Who’s your Favorite A-lister?
A-listers. What would the rest of us mortal bloggers do without them? We hang on every word that they write and grovel around their blogs like dogs begging for a bone at the dinner table.
I read these guys out of curiosity more than anything else and like to analyse them and figure out why they are popular.
I’ve often wondered why other people like to read them so I thought it would be interesting to pose the question to you. Who is your favorite a-lister and why do you like to read them?
To get the ball rolling I’ve made a short list of who the Bloke is currently reading and a brief overview of what (to me) is their attraction. Your impressions might be different than mine and I would like to read your take on it.
1. Robert Scoble. Robert took his cue from big-bloggers like Instapundit and Dave Winer. Instead of spending hours crafting the perfect post, Robert’s secret for rising to the top is making lots of short little diddies (mini-posts) and flooding the internet with his blog. It also helps if you are (or was in his case) an employee of the world’s largest software company. 2. Steve Rubel. Steve used his Public Relations bag of tricks to spin himself to the top and is probably the biggest oxymoron to me. Demonstrating his PR expertise, Steve somehow managed to keep his position in the top 100 despite his employer’s (Edelman) scandals and his controversial relationship with his client Technorati. According to his Twitter page he and Scoble also seem to be buds. 3. John Chow. He’s a fairly newcomer and his claim to fame seems to be teaching bloggers how to cheat the system to get to the top and make money. Be careful following his advice though because it backfired on him when he was recently banned from Technorati. I suspect that Mr. Chow’s rising star will flame out by his own demise. 4. Darren Rowse. Darren has a blog niche that is similar to mine with an entrepreneurial twist. We had a showdown over who was the first to blog exclusively on the topic of blogging and I believe I won that round. Darren is the kingpin of list makers because he is always hunting and gathering stuff that is readily available on the internet and weaving it into posts. Compared to Mr. Chow, Darren is more traditional in his approach to making money and all I can figure is he must watch a lot of late night TV infomercials (nudge, nudge, wink, wink ;-). Both in my opinion are controversial with their dubious claims of income potential, and judging from their popularity it only proves I guess that money talks and bs walks. (Or is it the other way around)? 1. So which a-lister (if any) do you like to read? 2. Do you love them, or can you live without them? 3. Does the blogosphere benefit from a-listers or are they just self-serving ego-maniacs? “` UPDATE: Blog Blond offers us a more irreverent approach. Related posts: Elite Retreat: How Much $$$$$$ Really?Who’s your Daddy?
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I used to suck up to a_listers until I realized only they benefited from the relationship (if you can call it that - a one-sided one that’s for sure). So I just do my thing and ignore them. They’re irrelevant as far as I’m concerned and it’s the suckers who make them into a_listers. They need us more than we need them, and when we finally realize that we have the power, only then we can all play on the same level.
Man-oh-man, I really like your edge! You’re damned good…and I’ve got a big smile on my face as I write this comment! But to answer your questions, here goes:
1.None of the one’s mentioned. Snore!
2.Live without!!!!
3.Both
Keep telling it as it is! Kudos!
“Keep telling it as it is”.
You can count on it and thanks for the kudos.
I don’t mind being like an innocent fawn venturing out in front of an oncoming juggernaut…
1. Scoble’s harmless, isn’t he? He seems like a laid back kinda guy, coming across as pretty much unphased by some fairly vicious point-blank vitriol. I’m not a religious reader, but then his blog doesn’t seem to offer anything of real substance. I’m sure Twitter serves him ideally.
Darren Rowse seems to be buddying up to the cool meerkats and, d’you know, I think he might become more approachable for the effort. Either that or it is a conscious bid to tap into a market that has gone elsewhere for their blogging needs. Has he been in touch with you lately, BB?
2. Of course the blog would go on without them. Many of them were just early adopters, and well done to them for that. Whether they would do any better than anyone else if they started blogging today is an interesting question. Perhaps someone should do a post reviewing their blogs as if they were fresh on the scene. How would they hold up?
3. John Chow is seriously taking the mick these days. The only one who seems to be making any headway from contact with JC is Matt Coddington at New Business Blog. The rest are serving the man himself, and that’s their choice.
But I’m just nibbling at sour grapes because my generous review of John Chow dot Com was not given the JC seal of approval. I’m very pleased about that now, given his recent ungodly “Make Money Online” stipulation.
Benefit? Who am I to say.
Oops, sorry Matt, that’s Net Business Blog.
All of those jokers prove only one thing. They figured out how to game the system for profit. The biggest fraud of all is Guy Kawasaki. What a joke.
Interesting take on it Rory. I agree that Scoble may seem “harmless”, but he’s harmless like a fox
He is one clever dude who knows how to work the system. But as for the others…
“Has he [Darren] been in touch with you lately, BB”
Nope! He avoids me like the plague and goes out of his way to not link to me. I know that he reads the Bloke and subscribes to my feed, and yet I’ve often caught him making posts on stories that I was the first to break, but he didn’t me credit.
So unfortunately I’ve seen another side to Darren that others don’t seem to know about.
http://blog.Blog Bloke.com/2006/08/blogosphere-infomercials-making-money.html
Hence, the reason why I didn’t link to him here.
It’s really too bad. I will often use humor and wit to offer my criticisms of so-called a-listers, and I do so in fun (and hopefully constructively as well, or at least I try).
But unfortunately some have skins as thin (and as lethal) as a razor blade. Of course I run the risk of being shunned and flamed (like I have so often been) but I have to be true to myself whatever the cost.
I see so many things going on in the blogosphere that aren’t right. Innocent people are being taken for a ride by the hucksters and their pocketbooks are being emptied. So long as I am able I will speak out against such abuse and unfairness.
I’ve honestly learned from all of them. My style is much different. I’d have to say the blogger who is most transparent about his motives and his techniques, is John Chow. Not sure it’s really cheating when you publicly post your methodology on the blog, is it?
You’re on my A-List.
Thanks for the compliment Doug, but the Zodiac serial killer also publicized his crimes did he not?