A blog is for life, not just for Christmas

“Well it’s all a bit self-indulgent isn’t it?” That’s the reaction I often receive when talking about blogging – even from some bloggers!
So as the year draws to a close I thought it timely to have a look at what is actually going on in the blogosphere, who is blogging and what are we all blogging about?
From a global perspective, the blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 106 million blogs as of this September and, in its State of the Blogosphere report last year , said that about 175,000 new weblogs are created each day.
A survey from the Pew Research Centre found that 34% of bloggers consider their blog a form of journalism and more, 37%, of bloggers cite “my life and experiences” as a primary topic of their blog.
Here in Manchester it seems that these personal blogs make up the biggest proportion of activity. According to The Manchizzle , which seeks to keep track of all the blog activity going on in the city via its blogroll, there are now about 230 blogs with most being personal diaries and observations.
Some of these individuals have found the ease of publishing which blogging offers is giving them a platform which leads to success in mainstream writing.
Maria Roberts, who had been anonymously writing Single Mother on the Verge, recently landed a deal with Penguin for a book based on her semi-confessional blog while the creator of Day of Moustaches, Chris Killen secured a two book deal with Canongate earlier this year.
Of course many of the blogs from the city are created by people already in the mainstream media (such as the growing number here at the M.E.N) but the point of blogging is that it’s a platform open to anyone regardless of background, training or interest.
If the subject matter touches a chord with people, that’s reward enough.
But 2007 will close with the end of many blogs, no doubt started in a fit of enthusiasm, or pique, and which have fallen by the wayside.
Some have been left hanging in mid-air with the possibility for a return like M20 which, without any explanation, hasn’t been updated since the strange story of the Dettol Man in May.
Others have run their course, like The Number 43 which was created to highlight problems with that particular bus route.
It’s creator Geoff made the end decisive stating: ” This blog has run its course, it has reached the end of the road. Better to stop now than pretend that I will get back to it. Part of the problem is that I nearly always cycle now – no bus blog without a bus, as I said once before.”
But many have just become too much work. As You can’t control the message put so eloquently as it signed off in August: “It’s ending as it started. More of a whimper than a bang.
I’ve said it before: blogging is the thing that drops off the “to do” list first when the “real” bites back. And sometimes, when things hurt, stuff happens, life comes in to focus more sharply or just gets busy, blogging goes out the window. And rightly so.”