When considering what a blog should be, I’ve found it helpful to consider some of my favourite blogger role models. Garth Turner’s Greater Fool blog has been predicting a crash, decline, or merely a “slow melt” in Canada’s housing market since March 1, 2008. His timing may be off, but that hasn’t diminished international enthusiasm for his posts. Greater Fool is well written, funny, irreverent, and frequently educational. Garth’s posts cover real estate, personal finance, investing, macroeconomics, and debt management. The most important lesson from Garth’s blog is the value of consistency. Taking the same message and repackaging it over 250 times a year must be acknowledged as an extraordinary feat. Continually pumping out 800- to 1000-word posts most weekdays would be a full-time job for me, but Greater Fool is a side project to Garth’s main gig as financial adviser at Turner Investments. And did I mention he found the time to write 14 books? Dude must drink a lot of coffee.
Daily posts lead to conditioning and addiction. How bad is it? It’s embarrassing to admit that I sometimes hover over the site near the usual posting time and jab the F5 key until a new post appears. It’s part of my daily habit, and though I don’t always agree with his views, I rarely miss a post. I know that I could never post daily, with conditioning and addiction out of reach, but I think I might be able to encourage repeat visitors if I post at least once a week. I suspect longer gaps lead to early blog death.
Three great wars have raged on the comment section of the Greater Fool: bulls versus bears in Canadian real estate, HAM (hot Asian money) versus the locals, and Boomers versus Millennials (“wrinklies” vs. “moisters”). Comments range from around 200 to 300, and if only one percent of visitors comment, that’s some healthy traffic. Garth’s light moderation has fostered a rowdy gang of “blog dogs” who seem to be as conditioned as I am. Comments deemed “racist” are blocked, but most others, some critical of Garth, make it through. Due to the emotional nature and pseudo-religious intensity of the real estate obsession in Vancouver and Toronto, Garth has made more than a few enemies among Kool-Aid swilling home owners and real estate agents who think it’s always a good time to buy. The hate file must be inches thick by now.
The real estate crash first predicted in 2008 has not materialized. Maybe it never will. Over the past few years, Garth has forecasted rising interest rates in Canada. Instead, they dropped. Twice. Blasphemers who point that out will likely be dispatched with flip, sarcastic one-liners that don’t really address the issues raised. For a long time that bothered me, as I felt the blog dogs deserved better treatment. Now I’m not so sure.
I think my problem stems from thinking of posters as clients or customers of the blog. There is no client or customer relationship. The blog is not some call centre where all our needs will be met in an efficient and courteous manner. It’s just a guy, beholden to no one, who is probably going to let you know what he thinks of you and your ideas in a way that does not conform to standard customer service protocol. Garth is on a mission of economic enlightenment, dispensing free advice from his ad-free website. What more could you ask of a guy?
Nicely written and thought out. I think you are right about consistency & addiction. Recently I had the occasion to be booted from my support group. It is a closed group and they warn you they won’t tolerate fundraising and bogus cancer cure posts. While agree I am still at a loss as to why I was let go. I think blog writing is important when it raises questions, makes us think beyond the mindless ‘Likes’ that FB offers us. I cannot imagine writing the amount he does and work and write 14 books; coffee or cocaine would certainly help. I like good blogs when they offer a new angle on something old. I look forward to reading more of your thoughtful dissertations. 😉 Peter~
Thanks for the comments, Peter. Sorry to hear you were booted out of your group. How bizarre! Maybe you should appeal the ruling.
I followed your advice and was reinstated.
Great news!