Why blogging still matters post-Facebook and Google Reader

Rogers Cadenhead on the news that Google Reader’s death was the nail in the coffin for Seth Finkelstein’s blog:

Finkelstein’s a much-needed voice in tech because he’s allergic to bullshit. As an admirer of his writing I hate to see his site close, but I can’t argue with his premise that the rewards of running a personal blog with moderate traffic aren’t high enough to justify the effort. Blogs don’t receive as many comments as they used to, and the amount of conversation a blog post attracts elsewhere seems to be dropping as well. Now that millions of people have social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter, they have a place they can comment with home field advantage. They don’t need to play on the road and respond on your blog.

One Man & His Blog is very much a moderate traffic blog – but its traffic is the highest it has been in the decade it’s been running, and is growing month-on-month. There’s been no sign of that reversing since the Google Reader shut down, although it’s possible I’ve lost readers who were only reading in a feed reader. Comments come and go in bursts, but most discussion actually seems to happen on Twitter.

This blog is my storefront – a showcase of my work, my thinking and my expertise, and there’s very little work I’ve had since I dived into consultancy 18 months ago that has not come from this blog in some way.

Do I sell ads here? No.

Do I get a heap of comments? No.

Do I get a boatload of traffic? No.

But I do get work from it. It’s really the only marketing I’m doing. because of that, I’m able to contribute my share towards supporting my little family – and that’s all that matters in the end. As Hugh Macleod said a very long time ago – blogs are a great way to make things happen indirectly – and that remains as true as ever.