Dropping the A-List Mentality

I know that my long rambling digressions won't make me popular or A-list and I don't care! But since writing for Blogher I have learned a few things and am applying them somewhat inconsistently.

The main thing I do differently for a more "polished" blog is to have an informative first paragraph, specially aimed to be an excerpt visible before the "read more" link. So, just not starting posts (on here) with "I was thinking the other day as I clipped my toenails that (and this is super important) it might be a good idea to, but oh, that reminds me, ...(read more)" Heh!

Tagging also seems slightly blog-tarty, but it's a great, useful idea so I try to do that too.

Photos are great. I'm down with that part and my new cameraphone and Flickr make it incredibly easy to add photos to all my blogs. It used to be a painful, clunky, boring process and now it's just zip, zip, zip, photo on my blog. I'm all about the instant gratification.

About Technorati, I have found that in the last few months there have been pinging problems. My blog didn't update its pings even when I went in and did it manually. I'm not sure what the problem was, but other people were having it too, and the issue was fixed without explanation when I wrote to Technorati support. I suspect that if other people are not having their pings update, then Technorati might not be indexing their incoming links either. In a nutshell, if Technorati isn't "seeing" (because of ping problems) the blogs linking to you, then your ranking won't go up (or down).

-----------------
Liz Henry
lizzard@bookmaniac.net
Badgermama ( http://badgermama.blogspot.com ) - personal & mommyblog
http://liz-henry.blogspot.com

I use "circle jerk" for any gender, but I suppose "daisy chain" or "circle jill"...

-----------------
Liz Henry
lizzard@bookmaniac.net
Badgermama ( http://badgermama.blogspot.com ) - personal & mommyblog
http://liz-henry.blogspot.com

Okay, so I'm feeling a little mortified to admit that I asked you not so long ago how to get more traffic. I realize that I'm being a traffic whore. I think blogging reintroduces a lot of the popularity bullshit we thought we'd left behind in high school.

For me, though, it has a lot to do with wanting to get my real, off-line writing out into the world, and it seems that the publishing industry needs me to be famous BEFORE I write the book, not after I write it. Hence, here I am, back in high school, wondering if the cool kids will ever add me to their blogroll so that my traffic will look good in the query letter. Or so the national magazine will look at my regional magazine clips and give me a second glance. Or so that I can earn some money freelancing instead of toiling in corporate America only to come home and toil again at home to get the traffic, write the regional magazine articles, and dream of a brighter tomorrow.

For many years, though, I thought it was all just that - a dream. Blogging, at the very least, has provided "normal" people with a platform from which to speak that never really existed before. And so, hey, here I am. Good thoughts, good post. It's so hard to decide if you're being a whore or following your dreams. Or maybe they're linked inextricably.

Hi, I'm new.

Actually I'm old LOL

I commented at Robert's post. I thought it was clever, speaking in a Mae West voice, "Is that a link in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"

LOL

I don't think anyone responded or even bothered to visit my blog from it.

So I guess it's back to the lab with Pinky and the Brain to find Plan B for world domination (and upward blog mobility LOL)

I suppose part of the problem is that I fall into that dreaded category of "Mommy blogger". I am a storyteller. I don't write about politics or technology. I talk optimistically about real life. My "business" is me. I hope to sell books I write. Being an author takes discipline and PR skills, but few writers seem to want to acknowledge the business of advertising and promotion. They're the one who don't sell many books - LOL

I don't blog-post every day, sometimes not even every other day. My posts are huge, much longer than the "rules" say they should be to keep the short-attention-span audience reading.

If traffic and links improve, that's swell. If not, I still got to write, which is what I love.

I'll keep on hustlin'. I'll comment at the A-List sites, and network the people I've made connections with (waves to Jeremy LOL).

Thanks to all of you for sharing your opinions - it is always a pleasure to read the thoughts and reactions of others.

i wasnt talking to u lol.

