Mainstream design blogging: The age of crap

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Once upon a time, designers had to invest some time into blogging, which made pumping out crap a pretty stupid idea. Then it changed.

Tailing blogging’s mainstream ascent were blogging templates, inspirational and roundup posts, and crap.

Everyday I see more crap clogging my Twitter stream and delicious iGoogle boxes. “Top 10 things widgets for your website.” “5,000 ways to do __________ in jQuery.” Well, it all wasn’t crap at one time. At one time it was somebody’s hard original work. But after the 50th article rounding up the same damn thing it’s ~~suddenly~~ crap.

When I visit an article that actually looks worthwhile I often think I’m looking at NETTUTS+ until I look at the header and see NETTUTS+ replaced by “Design insert cool word here.” WTF? I’ll tell you WTF. Clones with no original content.

Is there hope?

Yes. When I see articles by Paddy Donnelly, Dustin Curtis, and others spreading originality I get hopeful.

These bloggers understand what Steve Jobs understood when he was forcing his designers to trim buttons from window frames: What the user wants is inside the window and not the window itself. In other words, content is the experience for blog readers, and those who build great experiences around the content won’t be fly by nights.

But if your blog is just a clone that does roundups all month slapped on someone else’s design, you may be big today, but you’ll be forgotten tomorrow.

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37 comments skip to comment form

Nick Pettit said— 1 hour later

Couldn’t agree more. Finding gems in the web design wasteland gets harder every day.

What kills me is how easy it is to create fresh content, and yet barely anyone puts in the effort. If design bloggers would do just a tiny bit of real, actual work, my bet is that the originality would improve dramatically.

Great post. Thanks for saying what we’re all thinking.

#1
John Lyle said— 22 hours later

Brian

I couldn’t agree more. I had a bloke who just cut and pasted my blog as his own a few weeks ago. He did give me a credit, but it was tiny and he was clearly trying to pass off as his thinking.

here is my piece

http://johnnylyle.co.uk/2010/01/28/the-recession-for-brands-is-just-beginning/

and the guy who copied it

http://speaktorobster.wordpress.com/2010/01/28/is-the-recession-for-brands-only-just-beginning/

Original thinking or design cloning?

#2
Brian Cray said— 1 day later

Thanks guys. It’s a sad world but we can make it better by kicking ass in our own genuine style.

#3
Janko said— 1 day later

I hear what you say, Brian. We should keep repeating it all the time. I admit I HATE the fact that there is a flood of blogs that base their presence on crap and plagiarism. I feel like everyone is aware of that but no one gives a thing for it.

#4
Design Informer said— 1 day later

Excellent post Brian. When I first started, I did lots of inspiration posts. But the more that my blog has progressed, now I really understand the need for genuine, and unique posts.

This was an excellent read and one that the entire community needs to read.

#5
Kitty said— 1 day later

Don’t forget to have 2 columns of ads on the right & “above the fold” in the right content area.
And these are designers? Drives me nuts.

#6
Louis said— 1 day later

@kitty

Unfortunately, while I understand what you mean by ads ‘driving you nuts’, that is not a good attitude to have. If we discourage and disparage ads on design blogs, then we’re just creating our own downfall. It’s true that TV advertising is done in such a way so as (usually) not to harm the viewing experience, and rarely are ads mixed with “content” in that medium. However, we can’t do that online, so it’s wrong to complain about free content that offers advertising in a non-obtrusive manner (I know, some are more obtrusive than others). Especially when hours — sometimes even days or weeks — of work is spent on a single post.

Which also brings me to the point in this article about the “blogazine” authors mentioned: I completely agree that such content is refreshing and inspiring. But it’s not a sustainable business model. We can’t expect everyone to post content like that. Designers can’t afford to spend countless hours on a single blog post and get nothing in return. While it would be an amazing thing to see all blogs like that, it is just not in the least bit realistic.

#7
Brian Cray said— 1 day later

@Louis – I agree that it’s unsustainable to *not* use ads if blogging is your source of income, but I disagree that designers can’t afford to spend the hours required to make blogazine-type entries. Why do I say this? Look at Dustin’s traffic on http://siteanalytics.compete.com/dustincurtis.com/ – it grew from about 6,000 to about 90,000 in 3 months. That’s opportunity, and if he chose to have ads he might see a substantial increase in revenue. And if you ask me, a large part of that traffic growth is the experience of reading his posts.

