As a blogger, how do you define success?

I guess yesterday’s post has got me turning the thinking cap inward. I’ve been trying to figure out exactly what makes a blog ’successful’ and what that reallly means.

The most obvious answer is audience size. More subscribers means more success. But that doesn’t feel right. For example, there are many blogs that have far fewer subscribers than this one that I would consider to be more influential, more information and more valuable. I think that all adds up to more successful in my book. On the flip side, I know of blogs that have thousands of subscribers that are garbage. I don’t really want to call anybody out, but I think most people know of at least one or two blogs that got cut from the blogroll even though thousands of people subscribe to them.

So if it isn’t the audience size, then what else can be used to determine the success of a blog?

How about frequency? If there aren’t posts getting put up there, it can’t be too successful, can it? Well, actually it can. That’s one of the great things about blogs. Once you subscribe, you can just sit back, do your thing, and when new content comes around, you just get it. For example, Kathy Schrock hasn’t done much posting lately. Regardless, when she does post something, I know it’s almost certainly going to be worth reading. So is she a successful blogger? Certainly. On the other end of the spectrum, you have people like Wes Fryer and Miguel Guhlin. If I there isn’t something in the aggregator from them everytime I open it, I start to worry! So frequency of posting isn’t quite enough to make a blog a success or failure.

Of course, Google measures success by the number of incoming and outgoing links to a blog. I have to admit, that’s one area that I know I’m pretty weak. I need to get better about linking in the posts that sparked ideas that I’m blogging about, as well as hyperlinking the various sites and services I refer to. But does that really determine whether a blog is successful or not? I’d say not. Online journals don’t often have many outgoing links, but they can still have incredible audiences. Even more importantly, the thoughts written down are often valuable to readers that can relate to them.

Oy, so we aren’t making much progress yet, are we? Or perhaps we are. If it ain’t subscribers, ain’t incoming or outgoing links and ain’t frequency, then what’s left besides the intrinsic reward that one gets from self-publishing? If you have a blog, answer these questions:

Do you get a good feeling after publishing a new post?
Did you enjoy blogging even before anybody knew your blog existed?
Would you keep blogging if the comment system didn’t exist?

I know that I can answer a resounding Yes to all three of them. So I guess the answer to my question is really, my blog is a success if I determine it is. Which I guess makes sense. It’s your own blog, be your own judge. And if it feels right, roll with it regardless of the reaction of the masses. Success is in the eye of the beholder.

14 Comments

Alfred Thompson
10/6/2006

I think that when thinking about numbers it is not so much raw numbers but if the right people are included in those numbers. I get a reasonable number of readers for each post but what I really care about is how many of those readers are teachers of computer science and/or technology? That is the audience I want to reach; that I am trying to provide useful information for. Sure I enjoy the comments from others but the best I hope for is that some teacher somewhere found something useful in what I wrote.

Raj
10/6/2006

I can answer yes to all those above. My blog doesn’t often receive comments (though I try to comment at least once a day to others) and through the various ways that I have to track visitors I seem to have at least a dozen people who read on a regular basis. And while it’s nice to see those numbers go up and even better to see posts or the blog in general referred to, my biggest satisfaction from blogging comes from having it as a personal research log of what I’ve found interesting and that I can go back to later on.

The title of my blog EDITing in the Dark is in part a play on this idea, I don’t think many are going to drop by to shine their light and my own light is only one in a very large field.

Ben
10/6/2006

I think this really goes back to your earlier post about why blog in the firtplace Steve. Do blogs even need to be successful for anyone but the author? Blogs originated as solitary pursuits of journaling and chronicling one’s own experiences for the purpose of reflection. It was only with the advent of RSS, database driven blogging engines, and comments that have propelled blogging into the realm of “success or faliure.” If you hold true to the blog as a tool for individual reflection, and not worried about whether or not someone comments on your incites, then the question of success doesn’t even need to come up.

Of course, if you ARE writing for an audience, then content should ultimately be driving your writing and posting. If I see a new post every single day on one of the blogs I follow, but the posts have about as much substance as kleenex, then I probably won’t be reading much. However, if a blogger is thoughtful, has interesting or humorous content, they can post once every other week and I’ll still be coming back each time with anticipation.

I’m not sure I answered any of your questions, but as for the last one; without comments blogging wouldn’t be nearly as fun. Just another idiot (talking about myself here) on his soapbox.

Kathy Schrock
10/6/2006

Steve,

As you know, I post lots of things in lots of places and define the items I post to my blog as those that do not necessarily fit on my site, on my weekly listserv, and things that I feel need more explanation for educators, exciting cool things that I feel are worthwhile for teachers, and anything else that does not fit into a nice neat category.