With all this talk of carnivals, I thought I'd point out that Neil over at Citizen of the Month ( http://www.citizenofthemonth.com/ ) is hosting "Carnival of the Mundane 5 ( http://www.citizenofthemonth.com/2006/02/25/carniv... )" on Friday.

It's for personal bloggers, hooray!!! Submit posts about everyday, mundane stuff. :)

Oh my. I never thought of Carnivals this way, and despite this new information, I'll still read them, link to them, and submit to some.

There are some really high-quality carnivals out there. I'm thinking especially of the Teaching Carnival that focuses on higher education. That carnival consistently has some terrific insight and advice; it introduces me to new academic bloggers and has improved, I think, my teaching.

I also enjoy Carnival of the Feminists, though sometimes I'd like to see a greater range of feminist voices contained within it. And I love Tangled Bank for its science-y goodness.

As an educator, I'm interested in all the different ways people collect and exchange knowledge, and carnivals strike me as one way for people with similar interests--and in particular women whose voices are heard too infrequently--to get together and share their insights and knowledge.

So yay for carnivals. I'll continue to support them.

Leslie

BlogHer Contributing Editor, Research and Academia ( http://www.blogher.com/topic/research-academia )
Proprietor, The Clutter Museum ( http://cluttermuseum.blogspot.com )

Personally, I think it is one of the nicer reasons to blog.

Welcome.

~Denise

I like that - a blogging couch, a small circle of friends, a small group of people coming together to share thoughts on a topic ... birds of a feather-like?

When I said it isn't about the traffic, I meant that it isn't about the traffic solely for the sake of boosting traffic, increasing page views and somehow improving technorati ranking.

~Denise

One reason why she waited might be because I wanted to murder her in her sleep once she opened her mouth. ;-)

~Denise

*Why* did you wait for someone else to mention it, before making me aware of the offence I'd caused? If you'd told me sooner, it could have been dealt with sooner. If you were offended, you were offended - surely it didn't need someone else to validate your feeling? If you didn't want to mention it in a comment, you could have emailed me - I'm not an ogre.

Blog: Multidimensional.Me ( http://www.multidimensional.me.uk/ )

For the record - I do not set out to use language which I know (or suspect) will cause offence. I didn't set out to cause offence in this instance - but I patently did (because TW says she was offended). So, I didn't debate the point - I didn't attempt to justify the offensive phrase - I did the appropriate thing, which was to apologise, completely, unreservedly and immediately - and I mean it. I won't use that phrase in the future. I am human - I err, I'm made aware of my error, I adapt, and hopefully I do better in the future. I'm going to break a self-imposed rule, here, and link to one of my posts ( http://www.multidimensional.me.uk/2005/10/13.html#... ) on my personal blog - because it's absolutely relevant here - *especially the comments ( http://radiocomments2.userland.com/comments?u=1424... )*. I do not set out to offend - and if I'm made aware of it, and a non-offensive alternative exists, I'll use it, no argument.

So, *this* problem won't arise in the future, because I won't use that phrase again. But, what to do about the present? I've given offence, and apologised unreservedly. Is that sufficient? I *could* edit the comment in which I used the offensive phrase - give me an acceptable alternative phrase (e.g. "mutual ego-stroking") and I can do so. I have two concerns with doing so - firstly, it rather invalidates both your and TW's comments, so for my edit to make sense, you would have to edit yours, and arguably TW would need to delete hers - and secondly, I think that "rewriting history" in this way is wrong, because there's a learning point here, and if we cover up this incident, then isn't it more likely that a similar incident will occur in the future?

For that latter reason, I'd prefer *not* to edit my comment - let it, and my subsequent apology stand. But, if others would prefer I edited it, using an innocuous phrase, I'll do so - my point didn't rely on being offensive - *if* you and TW will both amend yours accordingly. Keep in mind, however, that if I do this, I will look you firmly in the eye and request that you do likewise with your use (or pseudo-use) of Twisty's catch-phrase. Because, let's be clear on this - I didn't set out to cause offence. You used (or pseudo-used) a catch-phrase that you expected to cause offence - and it did. I have to say, I find it somewhat ironic that the person who suggests looking for an alternative phrase in this instance is the same person who supports the offensiveness of the other phrase.