#8
Mahmoud said— 1 day later

I always haven’t had a belief in such “inspiration” posts – not all of them though.
And I always have been wondering, how come you get paid for collecting people’s work and posting it!?

#9
Paul Singh said— 1 day later

Hello Brian!

You’ve raised an important issue. I couldn’t agree with you more. So many are out there to be just out there. lol

Only a very few sites offer original content, the rest is all white wash and flim-flam.

And you’re right, in the long run, only the best will survive.

#10
JC said— 1 day later

One of the problems with Twitter and its children APIs is the lack of a filtering system to prevent duplicate “spam” tweets. I don’t have as much of a problem with a handful of my friends and colleagues or orgs tweeting me the same article. The problem begins with the second friend or org and more tweeting me the same thing I already got.
Tweet duplicate filtering? Anyone?

#11
Rufus Dogg said— 1 day later

Can we add “RSS feeds from news sites as content” and “job listings from aggregators” to the list of crap? This stuff is not content.

#12
Julie Weishaar said— 1 day later

Very brave move on your part to post this. I do agree with a lot of what you wrote. However, the number of topics to write about in any industry is finite, so there has to be some repetition. I couldn’t agree more about the rampant plagiarism on the web. I have seen my stuff under many other people’s names – rather annoying. I do feel that referring to someone else’s work with your own twist/perspective on the topic is acceptable. Some people have a better flair for writing and can turn an otherwise boring topic into an attention-getting piece. A combination of original work and spins on already-told stories is a good compromise. I do have to point something out to you though, you talk about your twitter stream being clogged with crap yet you have a re-tweet button on this post.

#13
Julie Weishaar said— 1 day later

PS – I just re-tweeted you

#14
Tom Something said— 2 days later

I _love_ Smashing Magazine, and their roundups are fantastic, but I had to chuckle at the irony of seeing SM tweet a link to this article.

Anyway, I enjoyed reading this.

#15
WordPress Hardcore said— 2 days later

I couldn’t agree with you more. This does not only happen in design, but also in web development blogging as well.

It makes absolutely no sense for posts such as “30+ techniques to …”, or “100+ awesome design tutorials” to exist, since listing more than 10 items in a blog entry already defeats the purpose of a “roundup” post. Yet, these posts usually receive an unbelievable amount of traffic and votes on social media sites.

Not to mention that the majority of self-proclaimed “design tutorials” nowadays are not really about design, but just a bunch of Photoshop steps.

The sooner this blogging bubble bursts, the better for the design and development community.

#16
Gerwin said— 2 days later

@Tom Something… I totally agree. Cracked me up, and then I retweeted.

#17
Nicole said— 2 days later

I think roundups are useful, especially the ones from Smashing Magazine. BUT, I do understand where you’re coming from. When I see the 345. blog post containing listing the 300 best wordpress hacks, it’s getting useless.

I’ve just redesigned my site and I’m writing a blog, too now and I found it really difficult to find a topic that hasn’t been covered on a million other sites and writing something unique takes much more time then just collecting the 500 best photoshop tutorials. But I agree with you, I’ll rather write one blog post a week that makes some sense instead of 10 useless ones.

#18
Sachin said— 2 days later

This is my first comment on your blog Bryan. I have to say that this post is brilliant. It cross checks Drawar’s article on the same subject and there, Vitaly Friedman SM’s founder, agrees that there’s a lot of crap now and that they’re working on this. Ironically I also came to this article via SM’s link list.

I have often been tempted to articulate my blog around lists but never got into it because I did want to give original content to my readers even if it meant that the traffic would not be soaring high but in the end, my lower than 5% bounce rate is what gives me satisfaction because I know that I have readers coming in for real unique content.

#19
Yves Peters said— 2 days later

> I found it really difficult to find a topic that hasn’t been covered on a million other sites and writing something unique takes much more time then just collecting the 500 best photoshop tutorials.

I think it becomes easier if you find a specific topic you’re really passionate about. General blogs don’t cut it anymore (gross generalisation, I know); specialisation is the key. For example my monthly movie poster reviews with a focus on typography have become a surprise hit on The FontFeed.

And even if you write about something that’s already been covered, you can still attract an audience if you do just that teensy little more effort than the others. Research the background of a news story, interview the makers of that really cool video, provide context for the gallery everybody is tweeting about and explain to your readers why it is more than just mere eye candy. It just boils down to get behind that computer and invest some real time in it.

