Do we as bloggers really need to be A-List?
It’s official… I’ve now been addicted to the blogosphere for five years. My addiction spans far beyond the act of blogging itself. In fact, I’ve actually spent a great deal of time studying and trying to understand what blogging is and where it might take us.
Much to my own surprise, I now see the new media movement much differently than I did back when I first started dabbling with the concept. Back then I took the “sphere” part literally, and I focused a lot of my time on being a part of this “sphere” everyone was chattering about.
I remember the first time I read Hugh Hewitt’s book “blog”, and I remember finishing the last chapter with great enthusiasm. I studied the work of Lorelle VanFossen, Glenn Reynolds, Ed Morrissey, the guys at Powerline and many others. I monitored traffic trends, worked with PPC programs, watched networks work together in pushing big stories, and participated in just about every online forum possible.
I’ve been fortunate in my way of thinking in that I never sought blogging success for myself; Rather, I wanted to do what I could to help others succeed online with what they were already doing offline. I credit this mentality for what I see as a decent understanding of how it all works, and how we can immerse ourselves in it to further the freedom movement.
What stands out the most?
For starters, I’ve recently began noticing that a lot of the advice and consulting with regards to new media has evolved around traffic. Yes, over the past five years a common message on blogging has been increasing readership. Sure, increasing readership is important, but I think we might have put far too much emphasis on the numbers themselves. And in doing so we failed to express the importance of the readers we already have.
What makes me think this? Well, for starters I’ve seen countless bloggers throw their hands up and admit defeat in their blogging journey. Was it because they didn’t enjoy expressing themselves and sharing their opinions? Not likely. I would be willing to bet that most felt they simply didn’t have a readership.
But did they really lack readers?
I run a blog hosting community over at ConservaBlogs.com. We’re coming up on two years of being live now and we have more than 20 bloggers who post several times per week. You can see examples of these blogs here, here, and here. The site is no Townhall or Newsbusters by any means, but we see an average of 4,500 visits per day.
This traffic is nice, but it didn’t always exist. In fact, just last summer we weren’t even seeing half the traffic we see now. We were lucky if we got 1,500 visits in a single day. At the time we had more than 30 bloggers on the site and traffic was just starting to pick up. However, because the traffic was not there yet, several of our bloggers became discouraged and closed down shop. For two of them, it was the first time they had ever dabbled with blogging and will likely be the last.
One of the bloggers simply vanished. I’ve yet to speak with him since he closed his blog down and I have no idea where he is now. But I did get a chance to exchange e-mails with one of the other bloggers who had given up on his blogging efforts. When asked why he decided to bail on his blog, he said he didn’t feel it was worth the effort. He pointed me to his stats where it was apparent he never had more than 40 visits per day, and he insisted that other bloggers were telling him he should have much higher numbers.
Before I go any further I must admit that I’m probably a part of the problem here. You see, I’m one of those bloggers who has for years preached the importance of growing numbers and large traffic spikes. Now, I’m not asserting this is wrong, but I would suggest that it leaves a wide open gap in the understanding of how important new media can be.
A growing readership is important, and something every blogger should be mindful of. But more importantly, it’s the who, not the how many.
We political junkies too often look at the traffic stats when judging the importance and influence of blogs. Our national pundits and news makers have, in my opinion, completely missed the mark in identifying and crediting good bloggers. Most of the major players of the “conservative movement” will simply write off a blogger because, well, because who is that?
How ridiculous…
Many on the right assume that Townhall, Newsbusters, Redstate, HotAir and other major online news servers are some how the “A-List” bloggers of the center-right movement.
My question is simple… when was the last time Townhall.com worked to oust a school board member in Topeka Kansas, replacing him/her with a true liberty candidate? Name the last time HotAir.com worked with local bloggers in Texas to shoot down a tax increase?
Heck, Chicago just cranked the sales tax to 10.25%, the highest in the nation! Where were the “A-Listers”?
I’m not trying to say these sites are irrelevant, because they aren’t. In fact, they play an extremely vital role in disseminating news punditry. But without payrolls and full time staff would they be able to do what they do? Without big names on the roster would they have as many readers?
Think about it.
In my view, the rock star bloggers are the ones who are filing FOIA’s. The big dogs are the ones beating down tax increases and exposing local corruption. The brave bloggers are those who take on teachers unions with nothing more than a keyboard and a Wordpress login.
And guess what? I’ve seen bloggers with no more than 30 visits per day literally shift state policy. I’ve watched underdog candidates for school board knock entrenched politicians from their seats using nothing more than the internet and a few hundred dollars.
So in the end, I would argue that perhaps we should shift our focus away from being “A-list” or big traffic blogs, and start focusing more on what it is we are opining on. In my opinion, an effective blog is one that is driven by passion, honesty, and a blogger who isn’t afraid to link to a few other bloggers.
Sure, you might not see more than 40 visits a day for the first year, but those 40 visits may be the most important visits you’ll ever have.
Part two of this thought coming soon…
FamousDC Says:
Well done, Eric - a motivating read!
This will now become the driving force for our blog:
“But more importantly, it’s the who, not the how many.”
FamousDC’s last blog post..DC Moves
Posted on March 18th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Eric Odom Says:
FDC, you pulled my favorite line out of this post!
By the way… I noticed you use one of Brian Gardner’s themes. I use one of his over at ConservaBlogs.com and love every minute of it.
Thanks for stopping by.
-Eric
Posted on March 18th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Leonidas Says:
EO -
As one of the ones you’ve helped over the years, I can testify to both the truth of your claims and the depth of your wisdom in all things New Media.
