Nice one! I really can't believe they criticize something that was there and they have never put it to good use. And now that the list of 100 favorite is changing they are up in arms.
Vlad
· 2 years ago
Nice one! I really can't believe they criticize something that was there and they have never put it to good use. And now that the list of 100 favorite is changing they are up in arms.
Manila Mom
· 2 years ago
I've been learning a lot here. I got instructions from removing nofollow from my blogger template. Then I joined both the Favorites Exchange and the DoFollow List. They have given my month-old blog lots of links and favorite-votes.
I've been learning a lot here. I got instructions from removing nofollow from my blogger template. Then I joined both the Favorites Exchange and the DoFollow List. They have given my month-old blog lots of links and favorite-votes.
I've been learning a lot here. I got instructions from removing nofollow from my blogger template. Then I joined both the Favorites Exchange and the DoFollow List. They have given my month-old blog lots of links and favorite-votes.
I didn't know I was doing the dofollow commenting wrong, though, until I read this post. I immediately revised the dofollow tips I've been sharing in my blog, and shall promptly revise my way of doing things, too. I hope I understood it right this time.
Thanks so much for sharing.
Manila Mom
· 2 years ago
I've been learning a lot here. I got instructions from removing nofollow from my blogger template. Then I joined both the Favorites Exchange and the DoFollow List. They have given my month-old blog lots of links and favorite-votes.
I didn't know I was doing the dofollow commenting wrong, though, until I read this post. I immediately revised the dofollow tips I've been sharing in my blog, and shall promptly revise my way of doing things, too. I hope I understood it right this time.
Thanks so much for sharing.
Make money online
· 2 years ago
I removed the nofollow tag some time ago, but I did not notice a significant increase in comments volume. My mistake: I should have promoted that across all pages, not in a single post which is now forgotten.
As of Technorati favorites, I use it. I found it easier to use than other feed readers, so I stayed with it. It is true that I don't have many favorite blogs, so it's easy to track them anyway.
Make money online
· 2 years ago
I removed the nofollow tag some time ago, but I did not notice a significant increase in comments volume. My mistake: I should have promoted that across all pages, not in a single post which is now forgotten.
As of Technorati favorites, I use it. I found it easier to use than other feed readers, so I stayed with it. It is true that I don't have many favorite blogs, so it's easy to track them anyway.
Paul OFlaherty
· 2 years ago
Hi Andy!
Great article! Just one thing, Amit was actually right (sort of) about the Google Juice! Technorati Favorites itself doesn't provide any Google juice to the meme participants, but I believe he meant that the meme itself provided the juice.
Many of the participants involved linked back to Dosh Dosh's original post. Granted all the outbound links from Dosh Dosh's post are "nofollow", but some of those involved have linked to others who wrote about the meme and in turn received backlinks from trackbacks and pings.
Finally, you are providing a large number of the participants with a bit of Google Juice from your post which updates automatically.
I know I'm nitpicking, but in at least one way, Amit was correct!
Maki
· 2 years ago
Paul,
Are you referring to trackbacks on Dosh Dosh or are you referring to links? All the links in my post are NOT nofollowed. They do pass Google juice to everyone who has linked to me.
If you've read my post, you would know that I did not institute any rule that bloggers participating in my experiment should practice interlinking. Nor did I encourage that.
The idea was based on a reciprocal relationship between me and the readers of my blog. It wasn't even really a meme.
The massive interlinking you've seen was initiated by the bloggers involved on their own accord and I believe it was rather generous of them to do so.
Paul OFlaherty
· 2 years ago
Hi Maki,
I meant to say comments and not post. Your comments are marked "external nofollow". Your post and trackbacks are nofollow free.
Sorry for the confusion!
I looked at the source for your comments section and spotted the nofollows. I didn't scroll up through the code to check the trackbacks.
However, the fact that you do no implement "nofollow" supports my point that Amit was correct, because 152 people are getting a little bit of Google Juice from you due to their trackbacks.
That's all! I didn't mean to imply that you had "nofollowed" all the links on your blog! :)
Maki, at no point did I say or claim that you instituted any rule about interlinking or make any reference to such. By interlinking I assume you mean exchanging of blog links.
I simply stated that:
Many of the participants involved linked back to Dosh Dosh's original post.
However, upon reading your post again, and we are talking about this post, you do state the following under How do I Participate in Dosh Dosh’s Technorati Favorites Exchange Experiment?
2. Link to this blog post with your Post on Technorati Favorites
This is only for those bloggers who are interested in holding Technorati exchanges on their blog as well. These are the steps you need to take:
* Create a post on your blog announcing that you are exchanging Technorati favorites. Prominently include a link to this post to indicate that there is a similar exchange going on at Dosh Dosh.
You can use any link text you want. I do however prefer that you make a new post on this topic instead of putting the link in a old post that is already deep in your archives. * Get a Link Back. Once I’ve noticed the link via trackback or Technorati, I’ll include a link to your post on Technorati favorites in this post itself so readers here can visit your blog to participate if they want to. I will also try to periodically highlight this post so it never gets lost in the archives
You also state:
The only reason why I am asking for a link to this post here is because I want this to be an interactive experiment
It would seem to me that you made linking back to you a big part of your post for your experiment.
To say you didn't encourage linking, is, well, misguided!
Don't get me wrong. I've got nothing against that. You deserve all the link credit you can get for getting people involved, trying something different and promoting yourself.
By the way, I'm now subscribed to your blog and look forward to seeing your future posts. Keep up the good work! :)
Paul
Maki
· 2 years ago
Thanks for the explanation, Paul.
Some clarification here: By 'interlinking', I am referring links between blogs participating in the experiment. Not referring to links between myself and the blogger who is participating in the exchange.
As you've probably noticed, many bloggers have started linking to other bloggers participating in the exchange, probably motivated by my practice in the post itself. This accounts for the increase in backlinks for most blogs participating in the exchange.
I did suggest that blogs could link to me to get a link back, but what I meant to say in my original comment is that if other bloggers want to participate in the exchange, they are not required to link to one another.
Thanks for subscribing to Dosh Dosh :)
Paul OFlaherty
· 2 years ago
Cool! Now that we're clear on what you meant by interlinking, you're right that you didn't set any rules for that :)
As for subscribing! It's a pleasure ;)
Keep up the good work! :)
AndyBeard
· 2 years ago
But that is true of all memes, whether it is like the one this post is part of, even though I didn't pick out 5 victims to carry it forward.
Amit was being specific about Technorati Favorites, and being on the Technorati Favorite Top 100 list doesn't give Google Juice, because Google have now said extremely clearly that they don't follow the links or count them as credit. Yahoo have also confirmed that they don't give credit for the links, even though they follow and index.
The links I gave freely, some people come visiting because they see the link, others come visting because they see a favorite. The link will most likely retain some value similar to links from trackbacks on my most popular blog posts. I have a fairl anount of internal linking on each single page, so I can handle some fairly heavy external linking once in a while, though note those links aren't from a single page only, but also from duplicate content pages. I might have to stick a "more" tag on the page when it hits my archives.
Paul OFlaherty
· 2 years ago
Yep, that is true of all memes, but we're focusing on this one.
I know you give your links freely, and that's cool, I was just pointing out how people involved in the meme were picking up Google juice from various sources.
And yes, Amit was talking abut exchanging Technorati favorites, but I don't think I'm wrong in thinking he also meant links and trackbacks for the meme as he compares it to the 2000 Bloggers project.
There is no comparison between the 2000 Bloggers project and Technorati favorites so I would say it's a fair assumption that Amit was in fact referring to Google Juice generated from meme links and trackbacks.
Sadly, only Amit knows for sure exactly what her meant, so we'll just have to hope he drops along here and adds a comment or two ;)
Paul OFlaherty
· 2 years ago
Hi Andy!
Great article! Just one thing, Amit was actually right (sort of) about the Google Juice! Technorati Favorites itself doesn't provide any Google juice to the meme participants, but I believe he meant that the meme itself provided the juice.
