You hear all this talk about the "A-List"; you know, the kind of blogger that everyone wants to get a link from in return for a review or something? No, I'm not picking on John Chow (at least not this time), although it seems he would be classified as being on the "A-List".
Are you on the "Z-List"? You know, the kind of blogger that no one even knows about yet (or very few do)?
This is not the secret, but I'll let you in on something. There is no A-List and there is no Z-List. The A-List is nothing more than bloggers that work very hard at attracting readers and are very successful at doing so. Their reward is a larger paycheck, among other things. The Z-List is nothing more than bloggers who haven't found their "niche" or haven't applied themselves yet. Even though I've been blogging for 10 months now, and have seen my rankings get better and better, I still consider myself a newbie, but not quite on the Z-List anymore. Even after two years, I'll still consider myself a newbie — I still won't be anywhere near the A-List.
Here's the secret. To get on the so-called A-List, you have to connect with the so-called Z-List. Huh? Sounds like tripe, doesn't it? If you're a seasoned blogger, who's going to listen to you the most? The inexperienced. Who's going to link to you the most? The inexperienced. Who's going to visit you the most? The inexperienced! If you're a seasoned blogger, do you REALLY think your peers are going to help you achieve your goals? Not when they're competing with you. Oh, it might not be called that and many might deny it, but there's definitely competition. The newbies will not compete with you. If you're a newbie now, thanks for stopping by and reading. Sorry, I couldn't resist. If you're a newbie now, connect with as many other bloggers as possible, preferably those who are as new as you so you can learn from each other as well as the experienced bloggers.
You may ask me, how do I know this little secret? Because it's not a secret. The blogosphere (whoever coined that word should be shot) operates pretty much like the real world. The experienced feed off the inexperienced. Dog-eat-dog, or in this case, blog-eat-blog. When I'm doing my blog "drive-bys", do you know who I'm looking for? Yes, you got it. The bloggers who appear to be inexperienced. How do I find them? Well… I'll give you a hint: Technorati Favorites. What? You haven't claimed your blog at Technorati? Have you no shame? Some people use Technorati as a ranking metric, but I believe it's much more valuable as a resource of blogs that you want to read or "connect with".
