Mar 6, 2009
Where Will Your Blog be in 25 Years? Posted by Jamie Harrop - 18 Comments
Photo by Thomas Hawk
It’s January 28th, 2034. You’re 25 years older and your kids are all grown up. The Internet is a far cry from the one we knew in 2009. The iPhone is a thing of the past. Terrorism and war has taken an e-turn, and the economic collapse of 2008 has been and gone.
You’re happy to be in your new job. The 2008 economy meant you had to look for a new position, but you’re also now looking forward to retirement.
In the blogging world, John Chow is still around. As is his daughter, Sally Chow, who is now a regular guest blogger on her fathers blog.
Where Will Your Blog Be?
In 2034, what is your blog? Where is your blog? How many subscribers do you have? Do you offer an ebook? Do ebooks still exist? Are you making any money from your blog? Are you even still blogging?
Growth Rate
John Chow had a subscriber growth rate of 4,000 between the end of October 2008 and middle of November 2008. 300 months from now, in January 2034, the numbers indicate John Chow will be seeing subscriber numbers of over 1,200,000 (one million, two hundred thousand).
So I want to seriously ask you. Where do you think your blog will be in 25 years? Will you still be blogging, or will you quit like the masses?
Have you ever truly considered where your blog will be in one year, let alone 25 years from now?
If you’re not sure where you’ll be, where do you want your blog to be? What are your 25 year goals?
I’ll be the first to answer this question by writing my thoughts as the initial comment.
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I'm a
22 year old self employed blogger and Web developer with
9 years experience running and managing blogs and online communities.
It’s only in answering this question that I realise how difficult a question it really is.
As I’m sure you guessed, I haven’t thought that far ahead for my blog.
I’d like to think in 25 years my blog will be two things:
1. Still here.
2. Still active with readers
If I could have broken the 10,000 reader count by then, I’ll be a very happy blogger, but just achieving those two things above will be fantastic.
How about you?
Jamie
25 Years seem long. I’d be 47 years old, lol.
I think I would like to be around when I’m 47. That would be an amazing journal at least you wouldn’t have like 20 journals in your room.
I don’t really have a typical blog, but I think it would be very interesting to see what an active 25+ year old blog would look like. Will there be any text or would it all be video or sound. Would it change from a blog into a mini radio or TV station or some sort of virtual reality.
It would certainly take a lot of dedication to keep a blog going for 25 years unless it is your full-time job and your topic is constantly changing and growing.
I wonder if the internet will have the capacity for all these blog posts 25 years on? I suspect I will just ‘think’ and it will post my thoughts through mind twitter into the chip in my subscribers head. Scary thought.
Seriously, good question. The answer, I don’t know as I don’t know where I see it in one year let alone 25. For the moment, I’d like to think that my blog will launch me onto bigger things, books, consultancy etc. So I guess it will progress as I and the technology does. I like Paul’s comment that it would be like a journal – sure would be interesting and perhaps embarrassing to look back on!
OMG! That is a tough question. I will be over 70 years old! Let me see:
I’ll be retired, but the blog will be the world’s biggest
Seth Godin will be my ghost writer
John Chow will be my commercial director
Jamie Harrop will be Director of design and team motivation
Pete Cashmore will be PR director
Darren Rowse will be art director
and I’ll live on the yacht in Monaco, watching the grand prix and reflecting on the knighthood.
OK need to put some tasks against these objectives now!
Everybody would have a blog. As a name is required for a new baby, that is how a blog would be required for the baby also.
I am sure whatever happens, my website will be completely different than it is now. I’ve gone through some half dozen incarnations over the past 10 years – I suspect the following:
1) My site will go magazine style within the next year or so
2) The newsletter will break out into it’s own weekly within the next 2 years
3) My products and speaking will be what introduced me to a larger audience by years 3-5
I should write a post about this
Great question to ponder. However, I am trying to make sure my blog is still around tomorrow. Twenty five years is a lifetime away for me.
Who knows, we may not even be talking about blogs 10 years from now.
Omar
Amazing journal indeed, Paul. I can’t wait to see what writing is here in 25 years time.
Thanks for the comment!
Jamie
Hey Nick,
Those are some fantastic questions. Judging by the way things have moved in the last few years, I’d say video will make up 80% of blogs.
As for dedication. I say if you can blog for a year, you can blog for 25 years.
Jamie
Hey Chris,
Maybe we’ll finally “break the Internet’s”
That’s an interesting thought. Letting your blog take you in to new areas like books. I’ve thought about that too. I suspect we’ll see more bloggers converting old blog posts in to books.
Jamie
Technology has radically changed in the past ten years, so much so that I can’t even imagine what the internet might be like twenty-five years from now. I’d like to think my blog will have grown and evolved. I’ll be writing about my latest books. I will still be sharing tips and advice. I’ll have released a few e-books and be producing regular podcasts and vblogs to accompany the text and incorporate a live conference each week. The growth potential is exponential. It will be interesting to live the coming twenty-five years and see what happens.
Maybe my kids will continue my fought to get millions visitor a day, and i’ll enjoy my last day on earth.
I think the whole world would be re transformed into small devices.
My friend Wayne has a funny take on this question. He’s an entrepreneur and we made a reality series about his startup-up. In epsidoe 9, he tackles what you’re talking about
http://operationballfiner.info
Yeah, having a crystal clear goal for your blog helps a lot. The shortest time span one should be prepared to dedicate himself for any endeavour is 5 years because it takes quite some time to master a new skill (and leading a successful blog IS a skill).
Andy
Wow. That really is a tough question. I’m finding that the internet and all of its various time sinks are making me feel more and more short-sighted, so the idea of imagining what my blog will be like, let alone whether I’ll be alive (and what I’m doing), seems nearly impossible. Given the immediacy of information, and always knowing what everyone I know is doing (an exagerration, to be sure), I tend to think more about what I’ll be doing later this week than where I’ll be in 5 or 10 years (though maybe that is just me and entirely unrelated to the distractions of the internet).
But. Assuming I am blogging, I hope I have managed to reign in my focus to only a few topics, that I have a dedicated readership who find meaning in my words, and that I’m still enjoying what I’m doing.
Hi Jaime,
After reading lots and lots of Tweets I finally got around to reading your blog. I must say I like it.
In response to your post I will be over the moon if I am still on this earth in twenty five years time. Providing I hold on to my health and mind I would like to think I would still be blogging when the time comes – but who knows on what platform.
I have only recently started bloging and have not given any thought to the longevity of my endeavours. I guess I will blog as long as people find the content worth reading and provide feedback via comments.
Best wishes,
Peter