I grew up in a small town. Like many small towns, the downtown district of my hometown has spent much of the last 20 years searching for an identity. The buildings are old, parking is limited, and commerce has moved to strip malls and mega retailers in newly developed areas. It has been interesting to watch the various ways downtown merchants have attempted to monetize the district. In some ways, blogs run in a parallel universe to shops in the downtown district of my hometown. They develop false economies in order to survive, they come and go quickly but a few of the strong survive, and there are often several empty storefronts waiting to be filled. There are valuable lessons for bloggers in the comparison.
The False Economy
One of the first big restoration movements in my hometown was what I’ll call the “antique mall syndrome”. In case you’re not familiar with the concept, basically someone rents a storefront and sublets spaces to vendors who peddle their own “antiques” (which are often just garage-sale fodder).
My hometown’s antique-mall phase was touted as the answer both to its many empty shops and its identity crisis. These antique malls made for interesting browsing, and created a certain amount of traffic. The problem is, they created what I call a “false economy” (yes, it’s my own term).
The shop owner now seems to have a successful retail business. It is full of merchandise, it is attracting attention, and the traffic count is growing. It is now a hub of activity, but there is one small problem. The owner is making money, but not because anyone is buying merchandise.
The vendors are paying space rent, the vendors are paying for advertising, the vendors are paying commissions and fees for whatever is actually sold. Although they dream of being successful retailers, most of the vendors are nickel and dime operators and they’re happy just to break even. Some months they pay out of their own pockets to keep their spaces, but they view that as an inevitable part of owning a new business.
But the store as a whole only needs to make enough sales to keep its vendors interested. When one vendor leaves there is usually another to take the place. The store does not need to meet a real need of the customer; it only has to keep its vendors hooked. It gives a false impression of success, based on a false economic picture.
The Revolving Door
One of the notable characteristics of my hometown’s downtown district is the rapid turnover of its tenants. Because the storefronts are sometimes inexpensive to rent, many shops open with poor planning and insufficient capital. Often, vendors from the antique malls attempt to build their own false economies but lack the connections to attract and maintain vendors.
Because they lack the resources or fortitude to purchase or create their own products, these retailers often stock their shops with consignment merchandise.
These shops fail because of:
- A failure to plan, or poor planning
- A lack of capital to sustain them through infancy
- Failure to meet the needs of the customer (the public or the vendors)
A tremendous amount of resources are wasted on these shops, financial, physical, and emotional. While opportunities are available for prospective business owners to gain the training they need to open and sustain a successful business, most of these owners do not seek it.
A few of the strong do survive but remain on the fringe. They might be unusually tenatious or willing to live off limited resources, but they are not what could be called successful. Their businesses are emotionally, physically, and financially draining.
The Empty Shop Syndrome
In the midst of all this rapid turnover of shops in the downtown district, at any given moment many storefronts are empty. These empty shops serve as a deterrent to shoppers; experience has shown when too many shops remain empty in an area, buyers go somewhere else. But these empty shops look like opportunity to those who have dreamed of owning a shop someday.
The cost of entry is low and there are few hurdles to jump before you can have a shop of your own. Potential shop owners see the activity at the larger antique malls and expect they can do just as well. They set up a retail business on the assumption there is retail activity in the area without realizing the area is suffering with the antique shop syndrome.
Interestingly, neophyte shop owners often decide to rent a storefront before they have anything to put in it. They might not even have a complete vision of the type of business they will open. They are pursuing the dream of opening a business first, and figuring out the details later.
The same problem which enables the downtown district’s decline also perpetuates itself. It is a difficult cycle to break because it is a difficult problem to recognize, but eventually the entire district will fail.
Blogging Suffers These Same Ailments
Some blogs appear to be financially successful but are actually parasites living off the blood, sweat, and tears of others. They sell advertising spaces in their sidebars, and they sell editorial space in their posts. The amount they charge is small enough that none of the advertisers are hurt deeply, but both transactions result in few or no sales. The advertisers hang on with the belief they are building their brands and success is just a matter of time.
As these blogs increase their traffic they can charge more for the space, but there is no impetus to build quality, targeted traffic which will benefit the advertisers. There is no real reason to produce quality posts which will truly benefit the reader. These blogs serve nobody but the blogger.
But like the ailing downtown district suffering with the antique mall syndrome, these blogs create a false economy. There appears to be happy readers and happy advertisers, but in fact there may only be a happy blogger.
In the second stage of this false economy, others try to emulate the apparent success of these busy little blogs. Because the cost of entry is very low new blogs spring up right and left, but these are blogs without a plan, without a real purpose, and without a real passion for their topic. The mortality rate is high for these infant blogs, although a tremendous amount of resources are spent in the hopes of keeping them alive.
A few of the strong do manage to survive, but it is not a marriage based on love. One day the blogger will wake up and wonder why they have spent so much time in this relationship; they will roll over in bed, tell themselves they just don’t want to do it anymore, and that will be the end of their blogs. They won’t have the energy or passion to keep things going, and the blog will fold. It will fold, but not before inspiring other bloggers to follow the same road.
It sounds ridiculous to say anyone will rent a storefront without having a clear idea of the business they will operate there, but it does happen when the threshold to entry is low. In a similar fashion, many bloggers start a blog without a clear idea of what sort of blog they will operate; it only seems more acceptable because fewer resources are at stake.
Many bloggers throw a few ideas against the wall to see what sticks. This method works for some, but many become too discouraged to continue. Either way, a little forethought and planning could not only save wasted resources (money, time, spiritual and emotional) but it could also perpetuate the birth of more meaningful blogs and more bloggers with a passion for their topic.
The blogosphere does suffer many of the same ailments which plague a dying downtown district. It suffers from the antique mall syndrome, the revolving door, and the empty shop syndrome. Bloggers start their blogs with expectations, but in the long run the vast majority of these expectations remain unmet.
Blogging as a community and an industry suffers as well, as readers turn to more effective, well-planned venues for information. All the empty shops and rapid turnover creates the impression blogs are neither a viable business option, nor a valuable asset for the online world, so potential readers and businesses go elsewhere.
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