Is it still viable? Is it still popular? Are people still doing this?
Or as ALLTIMEGREATS.BLOG asked:
What do you all think. Is sports card blogging dying? It’s dead? Or thriving?— ALLTIMEGREATS.BLOG (@VictorRomanSr) January 11, 2019
Somehow, thanks to Mario, the man who writes Wax Heav...I mean The Baseball Card Blog (I hope you got Ben's blessing to use this name Mario), I wound up getting involved in the conversation:
It’s not anywhere near as popular as it once was. Ask @bdj610— Mario Alejandro (@TheWaxHeaven) January 11, 2019
Night Owl wrote about this last week (he's has taken the mantle as the most prolific and popular blogger, with tons of readers and commenters). You want to read his take? Here you go!
Nachos Grande, another long-time card blog, followed Night Owl's lead and did his own research, which you can read here.
(But before you read what they have to say, finish mine first...or go read their stuff and come back...PLEASE!!!)
So I did a bit of research. I always made it a habit of keeping tabs of the number of blogs I added and removed over the years. When I created the Sports Card Blogroll on July 7, 2008, I started with 112 blogs. Many of these sites I found through the blogrolls of dayf the Cardboard Junkie and Mario (again...thanks to his Sports Card Blog Directory).
I promised I would figure out when the most blogs were ever on the Sports Card Blogroll. That would have been in July of 2012, when there was a whopping 387 blogs listed before I did my monthly maintenance.
I haven't made any updates to the big Blogroll in a while, and I have to tell you, I'm really sad.
Presently, there are 215 sites listed on the active roll. The following sites will be removed from the Blogroll tonight:
- Number 5 Type Collection
- Once a Cub
- Pirates Treasure Room
- supportingtheminnow
- the cardboard review.
- Toronto Blue Jays Collection
- Off Hiatus Baseball Cards
- Orioles Card "O" the Day (more about this shortly)
- Adventures in 1952 Topps
- MLB Card Values
- 21st-Century Topps Baseball
- The Home Run Apple
- plain gray swatch
- Need More Cardboard
- Phungo
- 1978 Baseball
- Hangin with Chuck
- The Infinite Baseball Card Set (more about this later)
- Topps 1971
- Tony's Sports Pub
- The Great Sports Name Hall of Fame
- Cardboard Hogs
- Mets Cardboard
- Waxaholic
- Paul's TTM Autograph Blog
- MC's Autograph Signings
- The Prowling Cat
- Inception Baseball: A Very Simple Idea
- HoopsHobby
That's 29 blogs that being removed (hold on...I will explain shortly). That brings the number of active blogs down to 186. That's more than 200 blogs down from six years ago (not the number of blogs that have ever been placed on the SCBR...you're looking at over 500 blogs that made it's way onto the active roster at one point in time).
The Infinite Baseball Card Set blog was created by artist Gary Joseph Cieradkowski. The site combined his passions for baseball history and art (he did create a card set...beautiful cards...don't own any, but I do remember reading reviews). He has a new site now, Studio Gary C, which combines all of his artwork, and I am going to add his baseball card section, which continues his Infinite Baseball Card Set project, and will move his old site to the Retired, but Relevant section of the Blogroll. (I better be getting that book Gary...or if not, I'll have to find it somewhere).
The Sports Card Blogroll Hall of Fame adds one new member to its ranks: Orioles Card "O" The Day. For over 10 years, Kevin, the writer of the Orioles baseball card blog, highlighted a card from his vast Orioles card collection, giving the reader a glimpse of the player, and his contributions to Orioles lore. From 2008-2014, he would post more than 300 times per year, the first four years posting EVERY DAY!!! While there is no reason why he stopped (we can all speculate...it's the ORIOLES after all) maybe he'll get back to it. I hope he's okay. But his last post was in May, 2018, and the site has reached more than six months of inactivity. As one of the pioneers in the Hobby Blogging Community, and one of the first team-centric Hobby bloggers, his Orioles Card "O" The Day will now be enshrined into the SCBR HOF.
Yes, I will have to say that the popularity of blogging has been on the downside. But, as I stated in my contributions to the twitter discussion:
While I think you are right with the opinion that the popularity is down, I think those that are still blogging about the Hobby now are the ones who are committed to the medium and enjoy it. We are really writing for ourselves, after all. People reading what we say is a bonus.— James B. Anama (@bdj610) January 12, 2019
There are those who are still contributing on a daily basis: Night Owl Cards (who I will have to check his blogroll for sites that I don't have), Wrigley Wax, who writes about the cards in his Cubs collection, The Chronicles of Fuji, The Shlabotnik Report, and 182 others (including this humble, little blog). We're still around, and we're still posting about the Hobby. We may not be (okay, most of us might not be) making any money off blogging, but as I tweeted, we're really writing for ourselves. If people happen to read what we're saying, then it's a bonus.
It (blogging) has become a Hobby in of itself. We all had our reasons to get into this. Some got into it to trade with others. Others wanted to share their opinions on the state of the Hobby (good or otherwise). Some wanted to stir the pot and the notoriety (good or otherwise) got them the exposure they wanted. Others just wanted to show off their collections and what the cards mean to the writer.
