Blog Content

[someonewhois]

Hello,

Was just looking at the blogs, and I've realized the content has started to slip. No doubt, I love reading SP blogs - I'm subscribed to Dynamically Typed (PHP blog), and the CSS one's a nice read too - but the content's not there

The CSS one hasn't been updated in almost a month (Sept 22nd), and the PHP blog is once every couple of days. It seems people have ran out of ideas of what to blog about (don't blame 'em, blogging gets hard after a while, especially when there's no news).. but has SP considered expanding on the blogs? New writers? Maybe having more than 1 writer per blog, so that you get a bit more content?

Just a suggestion.

Kind Regards,
Nathan Wong

[Jeremy W.]

Or, y'know, hiring bloggers to do it instead?

Agreed, considering there are half a dozen SP blogs, there should easily be several posts a day.

[Hartmann]

I agree... somewhat.

I think the blogs here are supplement to the articles. I don't think they are here to be a huge visit enticement.

I would have to agree with Jeremy about hiring the bloggers, that way there would be some sort of regulation/minimum on what they post and the content of their posts.

[vgarcia]

Or, y'know, hiring bloggers to do it instead?

Simon would probably take offense to that

[Simon Mackie]

In Simon's defence, he has just moved back to England from the US over the past month, and will be going back to Uni. What with that and the work he's been doing on our upcoming books (he was the technical editor on the forthcoming CSS Anthology and anothor book that is due out later in the year) he's been a little busy

[Jeremy W.]

Simon's never been a very active blogger, even on his own projects. He's a great, and influential, blogger. But he's doesn't write incredibly often and I wasn't really expecting him to do so here at SitePoint.

Either way, a minimum post would be a bare minimum. It's how "all" (that I'm aware of) paid blogging is done these days. From Ensight through to Weblogs, Inc. and Gawker. Decent pay for a decent amount of content.

I'm not knocking the SitePoint bloggers (most of them anyways, the Design one seems incredibly simplistic to me, especially given the blogger's experience in her bio). Just that content frequency and succesful blogging generally go hand in hand.

I was really excited to see SitePoint take up blogs (even if they did turn me down 3 times). It's a fantastic medium which is a great compliment to the articles.

[Mark Harbottle]

We do pay our columnists to write articles and blog for us and they do have a minimum number blog entries required of them each month. But if there's nothing interesting or new to say, we don't want them posting rubbish just to keep it regular. The situation we don't want to get into is blogging for the sake of regular blogging.

We also don't have an endless pit of money just sitting there waiting to hire new bloggers. I dare say, we already spend a fair bit more on free content than most other Webmaster related sites.

One idea we do have is to allow anyone from the SitePoint community to post information for a new blog entry - then the blogger act as a moderator and vet the posts. This could help the flow of information. The only problem with this is people (being people) might get annoyed if their post is discarded by the moderator.

Anyway, we're thinking through the options.

[Jeremy W.]

Mark, I didn't intend for my comments to sound too critical. However, given the quality of current blog posts, I have to say that it shouldn't be that hard for each author to hit 5-10 posts a week (unless they're moving or something).

I'll shut up now though

[z0s0]

Jeremy, posting such meanderings as the state of the bloggers health and what they did on their sick day might meet your post a day target, but rest assured SitePoint won't be covering such riveting topics.

[Jeremy W.]

Awww, look, it's a cheap shot. I'm honoured.

I'm not yet on a post per day target. But, if I was, rest assured that since Ensight started as a (after the transition) Business & Tech & Jeremy themed blog, that's how it'll stay.

Are you guys really saying that none of Gawker's sites or Weblongs, Inc. sites are posting worthwhile content on a daily basis? I mean, they have 5-10 post a day minimums. I really don't think it'd be that hard to hit 5-10 posts a week on such broad subjects as PHP, .NET and Design. After all, there are hundreds (if not thousands) of existing blogs, news sites and article sites which manage to do just that.

It's not like every blog posts needs to be an article (which many are). That would simply be too much pressure.

I guess the problem is that maybe nobody's quite clear on what the point of SitePoint's Blogs are. Is it "mini article" content? Is it news? Is it providing a general overview of the state of the various industries you're blogging about?

Nobody was personally attacking SitePoint. And there was no need for you to do so z0s0:

Jeremy, posting such meanderings as the state of the bloggers health and what they did on their sick day might meet your post a day target, but rest assured SitePoint won't be covering such riveting topics.

At the end of the day it probably depends on your blogs' objectives, minimums, authors, etc.

Either way though, the amount of posting happening right now IS very low. Maybe you should post about the health of your bloggers. Just so we know they aren't dead

[Kevin Yank]

Well, I'm doing my part!

[someonewhois]

Awww, look, it's a cheap shot. I'm honoured.

I'm not yet on a post per day target. But, if I was, rest assured that since Ensight started as a (after the transition) Business & Tech & Jeremy themed blog, that's how it'll stay.

Are you guys really saying that none of Gawker's sites or Weblongs, Inc. sites are posting worthwhile content on a daily basis? I mean, they have 5-10 post a day minimums. I really don't think it'd be that hard to hit 5-10 posts a week on such broad subjects as PHP, .NET and Design. After all, there are hundreds (if not thousands) of existing blogs, news sites and article sites which manage to do just that.

It's not like every blog posts needs to be an article (which many are). That would simply be too much pressure.

I guess the problem is that maybe nobody's quite clear on what the point of SitePoint's Blogs are. Is it "mini article" content? Is it news? Is it providing a general overview of the state of the various industries you're blogging about?

Nobody was personally attacking SitePoint. And there was no need for you to do so z0s0:



At the end of the day it probably depends on your blogs' objectives, minimums, authors, etc.

Either way though, the amount of posting happening right now IS very low. Maybe you should post about the health of your bloggers. Just so we know they aren't dead

Fully agree.

Oh, Kevin, I wasn't aware you were blogging. I guess I've never read the Java blog.

I just think if you got a few more writers (maybe even volunteers, instead of paid - I'm sure many people would love to have their name published on a SP blog, I sure would), it might cover more things. I'm not trying to say push the current bloggers off, or force them to post more, but I don't see why a blog must be a single person's entry... that's all.

[ethanp]

I agree that the blogs aren't being updated much, but I do understand that things come up and sometimes there is literatelly nothing to blog about.

I've been missing the Design blog for awhile as it hasn't been updated. It's my favorite blog. The buisness one though is updated quite often and the articles Andrew produces are really good.