    What is a “great blog” Julien? What are you looking for?

    I focus on the management and HR side of blogging, and I’ve found a TON of great blogs out there. Sure, some posts are better than others, but consistently, many turn out really good content.

    Maybe blogs are turning out to be more like newspapers, where you pick up the section you like and read it because you are interested in it and less that you are interested in the whole paper?

    Reply
  19. Matt Avatar
    Matt

    Okay I started listing them but it’s turning into a blog post.

    I’ll do up a post and you’ll probably see my 2 cents as a trackback.

    Reply
  20. Patrick Avatar
    Patrick

    Umai Haque’s Edge Economy is fucking brilliant.
    I never tire of Daring Fireball.
    Haven’t been reading it for long so I couldn’t say long term but I’m regularly enjoying The [gb] Studio Blog.

    Reply
  21. Christine Prefontaine Avatar
    Christine Prefontaine

    LOL. Looks like from these comments you have a shitload of blogs to scan through. Here’s one more: http://www.mirverburg.net/

    Reply
  22. Gab Goldenberg Avatar
    Gab Goldenberg

    Completely self-promotional, but you get nothing if you ask for nothing, so…

    I invite you to look at the testimonials category on my blog. Most of those are taken from either my comments section or 4Q visitor feedback forms.

    Then, check out the /ideas/ category and then try to tell me I’m not sharing new material :D.

    Rah Rah me! lol

    When’s the book due out anyways?

    Reply
  23. Jeff Paul Scam Avatar
    Jeff Paul Scam

    It just shows the power of internet in making connections and ‘reaching out’ to people. I never cease to amaze me the power of internet marketing and promoting brands online.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *