The Rules For Providing Value
March 18th, 2008
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Yesterday, I posted about the Automatic Blog Post Rehasher, which is a tool I wrote that spits out random combinations of words vaguely resembling a blog post. It was a joke about the widely held opinion that there seems to be relatively little value in the massive blogosphere.
But behind this joke is a grave concern, one that I didn’t touch on before, but that many people have in mind.
Barbara Swafford at Blogging Without A Blog, recent winner of a Blogscar Award, had this to say:
It makes me wonder, can we post anything, and our loyal readers will continue to come back? Will we continue to get Stumbled and Dugg? If that’s the case, all social networks could lose their reputation of having the best of the best, blogs will be tagged as “words taking up (cyber)space,” and someone else may be plagiarizing Obama’s “words, just words” statement to describe blogs.
How sad it would be if blogs took on a “myspace” mentality and we start posting tons of personal photos, include music playlists, write about what we had for dinner, vent our frustrations over a fight with our significant other, and stop sharing valuable information.
Let me generalize this to go beyond just blogging. What would the world be like if people didn’t know the rules for providing value?
If you believed that rehashed tripe would get Stumbled and Dugg, would you stop trying to write original posts?
If you believed that you got paid less than an unproductive coworker, would you stop trying to be productive?
If you believed that girls always go for the jerks, would you stop trying to be nice to them?
In Schindler’s List, Helen Hirsch spoke of the tragic randomness her people lived with every day:
We were on the roof on Monday, young Lisiek and I, and we saw the Herr Kommandant come out of the house on the patio right there below us, and he drew his gun and shot a woman who was passing by…she was no faster or slower or fatter or thinner than anyone else and I couldn’t guess what had she done. The more you see of the Herr Kommandant the more you see there are no set rules you can live by, you cannot say to yourself, “If I follow these rules, I will be safe.”
And that, to me, is the biggest problem with a world that seems arbitrary. There are no set rules you can live by. You cannot say to yourself, “If I provide this value, people will appreciate it.”
Then again, there may be rules for providing value. But I sure don’t know them all.
One rule I do know is that you always give people what they want.
If someone says they want a hamburger, you might think they mean that they’d be fine with just a hamburger, but they really want a steak. So you go to all the effort to bring them the thickest, juiciest steak ever, and they’re disappointed. Then you talk about all the major culinary awards your steak has won, and try to convince them that they really do want a steak. But it doesn’t matter how much value you’re providing, because all they wanted was a hamburger.
Unfortunately, most of the people we want to win over aren’t telling us what they want. No one has ever told me that they’d Digg and Stumble me if I repackaged some hackneyed tips into an uninspired post titled “12 Sexy Ways To Achieve Your Goals.” I know it works for some people, but would it work for me? I don’t know. And I don’t think I can bring myself to try, even if that means I’m holding myself back.
So Barbara, I don’t know how to answer your question. I don’t know if we can just post anything and be rewarded with subscribers and social media popularity. I hope it’s not really true, but more than that, I just hope that the rules are consistent.
Does anyone know what the rules are?
March 18th, 2008 at 1:43 am
Value’s in the eye of the beholder.
I think blog authors do their best when they write from experience and passion. At the end of the day, your blog’s value is either you or your topic. If it’s about you, then the value is your perspective. If it’s about the topic, then you’re either providing insight or action or your take on the topic.
If you make me feel, think or act, you’re adding value.
J.D.’s last blog post..Getting Out of a Slump
March 18th, 2008 at 2:13 am
Hi Hunter,
First of all, thank you for the link love.
So far, I have found no “rules” for blogs/blogging.
I venture to guess the “rules” are different to different people, however, when it comes to blogging, if we (as bloggers), don’t make a conscientious effort to fill blogosphere with valuable and trustworthy information, blogosphere will soon become a cyberspace trashcan. Like so much in our everyday life, it could also become a “problem” that will be left for our children, and grandchildren, to try and clean up.
With the internet replacing most research materials, millions may read what we write, believe what we write, and use what we write to make decisions in their everyday lives. If we steer them wrong and begin producing mediocre content, who’s responsible if they make the wrong decision. Is it them, for not being smart enough to “do their homework”, or is it us for “posting just to post”?
As a blogger, I take what I publish very seriously. I have my own set of “made up rules”, and can only hope that others hold themselves to a high standard as well.
