Where Have All The Bloggers Gone?

photo: PhotoFusion


Are you a dropout?  Keeping a blog updated often  requires hard work, a passionate tenacity to blog on, and sometimes, it can be emotional and stressful.

Well, you could say it's more like skipping breakfast because you're rushing to work. While lunch break could be a quickie affair. And dinner...well, you call home, saying something like "Dear, I'll be late..."

Also, most bloggers would be going through a period of inactivity known as writer's block after the initial enthusiasm or facing a personal crisis. Or they just feel they are going nowhere in their blogging, especially the so-called "Make Money Online" bloggers. So, for many, the truth sinks in - it's time to hang up the mouse.

So lately, we have been asking the question: Where have all the bloggers gone? This title comes to mind quite easily because we remember the folk song "Where have all the flowers gone?" made popular by the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary.

If you look around the blogosphere, you'll notice the rate of dropouts has been quite remarkable this year. I'll refrain from naming some of these dropouts because it's their own judgmental decisions to quit and it's none of my bloggity business. I'm just an observer to this blogging "soap opera."

You can say I'm also a dropout, too. I've written my last post at CommonSense With Markk, one of my very first blogs. Yes, it's sundown at CommonSense over there. But over here, The NextPost is far from over the hill.

It happens to many of us, unless you're one of those who chugs along on high-octane fuel. Such a person would be zipping from post to post like a knife cutting through butter.

Is there such a person out there? I think I have bumped into a few of them in my blogging experience but their posts are like a dime a dozen...there's more fluff and bluff than anything worth remembering.

Also, I have observed some of them blogging like there's no tomorrow. You can say these are the super-charged bloggers who are literally blogging while they eat and sleep! Holy cow, it's more like flogging than blogging! Again, quantity outweighs quality in their content.

I have also missed some blogging friends who were very active doing social networking last year. I've known a few of them who started their blogs with zest but it seems they have also lost that early fire in the belly.

Blogging can be addictive. An obsession. A full-time job. A business venture. A vehicle to rant and rave. A media for socializing. A playground. And what have you?

It all depends on what you want to be as a blogger. You win some, you lose some. As I have written on this site in an earlier post, there will always be a gadzillion of new bloggers coming onto the scene while many of us call it quits.

Perhaps, some will get a second wind and make a comeback.

Of related interests:
Are you ready to become a laid-back blogger?
There will always be another noob or sucker in blogging
On the Internet trail of delusions
Mama, don't let your baby grow up to be a blogger

Google Page Creator: Your Static Page Saviour

It appears that not many Blogger/Blogspot sites are making use of Google Page Creator (GPC) which is Goog's free service for you to build your own static web pages. It probably boils down to users not being aware of it or how it can be used in a meaningful way.

WordPress users (I do have some WP blogs, too) may argue that WP already has this kind of feature built in and that it's a breeze to use. That's fine, but I want to point out to Blogger users that they, too, could make use of Google Page Creator although it's a separate item from your Blogger blog.

Actually, it's not that difficult for anyone with some common sense to see how this Page Creator works. If you can put your mind to the task, you will soon discover that it's just as easy as ABC!

Let me tell you that the GPC feature is a great tool, especially when you need to create a static web page to place those editorial content which you don't want to see appear as a blog post. Here are two examples which you can see on The NextPost:

1. Privacy Policy - yes, instead of publishing this as a blog post, why not place this in a GPC static page and put a link in your blog. It will be there for people to click and view it - not to mention the Googlebots.





2. Advertising Guide - It gets better here. Again, you don't want to see this as a post, so the Google Page Creator is where you go. You can create a nice looking page using one of the page design templates available.






So there you are, two page ideas on how to make the best use out of Google Page Creator for your Blogger blogs. Now that you get the drift I'm sure many of you can see more variations in how to apply this GPC feature.

Aha, one more thing to whet your appetite. If you are into Internet marketing, i.e. selling a product or promoting an affiliate program, you could create a "landing page" with GPC and circulate it in traffic exchanges.

Just in case you need to know a bit more before you "waste your time" signing up with GPC, here are some other features available in the site manager:

1. Image editing (This is what Google says...)

"You can make a picture look just right in the context of your web page. Once you add a picture, crop, rotate, lighten, darken, and add crazy special effects to it right from within your browser....When you click on any images you've uploaded from within the page editor, a small bubble will show up just below the image, giving you options for resizing, cropping, and rotating. Click the "Show more tools" link to explore even more image editing options. The "Mash-up" feature (available from the drop down list) is particularly fun."

2. Multiple sites (Quoting Google again...)

"When you first sign in to Google Page Creator, we automatically give you a site with the same name as your Gmail address. Now you can create up to five sites with different URLs. For example, you can have joespizza.googlepages.com in addition to joe.googlepages.com."

3. Pages for mobile (Google says...)

"Every Google Page Creator site automatically has a mobile edition. So when people visit your site from their mobile browser, they will see a version optimized for their particular phone."



Here's a sample view of the GPC site manager page where you do your page layout



And how do I start creating a page?

After you have logged in, click on "Choose Layout" and you'll be taken to that page where you have four layout choices to choose from. Not many I would say, but just enough for most people. Each one has page element containers (or boxes) on it where you're supposed to place text and images. Just click on your choice and you're switched to the "Page Editor." The next step is to choose your page design template which comes in 17 different flavours.

The GPC interface is a bit clunky in my opinion but it's manageable once you get the hang of it.

My advice: It's a good idea to plan the placements of your content before you make your move. You can preview your finished page and if everything is hunky dory to you, just click on the "Publish" button.

If you have a Gmail account then you can log in using the same username and password. Otherwise, create a new Google Page Creator account. Google allows free space for hosting your files there, and that's up to 500MB.

I hope it sounds like child's play. Why not go and play with it?