Don't all link to me at once...
In a recent post I floated the theory that Content Creators need Media Companies to help them attract mass eyeballs to read their carefully-crafted content. It would be a symbiotic relationship - the Media Co's get compelling content and the Content Creator gets mass readership. It's win-win and I think this is one way round the A-List or Power Law issue with the blogosphere.
My previous post is a classic case in point. It's an interview with the CEO of the top computer book seller in the world and a leading Web visionary. The content of the interview is very compelling (IMHO), if you're at all interested in web technology. Yet so far, about 36 hours after I published it, no big blogosphere 'connectors' have linked to it. I haven't really pimped it round the sphere, other than submitting it to Slashdot (no go, this time) and Boing Boing (obviously not quirky enough). I suppose I could email the link to the connectors in the web tech blogging world - Dave Winer, Doc Searls, Robert Scoble, et al. But frankly I hate doing that kind of stuff... it makes me feel like I'm a court jester begging for the King's attention. (I haven't even linked to said people, such is my shame in even mentioning it).
So what to do? Obviously I want people to read my interview with Tim O'Reilly, not to mention the other things I put so much effort into writing. Maybe I need a "Blog Agent" to whip up some public relations, flick the link around to all the connectors, syndicate it on media websites - and all the other things that you need to do to get read around here. That's not self-pity speaking either - it's ambition...of a Content Creator who is not very good at this PR game.
Of course, it all comes back to that word 'momentum' (one of my fave words currently). Once even 1 connector links to you, the ball starts rolling and the meme spreads - sometimes like wildfire. That's happened to me a number of times before - e.g. my interview with Lucas Gonze got Slashdotted and it was all go after that. The challenge for the vast majority of bloggers is to get that first connector to link to you...
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I posted the O'Reilly interview to /. but it was rejected. Sorry :(
OK, I've put on my court jester outfit and have sent an email to the connectors in the web tech world. I really couldn't think of how else to try and get some buzz for this interview, which I admit I really want people to read.
Feel free to hurl stones at me and call me a slut.
I've been sitting here all day, trying to come up with some coherent advice and words of wisdom, but now I see Kottke has picked up the interview, so I guess it's all moot.
Frankly, I don't hold it against you at all for pimping your content out. It's valuable and important and it should get put in front of a wider audience. But you raise a valid point in questioning how exactly a blogger can get their thoughts out in front of an appreciative crowd.
At the core of this, I think, is a balance of signal versus noise. You have to imagine that the A-Listers get inundated with link requests all day long. And no matter how good your content may be, you have that gnawing feeling that submitting your stuff is only compounding the problem.
So, take your link somewhere where the noise is a little less and the signal is a little stronger.
What about the B-List? What about your blogroll? What about dropping the link into your del.icio.us bin with a few strategic tags (I tried this, though, and it didn't really work out). I would imagine that there have to be more topic-related blogs on Web 2.0, eBooks, etc., that are not as highly visible as Scoble, but would appreciate the content in your interviews. And if you can build up the momentum there, seed it across a few blogs, then you might be able to build up momentum that way.
Hopefully this all makes some sense. I'm always in favor of the bottom-up approach, as opposed to top-down (find someone famous to link to you) approach. Maybe my assumptions on your motivations are wrong, but this is my take on the situation.
Oh, and by the way, your site fits that criteria for me perfectly. High signal, low noise. I can only build whuffie by dropping my content here and linking back to my (rarely updated) blog.
:)
Thanks for your thoughts Justin. You're pretty much summarised my own opinions. I was very reluctant to send out an email to the web tech connectors a) because as you say, they must get lots of requests for links, b) it may even damage my own reputation if they find my email annoying, and c) also like you say, I'd prefer that my content progagates out to the sphere 'au natural' without me pimping it.
But in the end, I couldn't get any momentum going on this using the 'bottom-up' approach - so I went ahead and 'pimped' my interview via email (to a select group and I was extremely polite about it).
A couple of them have responded, which I am hugely grateful for. I wouldn't recommend it as a general approach, and I'll try very hard not to do it again, but when one is sitting on an interview of someone of Tim O'Reilly's stature - well it behoves one to promote it.
I've been very impressed so far with the selection of interviewees, as well as the interviews themselves.
Keep up the good work.
I think you're one level up on the fractal blogosphere than I am, so I don't think me linking to you on these articles is going to make much of a difference - but if it is any consultation, I do intend to link to one or more of them - eventually - when I actually have something to say other than "that's good stuff" which, while I understand a post author appreciates reading, as a comment reader, I find myself perturbed by "that's good stuff" comments (especially if there are a lot of them) because the only value that they add is to the author's ego. But anyway, enough of that tangent.
These interviews? They're good stuff.
Oh I love seeing "that's good stuff" comments! :-) Keep 'em coming, is what I say...
building an audience is _hard_work_.
and doing p.r. is not just distasteful,
but it won't work, not in the long run,
because it doesn't scale. indeed,
not only does it not scale, but it
actually exerts a negative effect
if too many people start doing it.
so what is the solution?
collaborative filtering.
and not the kind that amazon does,
but _real_ collaborative filtering.
-bowerbird