Goodbye to blogging (as we know it)

As with all things, blogging is evolving. I mentioned a year or two about how the popular blogs are becoming more like websites - and the current trend of magazine themes is making this ever more real... and I think they will change even more.

The way I see it there are three main changes taking place.

1. Twitter

Twitter has recently exploded onto an unsuspecting public, I've even blogged about it a couple of times and there are many who do nothing but talk about it.

What used to be the home of the technically advanced and the early adopters is now being used by anyone and everyone. You know something is up when the mayor of London and the president of the USA have accounts.

For me Twitter has taken the place of link posts. It gives me a quick and easy way to show off stuff I think is cool, and it also gives me another way to interact with friends and colleagues.

2. Magazine designs

With the prevalence of WordPress premium themes (such as Mimbo Pro), and due in large part to the pervasiveness and ease of use of WordPress, magazine style themes have become ridiculously popular.

Magazine themes are blog designs that mimic magazines or newspapers, with the front page often being split into columns, and many articles being displayed to showcase the content on the site.

These designs forgo the traditional blogging approach of listing content by date instead using categories as the primary distinction. Magazine themes are generally used by larger sites with lots of content as it enables them to display more content in a more useful structure.

3. List and tutorial posts

List and tutorial posts have been growing in popularity for some time now. Lists (top 10/ top 100 etc) and tutorials - have been proven to be highly attractive to social media users on sites like Digg and I see no sign of this slowing. In the web design field in particular these are very popular.

Unfortunately success breeds imitation and so we're becoming inundated with the things. More and more people are trying to replicate the formula with mixed success (I have a list post planned).

Changes

Change is good, but I can't help but feel it's a shame that the old ways are changing. However I do have a new theme planned that will change my site into more of a magazine, I'm also on Twitter and, as mentioned above, I have a list post planned. Maybe it's not so bad afterall!