Twitter killed the blogging star?

Colleen Coplick — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 09:15:56 +0000

A couple of days ago, Wired’s Paul Boutin claimed that blogging was dead with this lede:

Thinking about launching your own blog? Here’s some friendly advice: Don’t. And if you’ve already got one, pull the plug.

So…. ok. Fine. Blogging is *so* 2004. Everyone’s gone to Twitter etc, blah blah blah.

What’s this really? This article? Is blogging dead?

No.

You’re here.

I’m here.

I’m here a lot. Heck, many of you guys are here a lot. I can tell. (I have my ways…. mwa-ha-ha!)

What I see in Boutin’s article, is that he’s being inflammatory. He’s trying to stir shit up. Hell, it’s one of the tenets of blogging. Controversy = page views and links. Which, totally correct, and Paul has done a fantastic job of doing exactly that. Page views? Hell yes. Links? OMG yes. Hell, I’m plotting freelance articles that follow this exact formula. Give ‘em something controversial and watch the page views blow up.

In that regard, I’ve done exactly what Paul wanted, by looking at the article, blogging about it, and linking to it.

As Miss604 said, “I think blogging is changing (not dead); it’s evolving into something much bigger, allowing for more applications and tools to emerge in the online realm. It’s changing the conversation and allowing for more of a two-way street; you and your audience, wired and mobile, on and offline.”