Your blog … my blog …. to each his own

Rick-

I think you make valid points. And I agree that the attention span of Americans is an issue, but great content can capture more of an audience if it is displayed well. Thanks for your thought-provoking blog.

I agree with your points...if a blog - or a letter - or any written material, for that matter is well written and captures my attention, I can read for HOURS.  If it's poorly written or doesn't hold my interest, then I don't care how pretty it is, it's gone.

Rick, I really don't this this is going to create wide-spread appeal for you.  Too much negativity.  And, in trying to build your case... the sources you quote as evidence of your point... are all from another time and another place... and usually quite a while ago.  Yes, you do your thing, and Miss Karen will do hers.  For you to compare her blog posts to Facebook and Twitter... is just plain silly.

I don't see much critical thinking going on here.

I also see that you are a Newbie... so, Congratulations on joining Active Rain.  It appears you have much to learn, and this is a great place to do it.  There are many great sources for you to seek and learn from, and Karen is one of them.  Good Luck to you.

I totally agree that we are free to do what the reader wants to do and the writer wants to write.

It's a little of both for me Rick.  Your post was short enough that I was willing to read.  However, a great photo that captures my attention, or some bold text, bullet points and such to allow me to do a quick skim before I decide to stay, is much more likely to draw me in. 

Posts that go on for 2 or 3 page scrolls with nothing but heavy text are likely to keep me from even starting to read.  Those other font elements will give me a tip to the blog's content and then reading in depth seems like a payoff.

Rick, unfortunately there's much criticism on blog posts, how they look, how well they capture the readers' attention, even the title.  I'm not sure what it all means (I guess I'm a newbie, but not).  Maybe I'm trying to decide if I want to be a blogger or a Realtor.  Selling real estate, and helping my clients out of mortgages they can no longer afford, are very important to me. 

I began blogging to see if I could reach out to a market who may need my help and services.  Social networking seems to be the thing these days.  There was even a blog written about how blogs should be limited to 3 paragraphs because we all live in a world of fast food and twitter w/ tweets of only 140 characters (that blog has since been deleted by its author).  That blog really pushed my button, because IMHO, a blog is a platform for the writer to express themselves in more than 140 characters and if there is a comments section, for the reader to provide feedback.  Hopefully, a dialogue takes form and everyone can learn from the blog and the comments. 

You may be interested in reading this response is from an Activerain blogger, who welcomes long comments, as well as long blogs!

Thanks for your blog, and it's good to be a non-conformist as long as that's who you are!

Rick - glad to see some point-newbies have the balls to voice dissent to a popular opinion, and gladder still that you've discovered a pretty neat crowd of non-conformists on my little blog here (pictureless, on most days, and no Scribfire for this gal).  That said - can't blame folks fro trying.  As i said in my comment on Karen's post - it's quite a bit easier to prettify a blog than to write something worthwhile.  I just find it sad that so many seem to demand an liquid diet, and pretend they can still decipher the taste of foie gras in that concoction.

Good to meet you, and absolutely, welcome.

OK, I read it & it bored me to death honestly.  Roberts rule of order?  Has nothing to do with blogging 'technique'.  It's not the folks on AR that have a problem with people today having an attention span of a knat.  That's just how things are.  You can agree or not but I'll tell ya, you aren't in the majority on this.

I read (or tried to read) a featured post the other day by Fred Sanford a national trainer & there was no white space, no pictures, no nothing.  Droned on and on.  I really couldn't get thru it.  Isn't the point of your 'writings' to have someone read them & get business?  What you are talking about is a personal journal perhaps that should stay in your nightstand drawer. 

Blunt back at you dude!

Rick,

I don't start a post with the idea of finishing in a certain number of keystrokes.  I stop when I finish what I have to say ENDS.  I may add a little something to "spiff" it up to appeal to those that need a little visual to stay focused.

Bill

Not to be a peckerhead, but Lyn - you DID read the blog... I find it so strange when people gravitate towards thing they quite obviously have no interest on only to critique their very existence.  Whatever happened to that remote control we've all been endowed with here, albeit a virtual one?  See, it's perfectly ok to disagree with something, at times vehemently, but to have read a post and then state that it was 'boring' eludes me. Do you finish boring 800-page novels as well?  I am just curious.