There’s an interesting little discussion going on over at Robert Scoble’s blog. It all started with his post about how to get ‘discovered’ as a blogger, including tip #1 being Link to other people. A few posts have ensued, talking about whether this is the lazy option, whether you also need a decent blog in the first place, and whether the whole thing just isn’t cricket.
My personal opinion is that it cuts multiple ways. If you have a boring blog, you might get a burst of traffic, but then things simmer back to the regular levels. If on the other hand you have a sticky blog with a good buzz, then you’re probably building visitors organically anyway, and the burst of traffic from being discovered is just background noise.
Another piece of the puzzle is fascination. People are fascinated by Scoble, because like ‘em or hate ‘em, everyone is interested in Microsoft, and Scoble is a tiny window on that world. Likewise true technorati (like Dave Winer) attract a certain fascination simply by being in at the grass roots, or truly grokking a new technology. John Doe Blogger on the other hand, attracts precious little fascination when blogging about his new kitten, or how annoying the dude at the kwik-e-mart is. I don’t pretend in any way that anyone would be interested in my personal blog, which is why I separate it from something I believe people will be interested in: electronics and gadgetry.
