I've noticed a startling trend lately. "I am the author of a pretty popular blog called _________ (fill in the blank). Everybody reads me and I have lots of links. Maybe you've heard about me?" Well, no actually, I haven't.
In my career, I am lucky to work with and speak to bloggers from all over the country, from all walks of life, on a daily basis. Many of these people are very humble and passionate about their blog. Some are even utilizing their blog as their sole form of income. I've also had the pleasure of chatting with bloggers that I believe are the most popular and found them to be unbelievably responsive, friendly and appreciative of links and mentions (David Armano, Mack Collier*, Paul McEnany to name a few). *click on Mack's link for a great post today
However, in some recent conversations, I've come across some bloggers who are flat out lying. "My blog gets 25,000 hits a month! I'm read by Seth Godin! Joseph Jaffe gets ideas for posts from me!"
Be weary of these folks and make sure you do your research. If someone claims that A-List bloggers are getting story ideas from their blog, they should also know that A-List bloggers are smart enough to link back to the content they reference. Technorati will shed some light on the truth. Meet a blogger who claims they have enormous traffic? Check their rankings to see how they stack up.
So, you've done your research and found that your proud blogger friend doesn't have any links from A-listers. They have reasonable traffic, but no one comments on their posts. This is interesting... good content calls for interaction. If you receive 25,000 hits a month, I would hope that at least one person was compelled enough to comment.
Am I the only one seeing this trend? What is driving this need for validation? Are there more bloggers out there looking for fame than committed to content?
Talk amongst yourselves.
Kevin I haven't really seen many bloggers doing this lately, but I have heard some bloggers in the past claiming to have high readership numbers, with no links to their traffic or feed-reader stats on their blogs to back this up. But there haven't been many. I think that most bloggers that have been at it for a while quickly realize that traffic is next to meaningless, that making quality connections with your readers is what counts.
BTW thanks for the link!
Posted by: Mack Collier | September 12, 2007 at 05:23 PM
Agree completely with Mack here...If I were to go by heresay from some of these 'you need to partner with us because we can give you exposure' groups (vital for nonprofits like me!) I would've been hosed.
Why? Because they had bogus numbers, zero readers and faulty data collection.
Thank gawd for logic and indie thinking...I've been 'baited' multiple times in that "we're big guys, you're a little guy, come grow with us" line of thinking, only to find out I was the big guy, THEY were the little guys when it came to loyalty, repeat visits, readership, resource value, and yes...even links, hits, and metrics numbers.
Frankly, I'm not sure how much ANY of the ranking bit matters...Even Technorati confuses the heckoutta me because one day I have more links than another (how can you go 'down' in count when your links are going up? weird---Sorry, Dave...explain this to me?)
Anyway, I try to pay ZERO attention to any of it (including those lame 'bloggers choice awards' which are clearly gamed from the get-go).
I prefer to take a Kevin Kostner Field of Dreams approach, "If you build it they will come" by providing quality content with meaningful info.
Eventually the people meant to find you will find you. It's already happened to me once with Stuart Elliott of the New York Times linking to me...quality begets quality. THAT's what matters.
btw, Nice to find your blog! Um..er..It looks like it could be a 'popular' one...;-)
Pop by sometime...Any friend of Mack's is a friend of mine. heehee (we're AOC co-author chums though we've only virtually 'met') Best, ---Amy
Posted by: Shaping Youth | September 12, 2007 at 08:39 PM