The Value of a Weblog

Can we place actual value on blogs? if so, what are we really measuring? Is it measurable at all?

It's been over an year since I started publishing my blogs. 57 posts, 3282 visits,12 readers, a number of controversial posts - that's my blogging credit. Not much when I compare these credentials with some of the most popular bloggers. Nonethesame, I have been able to make my presence and make it felt.

I guess it's easy, particularly when you first start blogging, to get enamored with the idea of having a voice in the world and having such a huge potential audience for your ideas. After a few posts, I realized that the benefit lies elsewhere.  It's about co-creating with others, about putting aside our personal agendas and joining the conversation so a shared meaning can emerge.  I guess at some point in blogging, all the bloggers get to realize  this, the change of perspective from personal to shared benefits.

Is it really possible to measure the value of a blog? If so, exactly what should we measure?' May be, this can be achieved with a widget to show "what the readers think of a blog?" Mostly, looking at the comments in the blog help us reach a conclusion without using a gadget. But then again, there are people who are opposed to what you have written and this might attract negative comments.

There are already some tools out there that let users measure user opinion while on a site, I wonder when that will come to blogs. I know it's been a feature of forum and bulletin boards for quite a while. I'm noticing that that the blogosphere is becoming more aware of value, is this a trend that is going to continue? What are we really measuring however? Is it a blog, the ideas, the person, or a brand?

A blogger's reputation of course can change the weight of measurement, how can you measure true popularity? If Barrack Obama had a blog, how would you rate that? What if it were Bin Laden?

Do feel free to say how you feel about my blog - Criticism's, especially when positive are most welcome.