Many of the participants involved linked back to Dosh Dosh's original post. Granted all the outbound links from Dosh Dosh's post are "nofollow", but some of those involved have linked to others who wrote about the meme and in turn received backlinks from trackbacks and pings.
Finally, you are providing a large number of the participants with a bit of Google Juice from your post which updates automatically.
I know I'm nitpicking, but in at least one way, Amit was correct!
Maki
· 2 years ago
Paul,
Are you referring to trackbacks on Dosh Dosh or are you referring to links? All the links in my post are NOT nofollowed. They do pass Google juice to everyone who has linked to me.
If you've read my post, you would know that I did not institute any rule that bloggers participating in my experiment should practice interlinking. Nor did I encourage that.
The idea was based on a reciprocal relationship between me and the readers of my blog. It wasn't even really a meme.
The massive interlinking you've seen was initiated by the bloggers involved on their own accord and I believe it was rather generous of them to do so.
Paul OFlaherty
· 2 years ago
Hi Maki,
I meant to say comments and not post. Your comments are marked "external nofollow". Your post and trackbacks are nofollow free.
Sorry for the confusion!
I looked at the source for your comments section and spotted the nofollows. I didn't scroll up through the code to check the trackbacks.
However, the fact that you do no implement "nofollow" supports my point that Amit was correct, because 152 people are getting a little bit of Google Juice from you due to their trackbacks.
That's all! I didn't mean to imply that you had "nofollowed" all the links on your blog! :)
Maki, at no point did I say or claim that you instituted any rule about interlinking or make any reference to such. By interlinking I assume you mean exchanging of blog links.
I simply stated that:
Many of the participants involved linked back to Dosh Dosh's original post.
However, upon reading your post again, and we are talking about this post, you do state the following under How do I Participate in Dosh Dosh’s Technorati Favorites Exchange Experiment?
2. Link to this blog post with your Post on Technorati Favorites
This is only for those bloggers who are interested in holding Technorati exchanges on their blog as well. These are the steps you need to take:
* Create a post on your blog announcing that you are exchanging Technorati favorites. Prominently include a link to this post to indicate that there is a similar exchange going on at Dosh Dosh.
You can use any link text you want. I do however prefer that you make a new post on this topic instead of putting the link in a old post that is already deep in your archives. * Get a Link Back. Once I’ve noticed the link via trackback or Technorati, I’ll include a link to your post on Technorati favorites in this post itself so readers here can visit your blog to participate if they want to. I will also try to periodically highlight this post so it never gets lost in the archives
You also state:
The only reason why I am asking for a link to this post here is because I want this to be an interactive experiment
It would seem to me that you made linking back to you a big part of your post for your experiment.
To say you didn't encourage linking, is, well, misguided!
Don't get me wrong. I've got nothing against that. You deserve all the link credit you can get for getting people involved, trying something different and promoting yourself.
By the way, I'm now subscribed to your blog and look forward to seeing your future posts. Keep up the good work! :)
Paul
Maki
· 2 years ago
Thanks for the explanation, Paul.
Some clarification here: By 'interlinking', I am referring links between blogs participating in the experiment. Not referring to links between myself and the blogger who is participating in the exchange.
As you've probably noticed, many bloggers have started linking to other bloggers participating in the exchange, probably motivated by my practice in the post itself. This accounts for the increase in backlinks for most blogs participating in the exchange.
I did suggest that blogs could link to me to get a link back, but what I meant to say in my original comment is that if other bloggers want to participate in the exchange, they are not required to link to one another.
Thanks for subscribing to Dosh Dosh :)
Paul OFlaherty
· 2 years ago
Cool! Now that we're clear on what you meant by interlinking, you're right that you didn't set any rules for that :)
As for subscribing! It's a pleasure ;)
Keep up the good work! :)
AndyBeard
· 2 years ago
But that is true of all memes, whether it is like the one this post is part of, even though I didn't pick out 5 victims to carry it forward.
Amit was being specific about Technorati Favorites, and being on the Technorati Favorite Top 100 list doesn't give Google Juice, because Google have now said extremely clearly that they don't follow the links or count them as credit. Yahoo have also confirmed that they don't give credit for the links, even though they follow and index.
The links I gave freely, some people come visiting because they see the link, others come visting because they see a favorite. The link will most likely retain some value similar to links from trackbacks on my most popular blog posts. I have a fairl anount of internal linking on each single page, so I can handle some fairly heavy external linking once in a while, though note those links aren't from a single page only, but also from duplicate content pages. I might have to stick a "more" tag on the page when it hits my archives.
Paul OFlaherty
· 2 years ago
Yep, that is true of all memes, but we're focusing on this one.
I know you give your links freely, and that's cool, I was just pointing out how people involved in the meme were picking up Google juice from various sources.
And yes, Amit was talking abut exchanging Technorati favorites, but I don't think I'm wrong in thinking he also meant links and trackbacks for the meme as he compares it to the 2000 Bloggers project.
There is no comparison between the 2000 Bloggers project and Technorati favorites so I would say it's a fair assumption that Amit was in fact referring to Google Juice generated from meme links and trackbacks.
Sadly, only Amit knows for sure exactly what her meant, so we'll just have to hope he drops along here and adds a comment or two ;)
Paul OFlaherty
· 2 years ago
You wrote:
If popular bloggers get displaced from the "top favorites list" by people actually utilizing the tools that Technorati spent a lot of time developing, then that is the correct thing to happen.
Isn't the point of favorites to display who's popular! Isn't the adding as favorites supposed to be a democratic thing, with people adding favorites because they are just that: "favorites".
They're popular bloggers are they're because they are people favorites. It doesn't matter how much gaming of the system you do, the popular bloggers will still be the popular ones.
All you've succeeded in doing is breaking a legitimate voting system which actually had the ability to let relatively unknown bloggers climb the ranks.
The popular bloggers are supposed to be at the top. Thats why they're the favorites.
Hundreds of people set a collective goal and are pursuing it with a passion. That isn't a small bomb blast, it is a surge of the masses, and A-list bloggers had better get used to it.
Nope, hundreds of people just showed en mass how jealous they are that they're not on the A-list, and decided to break Technorati Favorites because of it. In the process making it exponentially more difficult for the relatively unknown blogger to break onto that particular list (Favorites top 100).
AndyBeard
· 2 years ago
If they are that popular, and want to retain their ranking all they have to do is make one post and they will retain any lost position on the list overnight.
But then most of them don't see any point or use to Technorati Favorites, so they probably won't bother.
It certainly doesn't bring in anywhere near as much traffic as a front page Digg, even over a year.
Lots of the top blogs, especially the Tech bloggers gain a little bit of unfair advantage by being in default RSS packages offered by various RSS readers. There is a good reason why many of these services get a lot of promotion.
Paul OFlaherty
· 2 years ago
One post will NOT make them regain their link! Only votes from readers who haven't already voted can do that!
Unless, of course, you're suggesting the bloggers in quest beg for votes from their readers! ;)
I can't shake the feeling with some of your comments today that you feel that just because some top bloggers don't use the service means that they're not entitled to be on the list.
Is use a requirement of popularity? Is my vote for Scoble or Mike Arrington of any less value because THEY don't use the service?
Yes lots of top blogs do get seemingly unfair advantages. But, they deserve it! They made themselves popular. They had to get themselves to a point of critical mass where they were known enough and considered popular enough to be considered for inclusion.
Yes, I know that leads to seemingly unfair advantage because they get lots of free promotion without working for it. However, they did the grunt work in the first place to deserve inclusion.
If your blog gets popular enough you'll be included in those lists to..
And lets be honest, the blogosphere is vicious and fickle. If the tops blogs lets things slide and don't keep working, it won't be long before they are replaced and someone else will be getting the inclusion...
AndyBeard
· 2 years ago
You might be missing my train of thought on this.
If a lot of that readership and popularity is built upon default blogrolls selected by the creators of RSS readers, it seems fair for a bunch of D-listers to have their own default imports into various services.
