In his article, “The End Of Hand Crafted Content”, Michael Arrington of TechCrunch touched a subject I’ve been thinking a lot about lately as a blogger and content creator. The discussion couldn’t be more relevant for the fashion world, just few weeks before the NY fashion week chatter begins in the blogosphere. Expect news, republished news, stolen news, opinions on republished and stolen news, even more opinions and then yesterday’s news republished again just in case our readers didn’t catch the original ones.
Let me simplify the fashion weeks publishing cycle to make the point: Style.com usually posts the collections’ photos first and then the blogosphere republishes them with few opinionated sentences attached. Sometimes there is a report from the actual show, but mostly you can’t tell if the blogger was there or actually needed to be there to write the piece.
As for the general fashion news – WWD usually gets exclusives on most of them, and then the blogosphere chews it for the next few days. As an example you could take the recent news about Julia Roberts signing as the new Lancome face. Google indexed about 4,864 (!!) blog posts since WWD broke the news on December 4th. A typical blog post included a nice picture of the actress, one sentence describing the news and another paragraph quoted from the source or the press release. Don’t forget an SEO-friendly smart title to top the story – and voilĂ , in under 5 minutes you created a new piece of content, your blog looks alive again, and you even feel like a reporter, helping the news spread…
…Or adding to the clutter.
With all my love to the digital words, recently I wish people would still write like they would on paper, before the days typing machine was invented. There is something about the easiness of creating content online that removes any filtering, critical look or even a thought process at all. We get caught up in the race of posting more, being first to publish the news on our own site, getting more traffic, more readers, more comments, more everything. After all we are now part of the news machine, and no one can stop us.
Imagine you were billed by the kilobytes to post content. Would you pay to publish this?
Imagine this could be the last thing you published before you died. Would you still post it?
When you republish a piece of news 50 other sites already published – what goal are you achieving? Do you seriously believe your readers don’t read any other sources and rely on you to provide them all the information? Or perhaps you tried it once and enjoyed some Google love, which left you wanting more… I don’t blame you, in the world where your influence is measured by your traffic, it’s getting hard to resist posting a hot piece of content the public is desperately searching for.
Mike Arrington compares it to fast food, I compare it to fast fashion. Why would you waste effort creating your own design and perfecting the cut, if you could just copy someone else’s work for much cheaper? Fast fashion already rules the market these days, so as fast content online. The question is whether you are contributing to it or choose not to. Are you part of the fast content chain or do you prefer to have your own quality shop and continue to create master pieces, no matter how little foot traffic your shop gets? What if you saw your blog or content you put out there as a reflection of your true self? Would you still want to post the same things everyone else is posting?
Would you like to add to the clutter or actually bring some value to this world? What if instead of requesting disclosures FTC requested to disclose your reasons for posting each piece. What would be yours?
Traffic, money, SEO, self-importance, bragging, attention, jealousy, judgment, boredom…
or
Passion for the subject, love for beautiful things, desire to help, educate, share knowledge, encourage others, craving for honest discussion with people, opening up your heart, saying simply what you feel and finding your own voice…
Today you are given the ability to express your thoughts to the world, so why don’t you tell it what you really think, instead of having a small talk quoting what other people say?
I hope we can all find our depth, even if getting through the clutter is becoming harder…
This post really speaks to me. I've been thinking a lot about the objectives and purposes for my very small, (usually word-heavy and picture-light) style and shopping blog.
The pressure to be the first to break content, and draw in broader audiences of attention deficit readers with photo-heavy and thought-light entries tie into the competitive aspects of blogging that turn me off. I have little interest in posting news that is already ubiquitous by the time it trickles into my Pittsburgh-based vantage point. But the desire for new, fast, pre-packaged content is undeniably tempting.
The fast food and fast fashion comparisons are so apt. Just as hunting for the perfect trend-transcending staple garment, or working through a new multi-pronged recipe take time and effort, the writing process (both as a person who writes as part of my profession in academic settings and as a hobby in blogging) is only most gratifying when the results emerge from thoughtfulness and purpose.
Great post, Yuli! I also blog about a subject I am passionate about: fashion strategy. While I started this whole process for myself as a way to keep track of what I was learning and seeing while studying in Italy, over time I became really curious to understand who was following and what they thought about the topics I feature. I think it's normal to want some community engagement when you put yourself out there…
But you are definitely right: by playing the popularity game and stealing or regenerating content without adding any value, not only is any “original content” of the blogger cast into doubt, but the entire fashion blogging community loses a little bit of validity. However I'm not sure it's just the problem of the blogger, but more a problem of the emerging system. I wonder- if second, third and fourth “tiered” bloggers didn't repost someone else's original content on their own or the reasons you mentioned, wouldn't fashion PR reps push it anyway in a naive attempt to work with digital audiences?
Passion, hands down. Passion and creativity. I am tired of the same dribble, regurgitated over and over. Profitability counts, SEO, traffic etc are all important, but not in the way they were at the beginning of this year.
There are millions of websites, thousands of style blogs. Cream sits on top, it's better to have quality over quantity. I think 2010 is going to be about weeding out, redefining what we consider quality and moves our industry.
Thank you, Ashley! Good point on the PR reps. They definitely contribute to the noise by pitching hundreds of blogs the same content. I always advice on focusing on fewer, better targeted blogs and diversifying the angle. Seeing the same press release on multiple blogs over and over isn't the best result for a successful PR campaign….
agreed, I look forward to see more content creators stop the overload and experiment in originality…
Thanks so much for sharing your insight!
Great post. I read Arrington's blog, as well as a few others that have expressed similar points of view. There's much more content online now that the number of people participating has increased, but there's not more information on which to report. Since there's only so much actual news, all of the millions of people who now have a voice in the online space are spreading the same ol' same 'ol–and yes, it gets tiring.
