Content Networks are The New Blogs - Aggregations of Content Rule

"The average Internet user visits about seven sites regularly," explains Chris Brogan, Chief Content Officer of Grasshopper Factory, a place to create content networks by sharing projects with each other.

They may surf hundreds of sites a week, but the number people regularly visit is very few. The chances of your blog being in many Internet users' short list are fairly small, even if you have great content and thought-provoking ideas. There is simply a lot of content.

"The biggest tragedy of this over-abundance of content is that the quality stuff quite often falls beneath the waves, as the lowest common denominator material is linked into prominence," says Chris. "Everywhere I go, I see excellent content with not nearly as much of an audience as it deserves."

People surfing the net find whatever's at the surface, but run out of time before they can go down the various alleys and crannies where the "good stuff" is kept. Many people only have 30-40 minutes to surf the web, if that. They barely scratch the surface.

How can you get more people to your excellent content, whether it's text, audio, video, or who knows what? Content producers deserve a shot at more audience.

"I say gather. I say reach out and find the other blogs that write the same kind of stuff you write," says Chris. "Put together a new 'superblog' that can serve as a magazine or similar content platform for your collected materials." Think of your posts as articles in a newspaper. "Can you imagine having to go to 21 different sites to read the New York Times?" adds Chris.

Imagine the difference when you get the synergy of five or so like-minded people producing content together. That's what BoingBoing and Lifehacker do, as well as many other blogs with huge readership. "Why not emulate their success by forming little networks to aggregate your content into a much bigger package of value?" asks Chris.

News used to come on single sheets of paper in the 1600s and 1700s. These "broadsides" as they were called were written by one person much as most blogs today. Once folks like Ben Franklin combined them into newspapers, those authors saw much higher readership! Eventually broadsides faded into history. Although Chris isn't suggesting blogs will fade away, he does believe in the power of aggregating content, both for content producers and consumers. As a blogger, a content producer, consider uniting with other like-minded content producers. Approach others, be creative, and you just might be surprised at what will happen.

Comments

[Chris Brogan...]

Thanks, Ted, for the post. I'm glad the post has resonance. I'll be presenting about this at PodCamp Boston on Saturday or Sunday this coming week (Sept 9-10).