Instigator Blog

It’s a nice notion - that there’s no A-list - but of course there is. And everyone who isn’t on the A-list knows it. There’s even a widget out there to tell you what list you’re on!

Some A-listers may say, “there’s no A-list” to avoid coming off as elitist, and the sentiment is appreciated, but even they recognize an A-list exists.

Every domain of expertise and industry has its authorities. Whether they came to that authority through experience, education, luck, time or a combination thereof doesn’t dissuade from the fact that authorities exist. And then there’s everyone else. The value of their authority is dictated in part by how they got to that position of authority (which is especially true in blogging where bloggers that have been around the longest may have more authority than they really deserve), but we’re not hear to judge value (at least not right now.)

Mack Collier started the Z-list meme as a way of providing some additional recognition for lesser known blogs (specific to marketing.) He asked people to copy and paste the list and add any others they wanted. It was a nice idea; people offer up as much link love as they can to others in an effort to give those bloggers more attention (and traffic, recognition, buzz, etc.)

And it worked. This blog was hovering around 16,000 in its Technorati Ranking before someone put it on the Z-list. It’s now around 8,500 on Technorati. That’s not only because of the Z-list, but that was a huge part of the jump.

Woohoo! 8,500 is right up there! OK, it’s not Top 100, and it’s important to note that my traffic hasn’t gone up noticeably. I do know certain people came to Instigator Blog because of the Z-list (which is great) but I’m not seeing big enough traffic increases to mention them.

The Z-list was doomed to fail.

It was a nice, open idea, but as much as we say the blogosphere is full of nice people (and it is), it’s also full of people that want ever-increase amounts of attention for their own blogs. So people started adding their own blogs to the list. And then the A-Listers got involved. Seth Godin posted the Z-list on his blog (which did result in a good chunk of traffic) and he also created a Squidoo Lens with voting.

Instigator Blog has -6 votes. Well that sucks!

On the Squidoo Lens additional blogs were put on the Z-list, including a number of A-list blogs. The voting suddenly takes a friendly list of Z-list blogs that do deserve more attention to a list of ranked blogs with several A-listers coming up on top.

Seth Godin did respond to what happened with the Z-list by adding a moderator and creating more rules around the voting. A good move on his part. An appreciated move.

Memes are tricky things. Make them too easy and they can certainly become popular, but they may also get buggered like the Z-list. Make them too complicated and they won’t catch on (people want easy!) I’m a big fan of memes and group projects (like the group writing projects I’ve run) because they can be interesting, entertaining and run at the heart of what makes blogging so important: communication and community.

But we also see where memes can go wrong, ideas can be twisted just a bit to take out the original purpose and meaning. Seth put it very nicely when he wrote, “The web is a daily experiment, and this one, like most, was interesting.”

Well, wouldn’t you know it … I extended the deadline on the group writing project where we ask the question, “What Did You Learn in 2006?” and a few more people responded! Very cool.

I’ve already made a $305 donation to charity, but with these additional posts I’ll be making an extra donation soon.

• Lorna Brewer has learned a ton this year about buying a house, building relationships and blogging. Please check out Lorna’s other site called Something Good.
• Maria Palma had already written about everything she learned back in September, but to participate in this group writing project, she came up with 3 more worthwhile lessons learned. My favorite - “you are the one who is sole responsible for your happiness.” Others can help out but they can’t make you happy. That’s coming from the inside…
• Pretty Vulcan learned that we get what we deserve only after truly believing we deserve it. She’s got some other lessons there too, all of them worthwhile.
• Monique Attinger learned all about parenthood in 2006 . Reading her lessons learned I can’t help but chuckle and say, “Ya, I know.” Good luck Monique!
• Mack D. Male learned that running a business requires balance. Mack’s talking specifically about the balance an entrepreneur has to master when he wears so many hats. Been there, done that. Still there, still doing that.
• Adeolu Akinyemi posts 10 things he’s learned this year. There’s lots of great lessons there, including the value of consistency, and which business ideas are best.
• Sean Moffitt presents Buzz Canuck’s 11 Lessons Learned From 2006. If you’re interested in marketing, blogging, community and dialogue then you can learn a lot from Mr. Moffitt (and not just this individual post!)
• Shawn Hessinger snuck in one last post titled Lesson #11: You May Not Need a Business Plan.

You’re welcome to submit your own post over the next couple of days. There’s no reason for me to stop accepting posts at least in the short-term if there’s still interest out there!

