Are Blogs Still the Wild, Wild West of the Internet?
PJM Las Vegas: Attending the Blog World Expo and New Media Expo in Las Vegas, Rick Moran can't help but notice that that blogs have transcended their wild and wooly early existence. Blogging is a business and being a blogger no longer means being an outspoken rebel.
If you were to examine the reasons the West was won, tamed, and settled, it wouldn’t be because of the the Colt revolver or the Winchester rifle.
What civilized the West is the same thing that has had a civilizing influence on everything it touches. We’re talking about money, of course. And wherever there is a lot of money to be made, the law isn’t far behind.
In order to exploit the vast wealth in western states, dirty, lawless mining towns and wild ‘49′ers had to give way to bankers, gold assayers, the merchant, and eventually the rail road man. The truth is not too many individual miners ever struck it rich. It was the same in cattle towns, in silver towns, and any town that sprang from the earth almost overnight. It wasn’t until the west started to really organize itself into large scale, industrial mining and ranching concerns that real wealth was created.
In truth, here at the Blogworld and New Media Expo in Las Vegas, one gets the feeling that blogs have now transcended their wild and wooly early existence and thanks to the civilizing influence of money, have grown to have an impact in politics, in war, and most especially in business.
Clearly there are still some “Wild Bunch” bloggers out there. And long may they live free to blog about anything or anyone they see fit. But blogging has become an enterprise now, fully integrated into business plans, marketing strategies, and political campaigns. As such, the tone and tenor of blogs have gotten more serious.
Blogworld recognizes this and caters to it. By dividing bloggers into “tracks,” attendees are offered a smorgasbord of options regarding their choice of panels and seminars.
There is a Beginners Track, an Advanced Track, and a track devoted to the new media of podcasting. There is also an entirely separate track for those in business which includes topics for entrepreneurs, on monetizing your blog, and a track for executives who blog.
Beyond that there is Godblogging and Milblogging, sports blogging, and political blogging topics as well. And the topics reflect the everyday problems bloggers encounter. “How online conversations change markets,” was one such seminar with Paul Gillin giving a fascinating account of how markets can be affected by social networking.
The Monetization Track featured four separate sessions on how to turn your blog into a money maker. The Executive Track had one panel with attorney Brett Trout on “How to keep your blog out of court.”
What all this points to is the fact that blogs have come of age. We’ve already seen the impact political blogs can have on the process. Now we are seeing blogs make money for their owners as well as sell products for the businesses who start one. It is a brave new world and compared to the lay of blogland as it was three years ago when I began to blog, the difference is night and day.
At bottom, having a blog invites conversation. And despite competition for links, for readers, and for recognition, bloggers will continue to explore new ways to communicate as well as exploit their website in order to make some money. The purists may deride it. But given the nature of commerce and how it is exploding across the internet, blogs are simply along for the ride – one more way to sell a product, or an idea, or a cause.
Not quite the “wild west.” But perhaps not quite civilized yet either.
Rick Moran blogs at Right Wing Nut House.
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3 Comments
1. ecj-maxine:The conferences were good and informative but on the showfloor, there was a wealth of technology as well. A bit of a “Techno Track” for those who took the time to sit through well thought out presentations that were longer than an elevator pitch.
Attending the Pajamas Party (sponsored by this site) at “The Joint” added to the buzz of a first ever official conference and exposition. The attitudes had been running high from physical community discovery for the last two days, giving one to feel they were attending a “Woodstock for Wordsmiths” … all the like-minded people, music, no mud!
Congratulations to all the 2007 Weblog Awardees!
Nov 9, 2007 - 5:56 am 2. RE:Reading about this ‘Blog World’ thing leaves me with the impression that a clique is beginning to form. As the new media replaces the dinosaur media, will it will these new journalists adopt the characteristics of those it replaced? hmmm.
Nov 11, 2007 - 10:20 am 3. pch1013:“new journalists”
Let’s not forget that much of today’s so-called “new media,” at least on the conservative side of the blogosphere, had its genesis in decidedly “old media” institutions such as the Wall Street Journal and the National Review.
If neither of those publications existed, the right-wing blogosphere would be a shadow of its current self.
Nov 11, 2007 - 11:22 am