If I asked you to tell me your favorite 3 words, do you know what they would be, or would this be a “I’ll get back you you” situation? I certainly don’t have three favorite words – who does? The irony of this is that I am the one who came up with this theme for the latest installment of “ArchiTalks” – a writing exercise where several architects are given a topic/ title and they all write on that topic on the same day. It is an interesting exercise given the loose parameters that are established and provides a perspective on a certain topic from many different architects. The value is that while I like to think the sun rises and sets on my opinion, let’s be honest … that’s not always the case. The ArchiTalks series allows people who are interested in learning about what it’s like to work with or be an architect hear from a variety of sources, experiences, geographic locations, etc.
So I’m going to give my three words in the form of a question:
Are blogs important?
The vast majority of people with computers and internet access (86%) don’t actually write a blog. Of course, this number could be directly linked to how many basements there are from which bloggers do their work AND how many bloggers still live with their parents regardless of whether or not there is a basement in which to do their blogging. Even though I don’t know the actual number (I am going to say it’s more than 20, give or take), I am going to say that the vast majority of people with computers and internet access don’t even read blogs. I haven’t done any “official” research but I’m feeling pretty safe with that statement.
What do you think? Are blogs important? Does anybody care? Is anybody there?? (I could keep going with these 3 word questions but you probably get my point).
I really hate the word “blog” … it’s so 2009. Supposedly, nobody “blogs” anymore except foreign exchange students and me. I’m reading that the format of blogs like mine – reverse chronological order posts (newest on top), single column stream of unique URL posts, with the sidebar of other interesting and/or trending posts – are dead – or at least they’re supposed to be dead by now.
Since I’m pretty deep in this blog-hole, I’m not sure how I feel about that.
Part of the challenges associated with the question “Are blogs important?” is simple – if you are reading this particular post, your are already here, you are the converted, you might even have a blog yourself … and your opinion probably isn’t going to be objective (although I still want to hear it – come have some more Kool-Aid with me and we can discuss it). Truth be told, this is a topic I took a stab at almost 5 years ago (which was apparently the “Golden Years of Blogging”) in a post cleverly titled ‘Are Blogs Important?‘ and guess what?
Nobody read that post.
Well, that’s not really true, but it’s close. On the day that article was published, I had 3,071 page views – of which – only 228 were of that article. In the 1,703 days since then, that article has had a whopping grand total of 2,351 page views. Those aren’t ‘WOW’ numbers, so like I said, nobody read that post. In contrast, the article “Dating an Architect” received 17,913 page views on the day it was published.
I have endeavored for years now to maintain this site and there are more days than not when I don’t really want to continue – but I feel like I have to keep going. There aren’t enough people talking about architecture and what architects do in a way that anybody other than another architect (probably a lonely one at that) would want to actually read. All the articles I write exist for some reason – sometimes they’re educational, sometimes they’re anecdotal, sometimes they’re funny – and when I’m really lucky, they’re all three.
I do think blogs are important (and for the record, I don’t considering tweeting or posting to Facebook blogging) and even if the format is getting a bit stale, the role of the blog is still important. I don’t want this blog to function as an online diary of my life, everything exposed and made available to the world, but I do expect my blog to be personal, first-person narratives that aren’t heavily editorialized (my built-in excuse for poor grammar) about my experience as an architect. Based on the connections I’ve made, the correspondence I’ve received, I’d say there is a demand out there that my supply is not able to meet.
That fact alone tells me that blogs are important … at least, good blogs are important.
Blogs are unique in the sense that they inject individuality and can make a company seem more personal. Putting a face to the source of information projects the image of an individual that cares, rather than a corporation who is pushing a product. The ability to connect with the reader, insert personality, and earn the trust of your readers is the main reason to maintain a blog. I originally started my blog as a process to simply learn how to do it, but I have continued to operate my blog because I have found it surprisingly rewarding. When I talk about a business connecting with the client, I am speaking from first hand knowledge. People visit this blog and ask me questions, they send me emails, and they share information with me. This communication is two way and that has provided real value to me. It is the ability to communicate with the reader that makes blogs valuable in a way traditional media isn’t.
Not all blogs are created equal – all you have to do is read a few and that fact will become abundantly clear. It is fairly typical that architects will use the narrative process when they begin the design process on a project. When I sit down at my desk to start designing, particularly when I am working on a residential project, I take everything I know about the people I am working for and I develop narratives to help guide me through a forecasted pattern of their behavior so that I can design a house that suits their needs, as opposed to one that suits MY needs. As a result of developing these narratives, most designers become skilled storytellers. We develop these narratives as a mechanism to educate someone on our thought process. Since a lot of what architects do is esoteric, being able to articulate my reasons for solving a problem in a particular way – without being condescending – is an important skill. I need to walk people through my design process in a way that they can understand the end result in a more appreciative manner – it works way better than telling someone:
“I’m the professional here, just do what I’m telling you to do.”
[Career tip: Don’t do that.]
Since I posit that architects are skilled storytellers as a result of doing their jobs, you would think that there would be no shortage of interesting and accessible architectural blogs available for everyone to read – ones that people who aren’t architects want to read. So where are they?
Are blogs important?
This was the ninth post in a series of posts called “ArchiTalks”. If you would like to see how other architects responded to the topic of “3 Favorite Words”, just follow the links below. Hopefully you’ll find another architectural blog you think is worth reading.
Lora Teagarden – L² Design, LLC – @L2DesignLLC
#ArchiTalks: I love it!
Andrew Hawkins, AIA – Hawkins Architecture, Inc. – @hawkinsarch
Three Favorite Architectural Words
Jes Stafford – Modus Operandi Design – @modarchitect
I Am Listening
Michele Grace Hottel – Michele Grace Hottel, Architect – @mghottel
architalk#9: my three favorite words
Meghana Joshi – IRA Consultants, LLC – @MeghanaIRA
My Three Favorite Words
Stephen Ramos – BUILDINGS ARE COOL – @sramos_BAC
My Three Favorite Words
Lee Calisti, AIA – Think Architect – @LeeCalisti
i make art
Eric Wittman – @rico_w
my three favorite [hardest] words
Marica McKeel – Studio MM – @ArchitectMM
Never Give Up
Michael Riscica – Young Architect – @YoungArchitxPDX
How’s it going… Finishing The Architect Exam?!??
Matthew Stanfield – FiELD9: architecture – @FiELD9arch
3 Words
Jeff Echols – Architect Of The Internet – @Jeff_Echols
What’s Your Story – My Three (or Four) Favorite Words
Amy Kalar – ArchiMom – @AmyKalar
My Three Favorite Words (Architalks #9)
Brian Paletz – The Emerging Architect – @bpaletz
I am in
Cindy Black – Rick & Cindy Black Architects
Spirit of Optimism (my three favorite words)
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Thank really,this is great post our help
Holy Heck, of course blogs are important, especially yours!
I am a landscape architect in CA and I not only blog (on wordpress and very occasionally), but I also read (yours) them and collect posts for both my clients and my students. I teach at UC Berkeley Extension in landscape architecture dept and am constantly looking for informative articles for my classes.
I’m thrilled that you keep writing and hope you never stop except maybe to work on that MBR shower of yours. Keep it up – we need the content you’re providing!
Thanks Jennifer, you are very kind to say such nice things. I will admit that it never occurred to me that people who teach in the design profession would ever read a site like mine – not sure how I would have felt about that in the beginning (pressure!!)
I’ve been reading your blog (now I want a different word) on and off for a few years, and always enjoying every one of your articles. Some of your responses in the comments are longer and more thoughtful than many of the blog posts I’ve seen. Thank you for keeping the basement light on.
Thank you Carol – I appreciate the comment and the time it took to send me some positivity! I’ve always been a fan and I am very happy to see you here on the site.
