Interesting. But you left out the 'lessons to be learned' part which I'll gladly suggest here:
* For a blog to thrive, it must maintain the same outlook and quality that once captured people's attention. This means that whatever housekeeping must be done in the blog, try to keep the readers out of it in order to minimize disruption of core service for which readers are after.
* Writing apology posts is bad publicity. Writing long complicated apology posts is just plain detrimental.
@Al - Both good points. I would have gone into more detail about lessons learned, etc - but the wordcount was already above 1,000 so I decided to keep it short :-)
Apologies are, of course, good under the right circumstances - but most of the time they're bad for blogs - I especially don't like the 'Sorry for not posting recently - I've been busy..' type posts.
Oh, and sorry for not posting recently, I've been busy :-)
Hi Stuart, as actual Wisdump editor, I'ld love to correct points.
Former editor, responsible for the ping-o-matic train wreck is not part of SplashPress anymore.
Wisdump will not be put up for sale again.
I've emailed you other details such as feedburner stats since we obtained Wisdump/the feed.
Also, you are more than welcome as writer in the new team.
I unsubscribed in 3 seconds I when I heard that Wisdump was about to get sold. You just don't do it – blogs are about people who write them not about number of subcribers. We are real people!
@Riddle - Absolutely in this case - Wisdump's popularity was very much derived from Scriv's personality, rather than the topic. Same applied to Modern Life, as well, I suppose.
There are some blogs which don't rely on individuals, though - some of the larger blogs like TechCrunch, Engadget etc could very easily be sold and continue without much disruption.
As one of your most loyal stalkers, I put Wisdump back on my reading list (took it out when it got all sappy). It had about 3,700 subs then. Dumped it (again) after the WordPress fiasco.
I cannot think of a single-author blog which changed hands and retained it's readership. Maybe this is proof that readers really connect to the personality and style of an author. I'd be interested in seeing some statistics on Business Logs now that it's being handled by Forty, purveyors of great work and content. While I'm sure the writing will be great, will people be interested in the new voice?
Yup, Stuart. I felt it too. I did write about it (http://kmaheshbhat.com/blog/fall-wisdump) a few days after the change of hands. Then, it fell off my feed reader.
@Vyoma - Yes, I've been invited to write again in the future by the new owners - you can expect some further contributions to Wisdump from me in the future :-)
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13 comments:
AL wrote:
Interesting. But you left out the 'lessons to be learned' part which I'll gladly suggest here:
* For a blog to thrive, it must maintain the same outlook and quality that once captured people's attention. This means that whatever housekeeping must be done in the blog, try to keep the readers out of it in order to minimize disruption of core service for which readers are after.
* Writing apology posts is bad publicity. Writing long complicated apology posts is just plain detrimental.
seo training wrote:
"quality" is the center of attention. It is the key, if you maintain an impression at the beginning you have ride on that.
I feel it is not harmful to write apology on blogs, because it is platform to gauge with your people
Stuart Brown wrote:
@Al - Both good points. I would have gone into more detail about lessons learned, etc - but the wordcount was already above 1,000 so I decided to keep it short :-)
Apologies are, of course, good under the right circumstances - but most of the time they're bad for blogs - I especially don't like the 'Sorry for not posting recently - I've been busy..' type posts.
Oh, and sorry for not posting recently, I've been busy :-)
franky wrote:
Hi Stuart, as actual Wisdump editor, I'ld love to correct points.
Former editor, responsible for the ping-o-matic train wreck is not part of SplashPress anymore.
Wisdump will not be put up for sale again.
I've emailed you other details such as feedburner stats since we obtained Wisdump/the feed.
Also, you are more than welcome as writer in the new team.
Stuart Brown wrote:
Thanks Franky, I've emailed you back. I'll amend a couple of points to suit.
Riddle wrote:
I unsubscribed in 3 seconds I when I heard that Wisdump was about to get sold. You just don't do it – blogs are about people who write them not about number of subcribers. We are real people!
Stuart Brown wrote:
@Riddle - Absolutely in this case - Wisdump's popularity was very much derived from Scriv's personality, rather than the topic. Same applied to Modern Life, as well, I suppose.
There are some blogs which don't rely on individuals, though - some of the larger blogs like TechCrunch, Engadget etc could very easily be sold and continue without much disruption.
John Stansbury wrote:
As one of your most loyal stalkers, I put Wisdump back on my reading list (took it out when it got all sappy). It had about 3,700 subs then. Dumped it (again) after the WordPress fiasco.
Todd wrote:
I only found out about wisdump through this site (when you guest wrote for it), so I didn't get to see it in its prime.
Shame, it sounded good.
beth wrote:
I cannot think of a single-author blog which changed hands and retained it's readership. Maybe this is proof that readers really connect to the personality and style of an author. I'd be interested in seeing some statistics on Business Logs now that it's being handled by Forty, purveyors of great work and content. While I'm sure the writing will be great, will people be interested in the new voice?
Vyoma wrote:
Yup, Stuart. I felt it too. I did write about it (http://kmaheshbhat.com/blog/fall-wisdump) a few days after the change of hands. Then, it fell off my feed reader.
Are you still a writer there?
Stuart Brown wrote:
@Vyoma - Yes, I've been invited to write again in the future by the new owners - you can expect some further contributions to Wisdump from me in the future :-)
Vyoma wrote:
Well that is good. I get to read more of your articles. :P
Comments are closed.
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