07/07/16 Nielsen doesn't get it
07/07/16 Nielsen doesn't get it
Jakob Nielsen on weblogging.
Linked below there's a post by Jakob Nielsen.
Well, let's get it out of the way first, shall we:
Jakob Nielsen's Alert Box: Write articles, not blog postings
In several different ways, the article seems unclear on the concept.
The article is aimed at people (and businesses) who are either trying to sell their on-line content, or who are trying to sell themselves or their products by means of their on-line content. Nielsen doesn't make this clear, and as a consequence the article appears to be aimed at anyone who publishes content on-line, including the large majority of people who use their weblogs as creative outlets without any expectation of financial gain.
Even when limiting the discussion to weblogging for commercial purposes, there's a huge difference between on-line content that you're trying to sell, and on-line content that you're trying to use in order to sell you or your products.
I agree with Nielsen that in-depth articles, rather than brief weblog posts, are what you need in order to get people to pay for your content.
However, the content that you need to sell you or your products isn't about what you know, it's about who you are. I don't think there are hard and fast rules about the kind of content works best for this purpose. In-depth articles may be useful to your readers, and they might also provide some insight in the way you think and in the depth of your expertise in a given subject. Linklogging might give readers an idea of the kinds of subjects that you care about. Short comments on ongoing blogosphere discussions, singled out by Nielsen as something you shouldn't waste your time on, might show your awareness of on-line culture, something that might matter a great deal in some lines of business.
Webloggers responding to Nielsen:
Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard: Nielsen vs. Andreessen on blogging
Graphpaper.com: Should bloggers assume that their readers are dumber than they are?
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