You may or may not know that the iPhone 5 was announced a couple weeks ago and went on sale last week. I’m a technology guy, and I watched a liveblog of the entire two-hour iPhone launch event. I’m also a subscriber to several big tech blogs, and something about their coverage really bothered me.
The amount of negativity from the tech press surrounding the iPhone 5 announcement was astonishing. About 95% of the articles I read said how big of a disappointment the iPhone 5 was or that it was going to be a disaster for Apple.
A week later and the phone is the fastest-selling phone ever, with more than 2 million sold in the first 24 hours.
Now, I don’t care if you’re an iPhone person, an Android person, or a carrier pigeon person. The thing that irked me was that on the one hand you have the press saying how thoroughly unimpressive the iPhone 5 is, and on the other hand you have enough consumer interest to make it what I think is probably the fastest-selling electronic device of all time.
Man, talk about a disconnect.
Does that not strike you as being odd? Are those bloggers doing their job properly if they’re so out of touch with (or unwilling to recognize) their readers’ reality?
Here’s another example, and I’ll incriminate myself in this one. How many times have you read blog posts from the blog-about-blogging bloggers giving advice that really just won’t work if you’re blogging about something other than, well, blogging?
My example is the second-most-popular article of mine here at The Backlight, How to Guarantee 100 Comments on a Blog Post. In that article, I explain how if you comment on 100 different blogs, at least half of those people will return to your blog and comment on you blog. Reply to each one of those comments and bam, 100 comments on a blog post.
Sure, that works fine if you’re blogging about blogging or Internet marketing or something along those lines. But you’re probably not going to get 100 comments if you blog about rock climbing or gardening or sewing.
I cavalierly proclaimed that it was easy to get 100 comments on a blog post, but there, again, was that disconnect between the sphere that I inhabited and the real world of my target audience (i.e., people blogging about regular things). I’ve grown older and wiser since then.
Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our own little cocoons that we forget about what’s really going on out there. Spend some time outside of your bubble and reconnect with your audience. It will be better for everyone involved.
*Insert obligatory Out of Touch reference here.*
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Hi Tristan,
I may have been one of those people who found your blog through that post. I can’t recall for sure, but whatever it was that I read in the beginning, it was enough to prompt me to add you to my reader.
Generally, the blog-about-blogging and the blog-about-writing sites offer little value. Some appear to have miserable followings of their own, which makes the proposition laughable. I can’t tell you how difficult it is to find sites where people are practicing actual writing consistently.
As to your primary topic, I noticed a similar unity of negative coverage preceding the iPhone launch, but this is what happens with media in general. Sure, you’ll get a differing point of view sometimes, but many of those articles seem to simply want to be contrarian.
Learning as we go and reassessing our positions can only help us to hone our skills and reconnect with our audiences and with ourselves.
ps That whole moving to Mexico adventure that you’re living is pretty cool.
The principle of that old blog post I wrote is still somewhat useful in that if you want to increase the comments on your blog, commenting on others is a good way to do it. But the exact numbers will definitely vary widely depending on your niche.
I think you’re right about simply wanting to be contrarian. If you’re in the business of getting more pageviews, you’re probably going to get more from a “This new iPhone is crap” article than a “OMG I love the new iPhone!” article.
(And yeah, Mexico is a lot of fun! I’ve been here for almost a month now. I’ll be here in Mexico City for another two months before moving to a different city, probably San Miguel de Allende. Then I’ll head to Cozumel for a couple months.)
I agree blogging helps to meet new wise and nice people and be a part of some cool communities and later on you’ll be the best of friend even you are not in the same country.
Yeah, I didn’t even mention anything like that. Spammer! I’ve removed your link.
I think part of the reason why a lot of tech blogs were predicting the iPhone sales to be poor or the phone isn’t an impressive upgrade is that they aren’t merely writing their opinion, they are writing to get attention. If you have a spot on a major site (The Verge, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, etc) and write a piece that goes against the flow of what is already happening (or likely to happen), it is much more likely to get noticed and shared around through sites like Daring Fireball or The Loop. Those blogs are almost like a call-to-arms for Apple “fanbois” to go to those sites and leave comments defending “their side.”
If you make a claim that the iPhone 5 would be the fastest selling phone ever, people are just going to nod their head and agree with you. The only way to get someone to give a response is to touch one of their emotions – piss them off, remind them of a happy/sad moment, depress them.
Until people decide to stop paying attention to these junk blogs and media outlets (TMZ, tabloid papers), people will always write things up that gain attention.
As a side note, I can’t wait for the day when the current metrics of measuring success online (page views, comments, followers, subscribers to email lists) die.
Yep, I think you’ve pretty much nailed it. It’s the sensational things that bring in the eyeballs.
“As a side note, I can’t wait for the day when the current metrics of measuring success online (page views, comments, followers, subscribers to email lists) die.”
Yep, I’m with you there. I guess the ultimate metric, though, is really the reason why you’re producing content (for money, for influence, etc.). And if you’re relying on advertising and pageviews, you need to write the fluff pieces. But I think that’s one good thing about a publication like the New York Times switching to a paywall and more of a reader-supported approach. The articles can stay high quality and the paper doesn’t need to descend into the depths of yellow journalism to stay afloat.
nothing really to add, but liked the article enough i wanted to say i thought it a valuable observation and commentary to have out, thanks much tristan ;-)
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