From the A to the Z List
For those who come looking for a short, thoughtful read, a blogging life discussion, or a way to gradually ease back into the week. I offer this bloggy life hypothetical question. . . .
You went to school with a blogger who happens to be on the A-List. Everyone knows his name. Even mention it and folks get excited to hear that you know him.Last night you had dinner with your A-Lister friend. He said that he was tired of the constant complaining about A-Listers not linking to people. He tried to make a case that A-Listers blog the same as everyone else. You tried to explain all sides of the issue without taking a stand.
Your A-Lister friend called today to say that he was about to make a free blog. He planned to put up a few posts on his usual subjects and comment where he usually does under an unknown name to see whether people treat him differently.
How do you respond?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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If I understand that correctly, Liz, he wants to set up a blog on the same topics he writes about on his regular one, but under a nom de plume (or maybe “nom de blog” would be better ;).
Will he be treated differently? Sure, because that other name will mean nothing to anyone. He may even get heat for “trying to copy that A-lister”. Provided, of course, he has any readers.
It takes time to build a reputation online, however good and cogent your posts.
Hi Scorpia,
I expect his first surprise would be lonlieness — that content is king, but if you’re an A Lister, maybe content is leaning towared emperor!
He’ll be so lonely he could cry, to quote Hank Sr.
Little does he know, but The World is infatublogged with celebs and kissin’ their blogbutts.
If Seth or Guy were to ask, and they wouldn’t, for people to name their blog-babies after them, they’d do it.
Look at The Sethmeister. He’s made his blog a link magnet by forcing people, who volunteer by the way, to Trackback his posts to comment.
Do you think that would work for me ?
Me neither.
We all say we won’t read a blog that doesn’t allow comments, but, oh by the way, he’s doing fine.
If Guy Kawasaki were to ask for Teddy Bears to be sent to the Pope, the Freakin’ Vatican would be deluged by the Guyites sending their snuggle bears.
On a funny note, my 25th HS reunion is the day after Thanksgiving and the people in charge googled me and now think I’m Mack Daddy. Little do they know …
Hey Mack Daddy. You are Mack Daddy around here and don’t your forget it. You got the A-List seat in THIS place dammit! Who’s the guy who said do a badge for the blogs? I’d name my blog babies after you and I’d trackback too if you turned comments off.
Thanks, my friend.
The good part of not being “all that and a bag of chips” is that I can eat in any Applebee’s in America without fear of being bothered for an autograph 🙂
The only real reasons I’m even going to the reunion are :
1) I’ve still got all my hair and want to show it off !
2) My former roomie at WKU is now a producer for DIY Network or maybe it’s Home & Garden TV and I want to try and get a couple of TV shows done on some of our products.
Happy Sunday night Liz,
I think it all depends on why my A-list buddy blogs.
Maybe the comments and hoopla aren’t what turn his crank. Or maybe he just need to express himself and the crowd was a by-product. If that’s the case, then he’ll probably be as happy as can be.
But…putting on my realist’s hat, I suspect he’ll try it for a week or two and then let that blog evaporate into the unknown and re-invest his energies into his big name blog.
Let’s face it…it’s a lot more fun to have a conversation when you’re not doing it alone.
Oh boohoo with the identity crisis of the A-Lister. *slap,slap*
Enjoy your success – you deserve it. The rich get richer and the famous get more famous and that’s what makes the world go round.
But don’t try to show off how great you are by trying this experiment. It is quite demeaning to us ordinary folk and makes you look worse in our eyes – as an a**hole – with something to prove you are better than us who struggle every day.
I’m thinking that the A-lister might want to check out if people were interested in what he had to say/write vs. his identity as a big star in the blogosphere. Do they love him/her or his/her thoughts?
It’s a happy problem.
I guess this person should try it out and see if the same amount of people would react the same way as they do in the original blog.
We’d be interested in how this ends, we do hope that you’ll share it with us.
What’s A-lister’s intention?
To prove to himself? Or, to make his friend feels more miserable for not making to the D(onkey)-list?
That’s of course, people “worship” the ground the A-listers walk on…goes without saying.
Amen to Scorpia’s last sentence!
Hey, Mike,
I can’t to hear how your 25th goes. Remember that some folks — some football heroes for example — thought that was the high point of their life and stopped living when they graduated. You’ll be able to tell them by the say that they stare at the mannequin dressed in the football uniform and continuously talk about that one big game. 🙂
Hope you get your product placement with an 800 number straight to you. 🙂
And that it makes you enough to send those lovely daughters to college, and little left over to buy you an A-List blog, as long as you don’t write it . . . because I like having you out here. 🙂
Hi Drew!
Thanks for the Happy Sunday wishes. (I think I had something not so happy for dinner. That’s why I waited until Monday to answer this. 🙂 )
You are wise . . .
