April 29, 2005

Is It Time to Name Blogging Subgroups?

Now that we bloggers have changed the world, the web, and the news, people are starting to look at us in a new light. We've even gotten into the dictionary, and some news outlets are starting to look to blogs for more news to cover. I'm starting to notice that the singular term "blog" is insufficient to explain the panopoly of blog types that exist in the great blogosphere. As such, I'd like to propose a new naming scheme for blogs. That said, "Lockjaw's Lair" will now be known as a "PoliBlog+."

Here are some proposed blog terms.

We need more. For instance, I can't quite think of a good name for the entertainment subgroup. MiscBlog can exist as a catch-all for those other blogs with no real focus. I welcome any suggestions.

Welcome to the PoliBlog continent of the Blogosphere.

Posted by Lockjaw at 2:36 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 23, 2005

Nice Traffic Tool for Bloggers/Webmasters

I've posted about this elsewhere, but haven't done so here, because it's a little outside of my normal fare. If you're looking for a good way to get at least 10,000 true visits to your blog or other website by real people, you should check out HonestyHits. It's a service where you surf other sites to earn credits, which are then applied to bring others to your site. HonestyHits has one other cool thing that sets it apart. They give you 10,000 credits/site views when you join.

So, join up. Enter your site. Be sure to set your site to only allow views from MANUAL surfers, because they do have an automated surfing system that doesn't require real eyeballs on your site. Allocate all 10,000 credits toward your site, and let it go. It won't be 10,000 surfers in a week. They'll trickle in over a while. It's pretty cool, and has brought a lot of viewers to my site.

Of course, once you've got them there, you need to have good content, or you'll never see them again. That part's up to you. I'm just suggesting a good way to get some more viewers to your site. If you're interested in info, go to HonestyHits and check it out.

Posted by Lockjaw at 3:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 22, 2005

Blogging Traffic Exchange Sites

I've used Blog Explosion for a while, and I've enjoyed it quite a bit. The concept is simple. You use their "surfing" tool to view blogs that belong to other members, and you earn credits. Those credits are used to send other "surfers" to your blog. For every two blogs that you visit using their site, they'll send one surfer to your blog. Simple concept, and it works fairly well. I've found a lot of good sites through Blog Explosion and had a lot of new users come to my site because of it. What a deal!

I've noticed another traffic exchange system out there. It's called Blog Clicker. Like Blog Explosion, Blog Clicker lets you browse member blogs and earn traffic for your own blog. It's a bit newer, and has a different look and feel, but works very similarly. If you're a Blog Explosion user, and are looking for a different batch of blogs to browse, give this one a try.

I've found one more traffic exchange system to give a try, too. It's called BlogAZoo. I haven't used it very much yet, but I thought it might be worth a try. At any rate, it's worth joining and surfing a bit, just to see a new batch of blogs. It looks like they've only got around 1600 members so far, so you can get in early.

That's my short traffic exchange entry for the day. If you've never used a traffic exchange system before, give Blog Explosion a try and see how it works. You'll find some new blogs to read, and some folks will find yours. If you're a Blog Explosion user, don't hesitate to try Blog Clicker and BlogAZoo for something new.

Posted by Lockjaw at 2:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Supermarket and the City Market

Eric S. Raymond wrote, and continues to update, a book called "The Cathedral And The Bazaar." It's a book about software development. The analogy compares centrally-developed software such as Microsoft Windows to Open Source Software such as Gnu/Linux. The analogy works well, but I didn't want to steal it directly. In looking at the difference between the Mainstream Media (MSM) and the Blogosphere, I had to come up with my own analogy. I've decided on "The Supermarket and The City Market."

The ongoing debate over the quality of the MSM -vs- the Blogs is getting pretty heated. Many MSMers are getting rightly upset that their hold on the attention-span of the news-consumers is weakening. This begs the question, why would a savvy news-consumer go to an amateur pundit writing from his bedroom, when he has access to serious news businesses with full staffs to gather the news? The answer, I believe, can be found in how we shop for other items.

When I shop for groceries, I tend to go to the grocery store. In one building, I can pick up most everything I need. I can get bread, meat, dairy, fruit, vegetables, cereal, snacks and most of my regular food items. The store contains a modest variety of items in a wide number of categories. In doing this, the supermarket allows me to do all of my shopping in one place. This is very convenient, and cost-effective.

In some larger cities, one has the opportunity to visit a city market. Lancaster Pa. has one of my favorites that I have visited. Inside the large building one finds many small businesses. Over near the door, you'll find a baker. Compared to the supermarket, this baker has a huge variety of baked goods. Because the staff of the bakery is highly specialized, they produce a higher quality product. Because they don't worry as much about shelf life and shipping, the breads taste much better. For the same reason, you'll purchase a smaller amount of bread and visit more often.

