Take a quick tour of the blogosphere and you’ll be bombarded with the fruits of the echo chamber, a million posts about content shock, another million on how to monetize your blog and 19,837,983 on how to become a better content marketer.
And then you’ll find the people like me who wonder if any of the copy cats out there are capable of adding something new and different to the discussions. We’ll roll our eyes and make snarky comments about the people who say mute when they mean moot and the rest of the folks who present themselves as experts while posting things that demonstrate they aren’t.
Weak and Ambiguous Headlines
How bloggers defeat death is an ambiguous headline that may be overlooked because it doesn’t have the kind of call to action that “Click Here To Earn A Million Dollars” does. You might even argue that a weaker headline like that is less likely to bring the rubes into the carnival.
Of course if you were to critique my work that way I’d ask you to tell me who the target audience is here and then we would be able to to have a more substantive discussion about whether that headline is really going to work or not.
But I’ll save that discussion for a different day and share thoughts that apply to marketing and life. I watched a movie called Stand Up Guys on Netflix and have a quote to share with you.
Val: They say we die twice. Once when the breath leaves our body, and once when the last person we know says our name.
A writer/marketer likes myself looks at that line and immediately thinks about writing creative, compelling and memorable copy. We think about how to come up with a line, expression that is so strong it is effortless to remember.
If you are me you automatically think about Ozymandias, the poem that Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote and you focus here:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains.”
And maybe you think about the difference 30 years of living makes in how you understand that verse and wonder if it should really matter.
How Bloggers Defeat Death
If the standard for being remembered is based upon the ability of the living to share personal recollection of who you were and what you stood for well there is no doubt that within about 200 years all who knew me when they were young or old will be gone and so will I.
By that standard I’ll have faded into obscurity and life will go on as it did before I was born.
But if the standard is based upon knowledge and not just memories than this blog might be one of the keys to immortality. This blog might be the thing that ensures that millions learn about Joshua Wilner and all will be able to say he was rights, this is how bloggers defeat death.
By that standard this post and every other that contains a picture of my grandfather and I serves as a way to provide him with his own immortality too, not that he would have cared.
If we had ever discussed it I am sure he would have asked me what difference it would make and if there was a way it would help people it might have been of interest but aside from that…
Immortal Copy Versus Immortal Body
Immortal copy is of interest to me both personally and professionally.
It would be cool to say I came up with an expression or line that caught on. “May The Force Be With You” or “Set Phasers to Stun” might be campy and or cheesy to someone but if you are someone who creates there is a certain satisfaction that comes from providing something memorable.
Given the choice it might be nicer to be remembered for some heroic speech about finest hours or fighting to defend our island but if that never came about, so be it.
There is no doubt in my mind that there is a greater chance of my coming up with immortal copy than an immortal body so maybe that is part of why I focus more upon that.
I suppose if you asked me to tie all of this together I would tell you that I see an intersection personally and professionally in the respect that I view it all as being a marathon and not a sprint.
It is a journey and it is not built or destroyed on miles 1, 8, or 26. You can look at it in pieces but ultimately you judge it based upon its entirety.
Knee jerk reactions based upon small hiccups sometimes cause more problems than they should. While you worry about why some other blog received 25 more comments than you did someone else is going to pass you by because they didn’t let themselves be distracted by minor details.
What do you think?
timbo19731 I sometimes wonder if some people used up all of their time/creativity/energy in writing a headline because the content of the post was pretty weak.
I don’t stick around blogs where the writers voice never appears, they tend to be dull and mechanical.
FWIW, I get the feeling you’ll be around for a good long while.
Hey Josh
I’m pretty sure most things have been discussed to the point of becoming stale when it comes to blogging.
It only stops being that when people use their own voice and experiences but I reckon many of the writers for the larger blogs forget that (and many tech blogs!).
Sure, a headline can bring exposure and traffic but if the rest of the article’s not up to scratch then I won’t stick around.
I don’t know whether I’ll defeat death or still be blogging in 10 years but for now I enjoy it and love getting to know other people who blog.
That keeps me going at it and I hope I never lose that enjoyment!