Jason Von Berg from The Times recently interviewed musician and blogger, Steve Hofmeyr, and asked him about his views on blogging and Steve Se Spoeg Blok, his personal blog which is written in Afrikaans and currently one of the most popular blogs in South Africa.
The interview is embedded below:
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There’s nothing wrong with the interview from a technical perspective, but Hofmeyr’s responses on blogging are weak, in my opinion, and give me the impression that he’s skimmed over Naked Conversations and thrown some of what he learnt back at the camera for the audience to gush over. I’m not what’s known as a Steve Hofmeyr hater, but this interview really got under my skin.
Two statements he makes in the interview that reinforces my point:
- “I’m doing it (blogging) because I’m an opinionated musician” – Yeah right. One look at all the animated gifs in both sidebars imply it’s probably more about brand building and the extra revenue he no doubt makes off advertising than simply about “expressing” one’s self…
- “(The blog received) 30-40 million hits just for last year (2006)” – This is difficult to disprove, but I seriously doubt it as this would mean he was getting between 3-4 millions hits on average per month, more than top SA news sites. According to Amatomu trends, Hofmeyr’s blog received 40k hits over the past 7 days. Multiply that by 4 and it’s still missing some zeros. Add the fact that SA’s blog traffic increased significantly in 2007 thanks to a more publicised blogosphere and the launch of local blog aggregators, and it becomes a far-fetched over-exaggeration.
Am I missing something here?
1 Justin Hartman Nov 29th, 2007 at 1:12 amNope you’re spot on the money here and not missing a thing. I guess it’s become easy to inflate figures because how many people really even understand what page views are, let alone the real meaning of traffic on the Internet?
2 Shaun Oakes Nov 29th, 2007 at 5:04 pmTechnically…. he could be correct.
Remember, a “hit” and a “page view” are two entirely different things. Viewing a page containg 25 images would constitute as 26 hits, so Steve may not be that far off after all.
3 Adrie Nel Aug 13th, 2009 at 11:00 pmWhy does everyone always have to critisize Steve? He is as human as you and me.
4 Donovan Webster Oct 7th, 2009 at 10:14 pmDit is nie n blog om gewone army stories op te vertel nie. Ons wil nie hoor van,afkak, jippo guts, of die doos van n korporaal, en pf’s is almal poese nie, dis ook nie n blog om te hoor hoe jy afgekak het en swaar gekry het tydens jou 2 jaar diensplig nie. Ons was almal daardeur, en dit was lekker tye as jy daaraan terug dink. Ons is hier om die gruwelike waarhede en werklikhede van ons nagmerrie ondervinding te deel met mekaar, om te gesels daaroor en ons emosies te deel. Ek was in wereld waar ek niks met niemand gedeel het nie, ek het net vertel van die lekker tye en baie emosioneel geraak as ek wou vertel van die werklikhede, en as gevolg daarvan het ek die stories en denke vir my self gehou. Dit het naderhand als in my lewe begin beinvoed, my familie, my werk ,emosionele en humeurige uitbarstings. Ek was te skaam en gedink net swakelinge sien sielkundiges ons was mos soldate ek moet “tuff” wees. Nou die dag het vir die eerste keer met n sielkundige daaroor begin praat, “sy is nogal mooi” dit het my n hele emosionele episode gevat voor ek iets kon se. Ek het begin vertel van van die ondervinding toe ons besig was met n aanval in angola “ek was n lid van 61 meg” daar is een van ons buddies langs my geskiet ek onthou nog hoe hy in die stof gerol het, vir my het dit gelyk soos n hond wat deur n kar getrap is, en so kan ek en jy aangaan en honderde stories vertel………………….