It is their choice whether to use it or not, just like I could go to an open OPML resource and pick up Robert's OPML and import it into whichever service I want (though I think his public one is out of date currently)
Top Favorites isn't the same as Most Popular.
The list was never most popular, just who could be bothered to promote it.
The are tons of celebrity bloggers for instance who don't figure on the list.
Rosie.com now has close to 5000 votes, and that required all those people to actually register and vote, giving some quite personal details.
Most Obnoxious? Perez Hilton only has 709 votes
If Perez Hilton wanted to be in the Technorati Top 10 Favorites, I am sure it would take a few days at most.
The Top 100 Favorites in Technorati is purely a gauge of who has promoted it most, not popularity.
Instead of CPM we could use TFPM - how many Technorati Favorites per 1000 people asked to favorite you.
In some ways I have optimised my TFPM by "paying it forward" - rather than just offering to reciprocate, I have added the favorite up front.
In internet marketing one of the primary ways of selling something, either an item or an idea, is to give a benefit for the person to take such action, maybe a purchase, or just subscribing.
So far I haven't been offering any kind of incentive for subscriptions, it is fairly normal practice, but difficult to do with RSS in any real form.
I do get where you're coming from Andy. 100%! I'm just trying to look at other points. Being a bit of a picky git (or devils advocate) if you will!
I could disagree that the:
The Top 100 Favorites in Technorati is purely a gauge of who has promoted it most, not popularity.
Yes, those on the list DID do promotoion to get their readers to add them as favorites, but their readers still added them willingly. They had knowledge of what blog they were adding.
They added the blog individually!
Yes there are ways and means to promote and entice your readers to vote for your blog (on any system or list), but at the end of the day they still depend on the will of the individual potential voter.
I do think that offering prizes to entice your readers to vote your site up lists similar to technorati favorites is wrong. It is creating "false positives", but I suppose the only saving grace that approach has, is that the majority percentage of voters will probably be readers already and will actually be subscribers to the blog in question. Before you say it, yes there will be exceptions. Yes I could start a new blog, under a fake name and BUY it's way to apparent "popularity" on the lists. Doesn't make it right though!
The whole marketing pilgrim thing is a bit of a waste. He'd be better off offering the Wii for folks who actually create quality links back to his site. The traffic generated by Technorati favorites is tiny in comparison to other avenues. Not to mention the additional Google Juice (although he's doing quite well with his PR7 at the moment ;) )
Alas, folks will always try it, and any list will always be skewed by results introduced in that manner.
Anyway, back to TFE, which we are talking about.
With the Technorati favorites exchange, I would wager that the majority of the bloggers involved did not vet the OPML files and simply added them. Do you really believe they checked it, for quality, whether or not they've even heard of the blogs in question, or even to root out any potential splogs?
I seriously doubt it.
It's all in the name! A favorite is an expression of popularity. Just a different kind to inbound links. Inbound links represent a mixture of quality and content of work, as well as an bility to link bait and publish with interesting stories which create traffic. You know what I mean in that respect.
A favorite, is just that, a favorite. It's a measure of an individual users affection of affinity for a certain blog. It's unrelated to quantity, quality of posts or incoming traffic. It's an endorsement based on how the user relates to the blog or blogger in qusetion.
For example, I have a number of blogs in my favorites that I would guess post as little as once every 2 weeks or sometimes once a month.
They'll never be "popular" in the way you're supposing. But they're my favorite because I like the author or the authors style of writing. I have an affinity with those blogs for my own reasons.
I really do think we could discuss this one forever. I'm sure that for whatever point we make, there are 10 people with 10 different takes on it.
One last thing, and perhaps the most important to me..
After the TFE meme started my blog jumped from 12 favorites to 64. I believe it was because I was on somebodies OPML list.
I don't know how many of those votes I have are valid. That annoys me.
TFE has robbed me of the knowledge of whether those people actually read my blog.
TFE has robbed me of knowing if any of those endorsements are real.
I might have only had 12 favorites to begin with but they were 12 REAL ones and I was damn proud of them.
I have 64 now and they mean bugger all!
Also, anybody looking to judge the quality of my blog before subscribing is now being serious misled if they use the number of Technorati favorites I have (yes I know they could use incoming links but thats a different metric, it's not an endorsement).
Paul OFlaherty
· 2 years ago
You wrote:
If popular bloggers get displaced from the "top favorites list" by people actually utilizing the tools that Technorati spent a lot of time developing, then that is the correct thing to happen.
Isn't the point of favorites to display who's popular! Isn't the adding as favorites supposed to be a democratic thing, with people adding favorites because they are just that: "favorites".
They're popular bloggers are they're because they are people favorites. It doesn't matter how much gaming of the system you do, the popular bloggers will still be the popular ones.
All you've succeeded in doing is breaking a legitimate voting system which actually had the ability to let relatively unknown bloggers climb the ranks.
The popular bloggers are supposed to be at the top. Thats why they're the favorites.
Hundreds of people set a collective goal and are pursuing it with a passion. That isn't a small bomb blast, it is a surge of the masses, and A-list bloggers had better get used to it.
Nope, hundreds of people just showed en mass how jealous they are that they're not on the A-list, and decided to break Technorati Favorites because of it. In the process making it exponentially more difficult for the relatively unknown blogger to break onto that particular list (Favorites top 100).
AndyBeard
· 2 years ago
If they are that popular, and want to retain their ranking all they have to do is make one post and they will retain any lost position on the list overnight.
But then most of them don't see any point or use to Technorati Favorites, so they probably won't bother.
It certainly doesn't bring in anywhere near as much traffic as a front page Digg, even over a year.
Lots of the top blogs, especially the Tech bloggers gain a little bit of unfair advantage by being in default RSS packages offered by various RSS readers. There is a good reason why many of these services get a lot of promotion.
Paul OFlaherty
· 2 years ago
One post will NOT make them regain their link! Only votes from readers who haven't already voted can do that!
Unless, of course, you're suggesting the bloggers in quest beg for votes from their readers! ;)
I can't shake the feeling with some of your comments today that you feel that just because some top bloggers don't use the service means that they're not entitled to be on the list.
Is use a requirement of popularity? Is my vote for Scoble or Mike Arrington of any less value because THEY don't use the service?
Yes lots of top blogs do get seemingly unfair advantages. But, they deserve it! They made themselves popular. They had to get themselves to a point of critical mass where they were known enough and considered popular enough to be considered for inclusion.
Yes, I know that leads to seemingly unfair advantage because they get lots of free promotion without working for it. However, they did the grunt work in the first place to deserve inclusion.
If your blog gets popular enough you'll be included in those lists to..
And lets be honest, the blogosphere is vicious and fickle. If the tops blogs lets things slide and don't keep working, it won't be long before they are replaced and someone else will be getting the inclusion...
AndyBeard
· 2 years ago
You might be missing my train of thought on this.
If a lot of that readership and popularity is built upon default blogrolls selected by the creators of RSS readers, it seems fair for a bunch of D-listers to have their own default imports into various services.
It is their choice whether to use it or not, just like I could go to an open OPML resource and pick up Robert's OPML and import it into whichever service I want (though I think his public one is out of date currently)
Top Favorites isn't the same as Most Popular.
The list was never most popular, just who could be bothered to promote it.
The are tons of celebrity bloggers for instance who don't figure on the list.
Rosie.com now has close to 5000 votes, and that required all those people to actually register and vote, giving some quite personal details.
Most Obnoxious? Perez Hilton only has 709 votes
If Perez Hilton wanted to be in the Technorati Top 10 Favorites, I am sure it would take a few days at most.
The Top 100 Favorites in Technorati is purely a gauge of who has promoted it most, not popularity.
Instead of CPM we could use TFPM - how many Technorati Favorites per 1000 people asked to favorite you.
In some ways I have optimised my TFPM by "paying it forward" - rather than just offering to reciprocate, I have added the favorite up front.
