Blogs

This is probably a little counter-productive since I’m still working on a blogging e-book, but I’ve just added a new category for “the blogging bubble.” Whenever I see a silly blog, like the LAPD’s blog I will make a post. Today’s sign — MC Hammer’s Blog.

This story landed on the front page of Slashdot today, so I decided it was worth talking about. The blogger at PlagiarismToday made a pretty in depth post about the issue along with proposed solutions.

Here is the problem — there are many bloggers out there (and forum poster too, I might add) that repost large chunks if not entire articles, only adding a few of their own comments. The writer points out that there is often no reason to visit the source, and instead just read that main blog.

If you do not own the copyright to something, you can only republish so much as permitted by fair use while sourcing the original article. That means a few sentences. It also may mean a thumbnail size image leading to the original picture (however, this is a grey area since Perfect 10’s lawsuit against Google.)

Should you be worried about another blog quoting your work and linking back to you? No!

Bloggers intentionally post high quality or controversial things specifically to get other bloggers and websites to link back to them.

I’m suspicious about this claim, specifically — “Users will simply visit the gray blogs since they are able to provide so much more information and, due to the use of liberal quoting, the user will then have no reason to visit the original source.”

Blogs work because they are super-targeted news channels. A good blogger not only writes their own (semi-)original content but also feeds relevent news stories to his or her readers. Someone only interested in SEOing their e-commerce site may have little interest in my publishing blog. Even then, the differences between Aaron Wall’s SEOBook.com and Search Engine Roundtable are huge. While Aaron writes wide marketing articles tieing into SEO, Search Engine Roundtable covers all the little details on everything from YPN doing direct deposit to releases of new SEO magazines.

What this means is that when one channel (another blog) heavily quotes you, if that reader really is interested they will follow the link and could become a regular reader of your channel (your blog.) And yes, sometimes they drop the original channel that led them there.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying copy other people’s blog posts and newspaper articles as much as you want. What I am saying is that when someone copies some of yours, and links back to you, it is a good thing, not a bad thing. As for your own actions, just follow copyright law and you will be fine.

I’ve heard people dismiss blogs as a fad, not worth all the effort, and discount their power because of “everyone on Myspace has a blog.”

Since creating this blog I have learned first hand just how useful blogs can be.

First, blogs are easy to get links to. If you are still bulk mailing the generic old link-exchange requests then I recommend you download and install Wordpress today.

Second, if your blog deals with a market that is filled with products be prepared to get free stuff. Right now innovative internet companies understand how important blogs are for free PR and buzz marketing. If you have an expensive hobby having a blog might not make you a millionaire, but it can be a gateway to trying out cool new stuff.

The biggest reason you should have a blog right now is because many blog markets are still very young. I have noticed that even in certain markets saturated by blogs (100+) there are virtually no high quality blogs.

As a publisher you can treat your blog like a business. Daily updates combined with existing content sites can give you a big edge on your competition.

Yes, there is a lot of hype about blogs — but that doesn’t mean you should ignore them.