Barbara Swafford’s last blog post..NBOTW Shares From Years Of Experience
March 18th, 2008 at 6:28 am
I think it’s mostly about energy. If you write about your passions you will have access to large
amounts of energy. Everybody wants more energy for themselves, and by reading a blog where you can
almost feel the energy, you hope that some of it will rub off on you, or that you can somehow
learn to access the same level of energy. Energy is valuable because you can use for whatever you
want.
Thomas’s last blog post..How I Saved A Little Piggy
March 18th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
We have three good responses here about what value is.
J.D. says bloggers need to make him think, feel, or act. That’s certainly true. If a post makes you think, feel, or act (in a positive way), that means it’s worth something.
Thomas says we need to have energy. I have to agree with that too. If someone writes with energy, they’re going to make you think, feel, or act. When there’s no energy, it makes you wonder if the person just felt like they were due to post.
Barbara suspects that value means different things to different people, which I guess has to be true. So she holds herself to her own set of made up rules.
I think you’re all right!
March 19th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
you know, I try to write with the rule “be insanely useful” which I think I saw resonated on Problogger somewhere.
When I google something, I’m looking for those pages that’s value packed with info and often times, you find a lot of watered down stuff.
So when I write, I try to think about answering questions that generally come up in the topic. Of course I can’t do it all but I always try. I think of it as building quality on my site brick by brick with the hope that people start to think “hmmm.. maybe I can find this on InMyHeels”
That. Would be awesome.
I do my research, respect my sources, avoid half a page quotes from another blog, and most importantly I write in my own voice. If you like one post, you’ll love ‘em all because thats me through and through.
JEMi | Tips for Life, Love, You’s last blog post..Waiting to Live
March 19th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Hi Hunter – I thought your blog post rehasher tool was a brilliant wakeup call for many people.
This is my take on the whole situation. My mediocre posts get stumbled – because they’re interesting to a particular group. And I don’t think it’s because they’re good posts. I think it’s because the people who stumble them know they’re the type of posts that get stumbled a lot, so they’ll get stumble juice for stumbling them.
The exception was my Sky TV post which many of you stumbled out of the goodness of your hearts. And that was great. It’s brilliant that people will fight back against the big corporations.
But, I have noticed something about StumbleUpon which I do not like. If a blogger is popular, they can blog on a hackneyed topic, with no original slant and it will get stumbled to death. Some people have said it’s because they have a popular blog, but i think that is utter tripe. I truly believe it’s because people will get more stumblelove (eg more people visiting there own blogs) if they stumble these posts on popular blogs.
I’ve seen stuff I’ve written completely rehashed – and i wouldn’t mind if it was an original slant, but often it isn’t. And it’s usually the “popular bloggers” who do it. And i have read many posts after reading some of Barbara’s – usually a couple of weeks later and they’re just like posts she’s written – fair enough, in the authors own words, but with no particularly different angle.
Your rehasher was a classic though – did you make it yourself?
Cath Lawson’s last blog post..Business Partnership – Is It Financial Suicide?
March 20th, 2008 at 2:12 am
@ JEMi, are you reading my mind? I was just writing about being “insanely useful” and couldn’t remember where I saw that phrase. You mentioned “value-packed,” which I know comes from Skellie. They’re both great things to be, and you’re developing a reputation for both!
@ Catherine, I just recently found out that you get more stumble power for stumbling with the masses. It’s pretty sad, because it defeats the purpose of social media. Sometimes I’m in the mood for stumbling and go specifically looking for something to stumble. But I won’t stumble something that’s not special in some way (though it need not be extraordinary–I can’t set my standards too high because unfortunately I have to play the game).
Yes, I wrote the rehasher myself. Glad you got a kick out of it!
March 20th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Hunter, I appreciate your last comment to Catherine. It reminds me of Skellie’s recent post about trying to grow by focusing on quality content, but she realized that you have to play the social network game if you want to continue to pick up new subscribers.
It’s a tough balancing trying to maintain standards of quality and originality while also participating on the social bookmarking merry-go-round.
March 20th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
why, yes Hunter! I’m “in yo’ head”
*woooooo* (twilight zone music)
orrr its just that great minds think alike
JEMi | Tips for Life, Love, You’s last blog post..Stripped: Vulnerability In Love
March 21st, 2008 at 12:27 am
@ Sterling, remember Skellie’s butterfly post where she said that when you reach 500 subscribers, you can back off on marketing? Apparently you still need to do some at that point. I wish we could ignore marketing and just focus on content, but I think we’ll always need to have a balance.
@ JEMi, I vote for the “great minds” thing!