In internet marketing one of the primary ways of selling something, either an item or an idea, is to give a benefit for the person to take such action, maybe a purchase, or just subscribing.
So far I haven't been offering any kind of incentive for subscriptions, it is fairly normal practice, but difficult to do with RSS in any real form.
I do get where you're coming from Andy. 100%! I'm just trying to look at other points. Being a bit of a picky git (or devils advocate) if you will!
I could disagree that the:
The Top 100 Favorites in Technorati is purely a gauge of who has promoted it most, not popularity.
Yes, those on the list DID do promotoion to get their readers to add them as favorites, but their readers still added them willingly. They had knowledge of what blog they were adding.
They added the blog individually!
Yes there are ways and means to promote and entice your readers to vote for your blog (on any system or list), but at the end of the day they still depend on the will of the individual potential voter.
I do think that offering prizes to entice your readers to vote your site up lists similar to technorati favorites is wrong. It is creating "false positives", but I suppose the only saving grace that approach has, is that the majority percentage of voters will probably be readers already and will actually be subscribers to the blog in question. Before you say it, yes there will be exceptions. Yes I could start a new blog, under a fake name and BUY it's way to apparent "popularity" on the lists. Doesn't make it right though!
The whole marketing pilgrim thing is a bit of a waste. He'd be better off offering the Wii for folks who actually create quality links back to his site. The traffic generated by Technorati favorites is tiny in comparison to other avenues. Not to mention the additional Google Juice (although he's doing quite well with his PR7 at the moment ;) )
Alas, folks will always try it, and any list will always be skewed by results introduced in that manner.
Anyway, back to TFE, which we are talking about.
With the Technorati favorites exchange, I would wager that the majority of the bloggers involved did not vet the OPML files and simply added them. Do you really believe they checked it, for quality, whether or not they've even heard of the blogs in question, or even to root out any potential splogs?
I seriously doubt it.
It's all in the name! A favorite is an expression of popularity. Just a different kind to inbound links. Inbound links represent a mixture of quality and content of work, as well as an bility to link bait and publish with interesting stories which create traffic. You know what I mean in that respect.
A favorite, is just that, a favorite. It's a measure of an individual users affection of affinity for a certain blog. It's unrelated to quantity, quality of posts or incoming traffic. It's an endorsement based on how the user relates to the blog or blogger in qusetion.
For example, I have a number of blogs in my favorites that I would guess post as little as once every 2 weeks or sometimes once a month.
They'll never be "popular" in the way you're supposing. But they're my favorite because I like the author or the authors style of writing. I have an affinity with those blogs for my own reasons.
I really do think we could discuss this one forever. I'm sure that for whatever point we make, there are 10 people with 10 different takes on it.
One last thing, and perhaps the most important to me..
After the TFE meme started my blog jumped from 12 favorites to 64. I believe it was because I was on somebodies OPML list.
I don't know how many of those votes I have are valid. That annoys me.
TFE has robbed me of the knowledge of whether those people actually read my blog.
TFE has robbed me of knowing if any of those endorsements are real.
I might have only had 12 favorites to begin with but they were 12 REAL ones and I was damn proud of them.
I have 64 now and they mean bugger all!
Also, anybody looking to judge the quality of my blog before subscribing is now being serious misled if they use the number of Technorati favorites I have (yes I know they could use incoming links but thats a different metric, it's not an endorsement).
Webomatica
· 2 years ago
Hmmmm, interesting to see you question two strategies I've been using extensively lately: the feed reader and commenting on other folks' blogs.
As for the feed reader, you make me think that perhaps setting up searches through blogs for certain subjects (on Technorati and Google Blog Search) might work too - I'm wondering if there's an automated way to do that (Pipes?).
Sorry to hear the NoNoFollow movement is slowing down, maybe I'll revisit that subject with a solid blog post and add another small voice in the blogosphere...!
Webomatica
· 2 years ago
Hmmmm, interesting to see you question two strategies I've been using extensively lately: the feed reader and commenting on other folks' blogs.
As for the feed reader, you make me think that perhaps setting up searches through blogs for certain subjects (on Technorati and Google Blog Search) might work too - I'm wondering if there's an automated way to do that (Pipes?).
Sorry to hear the NoNoFollow movement is slowing down, maybe I'll revisit that subject with a solid blog post and add another small voice in the blogosphere...!
Voluntary Death
· 2 years ago
that post is too long. Anyway, it is so funny to think that most people have more people favorited some people's blogs compared to the owner of technorati.
I think he should join that game too. :D
ooops.. he doesnt need that (my bad) he owns one of the most visited site in the internet.
Voluntary Death
· 2 years ago
that post is too long. Anyway, it is so funny to think that most people have more people favorited some people's blogs compared to the owner of technorati.
I think he should join that game too. :D
ooops.. he doesnt need that (my bad) he owns one of the most visited site in the internet.
Church of Integrity
· 2 years ago
It is fascinating to read about how one man can start such a big snowball as the dofollow movement has become, congratulations on that.
You mentioned Technorati favourites. Personally I only use them for those favourite chains you mention. If I really wanted to favourite some blogs then I'd either use a proper feed reader and collect my favourite blogs for example in some Google application or in Bloglines. Or I'd simply have bookmarked them in my browser.
Church of Integrity
· 2 years ago
It is fascinating to read about how one man can start such a big snowball as the dofollow movement has become, congratulations on that.
You mentioned Technorati favourites. Personally I only use them for those favourite chains you mention. If I really wanted to favourite some blogs then I'd either use a proper feed reader and collect my favourite blogs for example in some Google application or in Bloglines. Or I'd simply have bookmarked them in my browser.
Court
· 2 years ago
Wow thanks for a very thorough post! Do you really think that the Do Follow movenent is over though? I'm fairly new to blogging and it seems to me like it's the biggest thing that people talk about! Maybe the percentage of blogs I read is just to small to see the overall picture.
AndyBeard
· 2 years ago
Court, when people get fed up chasing memes leaving comments just to get a link, they will go onto the next meme. The social interaction and interlinking possible within a small group of similar topic blogs using dofollow is in many ways more powerful than the sitewide linking normally performed by blog networks.
I have seem people excited about having a list of 150 blogs that use Dofollow. All you have to do is search in Google to find 1000s, but that doesn't necessarily help you find blogs that are in the same niche.
Court
· 2 years ago
Wow thanks for a very thorough post! Do you really think that the Do Follow movenent is over though? I'm fairly new to blogging and it seems to me like it's the biggest thing that people talk about! Maybe the percentage of blogs I read is just to small to see the overall picture.
AndyBeard
· 2 years ago
Court, when people get fed up chasing memes leaving comments just to get a link, they will go onto the next meme. The social interaction and interlinking possible within a small group of similar topic blogs using dofollow is in many ways more powerful than the sitewide linking normally performed by blog networks.
I have seem people excited about having a list of 150 blogs that use Dofollow. All you have to do is search in Google to find 1000s, but that doesn't necessarily help you find blogs that are in the same niche.
Paula Neal Mooney
· 2 years ago
Yep, looks like we're all blogging about this Technorati game...
I guess it is more an evolution of Web 2.0. Users and bloggers are thinking of interaction. And this is part of it.
For example, you could leverage more on MyBlogLog communities and contacts but the lack of API would hinder the growth. As it is, the function are limited and pretty basic.
Thanks Andy for being the first few who have fave me. You are the man..
mattsofi
· 2 years ago
I guess it is more an evolution of Web 2.0. Users and bloggers are thinking of interaction. And this is part of it.
For example, you could leverage more on MyBlogLog communities and contacts but the lack of API would hinder the growth. As it is, the function are limited and pretty basic.
Thanks Andy for being the first few who have fave me. You are the man..
Elaine Vigneault
· 2 years ago
"The Technorati meme is more Z-list than 2000 bloggers, and certainly any links I have created to people taking part have been deliberately one directional without a requirement to link back to me, and every single link was highly relevant."
