Sellsius real estate marketing blog

I think the lesson to be learned here is that there are no shortcuts. You have to pay your blog dues by providing quality content and grow your backlinks naturally. While those of you with more popular blogs will not suffer terribly because of this, those that followed the lemmings off the cliff with less popular blogs may indeed suffer. It's simply the economy of scale theory applied to blogging. Popular blogs have the traffic to support the bumps in the road while less popular ones just can't afford the slap on the wrist from Technorati. The upside is now everybody knows to carefully evaluate the marketing opportunities that come your way before jumping on board. Protect your street cred... in blogging, it's all you got.

Warning: Long comment ahead

There is an interesting New York Magazine article (link below) if you have not read it. It talks about network theory & homeostasis, the tendency of a network to be self-reinforcing. A-listers link mostly to A-listers (the rich get richer) and the fact that many link to those they think they should (the herding mentality). This link currency, which many chase and hoard, may have no gold to back it up.

Correct me on this but most backlinks counted by Technorati are from blogrolls that remain unchanged. Is a blogroll link a vote of quality? or is it just a link you think you ought to have or were just asked to put up? Many others have questioned the reliability of inbound links as a measure of quality. It is very often just a popularity measure. (I use BoingBoing as an example, sorry BB) There are many quality blogs below the radar that may never be found (or get links) unless they know HOW to be found. SEO, titles, keywords, linking out etc. There are many techniques to get backlinks--which are OK and which are gaming? I don't want to be the judge. Writing quality is not an automatic ticket to readership or links anyway. You must know how the system works and many do not.

If you ask most of the 2000 I would venture a guess most did not even know about the link effect and probably didn't care. Not every blogger is building links or doing it for the same reasons. Many saw it as a harmless fun project. There should be room on the net for fun projects. Fun can coexist with quality (whatever quality is, but certainly it's in the eye of the beholder).

What I found most objectionable was the characterization of Tino as a "scammer" or "gamer", which implies he intentionally set out to do something wrong (scamming sounds illegal to me). That's a pretty nasty accusation & unless you have proof, I don't think someone's name should be sullied. Maybe it's just the lawyer in me and the "innocent until proven guilty" philosophy I live by. It's just not right in my book & I felt the need to speak up for the guy.

The bad press on Tino already had the effect of him removing 2000 bloggers and will like have a "chilling effect" on others who will second-guess their creative ideas and wonder "Will I offend Technorati, will Google blacklist me. Maybe I just won't do it." I abhor the stifling of creativity and innovation by rules which no one takes the time to examine to see if they should govern us. I for one, never swore allegiance to the link/ranking system. It is there, I live with it, but I don't pay homage to it because I know it is not our reality. Is there a reason everyone should be keeping score? A quick example. My son was a competitive surfer. He also surfed with kids who didn't compete but were as good, or better, than those entering contests. They were called "soul surfers" (maybe you know the term), who surfed purely for the love of it. They were not interested in keeping score or paying dues. Some people are just "soul bloggers". Maybe a lot are.

In the end, my opinion on all this turns on my belief that the internet is for ALL to enjoy and use, not just .edu or .org or .net but also for .fun .silly .creative

http://nymag.com/news/media/15967/

Long comment and long NY Times article but both are worth reading, thanks. I put my new blog on Tino's 2000 Bloggers list and it has got a huge amount of links... way more than my original blog that I have toiled over for 19 months so I have mixed feelings about the whole thing... it is a B - list blog according to ??? Whomever did the Barbie Dollish hot pink blog badges last fall... You'd think I'd remember the name of the blog.

I thought of Tino's face's as a lark when I first saw it, did not think about it being for the links but at some point I started worrying it would be seen as a link farm.