The city market has many specialized shops like our bakery. There's a butcher or two, with the freshest meat and many cuts you won't find in the grocer's case. Several shops sell varieties of prepared foods, many which you may never have heard of. The fishmonger sells the freshest, unfrozen fish. Canned goods can be purchased over in the corner. Herbs and spices can be found by following the smell, with both fresh and dried options. One shop carries a wide variety of fresh pastas, along with freshly canned quality sauces.

In the supermarket, you can ask anyone where to find an item, but there are few highly specialized people to assist you with particular products. The dairy section, for instance, is staffed with guys who stock the cases, but probably can't suggest the best cheese to go with your chicken meal. Outside of the meat and baked goods section, the staff of your supermarket is probably only minimally trained in how to cook the foods they handle each day.

In the city market, each staffer is a specialist in the product they sell. The cheesemonger can carry on a conversation for hours about cheeses, and how they match with meats, wines, breads and other foods. If you go to the fishmonger and purchase a trout, you can go to the spice-shop and get advice on which herbs will best bring out the taste of the fish. Because each shop tends to cover a limited category, you'll find better specialization within that category.

The Mainstream Media is the supermarket. When you watch the evening news, you'll get the supermarket treatment. In one half hour, you'll get coverage of news, entertainment, sports, human events, consumer affairs, weather and whatever else is the news of the day, and makes the cut. Because of the limited time available, not every story will make the cut. Every newscast will contain stories from a set number of categories, but the variety of stories within each category will be small.

The blogosphere is the city market. It's just a very LARGE city market. The consumer can walk the aisles, and pick out what they wish to consume. If you want to read about politics, you can concentrate on the politics blogs. If you like entertainment, there's a big batch of blogs for you. Some bloggers are generalists, with no concentration on single topics. Others are very specialized.

If a city market is near the coast, it may have more than one fishmonger. If the catch of the day is mullett, then all the fishmongers may be pushing more mullett that day. If a local dairy has just produced a large batch of fresh cheese, then that cheese is likely to be the featured product across the cheesemongers in the market. The supermarket, though, sells a lot more frozen fish. This allows them to keep a standardized selection in stock over a longer time. Supermarket cheese counters receive their stock from a larger distribution method, so seasonal changes are less likely to matter.

Like the supermarket, the Mainstream Media pulls from a less localized distribution scheme. Most of their news is pulled from centralized newswires, or other members of the MSM. The hot news of the day is their loss-leader item, while the later stories of the show are likely to be days in the production.

The blogosphere, however, isn't limited by press-times or deadlines. Stories can be posted as they are uncovered. Regular updates to stories are fairly standard. There's no need for a reader to show up at a specific time, because blogs have new material throughout the day. As the Eason Jordan scandal showed, the catch of the day in the blogosphere can sometimes be quite juicy, and make a real difference.

There can be drawbacks to buying your food at a city market, though. The bread you buy at the bakery doesn't contain as many preservatives as the bread you'll buy at the supermarket. It might taste better, but it is unlikely to last nearly as long before mold sets in. The fruits and vegetables might be available in wider variety, but the supermarket sells produce that can stand up to the time and handling of shipping. This means you'll want to eat those tomatoes quicker, and not buy as many of the heirloom cucumbers.

Likewise, there can be drawbacks to getting your news from blogs. Not every blogger is an expert in their field. Not every detail you get will be correct. Sometimes, you'll want to ask around and check the quality. With many blogs, this asking around can be done by reading the comments for the stories you read. Often, mistakes will be pointed out by readers. In the city market, you may want to buy your beef from one butcher, and your pork from another. In the blogosphere, you may want your different types of political reading to come from different blogs.

Unlike the supermarket and the mainstream media, the city market and blogosphere give the consumer the choice. The consumer at the city market should make it a point to become more educated about the choices available, and how to properly handle them. The consumer of news from blogs should take responsibility for double-checking the facts.

With the mainstream media, you're expected to trust that the outlet has done their job. They're not perfect, though. Just as your supermarket butcher will sometimes sell a piece of meat that shouldn't have made it to the case, the mainstream media will sometimes just get the story wrong. No real method, however, exists to double-check either. You can complain to the management after the fact, but that's about it.

The big difference between my analogy and the real life of news is very simple. In the food marketplace, the shift is toward centralized supermarkets and away from city markets. In the news business, the shift is away from the mainstream media, and toward the blogs, news/talk radio, Internet news sites, and pretty much anything else.

Why is that?

Quite simply, this change is happening in the food business because the supermarkets are doing a good job of providing us our food needs. The opposite change is happening in the news, because the mainstream media is doing a bad job of providing us our news needs.

If the MSM would just do their job correctly, they'd see a major change. If they would provide news more completely, honestly, and with a balance to their bias, they'd see the viewership come back.

The blogosphere isn't going away anytime soon, but the Mainstream Media might be.

Posted by Lockjaw at 1:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack