Why Are Multi-Writer Weblogs More Popular?
In Seth Godin’s Fiddleheads post, he raises an excellent point about developing a market. In his analogy, he points out that in any marketplace, say a Farmers Market, each booth owner is thinking that they’d do better if they were the only booth of their kind in the market. This feeling is echoed, Seth says, pretty much anywhere, but “this reasoning is fallacious”.
No doubt, bloggers often feel the same way, but I think that if there are more than two blogs on a topic, that’s actually a good thing for everyone. In a similar but different situation, a blog with multiple writers is arguably going to do better than most blogs with just one writer.
There are many examples of this, including most of the Weblogs, Inc blogs. My own writing has recently started appearing on other people’s blogs by request, and on one website, I’m getting several hundred pageviews per post. In just a day or two. None of my blogs have individually received as many pageviews in a single day or two, despite writing my ass off for 11 months now – and even though I publish the same type of writing and topics on my own blogs.
Why is that? I think it’s pretty simple to answer. When there is more than one writer, there’s something for everyone. There is more fresh content daily, and variety. And when writers on one weblog inter-link to each other’s posts, it’s an invitation for their loyal readers to read the other writers. A synergy is built up. But if a weblog only has one writer, the success of it depends solely on the cult of personality that that writer can build up, regardless of what they are writing about and how often.
As much as it might sting, there aren’t many writers who can achieve this cult of personality. A FEW good examples of such types of writers – in no particular order – are Darren Rowse, Seth Godin, Robert Scoble, Steve Rubel, Brian Clark, Yaro Starak, Steve Pavlina, Debbie Weil, and Guy Kawasaki.
The moral, for most bloggers, is that synergy is a good thing, but it is possible to be a successful soloist. You’ll note that every one of the above writers have regularly have something of value to tell their regular readers.
Know of any other solo bloggers who you think are developing their own cult of personality with their insightful writing?
Blogging Not Allowed
This weekend I will be attending a developer conference. I happened to mention in an online forum that I will be there with a camera. It turns out cameras are not welcome without special permission. Of course now I want to know why. Hmmm, ok, I thought, perhaps they don’t want secrets revealing or official announcements beating to the punch. Nope, no news announcements or NDA material will be revealed looking at the agenda. Scratch that one off the list.
While I am acting all offended and surprised, truthfully this isn’t the first time. Another event with a camera ban specifically asked people not to blog. It seems in this day where “word of mouth” is king (and rightfully so), conference organisers are slow to learn the benefits of it. They rely instead on hoarding the information, using PR and traditional advertising to get the word out.
How much greater and more effective will the buzz be if Flickr was awash with happy, excited faces of attendees? If technorati, tech.meme, digg was crowded with links to conference-related topics and blog posts of satisfied customers?
Of course I will still attend, and more than likely I will still blog it. Heck if I don’t get permission to take pictures I shall probably just try some sneaky camera phone snaps. Just a shame that these things are discouraged rather than seen for the win-win benefit they really are.
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5 Steps for Identifying Dodgy Blog Submissions
Recently I had to investigate a couple of article submissions here at Performancing. They smelt wrong, so I did the sensible thing and poked them with a stick to see if there really was something amiss. Im going to tell you why you need to check user contributed articles, and give you 5 easy steps to help you make the call.
Before we get into HOW, let’s just talk about WHY…
As a publisher, what goes out on your blog is your responsibility. Content does not necessarily have to be original, or even well written, (there is a lot of value in some aggregation and not everyone writes brilliantly) but you DO have a responsibility to your readers to not fill them full of shit. And it’s the kind of mind numbingly dreadful, regurgitated content that content spammers want to foist on you and your readers that you, as a responsible publisher have a duty to identify, and kill before it hits your RSS.
5 Steps For Checking User Submitted Posts
If you get that “somethings not right” feeling when reviewing a user submission, look for these tell-tale signs of content spamming.
1. Are the linebreaks out sync?
You can often see if an post has been cut and pasted rather than typed into your form by looking at the linebreaks. Most blog software automatically puts
There are a number of legitimate reasons why this might happen, so its by no means conclusive by itself.
2. Has it been submitted elsewhere?
Here’s a neat Search trick: take a 5 or 6 word fragment from the article (one without punctuation preferably) and enter it into Google like this: "this sentence was taken from the article" include the quotes.
Pick something as unique as possible. If the article has been submitted to a ton of places already, and Google has had chance to index them, it’ll showup in the results.
If it does, then also take a look at where it’s been submitted. Are those good sites? Or are they spammy article syndication schemes?
Tip: If you get results in your search, hit the ” repeat the search with the omitted results included” link at the bottom of the page — Google doesn’t like duplicate content much, so filters it out. If you find a ton of filtered stuff, it’s even worse than you thought.
3. Is there an obvious promotional angle?
With my recent investigation, there was a link and piece of promo text just screaming out at me. It stuck out like a sore thumb and looked to be the sole point of the article — to promote this service. Sometime’s that’s ok, but often it’s not, it’s a judgement call you need to make in combination with other factors.
