Revenge of the A-List

A while back, a small band of ‘rebels’ ganged up and tried to innovatively attack the system, attempting to use its structure to beat it. I am one of those rebels, and we are known as the Z-List. The system is the blogosphere. Since technorati values a blog according to the number of links pointing to it, the Z-List was an attempt to use this fact to popularize less known (hence z list0 blogs. Basically, you link to many blogs and many blogs link to you; everyone wins. Unfortunately, the rebels have, largely, failed.

Moreover, the technorati system also produces A List blogs; blogs that have a lot of incoming links making them very popular. The Z list was an attack on this, it was an attempt to steal the limelight from the A list. Now, the A List has struck back. The revenge of the A List started with Jason Calacanis when he wrote New Calacanis Link baiting Rules. Do you want a link from an A List blog? You are in luck, because Jason gives you a guide on how to get him to link to you. Basically, he asks you to massage his ego and suck up to him. I like his honesty. Though sarcastic and crude, Jason’s post is a perfectly crafted link-baited. It will give him hundreds more incoming links and cement him as an A List blogger. (Heck, I linked to him, didn’t I?)

A List blogs are just too powerful. Not only are they very good, useful and/or entertaining blogs(that’s why they became A List blogs) but they also have large amounts of readers. Some of these readers are bloggers themselves and they will occasionally link to their favorite (A List) blogs, even if just to fish for A List baclinks. Besides, when an A-lister writes, people read and respond. And the A list just keeps on growing.

This simple fact means that there will always be massively popular blogs and there will always be relatively massively unpopular blogs. The unpopular bloggers will always aspire to become popular, and some of them will achieve this. Most, however, wont. The popular blogs, on the other hand, will get even more popular.

None of us will probably ever get to be as popular as Darren Rowse. All we, or anyone, can do is blog our best and hope for the best.