Your article is good, but I take exception to this quote above. The 2000 Bloggers Project has taken on a life of its own at http://www.2kbloggers.com and part of that life is that there is no link exchange requirement. There never was. Moreover, the project is more diverse and democratic than the Z list or the Technorati Favorite Link Train in that the 2k Bloggers doesn't work like a pyramid scheme.
AndyBeard
· 2 years ago
I delayed a little bit in responding due to the One Day of Blog Silence. I suppose that now for half the World population it is now May, so I am allowing myself to respond to a few comments.
Elaine if you read my post on 2KBloggers you will see that I was actually quite supportive.
There are various aspects to the Technorati Favorites that certainly A-listers aren't addressing.
I am sure you get more use out of Technorati favorites with 2000 favorites, than Darren Rowse with just 22, half of them being his own blogs or those of close friends in B5.
There is a slight pyramid nature to all memes. Certainly those on the 2KBloggers lists early on gained the most traffic from it, and possibly most links, because their faces were on the list first.
The originator of a meme almost always benefits from it far more than anyone else participating. You could look upon that critically, or it could be looked upon as just smart marketing to create an idea that goes viral.
Maki's implementation of Technorati Favorites was initially just a 2 way exchange. Gary King turned it into a meme train, which is certainly more pyramid like, but those further down the chain do have the opportunity to backtrack a little, so they have equal opportunity, but it involves a lot more work. My method specifically required a lot less effort, for maybe a lesser effect, although my OPML file is currently a lot smaller than some OPML files people have used, I need to do an update, but want to avoid "pollution" with too many A-listers. It also doesn't directly affect linking, though people have added me to various lists, of their own choice.
Elaine Vigneault
· 2 years ago
"The Technorati meme is more Z-list than 2000 bloggers, and certainly any links I have created to people taking part have been deliberately one directional without a requirement to link back to me, and every single link was highly relevant."
Your article is good, but I take exception to this quote above. The 2000 Bloggers Project has taken on a life of its own at http://www.2kbloggers.com and part of that life is that there is no link exchange requirement. There never was. Moreover, the project is more diverse and democratic than the Z list or the Technorati Favorite Link Train in that the 2k Bloggers doesn't work like a pyramid scheme.
AndyBeard
· 2 years ago
I delayed a little bit in responding due to the One Day of Blog Silence. I suppose that now for half the World population it is now May, so I am allowing myself to respond to a few comments.
Elaine if you read my post on 2KBloggers you will see that I was actually quite supportive.
There are various aspects to the Technorati Favorites that certainly A-listers aren't addressing.
I am sure you get more use out of Technorati favorites with 2000 favorites, than Darren Rowse with just 22, half of them being his own blogs or those of close friends in B5.
There is a slight pyramid nature to all memes. Certainly those on the 2KBloggers lists early on gained the most traffic from it, and possibly most links, because their faces were on the list first.
The originator of a meme almost always benefits from it far more than anyone else participating. You could look upon that critically, or it could be looked upon as just smart marketing to create an idea that goes viral.
Maki's implementation of Technorati Favorites was initially just a 2 way exchange. Gary King turned it into a meme train, which is certainly more pyramid like, but those further down the chain do have the opportunity to backtrack a little, so they have equal opportunity, but it involves a lot more work. My method specifically required a lot less effort, for maybe a lesser effect, although my OPML file is currently a lot smaller than some OPML files people have used, I need to do an update, but want to avoid "pollution" with too many A-listers. It also doesn't directly affect linking, though people have added me to various lists, of their own choice.
Cade
· 2 years ago
I agree with you about being a link whore. It is one of the most addictive things for a blogger like a drug. I always have to get my fix.
Cade
· 2 years ago
I agree with you about being a link whore. It is one of the most addictive things for a blogger like a drug. I always have to get my fix.
Lowell Crabb
· 2 years ago
I completely agree with the whole passion thing. You have to have passion for what you are doing or blogging about. Doing so will produce better results than just setting goals. If you haven't read the book "Good to Great" you have to pick it up.
I also appreciate your commenting policy. Take care.
Lowell Crabb
· 2 years ago
I completely agree with the whole passion thing. You have to have passion for what you are doing or blogging about. Doing so will produce better results than just setting goals. If you haven't read the book "Good to Great" you have to pick it up.
I also appreciate your commenting policy. Take care.
All Comments
I didn't know I was doing the dofollow commenting wrong, though, until I read this post. I immediately revised the dofollow tips/a> I've been sharing in my blog, and shall promptly revise my way of doing things, too. I hope I understood it right this time.
Thanks so much for sharing.
I didn't know I was doing the dofollow commenting wrong, though, until I read this post. I immediately revised the dofollow tips/a> I've been sharing in my blog, and shall promptly revise my way of doing things, too. I hope I understood it right this time.
Thanks so much for sharing.
I didn't know I was doing the dofollow commenting wrong, though, until I read this post. I immediately revised the dofollow tips I've been sharing in my blog, and shall promptly revise my way of doing things, too. I hope I understood it right this time.
Thanks so much for sharing.
I didn't know I was doing the dofollow commenting wrong, though, until I read this post. I immediately revised the dofollow tips I've been sharing in my blog, and shall promptly revise my way of doing things, too. I hope I understood it right this time.
Thanks so much for sharing.
As of Technorati favorites, I use it. I found it easier to use than other feed readers, so I stayed with it. It is true that I don't have many favorite blogs, so it's easy to track them anyway.
As of Technorati favorites, I use it. I found it easier to use than other feed readers, so I stayed with it. It is true that I don't have many favorite blogs, so it's easy to track them anyway.
Great article! Just one thing, Amit was actually right (sort of) about the Google Juice! Technorati Favorites itself doesn't provide any Google juice to the meme participants, but I believe he meant that the meme itself provided the juice.
Many of the participants involved linked back to Dosh Dosh's original post. Granted all the outbound links from Dosh Dosh's post are "nofollow", but some of those involved have linked to others who wrote about the meme and in turn received backlinks from trackbacks and pings.
Finally, you are providing a large number of the participants with a bit of Google Juice from your post which updates automatically.
I know I'm nitpicking, but in at least one way, Amit was correct!
Are you referring to trackbacks on Dosh Dosh or are you referring to links? All the links in my post are NOT nofollowed. They do pass Google juice to everyone who has linked to me.
If you've read my post, you would know that I did not institute any rule that bloggers participating in my experiment should practice interlinking. Nor did I encourage that.
The idea was based on a reciprocal relationship between me and the readers of my blog. It wasn't even really a meme.
The massive interlinking you've seen was initiated by the bloggers involved on their own accord and I believe it was rather generous of them to do so.
I meant to say comments and not post. Your comments are marked "external nofollow". Your post and trackbacks are nofollow free.
Sorry for the confusion!
I looked at the source for your comments section and spotted the nofollows. I didn't scroll up through the code to check the trackbacks.
However, the fact that you do no implement "nofollow" supports my point that Amit was correct, because 152 people are getting a little bit of Google Juice from you due to their trackbacks.
That's all! I didn't mean to imply that you had "nofollowed" all the links on your blog! :)
Maki, at no point did I say or claim that you instituted any rule about interlinking or make any reference to such. By interlinking I assume you mean exchanging of blog links.
I simply stated that:
However, upon reading your post again, and we are talking about this post, you do state the following under How do I Participate in Dosh Dosh’s Technorati Favorites Exchange Experiment?
You also state:
It would seem to me that you made linking back to you a big part of your post for your experiment.
To say you didn't encourage linking, is, well, misguided!
Don't get me wrong. I've got nothing against that. You deserve all the link credit you can get for getting people involved, trying something different and promoting yourself.
By the way, I'm now subscribed to your blog and look forward to seeing your future posts. Keep up the good work! :)
Paul
Some clarification here: By 'interlinking', I am referring links between blogs participating in the experiment. Not referring to links between myself and the blogger who is participating in the exchange.
As you've probably noticed, many bloggers have started linking to other bloggers participating in the exchange, probably motivated by my practice in the post itself. This accounts for the increase in backlinks for most blogs participating in the exchange.