You can check this with another Search trick. Enter this in Google: "Author Name" "linktext of service" — In my case I hit the jackpot.
4. Are there affiliate links embedded in the content?
One sure sign of undesirable content is having the authors affiliate id appended to urls in her links. If the links seem to contain codes/id’s where you wouldn’t really need them to reach the page linked to, then that could be the entire purpose of the submission. Motive doesn’t mean the article is bad quality necessarily, but 9 times out of 10, if you find affiliate links, you’ll find multiple submissions aswell.
5. Is it just wrong?
In some years of working with online communities, i’ve learnt to just trust my instincts sometimes. Occasionally something just feels all wrong, though you can’t put your finger on why. This isn’t usually the best reason to take action, but sometimes you just have to trust that your brain is processing stuff and reaching a conclusion without necessarily bothering you with the details….
Blogger Beware
I’ve been seeing more and more of this type of thing over the last few months, particularly from those touting promotional services. If you have any thoughts on this, or any other good means ot spot dodgy posts i’d love ot hear them.
It’s unfortunate that we have to even be aware of this stuff, but as publishers we do, because as i said earlier, if it’s your blog, it’s your responsibility.
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Blog Hosting Recommendations
Over in the Performancing blog forums Jill Murray is asking if anyone LOVES their blog host? So far, the clear winner is Dreamhost.
If you have a recommendation, please check the aff links and coupon codes at the door and dive right in…
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Tim O’Reilly Speaks, Oh Boy…..
You’d have to be living under a rock to have missed the kerfuffle over O’Reilly sending a C&D over the term web2.0, and the tech blogosphere has been waiting for a response from Tim with baited breath. Well, here it is: Tim O’Reilly speaks.
The post raises a ton of points, most of which im going to ignore as it’s past my bedtime and I could be here till next week trying to comment on them all…
A couple of things I’d like to say though: I can understand Tim being upset, but slamming bloggers for not being journalists is just naive. The ’sphere is a mad, out of control mob at times, and it’s not going to change, it’s only going to get worse. That’s just the way it is.
Having said that, the cream does rise to the top, and those at the top, the thought leaders in tech blogging, should indeed show a little respect, and perhaps restraint when someone with such a stella reputation is under-fire and not their to defend themselves.
It almsot certainly wont happen though.
As for the whole “who owns web2.0″ shinanigans, i’ll leave that for others to debate.
If I was really cynical, I’d say that there is a very good lesson in how to deflect attention in Tim’s post 
Havefun reading that one, it’s long, but worth the time it takes as it brings up jsut sooo many questions…
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Talking About Blog Monetization
I’ve just seen Darren talking about monetization, specifically about when to monetize. It’s a good post, and outlines the two major schools of thought on this, and also reminds me that last week we had a cracking discussion on the same topic in the Performancing blog forums.
If you’re looking for the lowdown on when to monetize, check out those two great discussions…
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Why NoFollow Was A Failure
A year and a half ago, i wrote a long post explaining why nofollow would not work, so it’s no great surprise to be proved right. This hasn’t just happened, it’s not suddenly stopped working: It never worked, and has only had the predicted detrimental effect on the web and the way we link.
Jeremy, a top bod in Yahoo! Search, who also supported this ludicrous idea, points to this post that lays the blame solidly at Google’s door. Im pretty sure I said so at the time, but if not, let me repeat my thoughts here: NoFollow was a “this will shut them up”, ill thought out, knee-jerk bandaid hurredly implemented to get bloggers and blog vendors off of Google/Yahoo’s back.
It could never work. As dylan points out, the economics of blog spam are that it is CHEAP to spam comments, and spammers don’t care if some of their efforts are in vain because it costs virtually nothing.
Since its enthusiastic adoption a year and a half ago, by Google, Six Apart, Wordpress, and of course the eminent Dave Winer, I think we can all agree that nofollow has done … nothing. Comment spam? Thicker than ever. It’s had absolutely no effect on the volume of spam. That’s probably because comment spammers don’t give a crap, because the marginal cost of spamming is so low.
Spot on.
Jeremy actually has the best advice I’ve seen regarding linking, particularly in the context of nofollow from a Search rep:
Look. Linking is part of what makes the web work. If you’re actually concerned about every link you make being counted in some global database of site endorsements, you’re probably over-thinking just a bit. Life’s too short for that, ya know? Link and be linked to. Let the search engines sort it out.
Really, that’s a breath of fresh air.
Google, and Yahoo, Knew this Wouldn’t Work
Remember I called this a bandaid? More precisely it was a PR bandaid, hastily slapped on during a crisis when no real answers were forthcoming (not ones that would be popular anyway). I find it impossible to believe that Search reps like Google’s Matt Cutts, NoFollows most ardent supporter, and Yahoo’s Jeremy Zawodny really believed this would work.