Letââ¬â¢s face itââ¬Â¦itââ¬â¢s a lot more fun to have a conversation when youââ¬â¢re not doing it alone.
I agree that he’ll be left totally alone on his own blog, but I wonder what his response will be to how he is treated on the blogs that visits.
Yeah, HART,
When I was writing this scenario, I tried to convince myself that it was totally a scientific test, but part of me didn’t like the deception — of course, how is the king to know how the people live?
Hi Rob,
Nice to see you!
So you know, I made up the problem. I don’t know that anyone is doing any such thing. However, if I did, I’m not sure what my reaction would be.
I know my curiosity would be to find out his response to how things went when he commented on A-List blogs. The sociology of the situation is fascinating to me.
On the other hand, I don’t like the ethics of misrepresentation, so I would have to be convinced that his motives were totally unself and that something good would come of it. I’m still working on what and how that might be.
Hi Mermaid Renée,
Welcome!
Intentionality has a lot to do with this! I agree with you and Scorpia about the posting side. He’s going to miss being Mr. Somebody.
But what about his experience in the comment when he goes to visit his A-List friends under a name they don’t know?
I would encourage him on his new blog, but remind him that he got to the A-list over a period of time and catching some breaks (surely) on some lists or featured items that got his blog and name out there the first time.
If his content is good, this blog (hopefully) will see the same success as his A-list blog.
Good topic, Liz.
Hi Jesse!
Thank you. The fact of writing under a false name and misrepresenting himself to the people he has been blogging with isn’t a problem to you either?
Interesting experiment, but would it even work?
The reason some A-listers got that way is that they have some street cred. If I started writing about marketing, for example, who’d listen to me? I’m no marketer (and it shows). You can build up credibility over time, but, whether you agree with what they say or not, you know Seth Godin is a marketer and Scoble was a Microsoftie. That automatically gives them blog karma points and some “authority.” Would some person you never heard of have the same?
Maybe a good way to start a rumor is to say that my blog is really being written by an A-lister under a pseudonym? Yeah, that’s the ticket! 😉
Hi Liz,
I’m going to use one of my mum’s favourite quotes on the rich and the poor.
Likewise for the A-lister, he certainly has more challenges than getting use to. Now, is he mentally prepared for?
To answer your question, I have to say that he definitely needs tons of excellent/knowledgeable comments to get some attentions from other commentors, not just the owner of that blog.
Being a regular blogger is already a great challenge, working endlessly to produce good articles each and every time, or at least once a week. Then add that to commenting sound comments on A-listers’ blogs.
My question to him, “Just how far can you substain on being an average blogger?”
So back to my initial question, What does he want to prove? and Why bother telling his friend about his intention?
PS. Thanks for asking me that question.
Hey Sabine,
We know you’re A-Lister incognito. I’ve known that since you made the Washington Post with CTBIZblog. You’ve not been fooling me. 🙂
You throw that occasional marketing curve in there as a red herring.
Mermaid Renée,
Your mom’s a wise woman, as are you. I’m guessing that this A-Lister guy thinks he knows his reasons, but like most of us he probably has a few that even he doesn’t realize. Maybe he has something to prove, such as that he’s the one “A-Lister of the people.” 🙂
I often say that we slowly become what we look at most. I suspect he doesn’t see how easy it is to be part of the group he’s in or that sometimes groups can overlook people they don’t know.
I guess I think that if he went to comment on friend’s blog with another name, he might find — at least some of the time — the surprising result that his words aren’t as valuable as they were when the sat under the name of a friend and A-Lister.
I don’t know that I think that is wrong. I do know that I think it is human nature to trust and value the words of the folks we know more than the words of a stranger.
Howdy, Liz.
The story says that he is posting usual subjects under another name. I don’t really consider that as ‘misrepresenting himself.’ That’s really no different than Mark Twain or George Sand (a woman) writing under names other than what their parents call them.
Hey Jesse,
The misrepresentation comes into play when he comes on his friend’s blogs and comments as Mark Twain rather than as the person they know.
Liz,
Ditto.
I definitely can identify that feeling. That Z-lister’s words get so muffled among the crowd even he comments eloquently.
Your last paragraph…ironic but it’s true. This is what I always say to my friends about shopping for clothes base on the brands. There are a whole lot more great undiscovered designers that haven’t got any strings to pull (no link leak from A-listers). 🙁
Mermaid Renée,
We do just a commenter by his or her blog. We talk about when we say you must have an About Page, because I want to know who’s talking to me. I see it on Tuesday Night Open Comments, when folks go visit other folks’ blogs to see who they and to have something to talk about with them.
Your point about brand names is a great parallel. 🙂