Yesterday I wrote about my experience with the 2000 Bloggers meme, in which I cited Tony Hung’s ‘2000 Bloggers' is Over – An Exercise in Link ‘Building' At Its Most Useless and Pathetic. My post and some great comments have created quite a buzz.
Now I don’t think that 2000 Bloggers, or any meme is pathetic, or even useless. But I do agree with some of Tony’s points. What I question is the point of using memes to inflate my Technorati ranking. I simplly don’t know what the point is.
If you read what Doug Karr wrote in 2000 Bloggers Gaming Technorati? Waaaaah!, you’ll see he’s not apologizing for how memes are helping grow his blog. He says memes are…
…absolutely no different from sharing your blogroll, trading links with someone, giving away merchandise for mentioning your blog, linkbaiting, “Make me a Technorati Favorite†button, ‘optimizing' for search engines, Digging, …. or even BUYING your Technorati rank by advertising on other sites. John Chow, for example, continues to utilize any and all methods to give his rank a boost.
Do I care? Absolutely NOT!
This is reality folks… nothing else. It pays to advertise, period. That said, advertising may gain you rank, influence, authority, and search engine placement… but it won't keep them. In order maintain your rank, influence, authority, and search engine placement, you need to work on your content. Otherwise your site will become a revolving door of visitors and your ranking will go down the tubes.
What Doug says makes sense to me. I that there’s nothing inherently wrong with wanting to advertise/market your blog anywhere you can. And I certainly agree that it’s your blog’s content that will ‘convert’ your visitors to readers.
So my issues isn’t about the ‘how.’ It’s more about the ‘why?’ Why so much attention paid to my ranking in Technorati? I’ve read Making Common Sense of Link Counts and Technorati Ranking: Indepth & Explained and I get how the rankings get built. And I can certainly see a ‘prestige’ in having a high Technorati ranking.
But what does the Technorati ranking mean, really? Nowhere can I find good, clear, reliable information about how bloggers use the darn thing. So I’m uncertain why I’d put any emphasis on it to begin with. I guess I simply don’t understand how bloggers are using the Technorati ranking system. Are they evaluating other blogs based on this? I don’t know. I pay attention to my ranking and I do look at rankings for other blogs as well. But I’ve not used it as a litmus test for the blog’s relevance. I look for good content.
Maybe you can shead a little light on this Technorati Ranking thing. How do you use it? Both your own and looking at other blogs? What weight do you give it?
I think Doug and i are on the same page with this — most are, when they think about it.
Measurement tools such as Technorati ranking are *largely* worthless — they are just one way to tell you how you’re doing.
Real measures of achievement are defined by however you like to measure them. Traffic. Sales. Downloads. Signups to a newsletter.
In the long run all of thsoe metrics “matter” and not your Technorati ranking.
Having said THAT there is one reason to give it a pause — and that is for SOME advertisement tools, they use the Technorati ranking to determine how much your ad sales should be worth.
I’m thinking of Text-Link-ads.com and Reviewme.com (both from the same parent company, I think). If your Technorati ranking is awesome, you’ll be rated a higher ad rate.
Subsequently if it sucks (or is broken), that will be reflected as well.
More things to think about 😉
Cheers
t @ dji
Yeah, in terms of financial gains, I think ranking counts. Otherwise it means absolutely nothing. Zero. My readership has not changed from this project. I started my blog because of my convictions not because of fame and glory.
Anyway, I like that I got to meet other people through 2000 bloggers that I would never have found.
Tony
From what I know, and have experience with outside the blogosphere, I would absolutely agree with you on the important site metrics.
Interesting point on ads. Hadn’t really considered that. Great input.
deviousdiva
I hear you. I’m blogging for the same reasons. Thanks for your input.
Well, I don’t normally search Technorati for blogs, but I checked out who was top for ‘graphic design’.
What I found strange was that I was on the third page of the results one day, and on the eight the day after. I’m guessing that this might be down to my removal of some Technorati tags from old blog posts, though am unsure.
That’s a great point by Tony about ad worth.
David Airey
That’s interesting. I use Technorati a bit for search, but rely more on Google Blog Search and IceRocket.
Tony, blog readers use the Technorati ranking system the same way they use the Google ranking system. They trust that when Google or Technorati say “authority” there is some sort of objective standard. The readers sort the Technorati search results by “authority” thus the better ranked blogs get more traffic.
Elaine
I don’t look to Technorati’s ranking system for ‘authority.’ I didn’t before 2000 Bloggers and I don’t now. I evaluate blogging authority based on the blogger. I take time to watch a blog to see what they have to say on a topic. I comment and watch for responses. I grab the feed and look at the quality of the writing. Then I decide whether I think the site has ‘authority’ with me or not.
So it seems that authority, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.