I Miss Nick and Michael
Two of my favorite SEO/web marketing writers are falling off my radar. No big deal for them, but I’m not happy about it.
Nick Wilson has traded words for audio. Michael Gray has traded words for video.
I’m generally a fan of audio and video content. In many situations, it’s the right thing to do. But I’m not sure blogging is one of those situations. Two reasons why:
- I can’t scan podcasts or videocasts. As much as I value what these two guys say, I just don’t have the time to sit through 5, 10, or 20 minutes of audio/video.
- If I were listening/watching, I still couldn’t quote their words in a post on this blog without the hassle of replaying the quotable part time and time again until I have the transcription correct. That leaves me less inclined to link out.
Still, Michael is getting lots of links, so I must be in the minority. Guys, if you followed the trackback here and you’re taking a poll, count this as one vote to go back to writing.
[tags]blogging, audio blogging, video blogging, vlogs, podcasts, podcasting[/tags]
This is an interesting point, Matt. At this point, I think the novelty of vidcasts are making them good linkbait, but, in all honesty, I am not looking forward to the potential that one day visiting blogs will be like watching TV with slick TV-commercial-like posts from people.
The grainy, grey, low quality of the vidcasts at this point is still reconciling me to them, but I can look forward to..what…Rand Fishkin striding along in slow motion amongst clouds and buildings with techno music in the background while he explains what linkbait is???
I don’t want the Internet to go that way. Yet, it probably will. This is a worry of mine, and I think because I am a person who is so much more oriented to the written word than to video, I wonder how I will fare professionally in the web world 10 years from now.
At this point, we are still in the parchment and quill phase, the daguerreotype photo phase, the horse and buggy phase of the Internet. People say the Internet will go where we take it. Do we want the Internet to become interactive television? Is this what we really want?
Miriam
I’m not going “all video” but I do plan to keep it part of the mix, about 1-ish a week. and I’m also really trying to stay in the 2 minute range with the occasional 5 minute. Finding your “video voice” is difficult even if you already have a blog voice. Plus I have to work out all video technical issues.
That’s great to hear, Michael. I hope when you do your “How to Add Videoblogging to Your Blog”, it’ll be in written form. 🙂
Miriam … I don’t think the situation will ever be as desperate as you painted it. Most certainly video will become more prevalent than it is, but — and Michael hinted at this with his “video voice” comment — not everyone is cut out for doing video. They may not be comfortable in front of a camera, or they may not have the voice or looks to do video … whatever it might be, there’ll always be people using the written … err, typed word to communicate. Video is not for everyone, and hopefully those folks learn that sooner rather than later. 🙂