Blog: Multidimensional.Me ( http://www.multidimensional.me.uk/ )

im new k
so i jus write to see stuff in print
i dunno
isnt that cool?

It's so easy to offend people, intentionally or unintentionally.

Is there a female equivalent we could use instead?

~Denise

In which case, I apologise unreservedly for using a phrase that you found offensive. It was not my intention to offend anybody.

Blog: Multidimensional.Me ( http://www.multidimensional.me.uk/ )

But I find the whole phrase
circle jerks
to be far more offensive than grow a pair. MUCH MUCH more.

I so totally get what you're saying!

And, at the same time, I get the carnival thing, too. If one was relevent to me, I could see it being fun and interesting.

And I've got no aversion to self-promotion (being in the entertainment industry). I respect that many peeps do find it a negative thing, but honestly, I have a hard time understanding why exactly.

I can't say I've even seen any carnivals besides the Carnival of Feminists -- call me provincial. But to me they are not just about traffic -- though that can be part of it.

When you have the high-traffic sites all linking to each other, the life of the blogosphere -- the "long tail" -- can go unnoticed. I find carnivals to be a celebration of the long tail. They are all about saying, "Here's something that perhaps you haven't seen."

How do smaller blogs get noticed without recommendations? What is a carnival but a massive recommendation post? In this age where blogrolls are ignored even by their owners, the only way to connect is through that linky goodness. So count me as a carnival fan.

Laura
· BlogHer website admin ( http://www.blogher.com/website-feedback )
· pingVision: Drupal theming, design, development and hosting ( http://www.pingv.com )
· personal blog ( http://rarepattern.com )

Interesting conversation about Carnivals. I only understood what they are relatively recently. I do not really keep up with them: They seem like another small club in an already small club... And like many have said, I find blogging most satisfying when I write something I actually want to read myself--without worrying so much about attracting more readers.

But having said that I have had two of my posts included in the Inside Higher Education "Around the Web" feature and I do admit to getting a great deal of pleasure out of that. Not so much that I got a whole lot of traffic (the biggest daily spike was about 8 people who had followed the link) or commenters (I think only one person actually commented). But it was just being noticed by someone who wouldn't have otherwise noticed me.

So, does that make me a whore? (LOL) Not that I'd be compaining--as a lifelong "good girl" it wouldn't be bad to be one this one time!

I hadn't really thought of carnivals in this way. And if they aren't about traffic how could participation in one "make it possible for the rest of the world to hear them"?

It can help them feel a little LESS bad about not being an A-lister or about having only 100 visitors (or even only 10 visitors).

Somehow this statement makes me visualize a blogging couch instead of a blogging carnival.

Debi Jones
Contributing Editor, Blogging and Social Media ( http://www.blogher.com/topic/blogging-social-media )
Feed your mobile jones ( http://www.mobilejones.com )

*slinks in rather meekly and subtly*

My writings are for one real purpose, as so described "to get it all out what's in my head."

For 40 whatever years, most of the really deep and challenging stuff was under lock and key far within. My 40's were a time of self awakening, of learning, of reaching deep, deep within and pulling out what was there, to place it out in front of others, to stand confidently(?) as these deep, dark secrets stood ready for public critique.

It was a time to learn to withstand this, to find who I was, and conversely a time to discover my weaknesses and deal with them.

So my writing is decidedly not for the greater masses, it's for... me. A very selfish me in this regard. Friends read it, keep abreast of my doings, but I'll never make an effort to speak to a wider audience. I belong and post to blogher not because of a drive to increase traffic, but because of a huge belief in the collective power of women's voices, each unique, and together... something to reckon with.

