-
Website
http://www.onemanandhisblog.com/ -
Original page
http://www.onemanandhisblog.com/archives/2007/08/bloggily_blonde_the_selfappointed_alist.html -
Subscribe
All Comments -
Community
-
-
Top Commenters
-
Popular Threads
You know, that's one of those funny old things I could easily rant about far too often: media organisations are always prone to think that linking out is bad for traffic. No matter which surveys I show my employer(s), the thought that linking out INCREASES your traffic/goodwill from readers/value etc just beggars belief for most editors. Linking as an added service your provide for your readers: many media folks struggle, big time, to accept that. In many respects, the world some editors live in, compared to the world we inhabit as bloggers, is so far removed from each other. For one, I've sometimes incurred the reply "you know, we do have a blog, it's a place we have where all our journalists write for FREE"
Kristine: To be fair, many journalists were trained five years ago in the idea of "sticky content", whereby you get people into your sites and KEEP THEM THERE AT ALL COSTS.
Some are understandably rather narked at having what they were told to do then turned on its head. But that's the issue, isn't it? They're being told to do it, rather than discovering themselves by reading and participating in blogs.
thanks!...good thing I wasn't drinking my morning coffee when I read this...I find your observation about the similarities between new bloggers and journalists really interesting. Funny thing though--when I started blogging, it was pretty much a jump in, read a couple of books, and figure it out for yourself. No big conferences to go to to "help" bloggers make money/gain rank/schmooze better. And with the emphasis on making money is coming a whole wave of bloggers for whom linking is really link-baiting (and driving traff) rather than community-building. Hence, I still link a lot, but only to people I can tell are interested in the community/sharing aspect of the whole thing. A-list or not ;-)
But aren't we all A-listers to someone? ;)
Seriously, there is a definite harder edge that creeeps in, blogging is a strong weapon in the arsenal and people are using what they can to make money and get ahead. It's no longer a geeks toy, but is every saleswomans tool. Not sure I like that too much, I tend to stay away from those and stick with the geeks.
Tish & Rachel: I think you've both hit the nail on the head, in the sense that many of these newer bloggers are more interested in the triumvirate of publishing-traffic-Adsense then they are any feeling of community. So they're more interested in SEO tricks and mechanical approaches to getting better PageRank than they are the traditional method of serving your time, writing great stuff and getting links...
Will Google make it harder or easier for them to do that, I wonder?