Blogging is Dead
Of all these self-help feel-good posts about how to grow followers, [this essay](https://medium.com/the-mission/how-to-gain-a-ridiculous-following-on-any-platform-including-medium-e4eedd449e38) on Medium explains exactly why blogging is dead. And it makes me wanna cry.
So what's the problem? Why so sad, dude?
Like the aforementioned article states, packaging is “key” You have to understand the format of the site you are using and copy what other people are doing if you want to succeed.
Being original is too hard for other people to understand.
According to the writer, the greatest mistakes are:
The picture beneath the headline isn’t a stock photo, there’s no use of headers or pull-quotes, and paragraphs ramble on past 4–5 lines to form massive content walls.
Long paragraphs and complex sentences filled with references to obscure literary allusions (hunh?) are a death knell for your blog.
WTF is a knell?
It's the sound of bells ringing when somebody dies, and your blog is dying because you are actually trying to say something.
This is the era of the tweet. Keep it short and space it out because otherwise your readers space out and then it's all over because they closed your tab and you're gone forever in the dustbin of history, or trash can as it were. A forgotten relic of a bygone era who never ..
SHUT UP already.
Blogging is dead because nobody cares about reading anything longer than some words on a photo of a cute cat so they can chuckle to themselves like oh yeah I'm so smart I get it ..
Self- affirmation is key. But not yours, stupid writer, your reader wants to feel special. So stop pretending you are smarter than they are because you are a loser with 113 followers.
Two key points to remember:
- Stroke the reader's ego
- Believe in the lowest common denominator, it is your friend.
I dont know what any of that means … lowest common dominator?
Okay same thing .. go google it
So will I start writing more blog entries like this one? Hell no. I believe in content which makes me an outsider, some hermit in a cave shouting at the wall. Andy Warhol said in the future we'll all be famous for 15 minutes, Momus flipped that and said we'll all be famous for 15 people. I think that sounds about right. You have to believe in the long tail and know your place in it. Not everyone has an audience of millions (we can't all be Jared Kushner, uh yeah), but if you have a core following in any field, half the battle has been won. Now keep them coming back for more.