As with many trends, blogging has hit its plateau. During the height of popularity, I had hoped that the SCBR would one day reach 500 blogs on the list at one time. It never made it there, but the Blogroll still stands as a way for people who want to read different viewpoints about the Hobby of Sports Card Collecting.
On a final note, I do want to thank Sports Card News for bringing up the topic. And for indirectly giving me a nudge to get my site up-to-date.
As always, if you or someone you know has a blog that is about the great Hobby of Sports Card Collecting, and you want it added to the Sports Card Blogroll, please send me an email at bdj610@hotmail.com, send me a tweet (you can find me @bdj610), or leave a comment on the blog.
You know, I meant to change the design of the site just to make it a bit more modern. I guess I better get to work.
Sincerely,
JayBee Anama
Blogging isn't dead. It maybe down, but not out. I didn't start my blog until mid 2013. The 1st 6 months I didn't even know how to upload a scanned pic. I believe that many a blogger have left due to the lack of comments. I follow so many blogs that I can't read them all each day, let alone comment on them. I get it. I don't like it when I post and there are only a couple of comments or worse zero. It gives cause to the thought of WHY? As with any reading, if you want a following CONTENT is important. Then you have guys like me.....I'm not a writer, so I go the "theme" route and people like themes, maybe not all of them, but they find the ones they like. Many people follow blogs that hold contests, I get that too, and do them from time to time. It draws the comments. I've also figured out that there is a 2 hour window that draws the most views (I don't use tags and the like). A catchy title will do the trick too. Anyways, 2018 finally brought in my 100th follower, most do not comment (BTW, the most prolific commenter in the world is San Jose Fuji). Either way, blogging gives me an outlet to lay down some rage (just kidding) to show off some trading cards and I have no plans on quitting. I try to post between 2-3 hundred times a year, so far so good. Thank you for your blog!
ReplyDeleteJayBee, thank you for keeping the blogroll up-to-date and relevant. I went through my stats at the beginning of the year and your blogroll brings me lots of traffic. I agree with John, we write for ourselves, but the comments sure do help!
ReplyDeleteDon't forget me! I'm at https://adventuresofabaseballcardcollector.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteAgreed, blogging is definitely not dead. After Night Owl's post, I took at look at some of my own blog numbers: http://fanofreds.blogspot.com/2019/01/another-look-at-blogging-numbers.html
ReplyDeleteGlad you're updating. I use the blogroll for my daily reading list. (Don't "follow" or use "feeds" or anything.)
ReplyDeleteI'm not on Twitter, but I haven't been convinced I'm missing enough to jump in yet.
I consider Twitter to be Blogging For Short Attention Spans.
I've only been steadily blogging since the start of 2017, and probably average 60 reads per post. Though I've had some go triple digits. Maybe those got retweeted or something, I don't know. But I think the community is still strong on whatever scale we're actually on. I'm not going anywhere.
500 card blogs? Gotta admit... I have a hard time keeping up with whatever number of blogs I have on my blogroll. That being said... I read card blogs more these days than I ever have before. There might be less, but I feel like the community of card bloggers that we have is very dedicated and supportive of each other.
ReplyDeleteI count 204 blogs on my blogroll that are "active" (have posted within six months). Even then, I wouldn't discount some of those who haven't posted within 6 months as people return to their blog from longish breaks all the time.
ReplyDeleteThe point is, if I still can't keep up with the number of card blogs out there, that means it is still a vibrant entity and ridiculous to say "blogging is dead." Lower numbers, sure, but you can't sustain anything at a high level for a long period of time, that's just basic knowledge.
Wow! 387 active in one month. That is a lot of blog posts to go through. Sadly more people have come and left the blogging community than are still active. What does the current trend look like for 2019?
ReplyDeleteFollowed Night Owl's lead and checked my blogroll (208 blogs listed) to see who has been active...
ReplyDelete# of bloggers who posted in the past 24 hours: 37 blogs
# of bloggers who posted in the last week: 86 blogs
# of bloggers who posted in the last 4 weeks: 128 blogs
# of bloggers who posted in the last 6 months: 161 blogs
Blogging is a thing but social media [Twitter] is where the action is at - sometimes it’s not worth it to blog when you feel you have no audience and among the collectors blogs - maybe 5-10 [at most] get the most love i.e. comments in particular if not page views, while others end up being an exercise is relative futility.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I can tell, sportscard blogging is relatively healthy. I've been reading sportscard blogs pretty consistently for maybe the past 10 or 12 and there's definitely no shortage of content, unique or otherwise. Just about every other endeavor one takes up will have its naysayers but we carry on anyway. Write on!
ReplyDeleteWell, see you made that list of blogs that will be removed from inactivity and one of those "inactive" ones -- Phungo -- posted today.
ReplyDeleteBlogging is ALIVE.
I don’t think blogging will die since the internet is here to stay. I hope the card collecting hobby stays alive, but we’ll see what happens with the next generation.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, I am not sure if my blogs, Topps Cards that Never Were and Completing the 1992 Topps Set are on your blog role.
Thanks for updating everyone on my new website, StudioGaryC.com the new home of The Infinite Baseball Card Set. I wanted to create an easier to read and more attractive blog for my stories and illustrations, plus link it to my store and art portfolio. I continue or migrate the old stories to the new site, along with all new ones. Now, if you email (through my website) me your address, you might find something in the mail soon... Regards, Gary Cieradkowski
ReplyDelete