What Are Your Favorites?
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 Blogging Question.
Suddenly your blog has been discovered. All of the big names, all of your heroes have put you on their blogroll. You’re now looking at 26,000 links — individual site links — to your now famous blog. You’re number 1 on the Technorati Top 100. You have a Google Page Rank of 9, the same as Boing, Boing and Slashdot enjoy.
What do you do with this good fortune?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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probably wake up and take a cold shower 🙂
Martin,
After the shower, it’s still there.
It’s still there? Okay.
If I was real greedy I’d slap on a bunch of AdSense – I’d slowly edge out the content (who needs content anyway) and get away with it while I can.
Of course, my good fortune would quickly come crashing down.
But seriously. Who really knows. One thing you’d have to do is do a real ego check on yourself.
Oh, and I’d bring with me all those that were there from the beginning to bask in all the glory.
Other than that I’d enjoy the moment and ever so subtly push whatever I was pushing.
Every blogger who had less than 1000 links would get an email about my $30 however-long-it- takes Skype call (which I already do) to go through the Blog Review Checklist. Then I could worrying about how to pay my mortgage, quit trying to find unrelated writing work, and concentrate on helping bloggers write and think creatively.
Interesting question Liz. My blog has been picked up a few times by Lifehacker and other top 100 blogs. I log in to my stats and see a huge jump in traffic. At first it is really cool but then it becomes kind of scary because you are really not in control. You hope and pray you have enough bandwidth and that the comments are kind and resourceful.
It never fails when I do have a rush of readers the adsense ads on my site are not relevant or pay a few cents apiece.
The real secret is to have a newsletter or some other hook to keep readers coming back and offer exciting content that is updated regularly.
I’ve looked at the newsletter route but my 50-60 hour work week at my regular job takes its toll on a lot of fun projects (newsletters, podcasts, video, etc).
I find myself checking your blog regularly since you update it multiple times a day, you have really interesting stuff, and a bunch of readers that are S.O.B.s
Keep up the great work…
John
P.S. Thanks for adding me to your SOB list
John,
It’s your ideas and the way you add to the conversation that makes you an SOB. Thanks for sharing your experiences. What adrenaline junkies we bloggers must be. 🙂
To be honest – and please, no ‘Oh, she says that NOW’ replies – but I wouldn’t feel too happy if this happened to me. For three reasons:
1. Bandwidth. Me poor.
2. OK, lots of backlinks would be really nice, but I’d feel a lot more honoured if I received one from a site I actually read every day (a) Because they noticed I’m alive and (b) Their regular readers are usually the kind of regulars I’d hope to have. For example, heaps of traffic from a politics site wouldn’t do much for me.
That being said, I only read two of the blogs in the Technorati Top 100 on a regular basis. :/
3. Pressure. It’s different for lots of people, but I think blogging ‘success’ would negatively affect my writing.
Aaaand, to finally answer your question, Liz – I’d probably comb through all of the backlinks and try and find some new blogs to read 🙂
“What do you do with this good fortune?”
This totally depends on what type of blog you have.
If it’s a business type blog then your business plan should already have this incorporated for a return. There are many ways to get a return, some better then others. Some better suited, depending.
You could be offering seminars sharing your expertise, an e-book to download, phone/skype consulting, on site consulting. And like you already do here Liz, letting them know that you are for hire as a copyeditor.
It all depends on what the skill set is.
That’s a fine answer, Yvonne, and one I totally expected. It was my first answer as well. Then I got to thinking how I might turn it into to an opportunity.
What would I do with what happened to make the blogosphere better? (and give me time to do it).
Hi Cat,
You’re spot on as always and as always light years ahead of me. It does depend on what your blog is and what your goals are.
Great advice you’re giving there. No wonder I want to meet you.
Ooh, good question. I have a lot of answers to that, but the first thing I’d do is try and raise awareness of quality blogs that are actually enjoyable to read (and comment on!) Many of the most popular blogs out there (dare I say it) just reiterate news and aren’t really original in the way that I like them to be.
Of course, it all depends on one’s definition of what an ‘improved blosophere’ would be like.
Liz,
Months back I looked into adsense and decided it really was not for the project I’ll be embarking on in the next month.
I mean, honestly, what would we be giving back to our readers?
Sure, the blog will have adsense, but that’s only because studies have shown those without are at times not taken serious. But we won’t be depending on it. We want to create value for our audience.
Cat,
I’ve never heard that about not having adsense meaning a lack of credibility. That’s totally new to me. I think that’s losing ground these days.
My first reaction is the same as Martin’s – I wouldn’t believe it.
Next, I would think it was a fluke and wait to see if it lasted.
