Poker Hacks
Poker Blogs aren't dying. They're just resting.
The buildup to the World Series of Poker is a big deal, and since many (most?) bloggers actually went to Vegas this year and participated in blogger events and WSOP events, there was a flurry of blogging MADNESS.
You would expect there to be some recovery time after such an experience, and there is. Even Pauly is taking some time post WSOP to get away from the poker world for a while. Do you think that means the Tao of Poker is dying? I seriously doubt it. The doctor has been blogging for a long fuckin' time, and he will continue to blog, about poker and whatever else, for a longer fuckin' time.
Blogging is an interesting medium. It's both easy and hard at the same time. It's like college. Anyone can get in. It's easy at first. It gets harder and harder as you go along. Not necessarily because things get more difficult, but because life gets more and more in the way. If you can go the whole four years, you've had to make a significant commitment.
The reason most blogs die is because they don't know what they're doing. They just start writing, telling stories. There's no goal in mind, no destination. Some of the lucky ones find something along the way. They find a POINT. They find a reason for doing what they are doing. It doesn't have to be something especially meaningful. It just needs to be something you do that makes your blog special. Your "niche." The rest just keep wandering around, not finding somplace to go. Eventually they get lost. Sometimes they're never heard from again.
So which are you? Do you have a destination? Is there a point? Or do you just keep plodding along, posting and posting, hoping you don't get lost?
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9 comments:
Parenting and gambling will be around my life for awhile so I've got my niche carved out.
Blogging is a good outlet for me. It helps get what is bottled up inside of me out. While it may not be interesting to everyone, I've at least found a way to get things off my mind that otherwise would linger around longer than they should have. Call it blogging for therapy. Ya, occasionally I'll post something useful and interesting. A tidbit picked up on the table from time to time. I also still enjoy reading others experiences. It's nice to have something in common with others out there in cyberspace.
I liken blogging more to being in a fraternity (or any organization, really). When you first enter, you are gung-ho. As you put in a year or more, some people can get burnt out. They see new people come in and they don't feel the same connection with the group they were inducted with. Others are like the older mentor frat brothers, willing to help out. Some even get bitter about their blog or the state of blogging. In the end, the only thing keeping a blog going (or a fraternity brother in the fraternity) is the blogger/brother himself. You have to be self motivated to create.
We seem to discuss niche a lot, and there is a lot of validity to it. But for those same people who shit on my On Blogs post a while ago, the idea of a niche is more about what keeps people coming to your blog, not what keeps your blog going. The blogger keeps his blog going. That's why someone like Pauly may have a wide readership, but if he stopped writing entirely (he is, naturally, given wider berth to take time off, which he earned), then his blog would end, plain and simple.
It's great to find a niche, and probably necessary, too. But the niche is something that other people place on you. All you can do it write. Your natural voice will come out.
Anyone who thinks the poker blogging is dying just doesn't like what they are reading. Their interest in poker blogs are dying, but so be it. The blogs don't die though. They keep going, like cockroaches.
There may be as many as 1,000 Poker Blogs of which there is a corps of around, say 100, that interact with each other.
Yours, DoubleAs, Dr. Pauly, Felicia Lee, Katitude, Iakaris, High On Poker, TripJax, etc, etc, etc.
While some in that group may not be blogging as much in the past, there are 100s of others that are still going strong, still yet to be "discovered". (like mine)
The Blogger Tournaments are a great way to discover new blogs like when Jordan when up against a guy that had a Blog I never heard of, something to do with the UCLA Bruins and poker. It was a pretty good blog but I have lost touch with it.
I appreciate you not calling me by name...
You don't need a niche to blog.
All you need is a computer.
Whether a blog lives on depends on how motivated the author is and whether or not it still flips his switch.
It seems like it's the established (dare I say it) 'A' bloggers that believe poker blogging is dying. Is it because they see their friends ending their blogs, or their own blogging energy waning?
Who knows. What I do know is that it is pretty silly to make a sweeping statement about something as fluid as a blogging community. How can anyone say they know the boundaries of the blogging world, let alone enough about it to predict it's demise.
Besides, it's blogging for Christ's sake! Let's all keep in mind how gay it is.
No destination - well...the Playboy Mansion would be cool, but I think Pauly's got a waiting list longer than Magic's johnson.
No point - other than a desperate attempt to not let myself go 1k in the hole again...so far so goot.
Strong Yes! to plodding along post after post - albiet with a better vocabulary than the average bear.
All that noted...it still works for me...
I like what the Wolverine has to say. On that note, the Bruins UCLA site has actually dies, ironically. I think the guys doing it all started to lose and there goes poker and blogging (for them).
Interesting post & question. When you mention blogs having a "point" I don't take that as meaning specifically "finding a niche" or the like. Rather, it sounds more like you're referring to "a reason to exist." Blogs that don't die keep finding such reasons to continue.
Not unlike playing poker, really, an activity that "means" different things to different people. But it's gotta mean something, or the game ends . . . .
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