My 2014 blog data

I have blogged since 2002. In recent years, I have split my attention across three WordPress blogs. My blogs are hosted on my site (not the Word.Press hosted site), but I can use analytic tools provided by WordPress. This has been the case for the past few years.

blogyeartotals

My views has declined recently and I have been trying to figure out why. I thought the issue was a user switch from RSS feeds to Twitter (I do not work hard at developing a large Twitter following which would receive notifications of new posts), but it seems more a decline in posts being located in searches. I do not understand why this would happen unless there has been some change in how near the top of search results my content appears.

learningaloud.com--blog

 

The major decline has been associated with my main blog (learningaloud). My post numbers are down a bit because I now post to several sites. but this would not totally explain this sharp drop. The Curmudgeon Speaks blog is up in numbers. Do folks want funny over serious?

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Why share what you have not read

A recent article from Time presented several myths about online activity. I found the second myth of greatest interest.

The second myth is exposed by data that cross references social activity by the read time devoted to a primary information source. The data are expressed as a graph with hits organized in a 2 x 2 format. So you have articles with high and low read times by articles with high and low social activity. If one assumes that greater read time indicates greater personal interest, it is surprising that low interest articles generate the most social activity. Hence, you cannot assume that those suggestions you receive as tweets resulted from a thorough review by the tweeter. Perhaps the title alone was enough to encourage sharing.

Why? Not sure, but these data seem similar to a paper we just discussed in my grad class. The paper concerned a number of effective study techniques and then noted that college students seem not likely to use these techniques even though the strategies require no more time. One commonality of the methods is that they generated more errors and were likely perceived as more difficult. Perhaps, individuals are satisfied with a passive approach that offers the impression of doing something productive.

I wonder if a similar explanation fits here. Are many tweets that reference resources a way of feeling or offering the impression to others that something meaningful has been accomplished? I propose that tweets associated with blog entries are a better approach. Blog posts typically offer more personal commentary and I would think require a little more information from a primary source. If you cannot summarize what about a source was interesting or valuable, you likely did not get much from the resource yourself. Why offer the source to others?

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Is RSS fading?

You may have never heard of an RSS feed. I begin with this statement because I would have assumed the opposite. I would have guessed anyone reading blogs would have heard of and be using RSS. I have learned otherwise. When Google announced that it would shut down Reader I asked my graduate educational technology class what they planned to do for a replacement and I was met with several blank looks. It is important to understand that not everyone sees the world as you do.

Following the elimination of Reader (an RSS aggregator used directly or indirectly by many who made use of RSS), there was a good deal of online commentary on the purpose of RSS (e.g., TechCrunch). The point seems to be that Google knows all and must have decided that RSS readers and RSS were no longer necessary. This was a surprise to me, but when I searched the question “is RSS relevant” I was able to find negative reactions as far back as 2006.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) offers a way to identify changes to web content. So, instead of visiting say 25 blogs (or other web content) you might follow to see if the author has generated anything new, you can make use of an RSS reader that will identify what has changed. RSS saves a great deal of time. Visit one service instead of many sites. If you were a blogger, you wanted to be certain readers could subscribe to the feed from your site. If you were a reader, RSS was about increasing your efficiency and probably increasing the number and range of sites you followed.

Sometimes we seem to tire of good OLD ideas and gravitate toward the new and shiny. This does not seem productive or efficient, but it may be human nature. We seem attracted to the changes in our environment as a survival mechanism.

I think about learning from online content as search and discovery. Search implies I know what I want to know and I use powerful tools to locate the best sources for this information. Discovery implies I admit to being unaware of information that would potentially be quite important and commit to scanning recommendations to see what invites my attention.

RSS is a good way to discover. It is like making a commitment to a news source and then reviewing what this source offers. There is danger in the biased selection of sources, but with a little self discipline a variety of sources can be identified.

What has changed in the world of information consumption? I suppose that services like Twitter, Google+ and to a lesser extent Facebook offer a source for recommendations. Individuals who you identify as trusted sources (really?) offer suggestions and you follow up. This is pretty much the only reason I use Twitter. To my taste, there is too much junk in the Twitter feed. Even with careful selection of individuals, there seems to be so much spam.

The blogs I write do send a short message to Twitter so others who do not use RSS, but who might be interested in my comments know when a new post has been generated. You may have identified this post from a Twitter link. The use of Twitter to identify your blog posts is controversial. I am not certain why. I suppose it is regarded by some as self promotion.  A one tweet per post model is fine with me. I do find it annoying when multiple tweets advertise the same blog post.

