The Blogosphere is Rigged
This is one of my classic rants about unfairness in the blogosphere. Is it still relevant today as it was then? You tell me.
(Un) Equal Opportunity Bloggers
Jessica Guynn poses the question:
“Why is this supposedly democratic medium recreating real-world inequality? A blogarchy has emerged from the Internet equivalent of an “American Idol” popularity contest. This elite clique of bloggers — the so-called a-listerswho get checked out more often than Lindsay Lohan — attract the largest online audience. All those eyeballs can deliver cachet, cash and the coveted contract for a blook (a book based on a blog).”
Jessica goes on to discuss inequality in the blogosphere where it seems that 1% is getting 99% of the traffic. But she goes too far when she whines that most of the a-listers are men.
She seems to have forgotten that the Huffington Post, Ann Althouse, the Wonkette et al are blogs run by women a-listers. So I don’t want to turn this into a pissing match between the sexes.
Trust me when I say there are a whole lot of male bloggers that are in the same boat. No matter how hard they try and tweak their sites or write killer posts they just can’t seem to crack the barrier.
But the truth of the matter is there’s a disproportionate amount of traffic going to only a privileged few that have eked out their own network hierarchy within the blogosphere.
And so, a complex social phenomenon becomes purely mathematical: The more links pointing to you — especially from big-time bloggers — the more readers you will have (according to the method of judging blog popularity by number of links)… talk about creating a powerful, self-reinforcing and very exclusive network.
The Blogosphere is Rigged
Unfortunately this sort of BS becomes self-perpetuating when blog search sites such as the Truth Laid Bear, Technorati, and Sphere et al reinforce the a-list mentality with their stupid juvenile ratings. Even Google’s Blog Search has a “Sort by Relevance” filter which is the default setting.
The a-listers bank on the gullibility of blogging newbies who don’t know any better. After all, we just want to belong don’t we? So we hang around the a-lister’s like a pack of stray dogs at the corner store hoping they will throw us a bone or two (i.e. links).
Search Filters:
We can’t even install a news reader today without a ready-made a-list, and a perusal of the search engines (I call them search filters) will quickly point us in their direction.
So where does that leave the rest of the 99%? On the outside looking in that’s where. Like I said before, the Blogosphere has turned into one big frat party. And here I thought I left jerks like that back in school. What a crock. Feh!
More Signal, Less Noise:
These blogarchy types subscribe to the theory of “More Signal, Less Noise”. Meaning — YOU are the noise.
Sure, some of the blogarchy deserve to be there. There’s no questioning that. BUT I can find better blog writers any day of the week than most of these so-called a-listers.
So here is a dirty little secret for all of you not yet in the know. The blogosphere has been rigged. The majority of the a-listers only got where they are because they have high profile jobs, are members of elite blog networks they created, are better at gaming Google than the rest of us, or were linked to by other a-listers that they sucked up to.
It is a self-serving megalomaniac gang of social climbers that there ever was.
So what can you do about it?
Well for one thing you can stop blogrolling these a-list nincompoops. Don’t give them any of your link love. If you still have a morbid curiosity and want them within easy reach then just bookmark them. But whatever you do DO NOT give them a pagerank boost by linking to them in your blog.
Here’s one or two tricks for your consideration. If you feel that you absolutely must link to them, add the rel=”nofollow“ attribute to the link so that the search engines won’t rank it.
If you subscribe to their newsfeed do NOT use their Feedburner link so they can show off their 1 million subscribers. Instead, use the feed links provided by their blog service — i.e. RSS or Atom.
For all you Wordpress users out there, install the NoFollow Reciprocity plugin and add the a-listers you no longer want to give your Google juices too. It works like a charm.
Take the power back and deny their petty egos by starting your own blogroll with bloggers who are your friends or who share a similar focus. Visit them often and link to their posts. Comment on their blogs and create your own cosmos support group. That’s a good place to start.
Or better still, just suck up to them and hope you get linked. Just kidding of course (I think). Show me love. 
Similar Reading:
How To Win Friends and Influence your PageRank Getting More Traffic to Your Blog The Blogosphere is becoming one big Frat Party, OR Revenge of the Nerds
*This article was recently updated since it’s first publishing 2005
Subscribe to the Newsfeed for even More Great Blog Tips!
Leave a Comment...
Leave a Comment and Join the Conversation...
Be COOL! Grab a Button
Vote for Blog Bloke!.gif){kind=small}
7.jpg "The guy behind Blog Bloke")
You are soooooo right. Thanks for saying what everybody is thinking. The BlogoSphere = BS.
I expect the A-list is there as a reflection of the culture, more or less.
I’m happy with my 60 hits a day and few comments. I know who my friends are. I have more fun poking fun and writing about it than I would sitting on my hands all day.
You can tell I have a lot of free time.
Thanks for the comments everyone. If you have so much free time jomama then I hope you will drop by again soon
You so inspired me by this post I went into my template to see if I had any of these folks linked, and sure ‘nuf I had two linked…but not anymore! They’re history! Oh, I made sure I added you even though I had given you a link earlier in a post. You’re the man!
The feeling is mutual Kuanyin. I really enjoy reading Blog Blond. Stay true to yourself and don’t sell out.