If it did, I would worry about a better ISP. That kind of traffic would be sure to bring the site down.
Fourth, I would hope it wouldn’t change anything about how the blog itself is written. Someone is being touched somehow, or it wouldn’t have become a success.
Fifth, I would wonder what I’m doing wrong. My thoughts would be that if something is so popular, there has to be something wrong with it.
Rick,
Your fifth response made me smile. It could be that you hit the magic formula and that you did something that resonated with the humanity in all of us. It IS possible. . . .
Smiles are a good thing! 🙂
I would hope it is the resonance and the achievement of overnight success after years of work, but a part of my mind takes a dim view of a lot of popular culture and so the fifth response would niggle at me.
I understand Rick. Your mind probably has the better view of popular culture. On the other hand, every once in a while a really good idea does win the hearts of everyday people.
It certainly does. Blogging is one of those good ideas!
I could argue that bloggers are exceptional people. 🙂
You could. Bloggers are a self-selected group, just as people who immigrate to a new country or are pioneers are a self-selected group of the most adventuresome of their population. But it’s still an extremely large group, large enough to be called part of popular culture.
Pioneers. That’s a great analogy. Pioneers indeed.
I thought it was apt.
Good night, Liz. Thanks for the thought-provoking post and conversation.
Sweet Dreams, Rick. 🙂
Fun! Probably my biggest hit was that one of my old pages got Fark’ed several years ago. (2001ish) The thread got like, 250 comments and I don’t remember the hits, probably over 10k in a day. Brought down a hard drive on my webserver.
I found old friends from early net days correcting people in the comments that I was a girl, because they recognized my domain. (The caption was “some guy does $thing,” you see.)
Lay off taking the drugs – that would be one hell of a trip!
First of al I will not tell you what song would pop up in my head upon noticing this her her her.
Second: Like Rick’s fifth answer, but seriously: if so many blogs picked up on mine, that could mean I don’t have enough focus on my weblog. As Cat stated: it depends on the kind of blog. I would like to add: and your preferred audience. I am trying to focus on a subject and on an audience (wich I find really hard to do because I get distracted easily). I am a firm believer in quality over quantity… So that would be the first thing I would try to find out…
Hi Candice!
These Sunday night discussions are always revealing and fun. What an adventure that must have been. Wow! I have good ones, but never that good. I often think how nervous-making it must be during the time that the server is down, thinking about the people knocking at the door who can’t get in. 🙂
Hi Greg,
Aw! Don’t give up the drugs. Use them for saving the blogosphere!
Sanne,
That’s the question, though, if you did find this good fortune . . . there must be some way to turn it to server your readers even better. NO?
Oh yeah absolutely! Maybe I would just try to ask them..! ‘tWoudle leaveth me puzzleth though… bigtime.
First, I’d be worried about thousands of links appearing overnight. Then I’d be worried what Google would think of it; they’re very suspicious of many links suddenly showing up out of nowhere.
Beyond that, the only way so many could occur would be related to a particular article. Something considered controversial. This would likely bring in a lot of loud-mouths and trolls. Also, I’d hope, some new regulars (always welcome).
Of course, since I write for a particular audience in the gaming community, it’s unlikely such a situation as you describe would happen. Perhaps that’s just as well.
Hi Scorpia,
I’m having fun seeing how everyone is responding to this. We all have such a problem suspending our disbelief. Then we all prepare for a negative, because positives can’t hurt us.
I think that the links would be wonderful and you’d get a great new job running the company that you’re now just working for!
Ah Sanne,
Perhaps there really is a fairy godmother after all.
Liz, the advantage I usually have is that I run my own stuff. At the moment my blog is not in my own office, but it used to be pre-hurricane.
I’m always much less stressed when I know I can fix things.
Candice,
You could use the amazing good fortune to get the word out even louder that stuff in New Orleans is far from over.
I know what you mean about being able to control your own blog. I feel the same way. I like to be the one to make my own problems. 🙂
Liz, heh, I don’t work for a company. But anyway, do you think all those links would mean money? That’s a nice thought. I can certainly use the cash 😉
However, I’d never want to run a company. I’m happy just sitting in my little lair, thinking, playing games, and writing.
Sure we prepare for the negatives. Anyone who doesn’t is likely in for a rude awakening.
Scorpia,
I think there ought to be a way to leverage the linkage into something that could make you money — maybe visibility for your talents.
I agree about preparing for the negatives. I just think it’s sad that we have to. 🙁
I would donate most of it to charity… i do my blogging for fun.
Um, Whoa,
in that case, would you be my patron. I have a son in a VERY expensive university and I blog for money as well as to help out folks. 🙂