brokenRecord.gifDuring this winter break, I’ve had the opportunity to read and explore many new blogs. I’ve learn some pretty interesting things, but I have also noticed that there is a troubling degree of recycling of information going on. After going through my reader each morning, I feel like I’ve read certain information at least 3 to 4 times. And it’s not just because it’s the holiday seasons wherein everyone writes about the past year’s accomplishments and the future goals they want to achieve. For instance, I first read about the Demise of Digg on Shoemoney and Copyblogger, and then I kept seeing the same information on other lesser known blogs. Additionally, I’ve been reading about how to make money on your blog, how to improve your blog, how to increase web traffic, etc. It just seems like I’m seeing the same essential information, rehashed and presented in a different way.

I guess this is one of the effects of blogging in a niche that is well covered and oversaturated. You are bound to see the same information across different blogs, which can make it extremely difficult for any new comers to succeed. I think bloggers would benefit by reading skellie’s guide on adding value to whatever they write. Copying information and reporting it really doesn’t do much for you. But if you provide your own thoughts and analysis, it provides a different flavor that can differentiate you from the norm. In the world of blogging, fitting in with the norm can be blogging suicide! So you have to do whatever it takes to make yourself stand out.

It seems more difficult than ever to come up with original content. What are some other ways that we as bloggers can overcome this problem? I won’t pretend to have all the solutions because I don’t. But one of the reasons that blinkdagger is an engineering blog is because we recognized that there simply aren’t that many engineering blogs out there. We saw that there was a need for Matlab tutorials because it was difficult to find any good ones through Google. So before you dive head first into your blogging endeavor, you should have a plan. You should try to target a niche that isn’t over developed so that you can make an impact and be a major player.