That others write for a larger audience is well understood, and goddess bless their efforts, hope they succeed and reach their goals. Each of us probably, heck likely has our own reasons for writing, and fall between desiring wide readership and the simple need to write. There is room for us all.

We write. We learn. We are heard... and perhaps at some specific moment in time, someone wanders across one's particular writing, is triggered (hopefully in a positive way) by what one has said... and it impacts their life, perhaps changes their outlook on something, much like that butterfly flapping it's wings in Africa.

nelle

*crawls back out.*

Crossing The Great Divide ( http://liberalfeministtranniedyke.blogspot.com/ )

One need not participate in a carnival to gain a sense of community,

I agree with you completely but not everyone can gain a sense of community, easily. There are groups of people who do not feel included. There are groups of people who go unnoticed. There are people who are, to put it simply, shy. Or to complicate things a bit, there are people who don't feel worthy so they make no effort.

A carnival can help people such as these feel community, gain confidence, feel good about themselves and their blogging. It can help them feel a little LESS bad about not being an A-lister or about having only 100 visitors (or even only 10 visitors).

I know tiny little bloggers who do submit their work to carnivals - and are often accepted. These are bloggers who don't follow ANY of the A-list rules. They get virtually no traffic during the week. But they do have something to say. Carnival makes it possible for the rest of the world to hear them.

I don't see that as gaming the system. I don't actually know of anyone who has used carnival to game the system. I'm sure it does happen but not in my tiny little blogosphere.

~Denise

I appreciate this follow up Koan, because I wasn't reading your post(s) in the manner in which I believed you intended them to be read.

I was hearing you make only negative comments about carnivals. Even when you provided one rationale that you could get behind, your tone still sounds negative to me - like you believe there doesn't exist such a carnival.

You may not have written your responses with the "tone" I'm hearing. It happens. Which is why I responded in the manner in which I did.

~Denise

One need not participate in a carnival to gain a sense of community, and you can link to new and unsung voices any day of the week without the need for a carnival. The purpose of the carnival is to drive traffic, share traffic and gain visibility for a particular topic. And sometimes it's even to lay a claim of ownership as the authoritative voice on a topic. *shudder*

Of course, knowing that doesn't prevent people from participating in them, and it shouldn't. You want to carnvial yourself into a stooper, go for it! It's just that like webrings before them, carnivals have no real claim to authority or anything other than YACL (yet another collection of links), and are recognized widely as a traffic device. I can't recall any high traffic bloggers joining a carnival. Can you?

Of course there are many things that could be called gaming the system. Blogrolls, link exchanges, carnivals, blog badges, and tons of other devices. Competition for traffic is okay by me. And I don't care if you write in really poor english (the only language that I read), so long as you have something worthwhile to say. Some of my fav social media publishers never write a word, or least, very few words. They podcast or videoblog or even photoblog.

Debi Jones
Contributing Editor, Blogging and Social Media ( http://www.blogher.com/topic/blogging-social-media )
Feed your mobile jones ( http://www.mobilejones.com )

Not for the first time, Denise, you take me to task for a misread (or misrepresented) version of what I said, rather than what I *actually* said. Which is fine, if that's your thing - but it's not *my* thing.

I did not say that any Carnival *is* such a thing - including any of those you mentioned - I said it was easy to subvert one to such a thing, and that I see signs of it happening. Which is not the same thing at all - but please, have a go at me for something I didn't *actually* say, if it amuses you.

Nor did I say that those were the only two rationales for a carnival - re-read it, I didn't say that. I picked *one* rationale that I, personally, could get behind, and *one*, personally, that I could not. There are other rationales - and you've listed some. Good for you. Please *don't* imply that I stated that there were only two - I did no such thing.

Blog: Multidimensional.Me ( http://www.multidimensional.me.uk/ )

So Carnival of Feminism is a link-swapping circle jerk? As is Grand Rounds? And Carnival of Homeschooling? And Carnival of Education? And Carnival of the Cockroach (which I so proudly was at one time included)?