I did suggest that blogs could link to me to get a link back, but what I meant to say in my original comment is that if other bloggers want to participate in the exchange, they are not required to link to one another.
Thanks for subscribing to Dosh Dosh :)
As for subscribing! It's a pleasure ;)
Keep up the good work! :)
Amit was being specific about Technorati Favorites, and being on the Technorati Favorite Top 100 list doesn't give Google Juice, because Google have now said extremely clearly that they don't follow the links or count them as credit.
Yahoo have also confirmed that they don't give credit for the links, even though they follow and index.
The links I gave freely, some people come visiting because they see the link, others come visting because they see a favorite. The link will most likely retain some value similar to links from trackbacks on my most popular blog posts.
I have a fairl anount of internal linking on each single page, so I can handle some fairly heavy external linking once in a while, though note those links aren't from a single page only, but also from duplicate content pages. I might have to stick a "more" tag on the page when it hits my archives.
I know you give your links freely, and that's cool, I was just pointing out how people involved in the meme were picking up Google juice from various sources.
And yes, Amit was talking abut exchanging Technorati favorites, but I don't think I'm wrong in thinking he also meant links and trackbacks for the meme as he compares it to the 2000 Bloggers project.
There is no comparison between the 2000 Bloggers project and Technorati favorites so I would say it's a fair assumption that Amit was in fact referring to Google Juice generated from meme links and trackbacks.
Sadly, only Amit knows for sure exactly what her meant, so we'll just have to hope he drops along here and adds a comment or two ;)
Great article! Just one thing, Amit was actually right (sort of) about the Google Juice! Technorati Favorites itself doesn't provide any Google juice to the meme participants, but I believe he meant that the meme itself provided the juice.
Many of the participants involved linked back to Dosh Dosh's original post. Granted all the outbound links from Dosh Dosh's post are "nofollow", but some of those involved have linked to others who wrote about the meme and in turn received backlinks from trackbacks and pings.
Finally, you are providing a large number of the participants with a bit of Google Juice from your post which updates automatically.
I know I'm nitpicking, but in at least one way, Amit was correct!
Are you referring to trackbacks on Dosh Dosh or are you referring to links? All the links in my post are NOT nofollowed. They do pass Google juice to everyone who has linked to me.
If you've read my post, you would know that I did not institute any rule that bloggers participating in my experiment should practice interlinking. Nor did I encourage that.
The idea was based on a reciprocal relationship between me and the readers of my blog. It wasn't even really a meme.
The massive interlinking you've seen was initiated by the bloggers involved on their own accord and I believe it was rather generous of them to do so.
I meant to say comments and not post. Your comments are marked "external nofollow". Your post and trackbacks are nofollow free.
Sorry for the confusion!
I looked at the source for your comments section and spotted the nofollows. I didn't scroll up through the code to check the trackbacks.
However, the fact that you do no implement "nofollow" supports my point that Amit was correct, because 152 people are getting a little bit of Google Juice from you due to their trackbacks.
That's all! I didn't mean to imply that you had "nofollowed" all the links on your blog! :)
Maki, at no point did I say or claim that you instituted any rule about interlinking or make any reference to such. By interlinking I assume you mean exchanging of blog links.
I simply stated that:
However, upon reading your post again, and we are talking about this post, you do state the following under How do I Participate in Dosh Dosh’s Technorati Favorites Exchange Experiment?
You also state:
It would seem to me that you made linking back to you a big part of your post for your experiment.
To say you didn't encourage linking, is, well, misguided!
Don't get me wrong. I've got nothing against that. You deserve all the link credit you can get for getting people involved, trying something different and promoting yourself.
By the way, I'm now subscribed to your blog and look forward to seeing your future posts. Keep up the good work! :)
Paul
Some clarification here: By 'interlinking', I am referring links between blogs participating in the experiment. Not referring to links between myself and the blogger who is participating in the exchange.
As you've probably noticed, many bloggers have started linking to other bloggers participating in the exchange, probably motivated by my practice in the post itself. This accounts for the increase in backlinks for most blogs participating in the exchange.
I did suggest that blogs could link to me to get a link back, but what I meant to say in my original comment is that if other bloggers want to participate in the exchange, they are not required to link to one another.
Thanks for subscribing to Dosh Dosh :)
As for subscribing! It's a pleasure ;)
Keep up the good work! :)
Amit was being specific about Technorati Favorites, and being on the Technorati Favorite Top 100 list doesn't give Google Juice, because Google have now said extremely clearly that they don't follow the links or count them as credit.
Yahoo have also confirmed that they don't give credit for the links, even though they follow and index.
The links I gave freely, some people come visiting because they see the link, others come visting because they see a favorite. The link will most likely retain some value similar to links from trackbacks on my most popular blog posts.
I have a fairl anount of internal linking on each single page, so I can handle some fairly heavy external linking once in a while, though note those links aren't from a single page only, but also from duplicate content pages. I might have to stick a "more" tag on the page when it hits my archives.
I know you give your links freely, and that's cool, I was just pointing out how people involved in the meme were picking up Google juice from various sources.
And yes, Amit was talking abut exchanging Technorati favorites, but I don't think I'm wrong in thinking he also meant links and trackbacks for the meme as he compares it to the 2000 Bloggers project.
There is no comparison between the 2000 Bloggers project and Technorati favorites so I would say it's a fair assumption that Amit was in fact referring to Google Juice generated from meme links and trackbacks.
Sadly, only Amit knows for sure exactly what her meant, so we'll just have to hope he drops along here and adds a comment or two ;)
Isn't the point of favorites to display who's popular! Isn't the adding as favorites supposed to be a democratic thing, with people adding favorites because they are just that: "favorites".
They're popular bloggers are they're because they are people favorites. It doesn't matter how much gaming of the system you do, the popular bloggers will still be the popular ones.
All you've succeeded in doing is breaking a legitimate voting system which actually had the ability to let relatively unknown bloggers climb the ranks.
The popular bloggers are supposed to be at the top. Thats why they're the favorites.
Nope, hundreds of people just showed en mass how jealous they are that they're not on the A-list, and decided to break Technorati Favorites because of it. In the process making it exponentially more difficult for the relatively unknown blogger to break onto that particular list (Favorites top 100).
But then most of them don't see any point or use to Technorati Favorites, so they probably won't bother.
It certainly doesn't bring in anywhere near as much traffic as a front page Digg, even over a year.
Lots of the top blogs, especially the Tech bloggers gain a little bit of unfair advantage by being in default RSS packages offered by various RSS readers.
There is a good reason why many of these services get a lot of promotion.
Unless, of course, you're suggesting the bloggers in quest beg for votes from their readers! ;)
I can't shake the feeling with some of your comments today that you feel that just because some top bloggers don't use the service means that they're not entitled to be on the list.
Is use a requirement of popularity? Is my vote for Scoble or Mike Arrington of any less value because THEY don't use the service?
Yes lots of top blogs do get seemingly unfair advantages. But, they deserve it! They made themselves popular. They had to get themselves to a point of critical mass where they were known enough and considered popular enough to be considered for inclusion.
Yes, I know that leads to seemingly unfair advantage because they get lots of free promotion without working for it. However, they did the grunt work in the first place to deserve inclusion.
If your blog gets popular enough you'll be included in those lists to..
And lets be honest, the blogosphere is vicious and fickle. If the tops blogs lets things slide and don't keep working, it won't be long before they are replaced and someone else will be getting the inclusion...
If a lot of that readership and popularity is built upon default blogrolls selected by the creators of RSS readers, it seems fair for a bunch of D-listers to have their own default imports into various services.
It is their choice whether to use it or not, just like I could go to an open OPML resource and pick up Robert's OPML and import it into whichever service I want (though I think his public one is out of date currently)
Top Favorites isn't the same as Most Popular.
The list was never most popular, just who could be bothered to promote it.
The are tons of celebrity bloggers for instance who don't figure on the list.
