Blogging About Blogging About Blogging
Magazines 24/7: Connecting With The Consumer, the M.P.A.'s third digital summit, Feb. 27, 2007 Photos courtesy of the M.P.A.
By Wendy Perrin
In my six months of groping my way blindly through the blogosphere, there's only one thing I've learned with any degree of certainty: Success is measured by how many blogs you link to. (A pretty dumb measure of success, dontcha think?) The more links you make, the more blogs link back to you, which means the more traffic you get. So here is my attempt to fill a post with as many links as possible:
Last Tuesday I was on a Magazine Publishers of America panel talking about "THE DO'S AND DON'TS OF BLOGGING." (As if I know!) The moderator was Heather Green, an editor at BusinessWeek who writes Blogspotting -- a blog about (you guessed it) blogs. On the panel with me were Justin Fox, the business and economics columnist for TIME who writes its blog The Curious Capitalist; Ben Williams, editorial director of New York Magazine's Web site, which has two very popular blogs, Daily Intelligencer and Grub Sreet; and Jay Bryant, director of online products for TVGuide.com, who has started like a gazillion blogs, both editor-written and reader-written.
So, the day after the panel, Justin from TIME posts an amusing take on our discussion, wrapping up with this:
"When it comes to blogging, we magazine people feel like poor little upstart outsiders. Heather asked why no magazine blogs had cracked the Technorati Top 100 of the most linked-to blogs (actually, National Review Online's The Corner is No. 65, and I'd like to think our own Swampland will make it at some point). NYMag.com editorial director Ben Williams said it was because our blogs haven't been around nearly as long as the "established blogs." The blogosphere arose in part as a rebellion against the establishment Mainstream Media. Now it is its own establishment. So we're the scrappy little guys (in our midtown Manhattan skyscrapers) taking on the Mainstream Blogosphere. Yeah, that's it! &$#@ the MSB!"
[I guess MSB stands for Mainstream Blogosphere.] You go Justin!
So who should read Justin's riff but Mainstream Blogger Ezra Klein, who responds that established magazine journalists (such as those at Swampland) who are breaking into the blogosphere "begin with a massive head start" yet are nerve-wracked because "they've lost a lot of the security they once had." To which Joe Klein, one of the Established Journalists behind Swampland, responds, "What security?" and that he's always been a mess of insecurities. Next thing you know, the Klein vs. Klein argument becomes, as Justin notes, "the talk of the MSB." Mainstream Blogger Ezra writes back to Joe: "Now, now, Other Klein, just because you're already a bundle of authorial anxieties doesn't obviate my point . . . . " To which Established Journalist Joe posts another response . . . .
At which point I think my head is about to explode and both Kleins are narcissists and I really oughta get back to writing about TRAVEL. But hey, at least I've made a lot of links here!
A final note to any Mainstream Bloggers who think that Established Journalists now entering the blogosphere have a "massive head start": I'm no Joe Klein, but allow me to point out that I've been putting out this blog for six months now (in addition to my full-time magazine responsibilities), and Conde Nast has provided no budget for help (with obtaining photos, making links, etc.) Our Tech Dept does not support Firefox, TypePad, or any of the other blogging tools I need. My blog still has no search engine. Plus there are a ton of posts I'd love to write but can't because our corporate lawyers have struck the fear of God into me. Sure, working for Conde Nast gives me plenty of advantages -- I realize that -- but a "massive headstart" in the blogosphere? I'm not so sure.
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It's funny. I didn't even realize all this blogging was so popular. I knew about blogging of course, but not how people were using it.
2 years ago I left my well paying job within IT at Nike. Now I stay at home with my son, James. So I do think many "experts" on blogging are a bit narcissistic, being that most people outside the blogosphere are unaware of it all.
Well it is nice to be back in the technology, and I find it more admirable the blogs that do not have technical subjects, because it takes a person that has different skillsets to write and maintain them. You do need to dive into some technical knowledge somewhere, and this would be difficult if it were completely foreign to you. And to find IT people that have another major interest besides coding (travel, for instance)- that's not too common.
James' Mom
Posted by: tncornett | March 03, 2007 at 11:36 PM
I know nothing about the blogsphere and absolutely nil about the people noted above. But I DO know that I absolutely love your posts Wendy and totally enjoy your sense of humor! Hang in there Wendy!!!! Please continue keeping us informed and laughing! (And love your columns in Conde Nast!)
Posted by: SuzR | March 04, 2007 at 07:11 PM
Wendy,
My wife and I just signed up for an "Explorer" program with the Westin vacation ownership program during a trip to Westin Mission Hills Resort in Palm Springs, and now my wife, especially, is having a little case of "buyer's remorse." Can you please provide me with some web-based resources where I can get some straight-forward, honest information on vacation ownership programs (timeshares)? Is there anyplace out there - on the web or elsewhere - that rates the various vacation ownership programs available? We have about one week remaining to cancel our agreement with a full refund if we decide to opt out. I could really use your advice! I've never been on or used a blog before, so I'll check back here frequently. You can also respond directly to my email address at jbreuner@comcast.net. Thank you!
Posted by: jcbf | March 05, 2007 at 12:46 AM
Back to blogging -- my sense is that a lot of corporations that ask/tell their employees to blog (on top of their day job) have absolutely no concept of how time-consuming it is to do it right.
It takes time to do photos, it takes time to set up links, it takes time to proofread, tweak and groom a post. It's not just something you whip out in 5 minutes.
The blogging world is also voracious; a good blog (one that search engines like) is a fresh blog, and often the unspoken rule of thumb is posting every day, at least Monday through Friday.
With a travel blog you can get away with less (I do, at least) because the topic isn't always churning, like politics for example. Still, it can be a ball and chain, and it's a tribute to Wendy that she posts as often as she does, with detailed posts that are heavily linked and full of good photos.
If I thought it would help, I'd tell her to print this out and march it into her boss and demand a raise, because to blog on top of extensive print media work is a huge undertaking, not a cute sideline.
Her boss should guest-post for a week, then I bet you'd see more appreciation for her effort.
Posted by: Seafarer | March 05, 2007 at 07:54 PM
This is hilarious, Wendy. I love it.
Gene
P.S. I'll click on you if you click on me ;)
Posted by: Cruiselogger | March 07, 2007 at 04:27 PM
I dunno how much access you have to your actual code, but if you are able to play around with your template... You can whip up a quick and dirty search engine for your site by using Google Coop - http://www.google.com/coop/ -
and listing only your blog as the one to be searched. It outputs some javascript that can very easily be inserted.
Posted by: photonh2o | March 15, 2007 at 09:19 AM