But Blogher is not a link-swapping circle jerk.

Here's my real question about your Carnival issues, Koan - you said:

If the objective is to promote good writing, then it's a good thing (in my opinion) - if, however, the objective is to shamelessly harvest links (and thus boost "ratings"), then it's a bad thing (in my opinion).

Those are the only two reasons for creating and participating in a carnival? To promote good writing or to boost ratings shamelessly? There's nothing else going on here? Not the sense of community one might feel from hosting or participating or reading a carnival? Not the ease of access readers might feel when carnival is launched? Not the powerful and positive feelings of inclusion someone (who is often not included) might feel when accepted into a carnival?

~Denise

And there was I, expecting to get an eyebrow-singeing too... ;-)

The similarity between BlogHer surfing guides and carnivals wasn't lost on me beforehand - but there *are* quality controls in place (e.g. blogroll entries are vetted). I'm not against promoting women bloggers - far from it, I'm all *for* it - but, because I'm excessively weird, I find self-promotion to be distasteful, and blatant self-promotion to be repellant - but, that's just me. It's just too easy to subvert Carnivals into, effectively, extended link-swapping circle jerks - and, sadly, that's what I see happening in quite a few of the Carnivals I've looked at.

For clarity - I never pooh-poohed the effort required to host a carnival well. Far from it. Nor am I advocating restriction of freedom of choice. I'm just saying that Carnivals provide another means of gaming the system - and that's either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your perspective. If the objective is to promote good writing, then it's a good thing (in my opinion) - if, however, the objective is to shamelessly harvest links (and thus boost "ratings"), then it's a bad thing (in my opinion).

Blog: Multidimensional.Me ( http://www.multidimensional.me.uk/ )

...started out as a way for folks blogging about a shared topic to provide exposure to their blogging segment. The idea was that everyone blogging about, say business, would submit a relevant post, and each week a different business blogger would "host" the carnival (called such because they travel from blog to blog.) Here's a description at BlogCarnival.com ( http://blogcarnival.com/bc/p_about.html ).

The carnival host actually has to do quite a bit of work to organize submissions, often exhibiting really admirable creativity, and is rewarded with a bump in traffic. Each submitter also hopes that they've submitted a post that grabs people's imaginations, and that they too get a bump. And of course one hopes one retains some percentage of those new visitors because they'll look around your blog and realize how insightful and brilliant you are :)

Assigning some kind of morality to carnivals (or to self-promotion in general) is where Koan and I might diverge :)

Frankly, I don't see Carnivals as all that different from BlogHer...we are trying to promote women bloggers and help expose them to the world. As long as they're regularly blogging, not a spam blog, and meet our basic guidelines ( http://www.blogher.com/node/1052 ), we will list their blogs. We're not claiming to be arbiters of quality...it is after all subjective. You and I might find very different blogs interesting and worth reading.

I prefer carnivals that give me freedom of choice. :)

Long winded answer, huh?

Elisa Camahort
BlogHer and Worker Bees
elisa@blogher.org/elisa@workerbees.biz

OK, I read it here and over at PFAdvice ( http://www.pfadvice.com/ ), so I have to ask, what IS a "carnival"?

I guess blogging, just like everything else, has it's tendency towards social darwinism, for better or worse.

But when I see the lists or articles telling us non-A listers how to get more traffic, I can't help but think those general recipes are a tad insincere and superficial.

Most of us blog because we have something we want to say and most of us hope that day after day, we are not simply talking to ourselves alone. But I think that the idea that there is some simple recipe for getting tons of traffic, is naive and a bit superficial. But that's just my take.

I myself have joined some of those big blog directories to get my little blogs name out there and have dutifully put the cute little button in my sidebar but at the end of the day, I figure that if I write something people want to read, hopefully my traffic will pick up a bit. But I am not going to follow advice like "make top ten lists" if I don't really feel like making a top ten list, if you get my meaning. Basically, I am going to do my own thing.

