Soccer Dad: The washington post gets it

September 4, 2005

The washington post gets it

While we're on the subject of Postwatch, he noted last week that "Technorati partners with Washingtonpost.com".
Actually I had noticed that recently I had received a few hits from a Charles Krauthammer column I had commented on. In another case I'd received a few hits from an MSNBC/ Newsweek I had commented on.
On Washington Post stories now, scroll down a little an you'll see a box that says "Who's blogging" and lists a few blogs with a link to see more.
One reason that I started blogging was that I was a frustrated letter writer. I used to write to newspapers regularly to complain (usually about their coverage of Israel). I even frequently got into print. But in recent years, papers - mostly the Balitmore Sun - had been stingier letting me in. Blogging gave me a chance to ensure that I'd be published and that the five or so people who really wanted to read me, could. Now when I have a complaint - or praise - of the Washington Post it will be up there (or a link to it will be there) right on the very article I'm commenting on. Cool!
(The Post recently re-designed its website, making navigation a bit more difficult. So this is a nice addition that mitigates the sins of the re-design.)
I don't know what the Washington Post's rationale was. Were they just trying to be with it? Or did they realize that publicity starved bloggers will start citing their articles more often, driving up traffic to their site allowing them to charge more for ad space? Even if it is the latter, it's still an excellent idea.
Now what I don't know is how to ensure that your blog will be linked. Is it enough to cite a post article with the URL? Do you need to ping Technorati? Maybe someone will be able to clarify.
There's something similar for the New York Times called "The Annotated New York Times" available at blogrunner. The Annotated New York Times is a mess - yes I mean that literally - of New York Times article plus the blogs that link to them. I believe that this is an effort of blogrunner not of the NY Times. (Blogrunner itself is an effort to aggregate everything ever blogged based on news stories. It's a great idea, but there's just too much there.) It's not so easy to sift through all the information at the Annotated NYT, so I prefer the WP's arrangement.
This brings me to a more general question that I've heard about recently. I've gotten contacted by a number of new bloggers. How do you get noticed? (It's interesting that they're asking me especially since I haven't ever made it to Playful Primate in the TTLB ecosystem :-)
Well by commenting on a Washington Post or a New York Times article you certainly have an ability to get noticed now. As yet, I haven't yet gotten much traffic from either. In the case of the Washington Post, I'm going to assume that given its newness people aren't quite expecting it yet. The Annotated NYT is just too complicated to navigate, I don't know how much traffic its likely to generate.
Other ways to get attention are the carnivals. (I'm running a Jewish/Israel related carnival called Haveil Havalim, but that's another story.) The easiest way to take advantage of carnivals is to submit a post of recent days to the proper carnival. What's a carnival? It's a collection of links to blogs usually about a given topic. (Siflay Hraka's Carnival of the Vanities is just what a blogger considers his best post of the week and is the granddaddy of all carnivals. Carnival of Education though is about education related matters; Carnival of the Capitalists is economic related. etc.)
For a list of of carnivals check out Conservative Cat's indespensible Carnival page. It not only contains linking information for many carnivals, it also has a hand dandy carnival nomination form that allows you to submit your blog entry for consideration to the carnival of your choice.
If you're more ambitious, consider hosting a carnival. (I believe that the carnivals that get the most traffic - I haven't tried them all) are the Carnival of the Vanities and Carnival of the Capitalists. Hosting a carnival can be a time consuming enterprise but it's a lot of fun. You may have to curtail your regular blogging during the week you're hosting but you'll learn what's out there. It's a great way to learn about blogs that you wouldn't normally hear about because they're coming to you instead of you looking for them.
Another approach is to pay attention to the big guys (in blogging that is.) If you have an entry (or notice someone else who does or a news story) that would be of interest to him or her (hoh) send an e-mail. There's a chance that they'll like your suggestion and link to your article (and if the article isn't yours, credit you) and get you new readers. Don't be shy, getting recognition requires your willingness to promote yourself. If you generate interest, attempt to cultivate a relationship with that blogger. Send him occasional pieces that you think would interest hoh.
Now of course, you can always shoot for the top and attempt an instalanche. (Wizbang! has suggestions on how to get noticed.) And instalanche is when you are noticed by Instapundit and he links to you. Wizbang! notes:

Contrary to what you may have been lead to believe InstaPundit actually links to more new bloggers than any of the other major sites.

I'm sure that Instapundit receives thousands of e-mails a day so it's not easy to get his attention. But if you do, you can feel the effects for a couple of weeks. (It's truly remarkable how much information he sifts through and blogs about on daily basis.)
Finally keep your expectations reasonable. Blogging is a hobby engaged in by many talented amateurs (present company included). Realize that your own blog may not be have content that is so unique (even if its well written and well presented) and that therefore you're not going to get thousands of hits every day. The Playful Primates rank and higher on the Ecosystem is rarefied company; if you can reach it, great. But don't be disappointed if you don't reach it. You're blogging for yourself and, right now, there are probably more people who pay attention to you than ever did before!
UPDATE: Two recent examples of bloggers who recently have successfully cultivated more popular bloggers are Mystery Achievement and Jewish Current Issues. Back in May, Mystery Achievement found an article in an Italian newspaper quoting Iyyad Allawi that Ayman Al-Zawahiri - Bin Laden's #2 - had visited Iraq in 1999 and translated it at his blog. It was picked up by Roger L Simon and Austin Bay who gave it play and got a lot of attention to this important bit of news. More recently, about two weeks ago, Jewish Current Issues noticed that the New York Times hadn't exactly told the whole story when it quoted Secretary of State Rice as saying "It cannot be Gaza only." He did his research and was quoted widely, including by Powerline, Little Green Footballs, CAMERA and Daniel Pipes. JCI has more on the followup here.
In these two cases what's important is that both these bloggers did solid research. This leads to another conclusion: do quality work. People realize quality if you provide something useful or important before anyone else does, news of your achievement will spread and you will likely get due credit.
You also shouldn't underestimate the value of cultivating as many other bloggers as you can. If bloggers have similar interests to you let them know that you read them, even link to them if they say something worthwhile. They will likely show a reciprocal interest and possibly even return the favor. That will send more interested readers your way.

UPDATE: ~~Thanks for coming from Carnival of the Vanities #155. I hope you enjoyed this item and hope that you'll stay to look around a little.~~
Thanks for visiting
C-O-T-V-1-5-5
please come back again.

Technorati tags:Washington Post,Blogging,Technorati,Media.