What happens if a blogger really cares about being at the top of a list?
http://www.bloggerschoiceawards.com/categories/32
Rosie.com now has close to 5000 votes, and that required all those people to actually register and vote, giving some quite personal details.
Most Obnoxious? Perez Hilton only has 709 votes
If Perez Hilton wanted to be in the Technorati Top 10 Favorites, I am sure it would take a few days at most.
The Top 100 Favorites in Technorati is purely a gauge of who has promoted it most, not popularity.
Instead of CPM we could use TFPM - how many Technorati Favorites per 1000 people asked to favorite you.
In some ways I have optimised my TFPM by "paying it forward" - rather than just offering to reciprocate, I have added the favorite up front.
In internet marketing one of the primary ways of selling something, either an item or an idea, is to give a benefit for the person to take such action, maybe a purchase, or just subscribing.
So far I haven't been offering any kind of incentive for subscriptions, it is fairly normal practice, but difficult to do with RSS in any real form.
Then of course there are other ways to add an incentive to building up your favorites.
http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2007/04/a-free-...
I could disagree that the:
Yes, those on the list DID do promotoion to get their readers to add them as favorites, but their readers still added them willingly. They had knowledge of what blog they were adding.
They added the blog individually!
Yes there are ways and means to promote and entice your readers to vote for your blog (on any system or list), but at the end of the day they still depend on the will of the individual potential voter.
I do think that offering prizes to entice your readers to vote your site up lists similar to technorati favorites is wrong. It is creating "false positives", but I suppose the only saving grace that approach has, is that the majority percentage of voters will probably be readers already and will actually be subscribers to the blog in question. Before you say it, yes there will be exceptions. Yes I could start a new blog, under a fake name and BUY it's way to apparent "popularity" on the lists. Doesn't make it right though!
The whole marketing pilgrim thing is a bit of a waste. He'd be better off offering the Wii for folks who actually create quality links back to his site. The traffic generated by Technorati favorites is tiny in comparison to other avenues. Not to mention the additional Google Juice (although he's doing quite well with his PR7 at the moment ;) )
Alas, folks will always try it, and any list will always be skewed by results introduced in that manner.
Anyway, back to TFE, which we are talking about.
With the Technorati favorites exchange, I would wager that the majority of the bloggers involved did not vet the OPML files and simply added them. Do you really believe they checked it, for quality, whether or not they've even heard of the blogs in question, or even to root out any potential splogs?
I seriously doubt it.
It's all in the name! A favorite is an expression of popularity. Just a different kind to inbound links. Inbound links represent a mixture of quality and content of work, as well as an bility to link bait and publish with interesting stories which create traffic. You know what I mean in that respect.
A favorite, is just that, a favorite. It's a measure of an individual users affection of affinity for a certain blog. It's unrelated to quantity, quality of posts or incoming traffic. It's an endorsement based on how the user relates to the blog or blogger in qusetion.
For example, I have a number of blogs in my favorites that I would guess post as little as once every 2 weeks or sometimes once a month.
They'll never be "popular" in the way you're supposing. But they're my favorite because I like the author or the authors style of writing. I have an affinity with those blogs for my own reasons.
I really do think we could discuss this one forever. I'm sure that for whatever point we make, there are 10 people with 10 different takes on it.
One last thing, and perhaps the most important to me..
After the TFE meme started my blog jumped from 12 favorites to 64. I believe it was because I was on somebodies OPML list.
I don't know how many of those votes I have are valid. That annoys me.
TFE has robbed me of the knowledge of whether those people actually read my blog.
TFE has robbed me of knowing if any of those endorsements are real.
I might have only had 12 favorites to begin with but they were 12 REAL ones and I was damn proud of them.
I have 64 now and they mean bugger all!
Also, anybody looking to judge the quality of my blog before subscribing is now being serious misled if they use the number of Technorati favorites I have (yes I know they could use incoming links but thats a different metric, it's not an endorsement).
Isn't the point of favorites to display who's popular! Isn't the adding as favorites supposed to be a democratic thing, with people adding favorites because they are just that: "favorites".
They're popular bloggers are they're because they are people favorites. It doesn't matter how much gaming of the system you do, the popular bloggers will still be the popular ones.
All you've succeeded in doing is breaking a legitimate voting system which actually had the ability to let relatively unknown bloggers climb the ranks.
The popular bloggers are supposed to be at the top. Thats why they're the favorites.
Nope, hundreds of people just showed en mass how jealous they are that they're not on the A-list, and decided to break Technorati Favorites because of it. In the process making it exponentially more difficult for the relatively unknown blogger to break onto that particular list (Favorites top 100).
But then most of them don't see any point or use to Technorati Favorites, so they probably won't bother.
It certainly doesn't bring in anywhere near as much traffic as a front page Digg, even over a year.
Lots of the top blogs, especially the Tech bloggers gain a little bit of unfair advantage by being in default RSS packages offered by various RSS readers.
There is a good reason why many of these services get a lot of promotion.
Unless, of course, you're suggesting the bloggers in quest beg for votes from their readers! ;)
I can't shake the feeling with some of your comments today that you feel that just because some top bloggers don't use the service means that they're not entitled to be on the list.
Is use a requirement of popularity? Is my vote for Scoble or Mike Arrington of any less value because THEY don't use the service?
Yes lots of top blogs do get seemingly unfair advantages. But, they deserve it! They made themselves popular. They had to get themselves to a point of critical mass where they were known enough and considered popular enough to be considered for inclusion.
Yes, I know that leads to seemingly unfair advantage because they get lots of free promotion without working for it. However, they did the grunt work in the first place to deserve inclusion.
If your blog gets popular enough you'll be included in those lists to..
And lets be honest, the blogosphere is vicious and fickle. If the tops blogs lets things slide and don't keep working, it won't be long before they are replaced and someone else will be getting the inclusion...
If a lot of that readership and popularity is built upon default blogrolls selected by the creators of RSS readers, it seems fair for a bunch of D-listers to have their own default imports into various services.
It is their choice whether to use it or not, just like I could go to an open OPML resource and pick up Robert's OPML and import it into whichever service I want (though I think his public one is out of date currently)
Top Favorites isn't the same as Most Popular.
The list was never most popular, just who could be bothered to promote it.
The are tons of celebrity bloggers for instance who don't figure on the list.
What happens if a blogger really cares about being at the top of a list?
http://www.bloggerschoiceawards.com/categories/32
Rosie.com now has close to 5000 votes, and that required all those people to actually register and vote, giving some quite personal details.
Most Obnoxious? Perez Hilton only has 709 votes
If Perez Hilton wanted to be in the Technorati Top 10 Favorites, I am sure it would take a few days at most.
The Top 100 Favorites in Technorati is purely a gauge of who has promoted it most, not popularity.
Instead of CPM we could use TFPM - how many Technorati Favorites per 1000 people asked to favorite you.
In some ways I have optimised my TFPM by "paying it forward" - rather than just offering to reciprocate, I have added the favorite up front.
In internet marketing one of the primary ways of selling something, either an item or an idea, is to give a benefit for the person to take such action, maybe a purchase, or just subscribing.
So far I haven't been offering any kind of incentive for subscriptions, it is fairly normal practice, but difficult to do with RSS in any real form.
Then of course there are other ways to add an incentive to building up your favorites.
http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2007/04/a-free-...
I could disagree that the:
Yes, those on the list DID do promotoion to get their readers to add them as favorites, but their readers still added them willingly. They had knowledge of what blog they were adding.
They added the blog individually!
Yes there are ways and means to promote and entice your readers to vote for your blog (on any system or list), but at the end of the day they still depend on the will of the individual potential voter.
I do think that offering prizes to entice your readers to vote your site up lists similar to technorati favorites is wrong. It is creating "false positives", but I suppose the only saving grace that approach has, is that the majority percentage of voters will probably be readers already and will actually be subscribers to the blog in question. Before you say it, yes there will be exceptions. Yes I could start a new blog, under a fake name and BUY it's way to apparent "popularity" on the lists. Doesn't make it right though!