I have come to like the idea of having regular readers who return time and time again as opposed to just tons of hits from people who get to my blog sometimes accidentally and who will never again return for one reason or another.

I will say that as a non-A lister I am sometimes amazed at some of the sites who are considered A list. I think at a certain point some of the bigger blogs get a bit lazy and take their readership for granted and it seems that fame and/or notoriety has caused some of them to focus on sheer quantity of posts over substance and quality- I am just thinking of one or two of the big political blogs I keep an eye on- I really can't speak for other subject blogs (like food, business, or tech) because I tend to focus almost exclusively on political and legal blogs.

And going back to the social darwinism thing, I have noticed a bit of A list snobbery, but I guess that is to be expected as you find that in almost every medium. But generally, when I think of the blogosphere, I think of us all being in "it" together, regardless of technorati ranking.

No matter how many new links I get, and yes, some of them are from new sites entirely, my techorati stat stays the same. I suppose it's possible that people are dumping me off the back end at the same time that people are adding me on the front end... but I can't even check that, because it's impossible to page through all your link pages without getting an error message.

So, ultimately, Technorati is what it is. Fun to play with for what it is.

I love this topic, Jory. I was just writing last week ( http://www.supamb.com/supafine/archives/blather/00... ) about the manner in which I blog and questioning [rhetorically] whether I should just give up altogether. I don't post many times a day, I don't link very much, sometimes my titles are inexplicable -- but I blog for self-expression, not to make money, and not to top the traffic charts.

I think this is definitely another case of deciding whether to play by "Their" rules or one's own. Though it may affect my bottom line in terms of hits, I'll continue to blog my own way, for better or for worse, and keep the satisfaction. So much of A-list blogging or blogging "how-to" assumes that every blogger has the same goal: power, money, fame -- and though most people agree those would be good perks, it's not what drives all of us.

Oh hell - I'm really not communicating very well today. To clarify even further - I have submitted *one of my own posts* to a Carnival exactly once - I've submitted other peoples posts to Carnivals quite frequently.

It's like the profusion of blog award sites that seem to crop up every other week - if they allow people to nominate their own blogs, well, I shake my head.

Blog: Multidimensional.Me ( http://www.multidimensional.me.uk/ )

I've just re-read my preceding comment, and I didn't *quite* make the point I intended to. I don't have anything against Carnivals - done well, I think they're a great way to "take the pulse" of a specific area of interest. But I'd be more interested in Carnivals where someone *other than the blog author* submitted the posts for consideration - and where the Carnival published statistics of how many posts were rejected for that edition.

In other words, I'd prefer to see Carnivals where obvious quality control is in operation. It takes skill to write a precis of a post, for inclusion in a Carnival - but if everything that's submitted is included, where's the editorial input that makes it, truly, a "best of"?

Full disclosure - I have submitted a post to a Carnival exactly once - because the Carnival's host revealed that they were very short on submissions, and I felt sorry for them! ;-) I felt kind of "unclean" doing it - and won't submit another. To the best of my knowledge, none of my other posts has ever featured in a Carnival - but, imagine my thrill if I ever discover that a third party submitted one of my posts to a Carnival, and it was included. To me, it's the difference between asking for a link, and finding out that someone has linked to you under their own steam - I get fewer links, but do I *ever* appreciate the ones that I get, so much more.

So, these two comments might *seem* off-topic, but I don't think they are - I guess I'm more interested in the recognition that others give me, because *they* think I might be deserving of it, than the recognition *I* can harvest, because I work out all the ways to game the system. If I ever rise above the Z minus list, it will be because other people think I should, and not because *I* think I should. I suspect that my sense of achievement at that point will greatly exceed that of any shameless self-promoter.

Blog: Multidimensional.Me ( http://www.multidimensional.me.uk/ )

Technorati? Don't get me started...

