Are ebook blogs dying out?

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by barryem

I've been reading a number of ebook blogs daily for quite a while and I've enjoyed them but these days they seem to be doing less and less.
...

These blogs still have interesting stories when they have them but they're so few nowadays.
....
Come on guys. Get with it! I'm a faithful audience and I doubt that I'm alone. Write something. I've gotten a lot of pleasure reading your articles over the years. I need you!!

I'd say there are 3 reasons for the blogs 'dying out.' One, there used to be financial incentives to do them and those have dried up. Two, most people who start blogs had a lot more time at the time they started and don't now. Three, interest in maintaining-let's face it, most people only keep hobbies for 4-5 years before moving on to other stuff that interests them more now.

I love our local newspaper, but alas, due to vision damage, cannot read it. It annoys me that I can't access the ads and coupons using the electronic version. I get the Sunday paper because not only do I get the ads, but my Mom and brother also get to read it (they don't read it during the week).

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by davidrothman

Hi, Barry (and others). Thanks for your concern. As TeleRead.org's publisher, I can tell you we're not dying. But we have greatly slowed down the pace of posting since we're all volunteer now. Archived by the Library of Congress, we're in it for the long haul, and we have chosen a more sustainable approach than one dependent on advertising.

I would like to offer a friendly suggestion for your blog because I'd like to see it continue and not die. I used to read your website every morning with my breakfast. It was one of the best. I thought the topics were insightful and covered a wide range of interests. I understand why your website had to adapt to the changing financial times and went volunteer. I like that you have added more guest contributors from other sites, and I think it's great for you to reach out to the MobileRead community.

However, I no longer read your site as frequently, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way so I'd like to explain why. There are two reasons.

1) As you noted, the change to volunteer status means that there are fewer articles, and thus I don't need to visit as frequently.

2) I like articles to cover issues in the news including about the government, but I think that the articles should be more factual and personal opinions could be done in a tone that is less in-your-face. If I click on a headline titled "I’m reading my ebooks with the free Roboto Slab font. What are you using?," then I don't want to read about how political candidates are BFF with Russia. It's completely unrelated to the discussion! I really just want to read about fonts!

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

I would like to offer a friendly suggestion for your blog because I'd like to see it continue and not die. I used to read your website every morning with my breakfast. It was one of the best. I thought the topics were insightful and covered a wide range of interests. I understand why your website had to adapt to the changing financial times and went volunteer. I like that you have added more guest contributors from other sites, and I think it's great for you to reach out to the MobileRead community.

However, I no longer read your site as frequently, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way so I'd like to explain why. There are two reasons.

1) As you noted, the change to volunteer status means that there are fewer articles, and thus I don't need to visit as frequently.

2) I like articles to cover issues in the news including about the government, but I think that the articles should be more factual and personal opinions could be done in a tone that is less in-your-face. If I click on a headline titled "I’m reading my ebooks with the free Roboto Slab font. What are you using?," then I don't want to read about how political candidates are BFF with Russia. It's completely unrelated to the discussion! I really just want to read about fonts!

I agree. The topics (political versus technical) need to be kept separate and clearly labeled. Clear titles go with any topic, really. I tend to avoid reading about copyright issues, especially if they contain a lot of opinion. I realize a lot of people want loser copyright laws; I don't happen to personally agree with that so I avoid reading it. I *hate* being blindsided when this particular issue is shoved in an unrelated article. (Not saying you or anyone else did it on your site, but there's another site I read where it happened frequently enough I stopped reading the site. I respect that everyone has an opinion and I don't mind the article existing. I just want to know they are there so I can avoid those particular discussions.)

[barryem]

Originally Posted by davidrothman

Hi, Barry (and others). Thanks for your concern. As TeleRead.org's publisher, I can tell you we're not dying. But we have greatly slowed down the pace of posting since we're all volunteer now. Archived by the Library of Congress, we're in it for the long haul, and we have chosen a more sustainable approach than one dependent on advertising.

I appreciate your reply and I can understand your need to slow down. The point of my post wasn't to complain about Teleread but to lament the decline of ebook blogs in general. They're one of my more interesting pastimes.

My comments about your overemphasis on bold fonts for the Kindle wasn't the problem I was trying to point out but it does take something away from the fun of your blog. I've mentioned it in replies on Teleread and I probably should have let that be enough. It didn't really belong here. Yeah, I do love to harp but I try to resist it when I can.

I read 6 ebook related blogs, the first 4 daily and the other 2 most days. I have them bookmarked and as I found one more interesting I would move it up higher in my bookmark list. Teleread was at the top for a long time. It's now number two, not because of your content at all, but simply due to volume. When you aren't ranting about bold Kindles you still have the most interesting content of those blogs I read.

I don't have any objection to your political articles although I don't personally find politics as interesting as tech stuff. I've read a few of them and I tend to agree with much of what you said although I think it's a bit early. There are some signs that Trump will ignore some of his campaign promises and maybe even most of them. It's too soon to know that but that does seem to fit his character well.

Eisenhower played golf. Kennedy and Clinton chased women. These were very good presidents. Perhaps playfulness and immorality are virtues after all and if so maybe we can expect wonders from Trump.