Just:

1. Write a post telling us what you learned in 2006.
2. Link back to Instigator Blog and please email me as well.
3. Your post will be worth $5 to charity and I’ll link a couple of times back in your direction.

Happy holidays and thank you to everyone who has participated!

PayPerPost knows how to stay in the headlines. Aside from the raging debate over paid content and what that means to blogging, etc. they’ve now purchased select assets from Performancing.com.

I’ve frequented Performancing for some time, reading their content, signing up for their ad network. Their site is a great resource for bloggers, but I wonder how the community will respond since PayPerPost is not exactly the most well-liked company out there.

Nick Wilson of Performancing comments on the news.

PayPerPost’s purchase focuses on Performancing Metrics (blog analytics service) and Performancing Exchange (online “classifieds” for bloggers.) I haven’t used either service but my guess would be that Performancing was spread rather thin and wanted to focus on less things, and “go deep.”

Although I haven’t seen huge success (and none whatsoever on this site) for Performancing Partners, their blog ad network, my guess is they’re focusing their efforts there. Maybe there are other projects too…we’ll have to wait and see.

I’ll be very interested to see what happens with this move by PayPerPost. Not because I’m a huge fan (I’m ambivalent on paid content; doesn’t really bug me, but I’m not in love with it either), but because they’ve caused such an uproar in the blogosphere.

Now that they’re encroaching into more loved blogging space, what will happen next?

Image from PayPerPost.com.

If you’re going to participate in blog carnivals (and I recommend that you do) you really should promote them as well. Not to benefit your specific post, but to help promote the carnival that it’s published in.

Carnivals take a lot of work.

I know because I run one at Startup Spark called The Carnival of Entrepreneurs. It takes hours to review each post, decide whether it fits the carnival, publish it, promote it, etc.

With that in mind I’d direct your attention to the Webmaster and Bloggers Carnival at SirLook.com. One of my posts is listed there (on blog goals) and there’s a host of other valuable material as well.

Here’s a couple of posts I looked at:

• Getting Visitors Through Search Engines by Jason Lutterloth. A good, introductory review of how to generate traffic through search engines. One tip he has (which I’ve heard others recommend) is to publish articles on Ezine sites like Ezine Articles. I’ve done it twice with some mild success, but I’m going to keep trying.
• Build Loyalty Through Your List by Ann Ricks. I don’t use an email list, although I do occasionally send out mass emails to my contacts for various projects (like Gifter.Org or a group writing project.) Lots of companies do use email lists and have built up their own over time. These are invaluable if used properly.

I want to thank the folks at SirLook.com for hosting the carnival, and selecting my post to go in there. And I’d encourage everyone to check it out and help promote quality carnivals on all subjects.

Yesterday I wondered if the last batch of submissions to the group writing project might be the last ones, but I was wrong. A few more people came through with their own lessons learned, and special props go to Shawn Hessinger of bootstrapme.com for writing 10 posts! Shawn alone raised $50 with his posts, which I’m happily giving to charity.

Although the deadline passed yesterday, if you write a post for the group writing project and send me an email this week I’ll sneak it in and link appropriately to you. So you still have time to reflect, wonder, write and promote. Happy holidays.

• Carol Kirshner presents Things I’ve Learned in 2006. Her first lesson learned should be posted on everyone’s desk…although there’s no folly in dreaming big, I’m with you 100% Carol.
• Francie Stirling learned that she’s behind the curve when it comes to blogging but catching up fast. And rightfully so, Francie questions why people say blogging will peak in 2007 when so many people she talks to don’t even get it yet. I don’t know when blogging will peak. Who cares? It’s fun. It works.
• Sheila presents 10 Things I Learned in 2006. A poignant, personal list. Hits home for me on a couple fronts. Thank you Sheila.
• Jeff Kinsey reflects on the brilliance of the P&Q example. Now I’ll have to go find out what the P&Q example is…

Because Shawn Hessinger wrote so many posts, I’m giving them a separate list. Entrepreneurs and bootstrappers, focus…here ya go:

• Lesson 5: Use What You Got
• Lesson 6: Get Yourself A Purple Cow
• Lesson 7: The Best Ideas Are Scalable
• Lesson 8: Take One Good Idea And Go Deep
• Lesson 9: Business Starts With The First Dollar
• Lesson 10: The Masses Don’t Buy Stuff Any More

‘Nuff said.