Ironbear on Trackback Parties

Ironbear, who sometimes blogs at Who Tends the Fires, left this comment the other day, on the subject of link inflation, open trackbacks, Ecosystem rankings, etc.:

You [bloggers] can drive yourself absolutely nutso chasing links and ratings, but at the end of the day - it’s whether you reach, grab, and keep readers that makes or breaks you. All the links and rankings in the Ecosystem don’t matter a jot if you only get one-time-visitors who don’t come back because your content sucks.

And while you’re busily fighting for links and recognition … you’re probably too busy to write stuff that you enjoy, and that’s worth coming back for. Rankings are cool, but… I come back to visit people like … Kevin Baker, Porretto, Billy Beck, and The Gun Guy repeatedly because they have stuff there I want to read, not because of where they are at TTLB.

Good point, Ironbear. The Ecosystem has some merit, as a peer ranking system, showing which blogs are read (linked) by other bloggers, but the ultimate measure is total readership. And readers will only come by if there is something worthwhile to read.

Comments

  1. Don Surber wrote:

    Amen

    Posted 28 Nov 2005 at 11:34 am

  2. Ironbear wrote:

    Well, it makes the TB parties and other attention getting tricks understandable, too: they’re ways of getting noticed. EVERYONE wants to draw eyes, and it’s harder and harder to do in today’s blogdom. You have a LOT of sites competing for those eyes and readers.

    Problem is, the “tricks” backfire: you follow a link to someone looking for something to read, and all you find is an open trackback post [like Wizbang’s Open TB Parties] and that’s all it is…. how often do you hit [Main] to see what else there? Really? And how often do you just shrug and move on?

    What I’m saying isn’t to NOT try to attract attention and stand out: it’s hard to get noticed by readers among several million blogs.

    What I’m saying is to look at finding ways to attract readers and bring them back, not to just get one-time hits and increase your ecosystem rankings. Gaming the system is relatively easy.

    Keeping readers is hard work. ;)

    Posted 28 Nov 2005 at 6:26 pm

  3. Billy Beck wrote:

    Yo, ‘Bear: I appreciate the nod. I’m glad it’s working for you.

    Beyond that, I just have to say that all the noise about links and standings, etc., is just completely *pathetic*. I haven’t seen such a flock of antsy twits since junior high school.

    Me? I write as if there is nobody else in the world. “To thine own self,” and all that. This is why I find all the variants of link whoredom utterly disgusting: we’re talking about people who have completely absorbed all the 20th century indictments of selfishness.

    [hah]

    Look at ‘em.

    Posted 29 Nov 2005 at 2:55 pm

  4. Ironbear wrote:

    Heya Billy. ;)

    That’s the only way to do it, IMO. Write from the voice deep inside, and if other people enjoy it, they’ll keep coming back. Everything else is just promotion. It’s the writing that’s important.

    Been meaning to drop you a line, but my internet rig melted down, and I’ve had an acute case of the lazies on getting all my email and **** set up on my workstation. Kinda doing the “minimalist browsing experience” right now until I get the ‘net rig rebuilt. ;]

    Hope everything’s going well?

    Posted 29 Nov 2005 at 7:41 pm

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