This is confirmed by Artur Kurasiński, expert running a website about electronic media. He believes a blog should be a marketing tool, and a brand that brings profits. Kurasiński gives a few hints on how to make blogging your job:

• know who you are – state clearly what you’re good at, so that asked about your blog you can answer in two sentences what it is about. Being all-knowing is no longer an advantage, you need to choose one discipline that has a future – find an attractive niche;

• words are about emotions and not style, bet on passion instead of nicely-sounding sentences;

• be coherent and predictable, a brand needs to be coherent;

• be authentic; if you’re not an expert, don’t pretend you are, be reliable. Internet users will know immediately if you lie to them – and will let you know;

• try to fit the tastes of many people, don’t treat writing as an activity for yourself;

• learn to talk to a wide audience, let them hear you!

• start to love Facebook, make it visible in your activity, for bloggers it is an effective and free platform allowing to contact the readers.

The future of blogs

Natalia Hatalska forecasts the future of blogs in the next few years. There are currently around 100 million online logs in the world, but most of them is inactive. Hatalska believes blogs cease to exist because the world is now dominated by the so called generation L – lousy, link, like – people who simply do not feel like creating posts and running a website. They focus instead on observing and liking what is being done by others, that is the C generation. Generation C is a group that can be described with the words: creative, content, celebrity – people who are active, ready to take up actions and like the popularity that follows.

According to a research by Technorati quoted by Hatalska, half of the respondents are not planning to start a blog. On the other hand, the handful of people who are still active bloggers (2% of all blogs) are devoting gradually more time to it, especially when blogging is professional. We are witnessing the professionalization of the blogosphere – personal blogs are becoming less popular and are losing with thematic websites with specialized content.

Young people running small personal blogs prefer the social media. A social networking website takes less time and engagement, but just like a blog reaches their friends. We can also find professional bloggers on Facebook, but they’re mainly there to promote their blog content.

Hatalska sees two directions in the future functioning of blogs: one is an expanding editorial team, the other is a situation when one person – a personality and individualist – is responsible for the entire expanding content. It’s hard to tell which option is the winner. “A team can do more, but a blog is still one person and one opinion” says the Blog of the Year award winner.

Hatalska refers to the matter important to advertisers and marketers – the reach of a blog. The number of views or users should not be as important in advertising campaigns as the readers’ specialization – a given group that can be reached. A smaller network is more susceptible to recommendations.

Even though being an expert in your own field allows to make money on a blog – both in Poland and around the world – the most important value for a blogger is still satisfaction from running an online log.

Materials from workshops for bloggers organized by Onet Group, 16 Feb. 2012.