Well, I've never been quite pummeled the way I have been for my broadside against Nick Carr's rant last week. Shelley Powers said the obvious about six times, but her using her blog like a graffiti board doesn't much bother me.
What does bother me is that so many people thought that I was over the top in what I wrote, that my post exuded bullshit and that I had revealed an arrogant and hypocritical streak by discouraging Nick to contribute to the blogosphere he holds in such contempt or so it seems to me.
As I noted in my earlier post, Nick rubs me the wrong way. This precedes blogging. It was developed when I read his book and it strengthened after I watched him on stage a few times. e rubs me the wrong way and its personal and when I responded to him, I did it with too much anger and too little logic.
I like blogging because it gives me license to insert subjectivity into my writing, and to show the passion which is very much part of me. But like TS Eliot wrote, "Only those who risk going to far, can really know how far one can go."
I went to far. In so doing, I damaged my credibility and lessened the strength of the argument I was trying to make.
Here is what I essentially object to: The blogosphere is not run by a small, elite group of bloggers with high rankings. They do not sit in a private room inside a castle set on top of the hill where it casts shadows on hungry peasant hordes. There is no moat and there is no gate. To claim it is so, seems to me to be the real fraud.
Does that mean, as several bloggers asserted, that I am claiming the blogosphere is flat? No. It does mean that I think there is more equal opportunity here in the blogosphere than in any other communications channel that exists or has ever existed.
. As this photo shows, castles do crumble and there's me on the outside of it.
One blogger commented that it was easy for me to say, because I had the help of Scoble to become an A-Lister. Well, Scoble himself certainly helped me on my path as did a great number of other people who had higher rankings than me, encouraged me and sent me link love when they thought I merited it. But it was I who took the initiative to approach Scoble through mutual friends. I flew to Seattle at my own expense, to persuade Scoble to write a book with me. The collaboration worked and a great number of people seem to think its a pretty good book.
Higher blog rankings was not what I was after, but they did result. In any case, the point is that I took initiative. I worked my ass off and for that reason, and for a limited time, I have the numerical rankings according to one pulse taker, whose accuracy I question, that says I am now an A-Lister. two years ago I was not n the top million and two years from now I may not be again.
One or more of you will replace me and the other hit tunes of this day. I assure you this will happen. One day Arrington and Scoble and the rest of us will wake up and discover that we are soooo yesterday, and that will be just fine with me. I will have had my run.
The blogosphere is not a flat world. It is an equal opportunity channel. The peasants at the gate can get in. They can push incumbents off the playing field. But if it were easy to do this, t would not be valued and coveted by so many people.
But that brings me to my second point. Bloggers should really, carefully think about whether or not they want to actually be so-called A-Listers. This may be a case of Groucho Marx Syndrome. "I want no part of any club that will let the likes of me into it."
There is great value in long and middle tail blog positions. What bloggers should want, or so it seems to me, is to be respected by audiences that are relevant to them. The entire blogosphere studio audience is not relevant to everyone.
This blog focuses on business people who want to learn about blogs. Those people are relevant because I want them to buy my book. I want them to contract me to speak or consult. Right now, that's a good place to be.
If I'm right however, that becomes less and less relevant and this blog will become as valuable and interesting as someone who posts about all the neat ways a business user can use a telephone.
I apologize for having gone over the top. I regret letting my temper overshadow the points I wanted to make. I hope this clarifies it somewhat.
