2008
Dare to Be Interesting
Posted by DotComMogul in A-lister, John Chow, John Cow, buzz, content
With all the problogger sites making obscene amounts of money, it is only natural that other bloggers aspire to follow in their footsteps. Often these bloggers have achieved (at least in their own minds) Guru status. They are the leaders and everyone else, the followers … the wannabees. In a way, I’m a wannabee also. I wannabee rich. By the same token, I’d rather etch out my own path to fame and fortune than go the same route as many of the so called A-listers. I visit them often to see what they are up to and more often that not, they fail to capture my attention. Obviously, they are good at profiteering, but not very good at being interesting. As an example, I’ll use one of the most successful blogs on the Internet … John Chow’s blog. I don’t personally have any gripes against this guy, but to me, this blog is just plain boring. If I have to see one more post about what he eats, I will throw up. Latest topics and headlines from John’s blog:
1. I am featured in the February issue of Entrepreneur magazine. You should be able to find it at your local newsstands now. My article is on page 52. Here is an actual quote from that article: “His blog remains a somewhat banal combination of his money count and what he had for lunch–the blogging equivalent of Seinfeld, the show “about nothing.”
2. The second post is a guest post with some advice on writing:
#1 - Don’t Ever Talk About Being Dugg/Reddited/Stumbled
I don’t know … take a look at the discussions about what social media can do for traffic and you’ll see that maybe this is a good topic if presented correctly.#2 - Don’t Disclose Failure Unless It’s To Make a Point
Sorry, I disagree. How do we learn if not from our mistakes? Why not share this info so that others can benefit?#3 - Shout About Your Successes
Used incorrectly, this often just smacks of arrogance and is a real turn-off (see previous post on this)4 - Write with Authority
Only write with authority if you are an authority. To do so without qualification will just bite you in the ass#5 - You Don’t Need To Tell The Truth All The Time
Why?3. The third post down is: First Production Corvette ZR1 Sells for $1 Million
All I have to say is wtf? I came here for the secret. Give me the damned secret.5. Dine Out Vancouver 2008 - Raincity Grill
Oh my God Noooo … not another meal
The reason they have such a strong following is because they’ve achieved the level of financial success that many bloggers hope to achieve and people keep reading hoping to glean just one golden secret that will launch their site into A-list heaven. Usually, that secret never comes but people have got to believe in a dream so they keep going back to find it.
I ran across this post today by a blogger that just oozes interesting and it is so true … the one thing that many people fail to realize, is that you can’t teach interesting, and unless you’re interesting, your blog probably isn’t going to reach the level of fame and marketability that the A-listers have. Read the rest of this entry »
There has certainly been a trend to load up your blog’s sidebars with Widgets … there are widgets for everything … Ok … to tell you the truth, I briefly succumbed to Widget mania myself …but only briefly. Remember all the hype about Blogrush? I had Blogrush on my sidebar. Made my page load a lot slower and got ZIPPO … nada … Zilch … zero … hardly any traffic from it, but the A-listers were always there, sitting on my widget for free. The people who needed exposure the least were getting what amounts to free ads on my blog. Good-bye Blogrush.
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