PureBlogging

Well, history has been made and Barack Obama has been elected the 44th President, and the 1st African-American President of the United States Of America.  Some are overjoyed, and some not so much.

What are bloggers saying?

As to create a fair non-biased look, I’m just going to provide some quotes from the first 10 blogs that came up in a search for “Barack Obama” on Google Blog Search by date (some might consider this to be biased being how Google execs openly endorsed Obama, but it’s not like Google is creating this content, so make of it what you will):

There are positive and negative aspects of Barack Obama’s new economic plan. Some parts the plan should help us out as internet marketers. There are other parts that might hurt us. First, let’s start with the best news…we internet marketers are a resourceful bunch and we’ll probably make sure that everything goes well for our future no matter what.

- Dan Dimi – Site Reference

Obama will be 5th youngest US president . Barack Obama will be little over 47 years when he is sworn in as US President on January 20 next and will be the fifth youngest occupant of the White House.

- Myrtle’s Space

I just received via email a very insightful and poignant perspective on the election of Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, by Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, Executive Director of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship.

” Last night as America elected its first black president, Barack Obama, the room I sat in, filled with tears whether or not they had experienced the pain of being black. At the same time there was much loud celebration. It reminded me of the time when my sisters and I would yell for my mother to come out of the kitchen because there was a black person on TV. And she would come running. Yet, I know that last night we were not only witnessing a black family on its way to the white house but that the true nature of things had been revealed once again. There has always been change.”

- Mike4U, Kalyana Mitta Sangha

Barack Obama has won the fight for presidency. Whether he was your candidate or not, the big winner of this election is not only Barack Obama but the tools and technologies he used to propel him to the presidency. Social networking, online display ads, television, a half hour infomercial, radio, mobile, gaming (18! COUNT 18! games including Guitar Hero and Madden 09 featured in-game ads from the Obama campaign in the last weeks leading up to the election), the list goes on and on. All of these platforms he utilized to encourage support and interactive participation from voters. His campaign used these channels not just to raise money and sway voters–but to mobilize supporters in a way that would translate a win.

- Devora Rogers, Future of Media

Today, Barack Obama is hope for a better tomorrow for all Americans. He stands on the shoulders of all those people who have incessantly prayed for a day when “justice will run down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream” (Amos 5:24).

Perhaps one day, my two sons and I will have the opportunity to meet Barack Obama in person to express our gratitude to him for bringing our family full circle.

- Peggy Wallace, PoliticalMusic.Wordpress.com

Yesterday there were people praying for a John McCain victory. There were also people praying for a Barack Obama victory. Did the now President-Elect Barack Obama supporters pray harder? Did they have more faith? What is prayer’s role in this election? What should its role be in the Obama Administration? How should one feel toward an Obama presidency today if they were praying against it yesterday? These are some very real questions in the thoughts of many Americans today.

- Jeremy Bradshaw, Culture of Sacrifice

On September 2, 2008, RBO began working through Obama’s Illinois State Election Board records for his Friends of Obama political action committee, which commenced in 1995.

To date, RBO has documented…

- Procrustes, TheRealBarackObama.WordPress.com

Barack Obama has become the first African-American to be elected to the United States presidency.  Whether or not you were happy about the outcome, this is surely a historic election.  It is one that will certainly be remembered for the voter enthusiasm it generated.

People flocked to the polls in record numbers.  Some made a point to bring their children to share with them the privilege of voting.  It made you excited for the future and proud to be an American.

- Victoria, Read it Or Weep

On Tuesday, Barack Obama gave himself and his career as a present to the American people, a gift that promised them future miracles of reconciliation.

- Robert Fulford, National Post

There are positive and negative aspects of Barack Obama’s new economic plan. Some parts the plan should help us out as internet marketers. There are other parts that might hurt us. First, let’s start with the best news…we internet marketers are a resourceful bunch and we’ll probably make sure that everything goes well for our future no matter what.

- Dan Dimit – Site Reference

Note: a few listings were skipped because they were blank or only included video, quotes, or links.

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Tomorrow’s Election Day here in the U.S. It’s time to put this presidential race to bed. It also seems like a good time to reflect upon how blogs have shaped our opinions over the last year or so, in the time leading up to the election.

Blogs have given a voice to anyone who wants one. An opportunity to share their thoughts and political views with the world. A forum to trash McCain or Obama and create controversial debates in their comments sections. There has been a whole lot of discussion dedicated to these two men, and that will without a doubt continue once the election is over.

People will be blogging about these guys for a while.

How much discussion have you read on blogs about the candidates?

Has any of it informed you about the candidates?

Has any of it changed your views about them?

How many discussions have you been a part of?

How many have you started?

Blogs have allowed people to wear their votes on their sleeves for the world to see, and have bonded communities of like-minded individuals as well as fueled good debate and not-so-good debate.

There is absolutely no doubt that this is the first election in which so much commentary from non-media professionals has been available for the general public to read. The voters have truly gotten to have their voices heard.

Now tomorrow, we get to see the product.

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There’s been a lot of talk lately about whether or not blogs are dying or becoming obsolete. ExpertWordPress has issued a press release declaring that blogging is not dead.

It’s settled then.

