To Blog or Not To Blog: That is the Question!

Why create a Blog? There are a staggering number of Web logs out there in cyberspace – more than 150 million according to the Nielsen Company
(http://blogpulse.com/) – so there would seem to be a significant impetus to create them, but what is it exactly? The most obvious answer is that Blogs, as a means of self-expression, have as many reasons for their existence as they have variations; the same question could be asked regarding any means of artistic expression: Why write? Why sing? Why dance? Why create? It is questions such as these that help define the dividing line between Science and Art. Regarding the former, there is always an answer to why someone endeavors within its disciplines; and although the specific and correct answer might not yet be known, the broadest all-purpose answer always applies, “To arrive at the truth.” Regarding the latter, there is an equally universal answer that crosses all artistic boundaries: “Because I felt like it.” While the Communications Studies degree requirements provided more tangible motivations that will be addressed herein – sort of – the universal answer for the Arts should and still applies.


Looking at the specific elements contributing to and included in my own Blog (http://qsversionofreality.blogspot.com), there are four key areas that should be addressed and evaluated in an effort to gauge its potential effectiveness: purpose, design, content, and audience. This efficacy remains “potential” in nature until a Blog’s ultimate goal can be quantified, and that goal is to be sought (and found) by Web patrons, repeatedly and often. Until such a regular audience can be established, however, the only meaningful way to self-critique a Blog is through the four attributes mentioned above. After a consistent following is in place providing statistically significant feedback, subtle alterations can then be made to fine-tune the Blog’s design and content in response, the feedback loop being closed by monitoring how those changes affect patronage (“hits”) and subsequent feedback.

When starting a Blog however, that feedback source is typically not available unless you happen to have a professor on short-lived retainer (which is apparently much cheaper than a lawyer!), so the “attribute mix” must be perpetually manipulated until readership starts to appear. Taking those four attributes – Purpose, Design, Content, and Audience – and putting them into an equation that should define success for a Blog, it could be said that:

All this equation really means is that where the Blog’s Purpose and intended Audience intersect (which is equivalent to and creates I or Interest), this Interest must be great enough to cause the Web surfer to visit the Blog. As with most equations, T equals Time, specifically the time since the last Content or Design change; the longer they remain static, the less Interest they are likely to garner.

The Blog itself is comprised of Content and Design, two values which are interrelated. Content alone cannot exist without some degree of Design, as even a page full of text with nothing most anyone would call “design” is, after all, a design (albeit spartan). The equation above assumes that a functional, user-friendly, and aesthetically pleasing Design is equal to a value greater than one, and that the opposite is some value less than one. Using this equation then, it can be seen that content can either benefit from a good design, or suffer from a poor one which detracts from the content’s value with equal proportionality. The absolute-value brackets around Content and Design are there in recognition that Blogs can achieve Interest because they are intentionally bad, ostensibly with “anti-socialites.” Whether good or bad however, Design cannot stand on its own, as even the best Design with zero Content equals nothing.

While this equation, admittedly pulled from nowhere other than my twisted little mind, does serve to approximate how the differing elements of a Blog relate to each other, it is by no means equally applicable across all of the stages of a Blog’s development. At some point, the operator in the middle of the equation would change from ≥ to ↔, indicating that a linked interrelationship had been established: the feedback loop mentioned earlier. Additionally, at some point in a Blog’s popularity, anecdotally, another symbol fits somewhere within the equation: $. Just how that symbol relates remains an undiscovered mystery, at least to me.

The context of this course directs that my Blog make my achieved proficiencies and communications skills apparent; the success with which it achieves this remains the subject of debate, hopefully inspiring enough controversy to drive millions to speak out in revolt, support, or something in between. What this course has highlighted, if nothing else, is that content is not enough where communication via the Internet is concerned. History has shown that writing of significant quality and intrigue, assuming it survives intact, will eventually find an audience of commensurate size (hence the tribute to “BillBard1564” in the title). Within the Information Age, however, survivability can easily be limited to the length of time it takes to click a mouse and refresh the screen, therefore a constant consideration for all four elements – Purpose, Design, Content, and Audience – must work in balance and harmony for a Blog to survive; or more to the point, for anyone to notice its survival.