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I grew up reading Cringely and this is the first time I have visited his blog in years. He seems to want to blame external factors on his decision to stop writi
by nikcub 14y ago
I grew up reading Cringely and this is the first time I have visited his blog in years. He seems to want to blame external factors on his decision to stop writing and concentrating on books, but the fault lies with himself.
There are thousands of bloggers with a lot less experience and a lower level of writing quality who survive and do well from blogging. Cringely misplaces the blame on the advertising market, which has only been growing in the time period he describes.
For some reason he thought he could register a wordpress blog, insert some Javascript from a cheap ad network and then 'file' his columns once a week and that would work. He has done little to take advantage of his brand, the community around him, or adjust to how blogging and the explosion in consumer internet and apps changed technology journalism.
Outside of HN I have never seen his columns or posts promoted, or read a comment from him on Twitter, or reddit, or Facebook, or any other blog - or anything that would get his content infront of potential readers.
The world overtook him and blew him over, and he doesn't seem to realize why or what happen.
- slaven 14y agoAs a Cringely fan, I sadly have to agree.
- eliasmacpherson 14y agoDisagree, a lot of bloggers get as far as a book deal and that's the end of blogging for them. I think you're reading too much in to the why he's stopping - I think the new projects he's embarking on are more interesting than his blog. His posts tend to get around tech sites, you mentioned HN already, http://www.theregister.co.uk http://www.theregister.co.uk run a lot of his stuff, also: http://slashdot.org/tag/cringely http://slashdot.org/tag/cringely http://www.reddit.com/domain/cringely.com/ http://www.reddit.com/domain/cringely.com/
- nikcub 14y agoI interpreted his post as "While I am now 60, I can't retire yet as I have 3 young children, but I can't support myself from blogging - since that market crashed - therefor I am going to write a book" It is the other post that goes into the blog ad rates falling: http://www.cringely.com/2012/11/02/ad-networks-are-killing-the-internet-my-answer-is-cringely-3-0/ http://www.cringely.com/2012/11/02/ad-networks-are-killing-t...
- panzagl 14y agoI think he realizes, it's just a game he doesn't want to play, and he's willing to cut a publisher a share to avoid it.