The blogging game has changed so much since I first started blogging back in 2003. Blogging these days has been relegated to the content marketing game where folks are pimping their wears trying to position themselves as thought leaders in the hopes that they can either become social media influencers or marketers disguised as “passionate” experts in something. As Tom Critchlow explains

…much content on the web is designed for scale, for sharing, for gloss and finish. It’s mass media, whether it’s made by a media company or an individual acting like one. So when people think of blogging their natural reference point is create something that looks like the mass media they’re consuming. Content designed for pageviews and scale.

That’s big B blogging.

I’m much more interested in small b blogging.

Small b blogging is learning to write and think with the network. Small b blogging is writing content designed for small deliberate audiences and showing it to them. Small b blogging is deliberately chasing interesting ideas over pageviews and scale. An attempt at genuine connection vs the gloss and polish and mass market of most “content marketing”.

It was Seth Godin who inspired me to move back in this direction. I listen to his akimbo podcast episode on blogging.  Seth has been at the game for something like 16 years without a break and pretty much sticking to the same format. Seth is much more into go for the small audience directly and then let that handful of “true fans” spread your work and your ideas for you because they love what you do and what to share it with their friends.

Here’s the episode if you want to listen to it:

Speaking of Seth, I feel moved to re-read Purple Cow. I’m feeling like being remarkable on some level.