Skip to main content

Are Your Blog Posts A Commodity?

A commodity is a product that is essentially undifferentiated. In other words, regardless of which company you buy from you get basically the same thing. It is an item usually traded on price alone and not on quality or features in that there is really no difference between producers or sellers. Blogs posts are a dime-a-dozen commodity, quality blog Articles on the other hand are not. Don't get me wrong I believe a mix of shorter commentary style blog posts are a necessary part of blogging, but a blog strictly of these types of posts will be hard pressed to build a successful blog with a large loyal readership.

Jakob Nielsen Ph.D. "one of the world's foremost experts in Web usability," according to Business Week, says
Blog postings will always be commodity content: there’s a limit to the value you can provide with a short comment on somebody else’s work. Such postings are good for generating controversy and short-term traffic, and they’re definitely easy to write. But they don’t build sustainable value. Think of how disappointing it feels when you’re searching for something and get directed to short postings in the middle of a debate that occurred years before, and is thus irrelevant.
In his article Write Articles, Not Blog Postings Nielsen argues the focus should be on writing in-depth value-added content.
It might take you only an hour to write a blog posting on some current controversy, but a thousand other people can do that as well (in fact, they'll sometimes do it better, as shown above). And customers don't want to pay for such a tiny increment of knowledge....

In contrast, in-depth content that takes much longer to create is beyond the abilities of the lesser experts. A thousand monkeys writing for 1,000 hours doesn't add up to Shakespeare. They'll actually create a thousand low-to-medium-quality postings that aren't integrated and that don't give readers a comprehensive understanding of the topic -- even if those readers suffer through all 1,000 blogs.

Thorough content's added value can rise above the threshold where customers become willing to be separated from their money. This is the true measure of a sustainable business.
Blogs from Problogger to Daily Blogging Tips cover the topic of building a base of "pillar" articles. I agree with Daniel at Daily Blogging Tips that the concept of writing "pillar" posts or articles is certainly not a novel concept in the blogging community but the "way Nielsen[sic] handles the matter is quite interesting." I certainly don't agree with everything in his article he does make some very interesting and valid observations.

There has been a cardinal rule in blogging that in my opinion plays right into the commoditization of posts. The rule is post every day. I recently wrote an article about building a a good relationship with your readers that addresses this from the quality vs. quantity angle. The pressure of posting something leads to superficial posts that really do not differentiate themselves from the myriad of posts out there. I believe that if you take the time to really get into an article, really put yourself into it, and add value to your blog and to your readers through it, that it will go 100x farther than tons of superficial "commodity" posts.

In this journey we are on together to build a profitable productive blogs that add value to those who read them, I encourage everyone, myself included, to take the time to post thoughtful, personal, and well researched articles. Articles that go beyond the buzz topic of the moment. Will, and even more importantly does, every article need to be an epiphany? No, not even the best among us could pull that off, instead as I stated earlier strive for a well rounded mix which to me follows the rule I try to live by - moderation in all things.

Has pressure to post something ever lead you to simply put something full of nothing up? I know there have been times when I posted to post due to the "rule" and really had nothing unique to say. Let me know your feelings on this matter.

later all and have a profitable and productive blogging day

Get more profitable and productive information by subscribing to my newsletter! or clicking the links below to subscribe to my feed, bookmark my site, or add me to your favorites.

Add to Technorati FavoritesAddThis Social Bookmark ButtonAddThis Feed Button

Comments

Anonymous said…
just stopping by to say what's up again. thanks for your help and advice on starting up my blog.
Proletariatof1 said…
no problem. when you finally get your blog up stop by and leave your url.

any other questions feel free to stop by and ask. also if you haven't already subscribe to my feed and newsletter.

Popular posts from this blog

What the F Does the C Stand 4

I know all of you have been waiting with baited breathe for my first contest. Well we are taking the plunge together. Here is the chance for all of you to win something for doing almost nothing. Hopefully you won't think this Contest is full of Sh-t . For many many years I have had the "nickname," I guess you could call it, of Cman. Here lately, probably due in part to #10 in my 10 Reasons John Chow Probably Thinks This Blog Is About Him article, I have been getting asked more and more what the C in Cman stands for. Herein lays the focus of this contest. For the person who can guess what the C in Cman stands for I will give them $100. If multiple people guess correctly the winner will be chosen by random drawing from among the correct entries. If no one guesses correctly I will randomly pick from all entries and will award the winner of the losers $20. Clarification: 1. In the words of Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez, "There can be only One." Winner that is. E

Give Viral Marketing A Chance !

==== Copy and Paste below this line ==== Instructions: Important Update - Please read here ! 1.) Copy and paste (for those of you using blogger post in the compose tab, not the edit html tab, of your post editor) the matrix of “ViralTags” below courtesy of Founders Cafe ( to support Jimmy’s quest of launching his own Internet Startup with a shoestring budget, please consider subscribing to his Full RSS Feed to see his triumphs and struggles in real time ). 2.) Substitute the Host Tag and one of the “Viral Tags” in the matrix with your anchor text of choice with your blog’s URL. Please keep anchor text to a max of 3 words to keep the matrix size manageable. 3.) When you get a ping back from someone that has your link in one of their “Viral Tags”, practice good karma by copying his/her Host Tag’s anchor text (automatically the associated link will also be copied) and paste it over one of your “Viral Tags” below. 4.) Encourage and invite your readers to do the same and soon this

The Stripping Aristologist Contest Winner

Well as you can see from the above screen capture the winning entry is #5. Heading over to the contest post and looking through the comments and the trackbacks I found that Anton of Link Right Contests was entry #5 with his guess of Julia Child. The actual answer was incorrect so he won the $50 but not the bonus prize. I was a bit generous to 2 entries that commented and entered but did not give the link. I had to search their blog to find the answer. There were several that commented and gave a link to their blog but I could not find a post about the contest or any links back to this blog. Anywho....Congrats to Anton and thank you all so much for reading and taking the time to interact with this blog and really make it what it is. Oh and Anton you might want to consider some kind of Contact Me link for your blog. Other than trackback to your post and a comment I have no way to contact you regarding your winning entry. Having a Contact Me is one of the first things any blogger should