I do not get much feedback on my blog posts, and I wonder if it is truly just another place where I am posting info and others are reading. Of course, my posts are not often controversial or asking for opinions, so perhaps I should not use a blog for the type of things that I do–

Time will tell…

Kathy

Artichoke
10/6/2006

I dunno Steve,
“Success” is such an individual thing – think I agree with Ben – I blog to better understand myself and my thinking about teaching and learning and ICT – which should be enough – but I love the comments on a blog post because they are a catalyst to new thinking for me (I don’t care if they agree or disagree)- comments are also a compliment – in that someone has taken the time to engage with the ideas in the post and share their thinking.

Relationships are what new learning is founded on, and comments are the online drivers for relationships. So perhaps comments are an indicator of blog success, not the number of comments but how much powerful new thinking is engendered by a comment.

Along the Way » Inspiration 2.0
10/7/2006

[...] Tonight, I read one of the most inspiring blog posts I have read to date, by Jeff at The Thinking Stick. In his post, 1 year and counting, Jeff talks about his personal learning journey this past year as a blogger. He talks with passion about how the connected world of edublogging has helped him grow. I too, have learned more this past year than I ever have before. But unlike Jeff, I haven’t written and reflected enough about that learning. I read so much that I don’t find much time to write. Writing, for me, is a laborious process, that feels like work. Also, as Steve Dembo expresses in his recent post, As a blogger, how do you define success?, sometimes I worry that what I say might not be always good for my career. So I procrastinate…really well. After reading Jeff’s post, I realize that I simply can’t put off writing any more. There’s no excuse. As Wesley Fryer, David Warlick, Will Richardson and others have said, learning is conversation. It’s time to learn and contribute. [...]

Teach42 - Education and Technology, by Steve Dembo » On blogs and relationships
10/9/2006

[...] There’s been some great comments on my last post about blogging success, but a snippet from a comment from Artichoke has got me thinking. Relationships are what new learning is founded on, and comments are the online drivers for relationships. So perhaps comments are an indicator of blog success, not the number of comments but how much powerful new thinking is engendered by a comment. [...]

Wesley Fryer
10/15/2006

Steve: I think the success of a blog is a very personal thing, but if we are going to generalize then I think a blog is successful if its posts:

1- Help the author further process and reflect on the ideas they are sharing.
2- Help promote thinking and conversations with others about those ideas.
3- Document thinking, learning and growth across time.

I think anyone is capable of writing blog posts that are “successful” by this criteria. For these reasons, I think “success” in blogging is a messy affair, but therefore also a potentially authentic affair that can have a greater chance of reflecting authentic learning than just logging “seat time” in a professional development workshop could.

Miguel Guhlin
12/2/2006

Steve, interesting points. I know that I measure success by number of posts…in other words, I like the swiftly running stream approach to blogging. I like that in my own posts because I promptly forget what I learn.

Yes, I have actually read my own posts published elsewhere (a magazine, an RSS feed, another web page quoting me) and said, “Wow, this is great stuff!” and then realized that I wrote it in the credits. I have little or no recollection of that work. However, I do remember the titles of articles, and I google myself “mguhlin whatever I’m looking for” to re-discover what I’ve written.

Blogging for me is an aid to remembering what I have learned…but is learning really defined by something you write about but can’t remember without a visual aide? I need to reflect on that…that will probably be a future blog posting.

I’m not sure why my brain works this way…I do know other people can remember their work in detail. My blog is a log of what I’m learning and reflecting about. It’s an essential part of my learning process. It replaces the notebooks and journals and stenopads I carried around.

Am I successful? Well, if I had to make a list, I’d write this:

1) Helps me remember what would otherwise be lost in a day’s worth of thinking and reflecting.

2) Allows me to easily find those reflections in written form–in my own words and referencing the source.

3) Enables me to experience the thrill of publishing and engaging others in conversation about ideas that would never have been fully developed if I had kept them locked in the black box that is the human brain.

Thanks for helping me reflect on blogging…

Miguel Guhlin
Around the Corner – MGuhlin.net
http://www.mguhlin.net

Teach42 - Education and Technology, by Steve Dembo » Blogging for your own future reference.
12/4/2006

[...] A comment by Miguel has really turned my thinking about that upside down though. Blogging for me is an aid to remembering what I have learned… [snip] [Blogging… ] 1) Helps me remember what would otherwise be lost in a day’s worth of thinking and reflecting. [...]

adapter
8/25/2008

Shack Nickzam
4/27/2009

I think many people will define success in an egocentric light. That they have achieved something, perhaps stepping on the little people on the way up while doing so. For me, success is when I feel accomplished and have accomplished noble deeds (that my community recognizes) but also, when I have the influence and power to inspire others, to help others get to where they want to go as well. My success, is the success of everyone who has supported me.

Lyndon
7/27/2009

Great post! I think mostly it’s the number of comments and link backs that dtermine the success of a post.

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