When Search pundits like Danny Sullivan point out that it’s a non solution, aswell as a host of other Search bloggers (some of whom are linked from this thread), why is it that GOOG/YHOO were the only ones who couldn’t see it?
Note that the people saying this wouldn’t work are as enthusiastic, and as knowlegable about Search as most Search reps.
The only people that believed this was a solution other than the engines, (who as i’ve said, were only paying lip service) were a bunch of folks who didn’t understand Search or the economics of blog spam.
Can we have some real debate on solutions now? Is it time yet? Or do we need to hear a few more fairy tales first?
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Announcing Performancing Launchpad
Today, we’re pleased to unveil a new service that allows people to post new gadgets, plugins, services, sites and blogs aimed at the blogging community. Performancing Launchpad will be a great place to get your service or product peer reviewed by the Performancing audience, and kickstart a launch aimed at bloggers.
How it Works
If you’re launching a new service or site aimed at bloggers, take a look at the Launchpad Guidelines then simply hit Create Content over on the right, and choose launchpad. Fill in the form, and away you go!
Who Is It For?
Launchpad is for anyone creating something cool for bloggers. It would suit the web2.0 crowd, aswell as new sites aimed at bloggers. It would be ideal for new plugins, and services that add value for bloggers in general.
If you’re unsure of whether your service fits the bill, you’re welcome to email me or Chris anytime (nick@, chris@).
Kicking It Off
Good friend of Performancing Chris Matthieu from Numly has been kind enough to kick the new service off prior to official launch, with a Launchpad for his new product Bookfob, so that should give you an idea of how it works.
All feedback gratefully received, and of course we’re all looking forward to seeing what you’re making out there!
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The State of RSS Reading in Linux
As a desktop Linux user for over 5yrs, almost 3yrs of which I’ve been using Gentoo, I find it annoying to say the least that the RSS readers I’ve encountered are less than wonderful. There are some interesting projects of course, but for someone that lives on his feeds, I’ve yet to find anythiing that meets the kind of standard I’d wish for in a reader.
The two main projects that I’m aware of are Liferea and Akregator, part of the KDE desktiop system.
Liferea hss been my reader for a long time, and it’s OK, but clunky and somewhat ugly. Akregator is something i’ve been meaning to go back to (the last time I tried it it was really not ready for primetime) and this morning I did. It’s better, but still lacks maturity and full keyboard navigation. It also (like liferea) takes a long time to mark a folder as read if that folder contains a lot of feed items. For now, I’m going to stick with Akregator for a little while and see how I get on as it does have some features I like (like an icon that sits in the system tray and tells you how many unread posts it has) and it’s much more “readable” for me. I have pretty poor vision so that’s a top priority.
What About Firefox?
Lets be clear: I won’t put myself at the mercy of an online service, I want a desktop reader.
When I first discovered feeds and blogs, I used Firefox’s Sage, which seemed ok till it started mangling my feeds, it seemed to top out at around 300 feeds and start going all wonky. I’d be very interested to hear anyones experience with that app recently.
Is Sage ready for primetime? Is it of industrial strength now?
Im not sure what else exists for Firefox, or if they’d be worth trying, so if anyone has anything to say about RSS reading in Firefox it would be appreciated. I already do all of my blogging using our own blog editor for Firefox so that would make some sense. Hell, maybe we should build RSS reading into PFF?
Anyway, your thoughts welcomed on the state of blog reading in Linux….
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Handling Mistakes in Public
When, inevitably you make a mistake, or a bad call, what do you do? Pretend it didn’t happen, hope it will just go away, wrap it in corporate speak and pray it just blows over before the boss gets back?
For those that missed it, there was some fun and games yesterday as O’Reilly got their knickers in a corporate twist over the copyright of “web2.0″. Sheesh, how un-web2 can you get?
Owning Your Mistakes
Read the O’Reilly response to this PR fiasco then read Rick Segal’s excellent analysis and advice on how it should have been handled.
First, if you own it, step up, take the direct hit, and stay put to deal with the fallout. “Brady†on the O’Reilly web site does the standard our pr people released the following statement nonsense and off we go into corporate-speak dribble. Sara Winge didn’t personally get on the blog and say, I made this call. A VP of Corporate Communications should know better, should have anticipated the fallout and, even with Tim on vacation, should have known how to deal with this.
The post is a well deserved slam at O’Reilly’s corporate muppets, but also has some great advice for how to handle these things when they happen.
But Dont SuckToo Much…
In contrast, in a fun post also from yesterday Nick Carr slaps Steve Rubel over a somewhat ridiculous post entitled I like companies that say “we suck”. I thnk there is a balance that needs to be struck between between showing accountability, and communicating clearly with your customers/readers/users and handling the day to day business of running a company.
It doesn’t pay to take these things too far, but they’re certainly best not ignored. As Nick point’s out, he’d rather deal with companies that spend their time creating better products than whining about how much they suck.
Friday food for thought….
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