#20
Ben said— 2 days later

I do agree with this article in principal, but something about it bothers me. I get pretty annoyed by these endless list posts, but at the same time I have found some really good resources from them, stuff that I may not have come across if the bloggers chose to in–depth review one item, for example, rather than a round-up list.

Many of the blogs that offer such content are fairly successful, smashing magazine being pointed out by previous commenter’s is a good example, it could almost be argued they were one of the frontrunners in spawning these list posts. They make a decent revenue from advertising, as do many of the other blogs of this type, and as well all know, your ad revenue is based on your traffic figures, so they must have high traffic.

Shitty, brainless television programmes are produced daily, why? because people watch them, and they get to sell advertising in between.

If they have high traffic, then obviously the less pretentious among us find there posts useful and want to read them, so who the fuck are any of you to tell them they shouldn’t? Its not up to the content providers to change there ways, why should they? to all intents and purposes, its working.

#21
Didrik Nordström said— 2 days later

I agree with you very much Brian.

However, the phenomena “copy good content and make it worthless” is not unique for design blogging, or blogging in general, or any creative work. Everything mainstream nowadays are from the beginning experimental, creative and genuine. When everybody does it, it’s not cool anymore. It doesn’t matter if it’s horse and wagon or a spacecraft, when your grandma does it it’s just not cool no more, no matter how awesome it is, hence the word “crap”. It’s like inflation — if you increase the money supply, you decrease the value of the money which already exists. To find something unique in an exploited genre is very difficult, since it is mainstream by definition. The subcultures of today are mainstream tomorrow though, and the art of writing is definitely not dead, so I think there is plenty of hope

#22
Brad Colbow said— 2 days later

I like your content value chart. There is another correlation that would fit well on there and that’s the appearance of BuySellads.com. A few years ago there really wasn’t a good way to make money creating a design blog, you could put up some google ads but those don’t make much. The only incentive to blog was out of love of the craft and maybe some peer recognition. Now that it’s possible to make a couple hundred a month blogging it opened the floodgates. When your blogs main goal is to bring in traffic the best way to do that is to put up a lot of easy to assemble content on a daily basis. Design blogging has changed from a passionate hobby to a full fledged business.

#23
Brian Cray said— 2 days later

Thanks everyone for your comments. Another great article on this topic is Jin Yang’s (@jzy) article, http://www.8164.org/innerlogue-list-posts/

#24
John Lyle said— 2 days later

Wow, you seem to have struck something of a chord with this one. The point about people just driving traffic at any cost is really valid as it seems to me that any SEO company is trying to sell link building services and the quickest simplest way to do this is to aggregate someone else’s content.

Per haps it’s over to Google to start putting ‘do not follow’ tags on any article where the content is obviously ripped off or just bundled together from other people’s original thinking.

#25
Brian Cray said— 2 days later

No a bad idea John.

#26
Chad said— 2 days later

Great article Brian, I touched on this subject just recently as well… http://bit.ly/c8FaDD

I took a different approach, but I think raising awareness on this subject is the right step forward. Not sure what the solution is quite yet though…

#27
Ellie said— 2 days later

Great article.

There’s a lot of rubbish cluttering up the twitter streams these days.

#28
Bryan said— 2 days later

I totally agree. There should be valued content and real original work on your blog.
or, at least a round up summary or an elaborate post on the ‘ others’ tutorial ‘.

Random note: But I’m not a fan of twitter, for one reason there is a lot of spam and people advertising stupid products. Another reason is I guess I’m not a ‘follower’

#29
Jin said— 2 days later

Thanks Brian for linking my post.

I think Brad C. nailed. Most design blogs today, at least the ones that get a lot of exposure are more for commercial reasons. People can, and do make a decent livings off them. When a new design blog pops up, the author most likely can’t crank out well researched and thought-out articles all the time, as a decent frequency. This is why list posts are often used as a crutch. They do bring traffic fast.

I like the recent changes on Smashing Magazine. They have definitely tuned down on list posts. And even when they do post one, the quality is quite good. But SM can afford to switch away from list posts because they have already reached a critical mass.

I doubt list posts will ever end. However I think what the design bloggers need to do is: Mix list posts with original content posts.
For list posts, don’t just make it a list of photos and links. Describe why each showcased link is good in more details.
A list of 5 things is far more effective than a list of 50 things. It’s easier for people to digest and pay attention.

