Thanks to comments and some deep thoughts, Jack Handey-style, I am back with a new proclamation that bloggers everywhere will appreciate: Long Live Blogging!

Before you disappear into the ether of the internet forever, hear me out. I think blogging as we once thought about it is dead (and I was not blogging in ‘97, Al, but your ex was ahead of her time). “This is My Me” blogs are a dime a dozen and now, hopefully, becoming a thing of the past. I define a This is My Me as one that lacks a strong personal voice but has the word “ramblings,” “mutterings,” “musings” or “randomings” in the tagline. Blogs with strong voices, personalities, design and tips-tricks-hacks will continue to gather momentum and propel themselves into book deals and more.

In the comments of Blogging Is Dead, Judy asks a vital question: What does dead mean?

I have a couple of answers to that, but maybe I’ll answer it in a different way. What does ALIVE mean?
Alive, to me at least, means that I’m actively participating in an ongoing dialogue with people whose blogs I read and the people (or robots) reading mine. It also means that I’m aware of the constant stream of information happening in the blogosphere around me (most recently I do this at sk-rt.com which is nothing short of a designer’s wet dream). To do all of that is a full-time job. To tell people you’re a full-time blogger is social suicide. Or is it?

One reason I said blogging is dead is that the amount of attention we used to give to blogs dwindles daily as new technologies emerge. All of these new technologies are asking for my attention and I continually divide and sub-divide my time on-line to make them all fit. Meanwhile, my shoulders hunch in, my hands cripple up and my eyes go dry. My peers and I will grow up to be very strange-looking old people if we don’t figure out a way to get healthy online (and I’m working on some innovations in that area, stay tuned).

Long live blogging because blogging is an engine that drives attention. We, the creators of content, get a chance to influence what’s said about us. We can monitor our Attention Stream and step into a conversation about us. In the Attention Economy, this is the kind of influence we want to have. According to Goldhaber, the guy responsible for creating this theory about Attention Economy says this, the money quote:
“What counts most is what is most scarce now, namely attention. The attention economy brings with it its own kind of wealth, its own class divisions - stars vs. fans - and its own forms of property, all of which make it incompatible with the industrial-money-market based economy it bids fair to replace. Success will come to those who best accommodate to this new reality.”

Driving traffic, rankings and your standing in search engines may be one reflection of the amount of currency you own in attention. But it is not the only way. Long live blogging as a platform for expressing ourselves and communicating with our fans, friends and challengers. Death to blogging for money.

(My design firm, Plunge Artist, has redesigned its homepage. If you’re needing design goodness, a new look or logo, check us out. We’re into all things cute, friendly and ironic.)
(Cartoon courtesy of Gaping Void) [Finally, if you want to hear a podcast (Patrick & me)about this subject & a bit more on blog her, check this out--recorded 5 Aug 2007.]