Cheers!
I want to thank you for inspiring us architects to blog. And you are right, it is not always easy to keep it going. I started mine almost 5 years ago now (hard to believe), but had been less than consistent. It was being invited to participate in this #ArchiTalks series that has really got me going again and i have been able to maintain mostly regular posts for almost a year now. So thank you.
“Inspire” is a nice way of saying “you send pestering emails and guilt me in to participating”.
Whatever it takes – I am glad to have you a part of the group that participates. You have an important voice to share and it’s important that people find you.
Blogs may be old fashioned in the age of social media, but like TV, it is a very personal medium for some of us. I have been blogging since 2008, and I agree with you that sometimes the choice of stopping the bloggings seems like a very ice idea. Especially when we have media socials and kids under 4 years olds, and work and husband and house to attend. But when I am tired of reading short captions on life and sscrolling on pictures of babies and cats, I am drawn to blogs for its personalization, paragrap aand paragraphs of texts. So like u said, especially for an online platform, blog gives a personal touch to a very intimidating, unknown business organization.
1st person story-telling is the appeal of blogs – I think it would be hard to find something that could replace it that is more convenient.
Thanks Nadhrah, glad to see you here on site.
I’d die and go to heaven if I had your non-wow blog reads. So we won’t talk about mine. 🙂
quality over quantity …
Good point.
True. Thanks for that.
Yours is one of only a handful of blogs that I make time to read. I am not an architect and thus, much of the technical stuff is beyond me but I enjoy your perspective on the world and am a fan of your designs. Someday I hope to build a tiny house on a tiny budget and I think much of what I have read here will help to shape it.
Hi Bob – your blog, I admit, is one of the few that I read (not just skim). Great posts here – as always. 🙂
I agree. I get Copyblogger, Life of an Architect, Carol Stephen, and Tess Wittler in my email.
pretty salty list … (wondering how I made it on there)
You undersell yourself as a writer.
Thank you Sandy – you were one of the early readers if I’m not mistaken. The fact that you have stuck with me is amazing!
Yes, that’s me 🙂 Have a wonderful Friday and an even better weekend!!
I read this, but then I’m one of the few who writes a blog
There is certainly a small group of us out there, possibly even less from New Zealand. BTW, with that much natural beauty and awesomeness around you, how is it possible that you ever find yourself sitting in front of a computer?
I read your blog Bob, and its a great blog. For reference, my blog had 80 page views today, and I’m actually happily surprised that so many people stopped by! Its all relative of course, but know that you’re a great blogger and you do this profession a great service. we all owe you a lot!
Hi Amy –
We’ll have to do something about those 80 page views! In fact, that’s actually why I started #ArchiTalks – I thought it would be a good way to try introduce people to other architectural blogs. I hope that you continue to participate and hopefully receive some benefit.
Thanks Bob. You’ve always been an inspiration, and I’m grateful for how positive you always keep things! I imagine that isn’t always the easiest thing to do, but you make it look pretty easy! Someday I’ll be a great blogger like you:)
What is your blog Amy? 80 page views is great!
This is a great perspective, Bob. I’ve never thought about the potential benefits to the profession of having a contingent of architects that are consistently posting. Among the most important points you make here is the target audience and style.
“So where are they?” Challenge accepted!
Aha! The three favorite words morph into a burning question 🙂 Are blogs important- yes, absolutely. I look up is a great campaign, look up all you want to- but to know more about architecture and architects, you need something more than a picture of a building. Books are a great tool when you have time and energy to read something for a continued period of time. For the short of attention and time, blogs work great. I love your blog, and been following it for more than two years now, and I am glad you are not podcasting!
Why are you glad I’m not podcasting?!?
I had some other stuff I was going to write but now I’m all discombobulated by your final statement …
Also I wanted to note the actual ” Face Palm” that is going on while the blogger is in the basement, in the dark. That seems perfectly appropriate.