Brian and other readers, I think you may find Seth Godin’s recent post interest:

Driveby culture and the endless search for wow

#30
John Lyle said— 2 days later

I just found myself clicking off the Seth Godin article to come back and make another comment here. damn. My attention span is falling. The whole subject of ads on blogs is a big one. I don’t carry them on mine as the type that Google provides will generally be competitive to my own business. For those who main business is those ads, all they need is acres of content just to drive traffic.

But I don’t think I can be that unusual in only subscribing to 15 or so blogs from people’s opinion that I value. I also only follow recommended article from people in Twitter who I follow (and obviously trust)

We have reached a point of a click generation that has no boredom threshold at all and expects all the answers to all their problems in one click/pill/meeting/conversation.

That has to change, doesn’t it? Or the next generation will be a useless bunch of geeky content aggregators without an original thought in their heads.

Or is that exactly what Aldous Huxley predicted in Brave New World back in 1932?

#31
James Puckett said— 2 days later

You missed the worst of the design blogs—the ones that just use scripts to automatically copy entire articles, including images, from other blogs. I have found that my design book articles for ILoveTypography.com are being regurgitated elsewhere moments after being posted. I wouldn’t mind this amateur hour crap if it could just be ignored, but now Google is indexing them all, which mucks up search results with hundreds of bogus hits and creating headaches for anyone who needs to do real research online.

#32
Aditya Saxena said— 1 week later

Wow! amazing post, Brian!

Really puts the issue in perspective! I never thought of it this way me being itself just 2 years old in the profession of design, but I really appreciate original stuff and never have supported making money through someone else’s work.

But, don’t you think the critics would say “Well, a money-maker has got to do what he’s got to do, big deal! If you cannot do it, doesnt mean others dont do it” In that case, apart from arguing for the righteousness’ sake, we do not have anything to offer, right ?

I agree we are all on the same page here, but is there really a solution to it ? Web runs in each and every home and people are looking for an assimilated collection of various things…. for example, people who just enter the profession need to catch up with the rest of the world. We cannot deny the fact that these things help those guys efficiently. A point someone made was that perennially, original content would matter. But, this would be only in case of pros…. Once, designers or anyone looking for content on the web get a hang of how to look for it, they will only go to trusted sites with fresh content… Original posts target a different kind of user-base than those cheap collections do, and I think both have a different purpose to achieve. Nevertheless, ending the long comment with a diplomatic answer, ethically, this might not be the right thing to do.

#33
Duane Kinsey said— 2 weeks later

Hey Brian, I just found your blog via a comment that was left on a recent post I made – which had a very similar sentiment.
The amount of rubbish out there in the design community right now is simply overwhelming.
I am starting to wonder (hope) if we have reached some sort of critical mass. Perhaps the design blog “bust” of 2010 is on its way. One can only hope…

Here is a link to my post (don’t normally do this).
How Can We Improve the Design Community

Liked your post way better than mine. Brilliant stuff mate!

#34
Stooryduster said— 3 weeks later

OK me too – hurrah – let’s get more people to fight the crap..

Except I’m an old guy and all that’s happened is everything has speeded up as well as old stuff hanging around like it’s fresh.

Before the Internet I used to read many many magazine and about every year a so I had to juggle the collection I read. This was because eventually I used to see the same article topics coming round again with nothing fresh to say. Including all these bloody lists.

It’s the same now on the Net but I can’t juggle my selection because it’s (for me) the one magazine.

What I do do before consuming; look for a date; look to see if there’s an original source, and if so, I read it there.

As for these bloody lists and the how to draw a nostril or build yet another bloody brush I don’t even go there.

I despair of there being any critical brains out there. You guys give me hope.

#35
Matt Saunders said— 2 months later

this is a GREAT article and something that i completely agree with. i have put off blogging for years for fear of not being able to deliver consistent, quality content. recently however i teamed up with a friend and we created our own article/blogging website (digitalfusionmag.com) and try to write regularly for it, putting as much effort into every post as we can. we also proof-read each others work before publishing it.

unfortunately it seems to be the empty craving to earn some pocket money and the corruptive nature of SEO that fuels most blogs existence. this wouldnt be so bad but the sheer amount of incorrect information out there is astounding. it takes a while to filter out the rubbish to get to the decent content.

i just hope that my blog can continue to provide decent content and i dont let it slip into obscurity.

#36
Todd Sexton said— 3 months later

p.s. if your talking about Widgets, frames and JQuery… your NOT talking about design. Matter of fact, your not even in the same zip code.

#37
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