I think I may have just coined a new phrase, but I doubt it. I’m never that original. We know the Blogosphere is rampant with folks who talk about politics but that’s not what I mean. I mean as a definition:

Blogotics: n. The activities or affairs engaged in by bloggers in an effort to draw traffic to their site.

Each blogger dreams of fame by unearthing a big story, getting linked by one of the big boys of the Blogosphere, or (the pinnacle) getting quoted in mainstream media (which will never happen to yours truly since no one wants to quote people who choose to remain anonymous). My reason for blogging was because I thought I had a lot to say and I wanted a record of it. Sure, getting a good audience would be great but it’s not my reason for this site.

I started thinking about this in an email in which a fellow blogger told me that:

One of the things I’ve noticed about blogging is that the only way to get noticed is shameless self promotion. That’s probably, hell, the thirtieth item I’ve sent to [Instapundit].

I won’t reveal this blogger unless he asks me to. And he will, he wants traffic. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

The problem with blogoticking is a matter of sheer size. There are a million bloggers on Blogger alone. Establishing an audience is difficult due to the fact that there are so many of us and no one has time to read all of us. I pick my favorites and read them daily. But there’s too many to keep up with.

I am in no way condemning these activities because I’ve engaged in them myself. But I’m not condoning them either. You be the judge!

So, what does the Blogotician do?

* Well, obviously they send emails to the big boys with links to the witty and insightful commentary they provided. Such as my fellow blogger did above. Until today, I never really did this. Before, I sent one email to SKB telling him I had a blog. Today, I sent an email to Instapundit that read the following:

Subject: A meteor may have hit the shuttle

No really. http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_747632.html

Thought you’d like to know.

He blogged the story. I got no mention. Maybe someone else told him too. I wasn’t in it for the mention really since I blogged it on my site already. Still, I’m not so self-righteous as to say that the thought of getting a link back hadn’t crossed my mind (after all, my URL is in the signature I use in email). But it wasn’t my primary intent. So, I’m guilty of blogoticking too. The one time Instapundit linked me, the post wasn’t brought to his attention by me, but it was awesome to get 4,000 hits in two days. Now, I’m getting a regular 80 or so hits per day. Before it was about 50ish. And I’ll take that any day. Thanks, Glenn! What I find interesting is that a post I made obviously in humor got me a link. Sure, it was amusing but it wasn’t one of my best, I don’t think. Yet, when I provide something that I feel is particularly insightful, only my fellow RTB members take note. Oh well.

I wonder how many emails Glenn gets in a day? Hundreds? Thousands? He can’t read them all thoroughly and he can’t link to everyone. If you wanna go this route, you better stick out! I’m a poet and didn’t think I was, wait, that’s not right.

* Also, bloggers visit other prominent sites and leave comments with links to their stuff. This gets you some notice. Invariably, someone will accuse these folks of trolling. But, hey, why do you have comments on your site if you don’t want people telling you what they think of your stuff? Another commentator at LeanLeft accused me of trolling once, even though I don’t know that I linked to anything on my site. Oh well.

* We also have the Carnival of the Vanities. The epitome of shameless self-promotion. Basically, people submit things that others (or themselves) have said that they thought was insightful, witty, or breaking news. And it’s hosted at a different blog each time. So, it’s guaranteed traffic if you can get the gig.

* And the Bloggies. Our own awards show. Of course, since there are so many of us, it’s likely hard to really choose the best. I mean, there’s some person out there that you’ve never heard of that has some really insightful things to say. Of course, I’m just bitter because I wasn’t nominated, at least that’s what folks will say. Naturally, that’s assuming I get some traffic for this post (hey, are you listening? Link me please, nyuk nyuk!).

* Affiliation with groups. People affiliate themselves based on location, ideology, and a slew of other things. Heck, I’m a member of The Rocky Top Brigade. Which is the greatest Blog Affiliate ever, I mean, heck, we’ve got him.

* Bloggers also align themselves politically. There are Republican, Democrat, Libertarian and many other varieties of political affiliation that bloggers associate themselves with. And they cling together and link back and forth.

* Finally, and this is the hard one, say interesting things. Write them well. Have some substance. Don’t just say: Yeah, what he said. If you are a good writer with great things to say, people will find you. And people will like reading your stuff. If you have good insight into things, people will notice.

I’m not a particularly good writer but I’m not the worst. I put thought into my posts, try to write coherently, and give credit where it’s due. Of course, I do all my posts rather expeditiously when I get free time at the office and need that quick break from work. But I’m not that particularly insightful.

I am not in anyway discrediting blogoticking or saying it’s bad. Just some observations. After all, getting traffic is what most of us got into this blogging thing for!

Of course, you realize that this entire post was me blogoticking? Of course you do. Now link back. dammit!

Update: Blogger links are goofy, you’re on your own to find archived items.

Update2: Yeah, I forgot blogrolling. Mostly because I don’t know what it is.

Update3: I’m a blogfisher and didn’t know it. Thanks to Silflay Hraka for the heads up.

Posted in uncategorized on February 6th, 2003 by SayUncle | RSS 2.0 |