The longer I blog, and the more blogs I read, the more I become convinced that a simple mantra fits so many aspects - "your blog, your rules". Do it your way (whoever you are) and I suspect that the audience you desire (in composition and number) and exposure you feel comfortable with will follow.

When people start to consciously (and obviously) game the process by adopting obvious tactics, I can't help but smile, and think, "now what?" Which is where I possibly incur Elisa's wrath by raining on the whole Carnival thing. Want to take an immediate hike up the Technorati tree? Host a hot carnival, include a bajillion links to other blogs in it (the more the merrier), and sit back and watch as a bajillion bloggers write a post on *their* blog and say, "ooh, lookie, I got mentioned in the latest Carnival of Self-Aggrandisement!" Net result - pick up a few hundred linking sites in Technorati. So easy to do - and, in my opinion, so pointless. There's a particular carnival I'm aware of, where I conduct the following experiment - check the Technorati stats for the host a week beforehand - check them a week after - the effect as above, like clockwork.

Me? I'll write what I want, when I want, in as many or as few words as I want. If people read it, or link to it, maybe I'm doing something right. If they don't, maybe I'm doing something "wrong". But, who's to say? It is, after all, "my blog, my rules". I don't care if I have a readership of one - as long as that one person has benefitted, in the tiniest degree, from what they've read.

Blog: Multidimensional.Me ( http://www.multidimensional.me.uk/ )

Why THANK YOU, Mary! You and Sweetney have to stop reading each other--you're starting to wear your barettes in the same direction ;)

Jory Des Jardins
BlogHer
Personal Blog Pause ( http://www.jorydesjardins.com )

Till my eyebrows grow back. You just singed them off!

Seriously, points well-taken. Though the mention was good old citation, not the desire to be the whore I hate to be...most of the time.

Jory Des Jardins
BlogHer
Personal Blog Pause ( http://www.jorydesjardins.com )

I snuck back in here to get that link to the entry about about how to get on the A-List (for informational purposes only! My friend was asking about it.) and found your comment, Tracey. Thanks! Excuse me while I go obsessively peruse your entire archives now trying to find that mutual friend we must have in common.

P.S. Will you sign my yearbook?

Mary
Mom Writes ( http://marytsao.blogspot.com )

mary, you're cracking my shit up.

and i'm sure all of the women at the playground are in awe of you for many, many reasons.

xo trace
++++++++++
sweetney.com ( http://www.sweetney.com )
email me ( sweetney@sweetney.com )

There's definitely a little part of me that relishes the thought that the mommies at the playground are pointing and whispering about me not because they see my tattoo peaking out from underneath my shirt sleeve but because they realize that there's a WORLD FAMOUS MOMMYBLOGGER in their midst.

I love your long, well-thought-out, and well-written posts, Jory. This one and the one about working your passion in particular.

Also, I reserve all right to name drop or not, make up funny lists or not, compulsively check my stats, ranking, and adsense account, and go blond(er) while still agreeing with everything you're saying.

Mary
Mom Writes ( http://marytsao.blogspot.com )

hilarious, and pointed. personally i always cringe when people begin speaking in alphabetic list-isms; i for one have no desire to categorize myself in that manner. there's something flat-out unseemly about it, and in my gut i sense that positioning oneself or others in such a way lends support to the generation and maintenance of a social pecking order of the sort i thought i'd happily abandoned with high school.

as for technorati, i'm increasingly disenchanted. my stats haven't changed AT ALL (up or down) in over two months, though i'm aware of a fair number of links to my site having been created in that time. for the numbers to remain wholly static for that length of time tells me something is wrong with their system; had my numbers actually GONE DOWN i'd have more faith in their tallying, to be honest.

anyway, great post. lots to chew on here.

xo trace
++++++++++
sweetney.com ( http://www.sweetney.com )
email me ( sweetney@sweetney.com )

True that. :)

Jor: I do find it just a tad ironic that you link to A-Listers (recovering or not) Jeremy and Robert (and Susan too) in this post while comparing A-List name-dropping to whoring.

