The Lifespan of Blogs

Recent months have been rough times in the blogosphere. First Girl On Demand announced her retirement. Then Grumpy Old Bookman decided he'd cut back to only occasional posts. And finally, Miss Snark decided she'd answered every agenting question to the best of her ability and closed up shop. (And I note that Lucy McCarraher has been maintaining radio silence since early May--though perhaps she's just on vacation.)

Then, on top of all that, when I was chatting with Roger Morris he mentioned that his blog (or rather 'plog') was becoming less active, and that he could see a day when it might wind down, and this led into a brief speculation on whether blogs by their nature have a natural lifespan.

(Of course, Roger, in the style of someone out of Beowulf, took a rash vow when he started out, stating he would restrict himself to plugging his books rather than just writing about whatever came to mind. Even though he's had two books out in less than two years, and a ton of reviews, this presents a problem in finding subject matter for frequent posting.)

Arriving back home, I discovered that Matt Curran had been blogging about how his blog would probably be winding down in the foreseaable future.

Now, I'm not the sharpest tack on the bulletin board, but even I can recognize a breaking wave (usually about ten seconds before it knocks me over). Even a chatterbox like me can imagine a day when he might have nothing to add (though it's likely that someone will pay me to shut up first, which has been my secret goal all along).

One of the problems with blogs is that unless the content keeps arriving, the readers stop coming by. If you update your blog, say, once a month, most folks will stop checking in.

So Matt and I have been wondering about the idea, in the longer term, of setting up a group blog of sorts, where, as we abandon our individual blogs, the members of the MNW crew could drop an occasional post. Collectively, this might be enough traffic to keep a lively blog, without requiring anyone to post too frequently. In the comment trail on another post here, Matt wrote:

I've replied to your idea of a central MNW blog for writers to post entries, news etc. and I reckon it's a good idea. I'll probably look to set it up after I wind down my blog. But I suppose it all depends on whether Roger, Cate, Jonathan, Sam, Lucy, Brian, Michael, Faye, Aliya etc. will use it to whether I expend much time getting it up and running. But it would be fun. Like you said, it would also negate having to think of something to blog every week or so, and wouldn’t it be a fantastic marketing tool (question for Roger and Jonathan)?

Check the Comments trail on Matt's post for more of his thoughts on this (including posting the entire pantheon of books, past and upcoming, on the sidebar.)

Another advantage I could see is that MNWers who've (probably wisely) never wanted to establish a blog might want to drop in an occasional post.

Any thoughts?