The whole marketing pilgrim thing is a bit of a waste. He'd be better off offering the Wii for folks who actually create quality links back to his site. The traffic generated by Technorati favorites is tiny in comparison to other avenues. Not to mention the additional Google Juice (although he's doing quite well with his PR7 at the moment ;) )
Alas, folks will always try it, and any list will always be skewed by results introduced in that manner.
Anyway, back to TFE, which we are talking about.
With the Technorati favorites exchange, I would wager that the majority of the bloggers involved did not vet the OPML files and simply added them. Do you really believe they checked it, for quality, whether or not they've even heard of the blogs in question, or even to root out any potential splogs?
I seriously doubt it.
It's all in the name! A favorite is an expression of popularity. Just a different kind to inbound links. Inbound links represent a mixture of quality and content of work, as well as an bility to link bait and publish with interesting stories which create traffic. You know what I mean in that respect.
A favorite, is just that, a favorite. It's a measure of an individual users affection of affinity for a certain blog. It's unrelated to quantity, quality of posts or incoming traffic. It's an endorsement based on how the user relates to the blog or blogger in qusetion.
For example, I have a number of blogs in my favorites that I would guess post as little as once every 2 weeks or sometimes once a month.
They'll never be "popular" in the way you're supposing. But they're my favorite because I like the author or the authors style of writing. I have an affinity with those blogs for my own reasons.
I really do think we could discuss this one forever. I'm sure that for whatever point we make, there are 10 people with 10 different takes on it.
One last thing, and perhaps the most important to me..
After the TFE meme started my blog jumped from 12 favorites to 64. I believe it was because I was on somebodies OPML list.
I don't know how many of those votes I have are valid. That annoys me.
TFE has robbed me of the knowledge of whether those people actually read my blog.
TFE has robbed me of knowing if any of those endorsements are real.
I might have only had 12 favorites to begin with but they were 12 REAL ones and I was damn proud of them.
I have 64 now and they mean bugger all!
Also, anybody looking to judge the quality of my blog before subscribing is now being serious misled if they use the number of Technorati favorites I have (yes I know they could use incoming links but thats a different metric, it's not an endorsement).
As for the feed reader, you make me think that perhaps setting up searches through blogs for certain subjects (on Technorati and Google Blog Search) might work too - I'm wondering if there's an automated way to do that (Pipes?).
Sorry to hear the NoNoFollow movement is slowing down, maybe I'll revisit that subject with a solid blog post and add another small voice in the blogosphere...!
As for the feed reader, you make me think that perhaps setting up searches through blogs for certain subjects (on Technorati and Google Blog Search) might work too - I'm wondering if there's an automated way to do that (Pipes?).
Sorry to hear the NoNoFollow movement is slowing down, maybe I'll revisit that subject with a solid blog post and add another small voice in the blogosphere...!
I think he should join that game too. :D
ooops.. he doesnt need that (my bad) he owns one of the most visited site in the internet.
I think he should join that game too. :D
ooops.. he doesnt need that (my bad) he owns one of the most visited site in the internet.
You mentioned Technorati favourites. Personally I only use them for those favourite chains you mention. If I really wanted to favourite some blogs then I'd either use a proper feed reader and collect my favourite blogs for example in some Google application or in Bloglines. Or I'd simply have bookmarked them in my browser.
You mentioned Technorati favourites. Personally I only use them for those favourite chains you mention. If I really wanted to favourite some blogs then I'd either use a proper feed reader and collect my favourite blogs for example in some Google application or in Bloglines. Or I'd simply have bookmarked them in my browser.
The social interaction and interlinking possible within a small group of similar topic blogs using dofollow is in many ways more powerful than the sitewide linking normally performed by blog networks.
I have seem people excited about having a list of 150 blogs that use Dofollow.
All you have to do is search in Google to find 1000s, but that doesn't necessarily help you find blogs that are in the same niche.
The social interaction and interlinking possible within a small group of similar topic blogs using dofollow is in many ways more powerful than the sitewide linking normally performed by blog networks.
I have seem people excited about having a list of 150 blogs that use Dofollow.
All you have to do is search in Google to find 1000s, but that doesn't necessarily help you find blogs that are in the same niche.
PAULA NEAL MOONEY: Automatically Add Technorati Favorites...and Other Ways to Crack Technorati's Top 100 Popular Blogs
Thanks for all your tips!
Paula
PAULA NEAL MOONEY: Automatically Add Technorati Favorites...and Other Ways to Crack Technorati's Top 100 Popular Blogs
Thanks for all your tips!
Paula
For example, you could leverage more on MyBlogLog communities and contacts but the lack of API would hinder the growth. As it is, the function are limited and pretty basic.
Thanks Andy for being the first few who have fave me. You are the man..
For example, you could leverage more on MyBlogLog communities and contacts but the lack of API would hinder the growth. As it is, the function are limited and pretty basic.
Thanks Andy for being the first few who have fave me. You are the man..
Your article is good, but I take exception to this quote above. The 2000 Bloggers Project has taken on a life of its own at http://www.2kbloggers.com and part of that life is that there is no link exchange requirement. There never was.
Moreover, the project is more diverse and democratic than the Z list or the Technorati Favorite Link Train in that the 2k Bloggers doesn't work like a pyramid scheme.
Elaine if you read my post on 2KBloggers you will see that I was actually quite supportive.
There are various aspects to the Technorati Favorites that certainly A-listers aren't addressing.
I am sure you get more use out of Technorati favorites with 2000 favorites, than Darren Rowse with just 22, half of them being his own blogs or those of close friends in B5.
There is a slight pyramid nature to all memes. Certainly those on the 2KBloggers lists early on gained the most traffic from it, and possibly most links, because their faces were on the list first.
The originator of a meme almost always benefits from it far more than anyone else participating. You could look upon that critically, or it could be looked upon as just smart marketing to create an idea that goes viral.
Maki's implementation of Technorati Favorites was initially just a 2 way exchange.
Gary King turned it into a meme train, which is certainly more pyramid like, but those further down the chain do have the opportunity to backtrack a little, so they have equal opportunity, but it involves a lot more work.
My method specifically required a lot less effort, for maybe a lesser effect, although my OPML file is currently a lot smaller than some OPML files people have used, I need to do an update, but want to avoid "pollution" with too many A-listers. It also doesn't directly affect linking, though people have added me to various lists, of their own choice.
Your article is good, but I take exception to this quote above. The 2000 Bloggers Project has taken on a life of its own at http://www.2kbloggers.com and part of that life is that there is no link exchange requirement. There never was.
Moreover, the project is more diverse and democratic than the Z list or the Technorati Favorite Link Train in that the 2k Bloggers doesn't work like a pyramid scheme.
Elaine if you read my post on 2KBloggers you will see that I was actually quite supportive.
There are various aspects to the Technorati Favorites that certainly A-listers aren't addressing.
I am sure you get more use out of Technorati favorites with 2000 favorites, than Darren Rowse with just 22, half of them being his own blogs or those of close friends in B5.
There is a slight pyramid nature to all memes. Certainly those on the 2KBloggers lists early on gained the most traffic from it, and possibly most links, because their faces were on the list first.
The originator of a meme almost always benefits from it far more than anyone else participating. You could look upon that critically, or it could be looked upon as just smart marketing to create an idea that goes viral.
Maki's implementation of Technorati Favorites was initially just a 2 way exchange.
Gary King turned it into a meme train, which is certainly more pyramid like, but those further down the chain do have the opportunity to backtrack a little, so they have equal opportunity, but it involves a lot more work.
My method specifically required a lot less effort, for maybe a lesser effect, although my OPML file is currently a lot smaller than some OPML files people have used, I need to do an update, but want to avoid "pollution" with too many A-listers. It also doesn't directly affect linking, though people have added me to various lists, of their own choice.
I also appreciate your commenting policy. Take care.
I also appreciate your commenting policy. Take care.