Soccer Dad

Independents seem to vanish in the haze

Last October I made it to a very flattering list. Soccer Dad was listed as one of the 100 most influential blogs for 2006 in a study by Carnegie Mellon University. (I was ranked 22.) I'm not going to pretend that I understand the algorithm that produced these rankings. I believe that to some degree this list credited bloggers who linked a lot to other bloggers and who get linked. Going through the list, I'm reasonably certain that I had one of the smallest audiences of those 100. (FWIW, LGF was did not make the list.)

Two factors that I can think of led to my inclusion. One is that I was running a blogging carnival, Haveil Havalim at that time. The other is that at the end of the year I was accepted into the Watcher's Council. If CMU does the study again, I suspect that I'll be ranked lower in 2007. And I will not be ranked at all in 2008. Something's been changing in the blogosphere.

Outside the Beltway has noted a couple of the changes. For one there seems to be a decline in linking from other blogs. I think that means that blog linking may be done less frequently now. James Joyner's observations may hold true for himself, but for less visited bloggers (such as myself), I do think that's happening. He also notes that blogrolls are less important. That's been true for years. Once upon a time, bloggers used to value being mentioned on someone else's blogroll, but with bloglines and other readers that's just not as important anymore.

But there's another change going on. Go to memeorandum. Look at the sources. Of course you will see the major newspapers. But look at the websites cited. There's the Politico, the Atlantic (Ross Douthat, Marc Ambinder, Andrew Sullivan, Megan McArdle etc), Pajamas Media, Commentary, Talking Points Memo, The Huffington Post, Daily KOS and Salon are all prominently represented. The presence of independent bloggers has been reduced and that's only been in the past few months. I used to get traffic from memeorandum when I was the first to respond to an op-ed. Now it doesn't happen as frequently.

Another place that used to drive traffic to me was Buzztracker. That was because Real Clear Politics would publish the top few entries of Buzztracker on their front page. But in recent weeks Real Clear Politics scaled back Buzztracker's presence and added some links to blogs. But those blogs that get linked are almost always from the organizational blogs.

When I use the term independent, I mean blogs unaffiliated with an organization. I guess that Outside the Beltway still qualifies because it is a standalone blog. (I blog occasionally for the OTB Sports affiliate.) But Instapundit is not, because he's affiliated with Pajamas Media now.

 So if you haven't managed to get noticed and asked to join a network, you're fighting an uphill battle now trying to build an audience. It isn't as easy to get noticed because organizations are now blogging and it's squeezing the little guy. In addition some tools no longer are as reliable as they once were.

Instapundit recently noted that technorati is often down. Technorati used to be a tool I'd use to find out if others were blogging about the same topic I was, but it's become so unreliable I can't use it for that anymore.

Last year Meryl Yourish invited me to co-blog at Yourish, something for which I'm very grateful for it gave me wider exposure than I'd had before. Still, if you're an independent blogger the chances of getting discovered have decreased markedly in the past few months. To a large degree we've been squeezed by the MSM and other organizations that are increasingly defining the blog "conversation" going on and leaving us out.

Last year Me-ander mocked celebrity bloggers. At the time (though I agreed with her specific criticism), I thought it was good that blogging was catching on with the "establishment." Now I'm not so sure.

There are options. Right now I take advantage of Little Green Footballs' linkviewer to promote my posts and get a boost in traffic through that. I participate in a few blog carnivals and as mentioned above, I'm a member of the Watcher's Council. I guess that another way that other independent bloggers can increase their visibility would be organize a weekly competition along the lines of the Watcher's Council. That would result in more incoming links. Plus there are bigger bloggers out there who are receptive to tips and will credit you. If you see a blogger who's blogged something along the lines of what you blogged, send an e-mail. It may get you a mention.

And take on co-bloggers. Daled Amos and JudeoPundit add a lot here, covering items that I often don't get too. I think also that readers like having a variety of voices.

I guess I can't blame others. I've been at this for a long time (since December 2003) and I've only managed to draw a modest audience of regulars. Still it's a little galling that one of the things that's now inhibiting my growth are the very entities that I set out to challenge.

Once upon a time I was a small fish in a small pond, now I'm a slightly larger small fish in a much vaster pond. Posted by SoccerDad at July 10, 2008 5:47 AM | TrackBack