Great post!
~Leonidas
Posted on March 18th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
lenniej Says:
When I started blogging I thought traffic was the key as well. Since then, I have come to realize that I don’t need to drive a lot of traffic. I can fill a niche with a hundred or so regular readers. Once I didn’t care about the traffic and focused on my message my numbers did grow to several hundred visitors anyway. I no longer blog for the traffic, I blog because of my passion for the subject and knowing I am providing a valuable service even if only a few people are reading.
Posted on March 19th, 2008 at 7:29 am
Eric Odom Says:
@ Leo: Thanks my friend. Believe it or not, you are one of the most talented and gifted bloggers I know.
@ Lennie: Exactly! The traffic, in my experience, starts funneling in when I stop focusing on it.
Posted on March 19th, 2008 at 7:34 am
Ari Shohat Says:
Eric, very good post.
It is indeed *the who*, it’s important to get the high attention level of the few rather than casual attention of the many.
It’s also important to think about *the why*. I think many numbers go at it with the motivation being purely numbers. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with such a motivation, but in most cases it just won’t be enough because the audiences will be small, and ever so fragmented.
We’re living in an increasingly sped up web, expect fragmentation, micro communities, and micro blogging to take over. Blogging in terms of traditional blogging isn’t even growing all that much, it’s starting to loose out to new forms of “blogging” - micro variations, even the likes of Twitter, etc. What then? Well no matter what medium you’re in, again, attention is what matters, and what you plan to do with that attention.
Eric you also had great points about A-listers missing much. I’d argue there’s still room for very talented upcoming bloggers if they can market themselves well and know what they are talking about. Often times A-listers don’t want to link to other high traffic stories because now they see it as competition. This is where opportunity comes up to pitch to the A-listers, as they are actually looking to link to “smaller guys” and don’t worry as much about turning their firehose at your site.
Thanks for the link on the side btw, not sure I deserve the top spot using the alpha sort!
Posted on March 20th, 2008 at 9:08 am
Eric Odom Says:
Ari,
You are 100% correct on all fronts! I really like the way you say “casual attention of the many.” Casual attention is EXACTLY what the A-Listers have. This casual readership usually will not activate, and in many cases the casual readers are just surfing for stuff to glance at.
In regards to the link… are you kidding? I stream DI every day dude! (although, for some reason I haven’t been able to connect to Tribal House for the past few weeks) Plus, you’ve got a great blog and I admire your e-entrepreneurial spirit.
Well deserving of the top link.
-Eric
Posted on March 20th, 2008 at 9:13 am
Ari Shohat Says:
Eric, if you like the attention arguements, I think you might be really interested in my upcoming new venture which is an attention marketplace itself
Posted on March 20th, 2008 at 9:20 am
Eric Odom Says:
Looking forward to reading about it!
Posted on March 20th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Patrick Ruffini Says:
Amen.
I have been blogging on and off for more than six years now. And I can say that the most satisfying moments have come not with huge traffic spikes or access to a large readership, but when a small number of expert participants congregate around a story, add their thoughts, recirculate it, and make it into something that eventually impacts the national conversation.
Over the last year, I’ve really tried to focus on quality over quantity of posts, cultivating an RSS subscriber base of deeply engaged readers (which now stands at over 600 vs. daily traffic of about 1,000) and growing my Twitter follower base to nearly 500. These may not be huge numbers, but the people who use these tools are the real A-listers. I feel like I have a direct channel to them, and don’t have to work as hard for traffic. Not to sound snobbish, but the people really matter to me are reading my RSS feed and following me on Twitter.
There is a reason Markos is not the most influential blogger on the left, and why he is linked far less than other outlets like TPM: he brings very little new to the discussion. DailyKos is a huge community, but in terms of thought leadership and impact on the left, I read MyDD, OpenLeft, Josh Marshall, etc.
There is also a reason why most local blogs with a few hundred readers at best get more comments than national blogs with thousands. They have dense, interconnected readerships, many of whom likely know each other offline. A friend made a very valuable observation to me recently: it’s more important to get 100 people who all know each other, vs. a 1,000 who don’t. That’s so true.
My advice to new bloggers is to ignore the national space — unless you have a TRULY unique perspective — and focus on dominating a niche, be that in politics in your community (most Congressional Districts still don’t have good blogs, and the good ones are very impactful), or some little covered, emerging aspect of national politics. With the incumbents increasingly entrenched, the blogs adding value today are at those that hone in on interesting stuff no one else is covering. Cover your niche well enough and your blog will be the first thing that pops up when someone searches for your topic in Google.
Patrick Ruffini’s last blog post..links for 2008-03-21
Posted on March 21st, 2008 at 9:18 am
Leslie Says:
Needless to say, I agree with the advice and the sentiments.
Leslie’s last blog post..How Chad Nodland is celebrating Sunshine Week
Posted on March 21st, 2008 at 10:56 am
Paul Socha Says:
Thank you for your words of wisdom. I can feel for those who left blogging. You see little or no hits, you make a comment and a lefty swears and curses you up and down the comment section. You think at the begining your trying to make a diffrence and you get knocked down again. The one good thing , the comments are mine. I can voice my opionon anytime I see fit. I hope some day to make a diffrence and hopefully when I am gone that my family can look into the mind of their dad and grandfather.To the pioneers of the blog world that took the arrows, keep up the great work. For all the rest, ditto’s
Paul Socha
Wisconsin
Posted on March 24th, 2008 at 6:20 pm