I read an interesting article in yesterday's NY Times business section about some newly released video-editing software that can be used to significantly sharpen the images in home videos: Those Big Bright Eyes May Soon Be Brighter.
The software itself is interesting, but I was particularly struck by this little quote towards the bottom of the article (bolding mine):
Jon Peddie, who heads Jon Peddie Research, a consulting firm in Tiburon, Calif., said specialized software like vReveal might prove popular with consumers as more of them create and post videos.
“There’s a huge potential market for products like this,” Mr. Peddie said. “If two of us are at the same soccer game, each photographing it with a cheap camera, but I do some enhancing afterward,” that video will look better and get more views.
It kinda struck me that "get more views" would've been the last goal I would have thought mattered in improving the video of some kid's soccer game because who's going to watch this thing other than Grandma and Grandpa? So, I would've assumed the goal would be, "Will look better when a small handful of family members watch it." (And I rather suspect that would be the genuine goal of most people who would buy the software.)
But there really is a certain aspect of "Look at me!" to all of this for those of us who post various items on the Internet, especially in formats such as blogs, YouTube, and Twitter. And I'm occasionally struck by the widespread notion that the true and absolute measure of online value is the number of hits that an item receives.
To some extent I understand that this is an extension of business drivers for Web-based businesses. For them, "more hits" really does equal "more money". But what about for the rest of us?
I do this little blog as a fun way of updating my friends and family on what I'm up to and what's on my mind. So I do expect a certain amount of traffic from a couple dozen people, and would probably be a bit saddened if nobody ever read it or commented and I didn't muster up my 20 or so hits per day. And it certainly isn't inconceivable that an occasional visitor from somewhere outside that circle might stumble across it, as happened when I insulted Mark Rothko's paintings.
Heck, if I post something here that I think folks might enjoy, I even throw a link up on Facebook, where it can be seen by my ever-growing list of Facebook friends, now up to an astounding 218 people. But all-in-all, I don't think that I'm competing with anybody else for "more views" of this blog.
So does that mean that I don't care about "building an audience" for this little blog? Or just that I'm only trying to build a selected audience?
I'm not really sure what I'd blog about if I was trying to build a lot of traffic, but I would assume it would mean fewer beagle haikus, so the heck with that idea. Let nobody doubt that this is the Internet's #1 source for Katie the Beagle poems (which gives rather a whole new sense to the concept of "the long tail" of online content, now that I think about it.)
But I can't help but wonder if I'm missing some basic point when I find myself at such genuine odds with underlying assumptions that seem to be shared so many people. Should I be trying to build an audience? If so, to what end?
I dunno, my loyal "Followers" what do you all think?
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Quality over quantity, definitely. Not that my opinion is any surprise to you, my dear.
ReplyDeleteThe truth is that art, when designed to appeal to the largest crowd possible, is almost always of lesser quality than art made with a different motivation... This is not to say, of course, that some art works don't become vastly popular, don't garner a huge audience. However, I would bet a lot on the fact that in those cases it was not primarily the desire for a huge ass audience that motivated the artist in their work.
Except for Sir Mix-A-Lot. I'm pretty sure he was precisely targeting the "huge ass audience" when he wrote "Baby Got Back."
ReplyDeleteHey. You've got me. Otherwise I'd never know what's happening in your lives. And who wouldn't want to read more of your poems? Especially Katie the Beagle haikus?
ReplyDeleteVast universe. On a Indian site I follow, the author wrote a post titled: "Write as if nobody would read this." On a German site (a bit like Gettysburgh Mom) the young woman (who has lots of followers) complained: "Is nobody reading this?" She promptly got some 39 comments, including one from me. I think she was just a little down. For many blogging is "publishing," and "readership counts." Some excellent sites with huge readership clearly don't like most of their readers--many are there for the wrong reasons. And there is Google. I tested your site and find that your content is on Google just a couple of hours after posting. And some will come because of searches. Sites attract their own core readers. And the good blogger really is addressing a perceived audience. Can't be helped. As they say, on the Internet nobody knows that you're a dog--and you'd be surprised at the number of infatuated beagles, and even larger members of the species, read Patioboat thinking that Katie is writing it about a big guy who sometimes has a beard. And think: I wish I had an owner like that!
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that I really like about your blog is that it really is different than most other blogs. In fact, since I don't think anyone else on the planet is seriously writing beagle haikus, it IS different than every other blog on the planet.
ReplyDeleteWith that said, I like the mix of silly little haikus, and longer thought out pieces, and just keeping up with what's going on with you.
I think that you could write a mass appeal, very successful blog if you want to do it, but, if that means that your current blog would either go away or be significantly changed, I have to say that I'd be sad.
I think Bloglines dropped you from my following list and I've missed a bunch of posts this week.
ReplyDeleteI write my blog because I'm too lazy to email pictures of the kids to both of our families and I haven't written much down in a baby book for any of them either.
I'm still pleasantly surprised when a stranger enjoys something I've written enough to come back again.
And you are the number one site for beagle haiku! That's way cooler than the number one site for Gettysburg Neuter.