To that end, I've seen quite a few articles touting the need for information “distillers”, people who filter the most useful information from the most reliable sources into one entertaining and (somewhat) objective digest, with the occasional personal commentary thrown in. What's your take on that idea?
Thanks for the comment, Tamia! I actually just recently discovered SS mag and loved it!
I am too very curious about the idea of “distillers” or perhaps curators, and have a whole post on that in the works – it's planned to be the next one actually… Stay tuned!
I've re-read this post a few times since I first saw it. As a blogger of only 6 months, this was just the kind of thing I needed to read. It's a great reminder of the importance of original content and the need to write from the heart.
I also appreciate everyone else's comments here too. Thank you all the info on this subject.
XO Piper
Thank you so much, Piper! Comments like yours push me to write more on this blog
[...] 2 Likes Candy cane nails without candy cane colors. Weeee! on Twitpic 2 Likes On Fast Fashion Content and The Importance of Being Earnest. | Yuli Ziv In his article, The End Of Hand Crafted Content, Michael Arrington of TechCrunch touched a [...]
And here I was thinking I was the only one contemplating this kind of stuff! So many blogs rely solely on reposting, it's insane. I know that especially in fashion blogging it's nearly impossible to produce content that is 100% your own – for example, everyone posts about their inspirations and I think it often fits the theme perfectly – but the degree to which some bloggers basically just c/p without even a streak of creativity in blogosphere that is supposed to be all about creativity and expressing yourself saddens me.
I've heard this said before, and I think it's very true.
However, I think to an extent it's part of the internet, and how everyone can say anything they want, but the internet's real importance isn't on what you say or how you say it, but who is listening. I think the good stuff rises to the top naturally. Blogs don't become popular because they're copying content – at least, no blog I know does. They may get high traffic on certain subjects if they rank in the search engines, but traffic isn't the same as blog followers. Traffic isn't the same as an audience.
Just do the best you can do with what you have, and what we as fashion bloggers have is a huge wide world of colors and shapes and creativity. What we have is passion. What we have is desire to express our love and our creativity. No, I wouldn't worry too much about those “other” fashion blogs. How can they possibly compete against the awesome which is the fashion blogger on fire?
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts, Steff. Couldn't agree more with your comment!
Brilliant article, which will make me look at my blog in a whole new light for the future!
I was talking about this very subject to my other half, who is also a blogger. We were talking about it in the context of how many followers we have on Twitter. His list of followers is smaller but seems to have more depth and quality to it, with people who work in his industry are genuinely interested in his content. I guess it's the same with those that read and comment on your blog. It's not about the volume of traffic but about the people you genuinely engage and appreciate your content.
I post only twice a week, not because of a lack of material or time (well sometimes time
but because I have to feel a true enthusiasm for what I post, otherwise my writing COMPLETELY lacks feeling. A fellow blogger implored me to post more often to maintain my readership but I'd rather maintain my integrity than churn out “filler” on a daily basis.
Someone at a blogger meet-up asked me how many comments I get on each post; when I told her my numbers loomed lower than ten, she walked away! This is why I am commenting on this post – I often see posts that I LOVE and think, in my head, I MUST comment later but I often forget. I hope this is true of my readership ;]
A great, insightful post that has really prompted me to think about what I write. Merci BEAUCOUP, R x
This is exactly how I feel about knock-offs of products, and fast fashion the right term. A bit more time, effort and creativity and you can come up with something on your own. Which is better – rehashing the work of others or creating something that is just yours.
I know what I prefer.
- Poochie
I think this also depends on what your goal is for your blog. If you are a professional blogger, then driving traffic is extremely important as it helps pay the bills. You can still be “real” but you may be “real” using different tactics (i.e. a few lengthy “Yuli style posts” with a top 10 or aggregation sprinkled in). Just my two cents.
definitely, that's the balance I've been trying to keep on my fashion blog. But sometimes I feel you need focus and it's hard to do both… definitely a challenge for 2010
Very timely topic! There is a lot of noise and overload on the same topics. It's a fine line as to how to relay fashion news, but create original content. I regularly receive stories from PR firms, but I don't use them all because then my blog would have the EXACT same content as other budget blogs. What I like to do is create stories, and write my own take in my posts. I appreciate PR firms sending me things, because I like to be informed. But I don't want to use everything they send verbatim. If I did, my blog would quickly become generic.
One thing I didn't post that was sent to just about every blogger in the universe was Tavi's video on Target's Rodarte collection. I think Tavi's great, but it was basically a commercial for a collection that none of us had seen, so it was just part of the hype. I prefer to do reviews on things like this. And ultimately, I think reader's appreciate it!
On the flip side, although a lot of blogs did post Sonia Rykiel for H&M photos, I also posted some of them with my own thoughts on the collection. In that case, I felt that my readers do want to know what is coming from H&M because past collections have delivered quality for price. I posted some (not all) of the photos, with my comments. Readers were actually writing in to ask when I would post pics and discuss it, so I felt I had an obligation to do so.
Thanks for weighing in, Mary. I agree, sometimes there are subjects that relate to your blog's niche, and even though everyone else is writing on them, readers would like to know your opinion. For me the main question is how you tackle it and what angle you find that is unique. Posting the same photos and saying “I love this collection” doesn't add much to the online discussion, just creates clutter.
Thanks for this post – you put into words some things that have been bubbling around in my mind for a little while.
Thanks for this. It is a wake up call to remind us all to post good, useful things and not just the small old regurgitated stuff that we all have read.
Originality and authenticity are everything with blogging!
Mbop Megashop