It’s all very Slushie Dog Theory (it’s a picture of a dog on a cup holding a cup with a picture of a dog on a cup holding a cup with a picture of …. ): linking to bloggers blogging about linking to bloggers who have blogged about links to bloggers ….. But anyway, I thought this post by Terrance at The Republic of T on the “politics of blogrolls” was very interesting.
I mentioned in the previous post that I’ve blogged a lot in the past about blogrolls, the politics of linking in, and how links are a kind of currency that follow the same rules as currency in any other economy: those who have the most tend to get the most, tend to keep it, and tend exchange it mostly among themselves.
What’s funny, too, is that he talks about the “old days,” when bloggers could rise up the popularity ranks pretty quickly. I wish I’d been around for the old days — there must have been such a sense of excitement and possibility then! — but I think you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who starts a blog these days thinking there’s any chance they’re going to get any sort of audience. Except for maybe professors or published authors, who already have a sort-of audience, or the corporate sponsored blogs, which he mentions.
{during the good old days of blogging, I was busy posting memes and playing dear diary with my college friends over on livejournal, the ugly stepsister of blogging platforms}.
{I remember once in 2003, I was up in my bedroom doing homework and a few friends were downstairs talking about these things called blogs, and my friend james was going on about how it was going to revolutionize this or that. And I was so annoyed by the whole conversation that I felt the need to put down my book, go downstairs, and tell them how stupid they were. Huh. But then, I’ve always been something of a luddite. I was vehemently against DVD players, cell phones, and text messaging for a time, too.}
Terrance’s post reminded me of an article imaginary-co-blogger justin told me about a few months ago, about how bloggers should strive to be more like Paris Hilton (which I had never gotten around to looking at), and lo-and-behold, a quick google search for “paris hilton linking to people” and I found it: Why Paris Hilton Is Famous (Or Understanding Value In A Post-Madonna World).
That’s the real reason Paris Hilton is really famous. Because she is the queen of links. When Paris first came on the scene with her own user generated sex video she used that attention to create a career. Here’s how she did it.
Though she hired a publisist to get her on Page 6, She never really talked about herself. She talked about other people. She would mention the designers of her clothes, the club she was going to, who made the sweater for her dog, all without any guarantee of any return. She just threw out links. It didn’t take long for designers and club owners to realize that Paris Hilton was a walking billboard. So they embraced her. She paid attention to them, so they paid attention to her.
{This is the second time we’ve talked about Paris Hilton on this blog in a week. Yellow is the Color: All Paris Hilton, All the Time!}
I totally sympathize with you about being a luddite – I used to be against cell phones and DVD players too, and I’m still against ipods. I even kind of hate blogs, although I grudgingly have one now! See, I even get around to returning comments, eventually, although I’ll never be a Paris Hilton-league blogger!