I really would like to see more technical articles on Teleread. Your idea about trying to contribute something is a good one. I'll give that some thought. When I retired I devoted the rest of my life to uselessness and I'm not sure I want to abandon that. There are some really good technical people here who, from reading their posts, I think might be pretty good at doing technical articles for blogs. Probably some already do, although I'm just guessing.

As for disagreeing with you I have a number of times in replies to your Teleread articles and you've always responded to that in a way that made me feel free to keep disagreeing, which I have from time to time. It's more fun than agreeing.

Barry

[davidrothman]

Barry and everyone else: Continued thanks for your interest in TeleRead. It was heartbreaking to have to stop paying writers due to the rotten business environment. Out of fairness, I cannot expect them to contribute for free as often as they did when paid. But as noted, I'll very much welcome from-the-heart posts on technical topics from you and others.

No problem with repositioned MobileRead forum posts from the authors. What's more, things can work in the other direction. The TeleRead-edited versions in many cases can end up back on MobileRead. A win for all.

As for political stuff, I want to emphasize again that we welcome everyone regardless of our strong views. What's more, if any of my Trump-loving friends would like to write a guest column telling what The Donald will do for ebooks and other tech, I'd love to publish it. I believe that people of different opinions can learn from each other. I remain grateful to the late William F. Buckley, Jr., my political opposite, for writing two "On the Right" columns advocating a well-stocked national digital library.

Meanwhile please keep in mind my own circumstances. I'm the caregiver for my very sick wife, priority number one, and I also need to attend to my other writing. On top of that, I've been working closely with librarians on the cause of a national digital library endowment.

Best,
David
davidrothman@pobox.con
703-370-6540

P.S. A little detail. Two of my four writers are new mothers with babies, and I agree with them that the kids should come first.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Tarana

I'd say there are 3 reasons for the blogs 'dying out.' One, there used to be financial incentives to do them and those have dried up. Two, most people who start blogs had a lot more time at the time they started and don't now. Three, interest in maintaining-let's face it, most people only keep hobbies for 4-5 years before moving on to other stuff that interests them more now.

I love our local newspaper, but alas, due to vision damage, cannot read it. It annoys me that I can't access the ads and coupons using the electronic version. I get the Sunday paper because not only do I get the ads, but my Mom and brother also get to read it (they don't read it during the week).

Look for the Flipp app for your grocery ads.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Tarana

I'd say there are 3 reasons for the blogs 'dying out.' One, there used to be financial incentives to do them and those have dried up. Two, most people who start blogs had a lot more time at the time they started and don't now. Three, interest in maintaining-let's face it, most people only keep hobbies for 4-5 years before moving on to other stuff that interests them more now.

I love our local newspaper, but alas, due to vision damage, cannot read it. It annoys me that I can't access the ads and coupons using the electronic version. I get the Sunday paper because not only do I get the ads, but my Mom and brother also get to read it (they don't read it during the week).

Just as a note, when my father was having vision problems (lasted about a year but eventually got corrected), I bought him a Floor lamp/magnifier so he could read the paper. Don't know if it would help you, or not.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Alpha o]

Are the blogs dying from lack of interest or do the bloggers allow comments and the comments get out of hand?

I'll check out a quilting blog at times - a lot do allow comments. If the blogger has a new baby, eventually all the comments revolve around the baby whether or not the blogger wants it to. The comments can also turn to "mommy shaming" if the blogger would rather keep baby and blog separate. Blogger then gives up and no longer posts.

Isn't only women - I remember some rather vituperative comments about telescopes, too. Those commenters were male.

[BearMountainBooks]

Blogs are tough to upkeep, there is no doubt. I was just out at teleread yesterday and you'd never know there were new moms or caregivers there. I didn't see any comments on it or articles on it.

Blogs are dying due to lack of readers and funding. They are a tremendous amount of work to keep up. A single article/post can take anywhere from half an hour to an hour to put together. IF you post daily, that's an hour per day that has to be carved out. That doesn't count looking for advertisers (or affiliates) and then having to worry about posting deals that your readers might want. Doesn't include updating the blog, watching comments for spam and so on.

I'm an affiliate for several different retailers, most of which I added in the last two years to try and keep income on the blog up. I had to research which ones would be of interest to my readers. You can't willy-nilly add vendors and hope that they are of interest (ads like Google are not very effective because they are random). It's not a full time job by any means, but when you throw in life and a job, it can become cumbersome and not worth the tiny income it produces (or you have to rely on volunteers because you can't pay for guest posts and the like.)

As I mentioned earlier--it's a lot like a newspaper. It's not easy to keep it going due to time and lack of funds.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by Alpha o

Are the blogs dying from lack of interest or do the bloggers allow comments and the comments get out of hand?

I don't think that's been as much of a problem in ebook blogs as it has in other areas. I read comments to a lot of the articles and they're usually on-topic and courteous and most are well thought out.

I think that's just one of the characteristics of readers.

I was the owner of the Yahoo Audible Users forum for nearly a decade and my rules for discussion where simple: don't tell anybody how to pirate and keep it polite. I almost never had to enforce them. It was a peaceful and interesting group and they just never got out of hand.

I've been participating in book and ebook discussions on the internet for probably 30 years and that's pretty much always been true. I began in usenet on rec.arts.books which had LOTS and LOTS of heated discussions and it could sometimes be hard to take but name calling and real flame wars of the sort we always saw on tech discussion forums were pretty rare.

Barry