Radical Behavior

Jason Calacanis has stirred up the blogosphere by continuing a conversation about A-list bloggers. He claims there is no A-list and that years of blogging combined with good content is the way to get on the A-list (hmm, interesting conflict in that position). I wanted to add to the noise by saying, there is an A-list. It is dictated by link love and search engine results. To all the bloggers that are complaining that they aren’t on the A-list, get over it. I wish I was a Pro Bowl football player or an All-Star baseball player. Instead, I am relegated to flag football with friends and the company softball team. Genetics and effort were probably the factors preventing me from being a pro athlete. Writing skills and perseverance prevent bloggers from gathering an audience.

And, just to be clear, one becomes an A-lister by gathering an audience. This means people link to you. Then, you show up in search engine results. Then, more people link to you. After a while, for some it’s years and for some it’s months, you become popular. One commentor on Jason’s post posed the question:

…but do you not think that someone who has, say, 30mins every couple of days to write a blog post might be just as interesting as any of those people on the list?

The answer to that is obviously yes. The difference is they won’t be found. And, it’s not Jason or any other A-listers responsibility to find and link to these bloggers. If that blogger wants to make the effort to be found, then they will grow their audience. There are plenty of well read bloggers who don’t post multiple posts a day. Plus, if they only have time to do one post every couple of days, they probably aren’t posting comments on anyone else’s blog.

I think the point is that starting a blog does not entitle anyone to be an A-list blogger. Blogging good content consistently does. This is not a list you ask to be on. You need to earn it.

Creating conflict, like Jason is known to do, also helps.