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The Blogging Champs Weigh In

By Jeralyn, Section Blog Related
Posted on Mon Sep 27, 2004 at 09:40:59 PM EST
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Twenty-four hours later and the blogosphere is still reflecting on Billmon's op-ed to the LA Times on the commercialization of bloggers and how it contributed to his decision to take a break. I contributed my two cents on Billmon's post yesterday. Today we hear from the left-of-center masters.

This morning, Kos weighed in. I agree with him completely. Tonight, Atrios provided his thoughts, which are more like pearls of wisdom to aspriring bloggers.

If you're new to blogging, go read them both. They're the stars, our blog-fathers. Which is not to say you need to aspire to their heights--only that they demonstrate what it takes to reach them. Neither expected or even sought these pinnacles, but there's a reason they acheived them--and it's not just a matter of being in the right place at the right time, writing about the topic du jour. All it takes to understand their success, should you aspire to it, is to read them throughout the day and evening. Once a day doesn't do either of them justice.

Here's a few snippets of advice Atrios had tonight for new bloggers:

I get email daily from people with new blogs. So, let me give a bit of advice to them:

1) Don't send me an email saying "please link to my blog." I probably won't read it, let alone link to it. There are many reasons for this, a major one being that a hell of a lot of new bloggers burn out rather quickly.

2) If you want an established blogger to link to your blog, the best thing to do is send them the entire content of a post, with a link, that you think that blogger personally might be interested in. Don't set up a spam list and start spamming everyone. It's annoying.

3) Don't obsess about getting on people's blogrolls. You get their attention with enough good stuff, people will put you on eventually. But, that really isn't such an important part of driving traffic your way.

4) Sure it's harder to break into blogging these days. It got a lot harder about 3 months after I started. So, how to do it? Next point...

5) Popular bloggers either a) post a lot, b) have a unique/funny/interesting take on things, c) have been around awhile, d) a combination of a)-c) with a) being the most important. That's just the way it is. Figure out how you can fit into that. Most blogs don't derive their popularity from their "authority," and those that do usually are by people with some credentials. Simply expressing opinions without advancing any kind of new argument isn't a way to differentiate yourself. What I mean is that people may go to DeLong for economics (yes, I'm an economist, but I've never tried to establish myself as an authority here on the blog), and Volokh or Balkin for Law, but I don't think people come to this site for my opinion on issue "X." My take on it, yes, but not simply for "does Atrios think it is good or bad?" because my "authority" as an opinionshaper has any weight. If there's little reason for your opinion to carry some weight, then your opinion isn't going to be enough.

I do make an effort (sometimes) to promote new blogs, etc... But, I can't possibly read all the blogs that are out there. I can't even read all the ones on my blogroll.

And there you have it.

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