I’m all about the details …
Interesting choice for your three words. Not what I would have imagined. But thanks for making some explanations as to why this is important. I think the number of architects alone limits our pool of available bloggers. Then factor in some of the other typical character traits, (introverts non public speakers etc) and the pool shrinks again. But even if every architect had a blog, it would be less than the foodies, techies, or celeb-arati types. But you know I am in total agreement that we architects need a voice. Nice post.
Once I cast aside all the easy / obvious three word combos, I thought this might make for a more interesting article for me to write – hopefully an interesting article to read.
I’d be happy if 5% of architects out there had a blog (that would be a 4.95% increase). The field and practice of architecture is so far and wide that if people only read my architectural blog, they would have a completely skewed view of the profession. Maybe I am in the cat-bird seat because the projects that I work on lend themselves to an audience that is more friendly towards the general public, I would still like to see other architects in other market sectors talk about the process without resorting to selling their work. As soon as someone feels that the blog has to have a financial return, it changes the focus and modifies the possible content.
You know this, we talk about it all the time. I’ll stop now.
I’ve told you this before Bob, yours is one of the few blogs that I read consistently. It’s interesting, funny and educational. I’m a marketer, not an architect. I’ve learned so much from your posts.
Yes, you told me this before – but you are such a nice person that I find it hard to believe that you don’t run around all over the place making people feel good. I think that’s who you are – not a marketer, but a fairy Godmother!
Ummm…. That image you made of the guy blogging in his parents basements pretty much sums up the past year and a half since I started my blog. Thanks for the reality check!
Yours is just about the only blog I read. You have created something rare: a combination of informative, humorous and encouraging.
I would imagine that most blogs have an “arc” – a finite lifetime with a beginning, a peak and an end. I just hope that if/when you end this one, you will leave it all online as a resource. There is much wisdom here.
Thanks Grayson – informative, humorous and encouraging … I couldn’t ask for three better words.
A friend of mine has a blog where he puts random thoughts and ideas. Its a great journaling tool.
But is it interesting for others to read his random thoughts and ideas? I’d be interested in how it is received.
Wow, you’ve been doing this for 5 years already. Impressive, but someone has to do it, as you say.
Five years is like 30 in blogging years…
Transparency is a good approach to anything where information is shared and this platform seems particularly well suited to provide that transparency.
Fight the good fight!
Great as always, Bob. I think too few companies use blogs to their advantage. I know there’s logistical hurdles, but it’s well worth it when you can personalize a business for the client.
How to makes this personal is the challenge for most businesses – particularly ones that are more than just a handful of people. I also think that when business becomes your goal, it stops working – you start thinking of all the things you shouldn’t do and as a result, you are no longer the expert opinion.
You can’t be all things to all people at all times – the sooner people accept that and realize that it’s okay, maybe we can advance the conversation and include everybody who wants to participate.
Bob, I read your blog all the time and I am NOT an Architect. I should have been, but it just didn’t work out that way. I told every one when I was a kid that I was going to be one, probably because I thought the word was cool. I ended up being an IT person instead, now over 36 years. Kind of simular in the design aspects of it I suppose. I do immensely enjoy architecture and design and employ what I learn into my woodworking and furniture building. I admit I don’t read everything you write and sometimes it’s over my head or I am just not interested in the topic. I think there is great value in what you put out there and your personality definitely comes through. I do remember what it was like before the internet and how difficult it was to get this kind of information. Hope you don’t give it up (blogging), your reach may be greater than you know.
Thanks Pops (btw – best name ever)
I truly believe that I have a terrific job, and there are no shortage of people out there that are curious and interested in it as well. I will probably keep at this as long as I enjoy it – which means that I can continue to amuse myself and find a way to find humor in the every day aspects of working.
I hope to hear more from you on the posts you do read, “Pops” are under-represented here on the site.