I guess the concern is that the RSS model is preferred by geeks and others have moved on. Facebook and Google+ bring a stream of content from those these individuals chose to follow and that is evidently enough. A quick scan of Twitter might be used to fill in the gaps. Perhaps Google abandoned Reader because it offered little benefit to the their business and because RSS does compete with a function of Google+.

For the time being, I will continue to promote RSS with my students. I see this as promoting the contribution of bloggers. I am concerned that the audience and hence the motivation for an active blogging community will suffer when social media moves exclusively to Twitter, Google+ and Facebook.

BTW – RSS did not disappear with Reader and my recommendation for a Reader replacement is Feedly

 

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Annual Report – 2011

I thought some who have viewed our content may find the following of interest. You may have noticed that we place Google ads on our content (each page of the blogs and the “index” pages of our long format content). Aside from generating a little revenue (far less than the cost of purchasing the server services we use), the ads provide some data (Google analytics). The first figure shows the total number of ad displays (not page views as indicated because not all pages contain an ad) and the number of times an ad was clicked (this is what generates the revenue). If you have ever wondered what the ratio of ad views to clicks might be, this gives you an idea.

 

The following image offers some information regarding the relative popularity of different resources (webportal and techintegration are the long form resources. Blurts, blog, apps, & curmudgeonspeaks are the blogs. The two table summaries do not match because views of individual blog posts do not show up in the second table, but are included in the total (first chart)

 

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Mark Quits and Then Pays For Diigo

Ever have one of those situations when you learned something, made a decision related to what you learned, found that the information on which the decision was based had changed, and then not been sure that you understood what you thought had happened in the first pace had actually happened? Probably not. I could have sworn a week or so ago Diigo added a premium service and severely reduced the capabilities of the free (and education) versions.

The price for the premium service was $40 and this seemed like a long way from free and for me a lot for the advantages the service would offer me over Delicious and other premium services I have already invested in (e.g., Evernote). The combination of Delicious and Evernote would allow me to accomplish pretty much the same things as the Premium Diigo. Half of the price and I might have bit.

Then, like someone out there was reading my mind or perhaps my tweets, the $20 “basic” membership appeared. My credit card was out of my pocket in an instant.

I think educators must get beyond expecting online resources and services will be free. $40 a year was just a bit much.

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Blogging in decline among adolescents (PEW)

The Pew Internet and American Life project has a new report on the online habits of youth. This site is a goto source for tracking trends.

The trend that concerns me – youth people are showing less interest in blogging. In 2006, about 28% of 12-17 year olds blogged. Now, only 14% make the effort to generate lengthier posts about things that interest them. I thought that microblogs (Twitter mostly) would have taken up the slack, but this does not appear to be the base. Only 8% of this group post to the 140 character and less sites.

Social network sites (e.g., Facebook) appear to be the newest trend. Four years ago, 55% used such sites and now the proportion is approaching 75. Did I imagine this or were younger users once blocked.

Of course, Facebook is versatile. You can add a little or a lot depending on your mood. You are also connected to just that group that interests you. Finally, there is the option of accessing your site on the go (hence the title of the report – Social Media and Mobile Internet Use). Approx. 75% of teens own a cell phone and 58% of 12 year-olds have this resource. Amazing.

I find the decline in what the article describes as “long form” posts to be discouraging. Things now appear to be moving toward mobile commenting. This seems more a way of connecting than communicating. Not that the social component is important. Obviously, social connections are extremely important at all ages and particularly to adolescents. However, the benefits of crafting more well thought out comments appear to be in decline.

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Comments

This blog has some strange characteristics. One seems to be that few follow this blog as a feed and a good deal of the traffic comes as a result of search. I guess I am not certain why this is the case. Perhaps this is because some of what I offer consists of tutorials. The most popular posts seem to be tutorials. It may also be that the ability to comment has been limited. I did this as a defense against what mostly was spam and not responses to the posts. I noticed that someone seemed to be attempting to respond to a post in which I outlined some of the findings of a recent Generation M study. Among other things I questioned the interest of some in the educational value of video games. I can see how some would want to reply. I do say things to challenge and I should do more to encourage response. I have tried to relax the settings to make it easier to respond. You still do need to register.

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