Seriously though, while the release is touting it’s own services, there are some interesting tidbits to scrape from it:

Findings from the Pew Internet and American Life Project report, released in December, 2007 seem to concur with Mr. Sysoef. According to the study, when people are looking for help with a variety of common problems, they are more likely to turn to the internet than consult experts or family members to provide needed information and resources. Of the people surveyed, 58% of those who had recently experienced one of 10 possible problems given as examples, said they used the internet (at home, work, a public library or some other place) to get help. Blogs are a big part of their solution.

Technorati (the foremost blog search engine in the world), is now tracking over 70 million weblogs, and report about 120,000 new weblogs being created worldwide each day. That’s about 1.4 blogs created every second of every day. There are approximately 1.5 million postings per day (or about 17 posts per second.)

ExpertWordPress co-creator Alex Sysoef had says, “Blogging is an activity that has matured. It’s not dead and it’s not dying. Blogging is still one of the most valuable ways for businesses to participate in the discussions their customers are already having about their products or services, to strengthen their brands and to ultimately increase sales as their customers come to see them as the expert, the trusted advisor, who can help them solve a problem or fill a need.”

The release does talk about blog abandonment though, and this actually is making the medium look bad, so those of you who are guilty, start posting more frequently! They cite a study that found that 66% of surveyed blogs had not been updated in two months, “representing 2.72 million blogs that have been either permanently or temporarily abandoned”.

If you are relying on these specific blogs for your information on a regular basis, you might find some inconvenience, but with more blogs starting all the time, you’re generally going to be able to find similar info elsewhere, and possibly discover blogs you like better than the ones you were reading in the first place.

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Good timing on a new study from Bulldog Reporter that looks at online access of news. 24-hour availability still tops in media relations practices it says.

Mike Sachoff reported on the study at WebProNews, saying:

About a quarter of journalists still do not cover blogs, but more than 29 percent regularly read five or more blogs to research topics, compared with about 25 percent a year ago. Nearly three-quarters follow at least one blog regularly, compared to 70 percent a year ago.

Nearly 19 percent of journalists receive five or more RSS feeds of news services, blogs, podcasts or videocasts every week, compared with only 16 percent a year ago, and about 44 percent receive at least one regular RSS feed.

Some interesting findings in times where citizen journalism and even social media are often criticized and dubbed illegitimate. You even have the relevancy of blogs coming into question (although, many tend to think this argument is bogus).

It is good to see that the number of journalists embracing blogs and social media appears to be on the rise.

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Wired has posted an article by Paul Boutin, which talks about blogs not being the useful medium they once were, and how networks like Twitter and Facebook are taking their place. I disagree. That’s not to say that such networks don’t have their place, but taking the place of blogs? I don’t think so. A quote from the article:

Writing a weblog today isn’t the bright idea it was four years ago. The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge. Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths. It’s almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers. And why bother? The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter.

It may take some effort and some content worth reading to get notices, but if anything, it just pushes bloggers to strive for excellence, which in my opinion is not a bad thing. In response to that article, Dwight Silverman at chron.com in a post called “Are Blogs Obsolete?” writes:

This type of nonsense surfaces every few months from folks who think that, just because blogging is no longer the latest shiny-shiny, it’s no longer relevant. That’s shallow and silly.

Like any other publishing medium, blogging is a tool for getting information to other people. The fact that other ways of doing it have come along doesn’t mean blogging doesn’t belong in your toolbox. It’s still an effective way to communicate ideas, news, images, video, audio. It remains a simple and powerful way to not only share your thoughts, but point others to valuable info and insights elsewhere on the Web.

I couldn’t have said it better myself. Blogs are not obsolete. You know why? Because I still read them everyday. I still write for them nearly everyday. And so do countless others (that probably includes you). If you ask me, blogs are more relevant than they’ve ever been, because they are more mainstream than they have ever been.  Thoughts?

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I Stumbled Upon this post at Rauru today that suggests when blogging that you should write your headlines before you write the actual post. Ikki says:

As I said on a previous post, headings are the first impression you make on your audience. Focusing on crafting a great headline for your blog post will entice them to keep reading what you have to say.

Furthermore, writing your headline first will help you keep your contents well-structured. What lies behind this statement is the fact that you’re developing your contents from the idea expressed in your heading – instead of backwards. This will keep your writing closely aligned to the engaging promise delivered by your headline to your readers.

I respect this strategy (and with all due respect to Ikki), and if it works for you than that’s great, but I find the opposite to be true for my own writing. I almost always write the post first and then determine what I think the headline should be based on what I have written. The biggest reason for this is that when I start writing, I don’t always know what I am going to say for the duration of the entire post, and therefore surprise myself in the end.

I understand Ikki’s point about keeping your post structured by starting with the headline. I could see how it might keep you focused on what you’re trying to say, but on the flipside, I like to be able to have free roam in my writing, and let it take me where it wants to go naturally. Sometimes I will find that I have written a different post than what I had originally set out to do, but that’s ok, because often times, it will turn out better than the original idea I started with.

To me, staying confined to your initial idea of what a post should be about can hinder your writing, and I just don’t see how that would benefit the finished product. That is unless you have been assigned a specific topic to write about with little room for your own thought, which could be the case in some instances if you are blogging for someone else.

This is just my opinion. What do you think? Which method do you prefer?

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