It’s actually simple sociological economics. You reference the gullibility of newbie readers - that’s true. In an economy where any blog is just as accessible as the next, the fact that one person has chosen one blog makes it twice to three times as likely someone else will too.
Clay Shirky is certainly better at explaining “power law”
Trisha’s last blog post..Building a Successful Online Endeavor Out of MyChingo Ep1: Bloopers
Oh brother. Boohoo Billy has more fiends then me *sniff*.
Pulease.
If everyone would just get over themselves and did what they do, they would be fine. Stop worrying about all the supposed a-list suck-ups and go out and get your own suck-ups!
Umm, well, you know what I mean
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..7 Turbo Writing Tips
Will you be my friend
Blog Bloke reply on June 22nd, 2008 12:46 pm:
Initially I thought the problem is my writing style. But you’re right. It does not matter what I write or what style I used. I am just not part of the club. But in some ways, it is a good thing. Low expectations from my readers mean less need to “perform.”
asithi’s last blog post..Your Dream Weight and Your Happy Weight
You are soo correct. I did a deep search into my own writing vs others that had a ton of readers. First of all I do my own writing, I only do links that are high quality. And so many of those A-Listers do the most idiotic tips in the world. Either I am dumb, and totally not talented or the readers want stupidity. But when they actually read my blog readers do come back! Okay I feel so much better, thanks for validating my worth! Off to edit my blog roll!
Kathy@brazoscowgirl’s last blog post..People Watching Game
I’ve actually been shunned for writing this post and others like it. Indeed, the truth does hurt.
Blog Bloke reply on June 24th, 2008 2:57 pm:
Your speaking whats in most of our heads.
I salute you
Gavin Smith’s last blog post..Finnan welcomes the opposition
Thanks.
Blog Bloke reply on June 26th, 2008 3:12 pm:
I’m not prejudiced against anybody, and I link out to others which might help my readers. The A Listers have monopolized the blogosphere, just like Microsoft monopolized the OS and software market (IE 7 & Vista anyone?). Hopefully some “sleeping-giant” blogger will come up and take the blogosphere by storm. FYI, I love Mozilla and use Firefox 3.
Well, the A Listers do deserve credit. They push out great articles that are really helpful, but the majority of blogs die out after 3-4 months of irregular posting. Can’t the A Listers be a little bit liberal to who they link out to? Some one *ahem* got an inspiration from the Blog Bloke and didn’t link back. I guess who could that be?
Mushfiqur Rahman’s last blog post..Do It Today : Simple Trick To Make Vista’s UAC Less Annoying
Care to name any names? I’ll give you 3 guesses, not that you will need that many.
Let’s just say it’s both in our best interest not to name any names here. You know that person and many of your readers too, so let’s keep it that way.
Mushfiqur Rahman’s last blog post..Do It Today : Simple Trick To Make Vista’s UAC Less Annoying
Chicken =8>-()<
Blog Bloke reply on June 28th, 2008 11:11 pm:
Mushfiqur Rahman reply on June 28th, 2008 9:43 pm:
Blog Bloke reply on June 28th, 2008 12:25 pm:
Hmm, is he/she a PRO Blogger?
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..New Feature! Monthly Post Round-Ups For Direct Sales Web Marketing
What’s a Pro Splogger?
Let’s just say he is DR.
If you can figure him out, congratulations. You are a long time Blog Bloke reader.
Mushfiqur Rahman’s last blog post..Single Player Games : Why It’s Going Strong And Won’t Die Out In The Near Future
Doh!
Blog Bloke reply on June 29th, 2008 10:30 am:
Mushfiqur Rahman reply on June 29th, 2008 9:40 am:
Blog Bloke reply on June 29th, 2008 9:18 am:
Interesting article. Some of the themes here reminded me of a related flurry of opinion for and against in the Irish blogosphere recently. Link is here
http://spanishexposition.blogspot.com/2008/06/sprawling-bawling-critique.html
Please let me know what you think.
Thanks, Quickroute
Quickroute’s last blog post..FREE BEER! - Yes You Heard Right !
Loved it … thanks for the link!
Blog Bloke reply on July 1st, 2008 5:57 pm:
I wasn’t aware of this situation. It models the economical state of the world; the gap between the rich and poor.
Great post. It is good to hear this as it is something I have noticed too. I think the worst crowd are the self appoint internet marketing elite, followed by the arrogant web 2.0 crowd.
The blogroll idea is very good.
There’s no need to include blogs on it that are blogrolled in most the other blogs I visit anyway.
I’m going to change it now.
B’dum B’dum B’dums last blog post…Linkative Boredom
Jan 19th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
[…] The Blogosphere is Rigged […]
Jan 26th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
[…] come without its risks either, so if that doesn’t suit your fancy there is always grovelling. (I call that the “Art of Sucking-Up Blogging”, but I’ll save that for another […]
Jun 22nd, 2008 at 8:32 am
[…] The Blogosphere is Rigged Bloke is a crusty old veteran of the blogosphere, a great blog to read. This post is a great one and speaks to the pack mentality of audiences to go and gather where others are. Challenge yourself to find the 1%, though! (tags: blogging blogbloke) […]
Jun 23rd, 2008 at 5:03 am
[…] The Blogosphere is Rigged […]
Oct 10th, 2008 at 1:58 am
[…] The Blogosphere is Rigged […]