Too many blogs?

Wow! The blogs are sprouting up all over Oshkosh!

What does it mean?

I think that we will see the blog market in Oshkosh dilute in the short term. I would guess that until it shakes out, all of them will get less readership.

In the end, the good blogs will stick around, and many will be abandoned either by readers or the publisher's themselves.

I think there will be a few factors that will raise some of these blogs over others:

1. Update frequency. Many of the blogs show up for a few weeks, then are never to be updated again. Or, there are large gaps in updating. Some examples of either un-updated or inconsistently updated blogs currently are WPJC, Longsine Links and Bubba's. I try to update daily, and I give credit to Everyday Editor and Tony Palmeri (website, not blog, blog is too new to evaluate) for being consitant in updating. And to quote Stephen Colbert, "Streetwise, you are on notice!"

2. Quality of material. A blog needs new, compelling, or well written information to be a consistent read. Unfortunately, a blog that throws bombs will also get readership. I give myself an average grade in this. The purpose of this blog, when it began, was to just share headlines I was interested in with my buddy Jon. It then morphed into a way to save stories, facts and quotes I wanted to remember. It was later that I added in my own opinions. I think I do a good job of new and compelling - I need to work on adding more personal insight. Some people I think do that very well are E-Pluribus-Unum, BABBLEMUR!, the Vast Dairy State Conspiracy, This Week in Oshkosh and This Is Life.

3. Design and ease of use of the website. Eye on Oshkosh is the best designed, with Oshkosh News as a close second (Oshkosh News is the best all-around site. Very good in all areas, but not the top. However, their theory of community news is a total different level than any other blog around.) Every other one seems to use the generic Blogger software (me included). It gets tired to look at. There needs to be some innovation in this area.

4. Special twist. There are really only 2 of them out there with that special twist, Oshkosh News (as mentioned before) and Bain-Blog, it is nice to see the thoughts behind the decisions made for the city. I will give myself and Luann Bird credit for special twists, because we blogged our way through the last election.

I know there are many I didn't mention. Some I have not read yet (as I said, there are way too many all of the sudden!), others are average or poor in all of the 4 categories I pointed out.

I do this exercise not to criticize (I give myself only an average or poor in all categories except frequency of updating). But to establish goals that I will be working towards in this blog.

Feel free to post any of your thoughts in comments or email me at jef@jefhall.com.