HI Bob. I must admit that I do not read blogs. Except this one of course. I found that most of them that I have read are done by individuals that really do not know what they are writing about. Not that I am an expert by any means, but I find that I know a lot more about some of the topics than the blogger who professes to be the expert. So the end result is I don’t read them anymore. Your blog on the other hand is all the things that you mentioned. entertaining, educational, instructive, humorous, insightful, and just a darn good read. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Kerry,
To be honest, I don’t read very many blogs either. A very large percentage of them read as advertisements for either the site that is writing them or they are set up to make you click through page after page so that they can get more impressions on the ads that populate their site.
I don’t really talk about my own projects too often – they generally get used as a vehicle to explain something that is in the works. I made a conscious decision a few weeks after I started that I wasn’t going to pretend to be something I’m not – as I result, I talk more about considerations and processes rather than material specifications and assembly best practices. Most of that stuff – if anybody did want to read it – is so specific that the person looking for it probably already knows as much as I do (if not more).
Thanks for the continued support and contributions you provide to this site. I strongly believe that the best thing this site has to offer is the comment section.
Hi Steve,
You hit on the reason why blogs matter – if they are done properly. If you can’t get personality and individuality in to the articles, why would anybody bother reading them? People make connections with other people and if you can deliver information in the first person and with a narrative, not only are they more likely to remember the info, they will probably come back to see what else you have to say.
Keep it up!
hey bob. i always enjoy your posts. thank for continuing! would you consider doing a session at the TxA Convention on starting a blog?
I would. I’ve presented at TxA several times – normally discussing why architects should blog and the value behind the process. The presentations are generally well attended but I think most of the people are curious about the process rather than interested in actually doing it. After a few years, I felt that interest might be waning.
I suppose it’s possible I’m wrong.
I think one of our biggest problems is how we communicate what we do. The fact is that most people will at some point have an encounter with most professions except architecture. Sell or buy property, make a will… attorney; Income taxes…accountant. sickness…medical profession; college…professors. Most people will never work with an architect, but most are intrigued by what they believe we do. Somehow we need to communicate what we do better. We have to begin to speak the language of the layperson. We are our profession’s voice. We need to learn how to speak to the layperson in relevant terms rather than esoteric archispeak. As a profession, how can we do that better?
Nice post.
I am very much interested in this topic as I am one if those architects you mentioned you has started a blog of their own, and only four or five months in I have had to pause for a couple of weeks whilst my life gets in the way!
I think that these blogs are incredibly useful for other architects, but it would be great if some could genuinely connect with those outside of the profession. That would be important. I hope that blogs like this one already are.
Just out of interest; if this blog format is dead, then what has succeeded it? Has it evolved into a different format?
Most of what I have been reading has to do with the format (layout) and that most of the content that is delivered these days is courtesy of lists, infographics, and click-bait. I don’t know where this is going but I have been thinking to myself that it might be time to explore with a different layout to the site. This one has been in place for many years now.
I am not an architect, nor do i read any other blogs but this one, so see, your work is important! I have always been interested in architecture but when I went to college my father didn’t allow me to major in the arts – he wanted me to be an engineer. p.s.(i would have been richer had I done what he said!). My daughter is 17 and knows she wants to go to college for her B.Arch degree – and I am supporting her! She is lucky enough to have some local architects who take time to be ACE mentors to her and other high school kids in the Philadelphia area. So please keep on blogging. I send her links to you often. (Her favorite one was the scary basement bathroom in the home you were working on). Added bonus — you always make me laugh–you have a great sense of humor that’s the #1 reason i love to read your blogs! — karen
Thank you Karen – I really appreciate it. I will admit, that now I have written over 700 of these blog posts, I measure their success and quality by how funny I think they are. Maybe my priorities have been shifting a bit since I am now long in the tooth as a “blogger”. Most bloggers quit by the time they graduate from high school.
wow. that comment made me think. I graduated H.S. 45 years ago. that must be why I don’t blog. I had to quit before they became available.