Monday, October 03, 2005

Fuuture of Blogs

Kevin McCullough blogged that at the NYC Blogger Bash Scott Sala from SlantPoint said it is rare for the big blogs to link to him anymore (something more than one blogger can relate to since the election for sure). But he also noted that a lot of smaller blogs have simply begun to repeat the main stories they are finding at InstaPundit, HughHewitt, MichelleMalkin, and a handful of other top ten poli-blogs.

That is certainly not how to build a readership. Occasionally I will go to one of the biggies for an idea, but I usually start my day commenting on items I capture from the MSM and conservative sites like Townhall, OpinionJournal, and NationalReview, that I capture each morning for posting on my BushSupporter website. I then check out Memorandum, to see if I can find something to comment on, but I usually pick items that have only two or three blogs addressing it, rather than the BlogStorms that everyone is commenting on.
It discourages him and has made him reconsider just how much time he can continue to give to material if his efforts have little chance of growth. Scott is not alone. Nearly every blogger I know has lower traffic now than they did just before the election of 2004. Only one major blog has really emerged into the highest ranks of the blogosphere in recent months and that distinction belongs to the continued meteoric rise of Malkin on the scene. In less than one fifth the time it took for Hewitt to assemble the readership he now has - with his access to 140 radio station audiences everyday - Malkin has shot well past him in daily readership - and technically she's a stay at home mom. But aside from Malkin, the growth in readership per blog HAS not continued in 2005 the way it exploded in 2004.
I would not worry too much about that. Just wait until 2006, it will pick back up, and grow even more.
Michael Bates blogged I think Scott's observation about finding a niche is exactly right. My traffic is actually up over last year, thanks in part to the Tulsa Whirled's short-sighted decision to threaten me over linking to their website. I think most of it, though, is because there's a lot of room for growth in the niche I occupy. I mainly write about Tulsa, and there are a lot of Internet users in Tulsa that are just starting to discover blogs. My blogging and my political involvement gave me enough local visibility and credibility to give me opportunities on the radio and now as a columnist in an alternative weekly, which raises my visibility further and brings more people to the blog.
Michael's site is the main one I go to for Tulsa News, although I do check TulsaBloggers as well
It's funny: I don't regularly read most of the big blog dogs that Kevin mentions in his entry. I used to, but it seems that ever since I created a special sidebar section for "News Blogs, Frequently Updated" I stopped checking them as often as before. Instead I find what they're saying via the lower-ranked bloggers that I read more often. I find myself more often exploring the sites of other bloggers who have linked to me, or who have written on some of the same topics, or bloggers that I've met in real-life, like Kevin and Scott and Karol.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Michelle Malkin's blog is a good blog to link to, simply because she has the time and the resources to compile what I believe to be the best conservative blog roundups on major news stories.

And she supports trackbacks, which absolutely drive traffic to blogs that link to hers. She also reads her email, and if you blog about something worthwhile and send her a tip, she will link to you. Same with many other big-name bloggers.

There are simply too many blogs out there, and no single person has the time to read them all. Big bloggers still link mostly to their friends and colleagues, and most of the big blogs are run by people who are already established in the political world either as writers or policy experts.

I think that the reason most small bloggers (like me) link to big blogs, especially those with trackbacks, is to drive traffic back to our own blogs.

But it is often better to find smaller bloggers, become friends with them, and link to each other's work. That has helped me, too.

Don Singleton said...

Michelle Malkin's blog is a good blog to link to, simply because she has the time and the resources to compile what I believe to be the best conservative blog roundups on major news stories.

I agree. In fact her blog is the top one on the list I check when I am looking for ideas. The Anchoress and LaShawn Barber are the next two, then Professor Bainbridge

And she supports trackbacks, which absolutely drive traffic to blogs that link to hers. She also reads her email, and if you blog about something worthwhile and send her a tip, she will link to you. Same with many other big-name bloggers.

I agree. I almost never link to a blog without trackbacks. Sometimes I will link to one with comments where I can place a link to my post.

There are simply too many blogs out there, and no single person has the time to read them all. Big bloggers still link mostly to their friends and colleagues, and most of the big blogs are run by people who are already established in the political world either as writers or policy experts.

I agree

I think that the reason most small bloggers (like me) link to big blogs, especially those with trackbacks, is to drive traffic back to our own blogs.

That is certainly one good reason. I also trackback, even on blogs where trackbacks are not listed, to allow the site to know I quoted them

But it is often better to find smaller bloggers, become friends with them, and link to each other's work. That has helped me, too.

I agree. When a blog trackbacks to me, I almost always check them out, and post something about one of their posts.