Simple Sexy and The Overoptimized Blog
By Seth on December 12 2009
The end of this article has something remarkable in it. Scroll down to see what I mean.
Did you see it? There's nothing there. No pleading for you to make us go viral or begging you to be our RSS homie. There's a simple choice: Leave a comment or bounce.
This makes sense for a number of reasons. Among them,
- Commercialism sets a poor tone if you're interested in building relationships. Asking for diggs, stumbles, tweets, etc. is certainly a form of commercialism. You're just asking the reader to give you a bit of their influence instead of their cash.
- The comments on any blog worth its weight are just as valuable as the articles that start the conversation and we'd like to interrupt as little as possible.
- The readers who have clout on social sharing sites don't need buttons to share things. They already have bookmarklets and toolbars installed on their browsers.
- Individuals who wish to subscribe can easily find the links to do so without us hollering about it.
- Simple is sexy so long as you're not limited to a specific action.
I've experienced the benefits of limited choice in my own life. When I lived in Boston, I was surrounded by opportunities to engage with the world around me in interesting ways. There were multiple forms of transportation to take me anywhere I liked to enjoy myriad delights and attractions. So why, given all those things to do, did I often spend weekends close to home, sitting in the same coffee shop as usual with the same friends? The abundance of options inspired complacency.
I've since moved to a small town on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. What is there to do here? The short answer is not much. The full answer is something more substantial: I can go to the coffee shop, walk along the beach, or go fishing. Anything else requires a car and a minimum 45-minute drive.
What effect has the reduction in choice had on my lifestyle? Instead of ignoring the nearby beach like I did when when I lived in Boston, I'm out on the sand almost every day. If I want to do something else, I can. It would just take a bit of effort because I don't have everything at my fingertips.
By removing the social sharing clutter, I've highlighted something I believe to be very important: A conversation.
I'd be glad for your thoughts.
What our readers said
I think your thoughts are right in principle, however I keep my browser free of toolbar clutter, so might have stumbled & tweeted this article if there were a subtle button to help me.
However - I have commented, so you could be right. But then who is going to write a comment disagreeing with you and in the process undermine thir own argument?
You are doing my head in!
I absolutely agree. If you really want to share this article with people who will appreciate it, you can.
We sometimes forget one of the points to social media by adding, tweeting, digging etc everything we come across, without actually engaging in the conversation.
I also find a lot of websites are too cluttered, distracting the reader from the important content.
I completely agree on the concept of keeping things simple. Providing 100 sites for your readers to share your content is probably a bad move. I wouldn’t remove all forms of commercialism though, but that’s me. I think, if you focus on a couple networks, and you’re not too “in your face” about sharing your content, it won’t affect the relationship building ability of a blog. Just making sharing a bit more convenient.
Either way, I love the simple look and feel of your blog. So maybe it’s time I try something new.
David
Community Manager, Scribnia.com
I especially loved “The abundance of options inspired complacency.”. I moved from the middle of a city of 3 million and all the events you could think of - to the hills 20 minute drive from a town of 22K. Instead of inhaling exhaust fumes, I share the air with deer, birds and rabbits. My gym is walking in the hills. I work from home by telephone and the Internet. And instead of commuting I get time to read blog posts like yours - but I did learn about it from Twitter. :+))
Ah Seth as always challenging the quo. I have been criticized for keeping my blog simple, posting only when I have something to say and not doing any SEO at all. Its a little like waving in the dark and waiting for someone to turn on the light to wave back. But they do. They also want a conversation. I don’t digg, nor stumbl. But I do tweet, where I am not interested in thousands of followers. Rather a number I can interact with and enjoy. I can easily pass this on, it may take more effort, but then that just raises the value of the content.
In a sense we are in a noisy bar and have decided to try and have an in depth chat rather than just talk about the TV!
Let the simple web reign supreme.
Have a merry merry Christmas.
I have to disagree with you. Well I agree that we don’t want to seem like we’re begging for support by digging or Rt’ing, but maybe you’re forgetting the end user. If I really like your post and I want to share it, are you going to expect me to copy your URL, put into a shortener service, type a message and past the shortened URL? Or would the user experience be better if all I had to do was click a button.
Two giants who I follow their blogs religiously (Chris Brogan and Seth Godin), both have some form of sharing button in their posts.
I see your point, but I think you missing the user experience in your comments.
@David - Perhaps it might work to place a button or two at the end of the comments or in a sidebar? Some compromises to be had.
@Mike - As I noted in my third point, the visitors who would make a difference with their sharing already have bookmarklets and toolbars installed. And yes, I’m okay with losing a few clicks because I chose not to burden readers with obnoxious buttons in the middle of a conversation on a topic.