Or is it just me? ;)

Actually sometimes A-Listers are A-Listers because they write interesting stuff that people feel like commenting on (whether in long-ass comments or in blog posts) and it shouldn't make us feel dirty if they do, and we do.

Elisa Camahort
BlogHer and Worker Bees
elisa@blogher.org/elisa@workerbees.biz

Funny thing, now that I use Bloglines I find myself reading people who post less, more. Does that make sense?

You know, I don't click on someone's blog for a few days, and I see that (12) next to their blog, and I just think, oh, I just can't keep up with that. Except for Cute Overload ( http://cuteoverload.com/ ). They can just keep on bringing it on!!!

PLUS, I am really into slightly longer, well-written blog posts. Hell, they're still actually short; it's not a magazine feature article! I enjoy the occasionally quicky as much as the next girl, but if that's all there is, multiple times a day - personally, that's just not what I'm looking for. :)

As for Technorati, it's interesting and I definitely use it, but I'm not sure if what they're measuring is actually uberrelevant. It's a strange thing to measure links from other sites instead of actual traffic. And dude, who the hell is linking to Boing Boing??? It's just so outside my personal blogosphere.

And the funny thing is, how does 20,000 links even mean so much??? It's a really small number when compared to the population of readers. I always get the sense that something's being fudged in our perceptions.

Can we get a Site Meter driven top 100 list? I wonder if it would be different and how.

As a z lister who will never be an a lister (unless I break down and write the lesbian erotica blog I've sometimes pondered in really odd sleepless moments) but someone who does like a couple of visitors because I'm a social being...

I think Scoble's advice and Jeremy's non-advice can be useful. Partly in the way you've just made it useful, Jory. By looking at the advice and figuring out why it doesn't work for you. And also by looking at the list and pondering whether there's a compromise to be had somewhere in there.

Let me tell you my "compromises"....

10 - I'm with you, how many times can you read about the "hot new topic". I held back today's original blogher piece because it was about abortion. When I arrived, there was too much abortion and even though my piece was different, this wasn't the time. Too much of one topic does not make me happy and I don't think it would have made Bloghers all that happy either. But sometimes, I do like to jump into the hot button topics. Actually, I'd like to do this more often than I currently do it but I don't have time. My perspective is quite often different from the "popular people's". I hope to improve on my "timely posting" issues over the next year.

8- I have namedropped but not really namedropped. I have mentioned Scoble and I have mentioned Dooce and I have mentioned Winer. Not often and only tongue in cheek except when I had something I really wanted to say about Scoble's son and his podcasting problems (that probably falls into #9). I am really troubled by people who name drop with every other post. It makes no sense to me and I will NOT do it. But if it fits my subject - then heck yea, namedropping is good.

6. Blog. A lot. I can't do 4-5 times a day and I won't beat myself up for that. I can, however, pledge to blog once a day on at least one of my blogs. More than that and people would kill me (my family mostly) but readers too. Daily Dose of Denise is fine but 4xs daily is overkill.

4. This is like #10 to me. Sometimes, it's a good idea to do this. To avoid the hot topic just because it is hot doesn't make sense. Your "community" wants to hear what you think about topics that are important or in the news. It gives them a chance to get to know more about you and ummm disagree with you. ;-)

3. I like lists. I don't want a blog that is completely lists but once in awhile, it's good. Quick. Easy. Often amusing. And lists are something I do pretty well. And lists are something a lot of people do pretty well or do really badly - both find them interesting, but for different reasons.

And I just exceeded some comment rule by writing a huge comment, didn't I? I suppose I should have blogged this list instead. ;-)

~Denise

There's an interesting article in the Feb 20 issue of New York magazine ( http://www.newyorkmetro.com/news/media/15967/?imw=... ) called Blogs to Riches. They have the low down on A, B and C-listers.

Nina@Sitting Pretty ( http://sittingprettyfinancially.blogspot.com/ )