What I learned, at the cost of a day, is that I'm burning out on blogging even at the once a week rate. It doesn't help that I see I continuing decline in search visitors to the blog, due to the inherent limitations of blogging and the general decline of interest in the self publishing subject. The latter may come as a surprise, given the media hype about self publishing and consolidation in the author services industry, but take a look at this Google data:
That's the organic search traffic, and I don't think that Google even adjusts it for their growth in market share over the period. So while interest may be growing in author services and self publishing boutiques that will turn your photo album into a short run family publication, the number of authors using the Internet to research self publishing as a business is shrinking.
Whatever the case may be, this is just a short announcement that I'm going to give up blogging on a schedule and only write about self publishing when I feel I have something new to say. I thought I'd just link a half dozen of what I felt were the best self publishing posts I made during the past year for newcomers stumbling onto blog.
Viral book marketing case study
Authors, Customers, Editors, Distribution and Google
Pretty websites don't sell books
Why self publish?
YouTube Video and book marketing
The future of the offset printing business model
Pretty slim pickings, but I didn't want to go back any further. If you're subscribed to the atom feed, it will let you know when I post next.
9 comments:
I read your blog regularly via my mobile phone. Although I'm only one reader, I'm one of many that don't read via a web browser and thus Google analytics doesn't recognize.
Darwin,
I just "attended" an online presentation about mobile phones and publishing, titled "The Third Screen." Not being a mobile phone user, the whole thing has escaped me so far. One day I may have to buy an i-something just to get in the picture.
I don't think the graph I posted is related to Analytics, I assume it's based on Google search engine use, not sure what else it would be. For my own website stats, I don't run Anyalytics on the blog, I've forgotten why, but I do have the server statistics that count every access of every sort, most of which are phony.
Morris
I think posting only when you have something worth saying is an excellent idea. It will take the pressure off and make it fun again (writing about new interesting topics is always fun) and it will also allow you to regroup, start other projects, and then have more new fodder for good posting. I subscribe to your feed so I'll be here in a flash when you strike again.
Regarding the mobile phone stuff - yes, you do need to "just get an i-whatever." I didn't get it either, but I can say without a doubt that the i-phone has changed my technology-life more than anything thats come along since google 10 years ago. Just get one. You'll be singing its praises. For example, I was waiting for my wife a few days ago at a lame department store staring at a Gap neon sign and lo and behold, my iphone got Morris Rosenthal's latest blog post in my email, and I spent the next 20 minutes reading something interesting then had stuff to think about on the way home. That is just a tiny example. GPS in your pocket, 300,000 applications, etc. A guy like you is a technology leader - I have to think you'll be anywhere between loving your i-phone and merely liking it. I couldn't imagine life without it.
Bryan
Bryan,
Yeah, but...
Morris
Morris, I'll miss your regular posts but completely understand what you're saying.
I've used Google Trends on my favorite topic, homeschooling, and have seen the same downward trend. But a lot of other topics are also on a slow downward slide. Is "Tiger Woods" typical of what passes for hot trends these days, or is there another factor we haven't considered? Maybe people are using social networks to get info on their favorite topics instead of using search engines.....
Barb
Barbara,
Hard to say. The different Google tools don't always agree, Trends, Insights (same thing?), Adwords Keyword Tool. There certainly a trend to longer search queries, but I think it's a slow one. My best guess is that as Google became "it", there was some natural demand for "Oh, I've been thinking about researching X for a long time," but now everybody with a lifelong, back-burner plan to research X has done so, and we're only seeing the new interest.
But it could also have to do with relative scaling in some way I haven't figured out. For what it's worth, if you keep trying things, you will find plenty trending up, not always the ones you might expect.
Morris
I too have come to the crossroads you have on blogging. For the past year I've attempted to get enthused about a blog I have been writing on four long years, the passion for it has petered out.
So what's going to be your next step?
Georjina,
My main Internet strategy has always been to build my content based website, and that hasn't changed. In fact, any three of my more popular static pages about publishing combined get more search traffic than the 450+ blog posts combined - better than 100:1 in terms of efficiency.
I do plan to keep blogging, maybe once or twice a month unless something special comes up. For example, I'll go to Tools of Change in February if they give me a press pass again, and I would end up posting several times in the course of that week. Current events are what blogs are actually good for, but most people assume they are somewhow equivalent to a collection of we pages. It just doesn't work that way.
Morris
Morris,
Thank you for all the posts you have completed! I've learned quite abit from both your book and your blog. You've helped me in my growth as an author - and now publisher.
Best, Kyra
www.BlackThreads.blogspot.com
Post a Comment