Becoming AdDIGGted
Last week I sat down to blog about the content of a recent British Government report on renewable energy. At the time my head was full of ideas and opinion on the subject, and as I love writing in a slightly cynical and sarcastic manner I was looking forward to coming up with some critical insights to share with our EcoWorldly readers.
However, it was 10.30pm and the last espresso was wearing off, so still flushed with my recent Digg success I decided to take a short-cut. Instead of writing a more worthy blog post, I wrote a very quick made-for-digg piece, substituting content and insight for short and controversial statements in the form of a simple list. Topped off with a tempting headline I posted and submitted to Digg before going to bed for the night.
Waking up the next morning, I was pleased to see that I’ve finally got the hang of social media - my submission had quickly gone to the front page with 11,000 page views so far, and counting. Once one masters the formula it is surprisingly easy to draw a lot of page views and many (good and bad) comments.
Why Digg’ers Get The Posts They Deserve
I was rightly criticised by many diggers for the slightly content free nature of my post. However, If I had taken the time to write a proper post, with a title that reflected its true content and purpose, such as "British Government: Economic Arguments For And Against Micro-Generation" my post would have fizzled and died on social media, and only the small, yet growing EcoWorldly faithful would have read it.
This is nothing new - tabloid newspapers have always outsold the quality press, and whilst Digg’s editorial democracy is still a great way to read the web, its still about quantity over quality.
But the worst part, as a blogger, is that it’s addictive. Throughout this post, I have had to constantly refrain from writing provocative statements and suppress the temptation of submitting this piece to Digg for a shot at the front page together with an even more insulting headline. My future blogging could be forever compromised..
Anyways, my EcoWorldly post still got 11,000 page views..
(Note: if seen on Digg, it wasn’t submitted by me)
About Time: Finally Made The Digg Front Page
Since I don’t typically write stuff that goes down well with the Digg audience I was pretty chuffed to wake up this morning and find that I had made the front page for my EcoWorldly piece on the impending extinction of the snowman.
Ok, it took a while, and it’s not exactly a lifetime achievement, but pretty satisfying after not getting more than 50 Diggs for anything until now.. One more thing to cross off the list.
No ‘Posts This Week’ This Week
Think I’ll start doing it monthly instead, especially since my weekly blogging rate seems to have suffered in the past month.
My current blogging pipeline is overflowing with about 30 post ideas waiting to be written, although I’ve had a few other projects to keep me busy in recent weeks - more news about that to come soon. What I really need is a couple of days off just to sit and write all of the things I need / want to write. Not sure when that will happen though.
In the meantime, I did finally manage to finish off my Winston Churchill post that’s been sitting in my drafts for months - part 1 and part 2.
More soon..
Posts This Week
TalkClimateChange
Business As Usual For Climate Change? - Following the coverage of controversial new research suggesting that "global warming may be on hold", I’ve looked at how this issue was reported and what this means.
What Is Climate Change Causing Today? - Did global warming cause my computer to die?
Decision Time: The Climate Is Changing - - An interesting comparison of headlines over the past few years showing just how quickly the wind seems to change.
Most Stupid Idea Ever? - Something that I thought was pretty stupid, but which I’ve actually had to acknowledge as being not too far from sensible in a post scheduled for tomorrow.
EcoWorldly
Are You As Green As India & China? - A bit of credit for the East for a change..
In the pipeline:
Winston Churchill & Global warming, solar power in Europe, something on social media and the altruistic power of the Internet, bio-fuels & farm subsidies and more..
If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another
Thanks Microsoft.
I’ve been very generous to Vista over the past year. Many friends and colleagues, the press, and particularly the blogoshpere have been scathing about its performance, reliability and compatibility.
So far I’ve been confused as to what all these people are complaining about. Vista has some great new features (I can’t live without the search), it’s much more secure, and is much nicer to look at for 14 hours a day compared to it’s predecessor. Ok - there have been a few hiccups along the way, and there are a couple of annoyances, but nothing to write home about (or blog about).
Until today.
Posts This Week
Bit late with posts this week, having not gotten very much done since getting back from holiday due to some micro-organisms that I seem to have brought back with me..
So here are the two posts that I have managed..
Cars Might Fly - even though I do love cars, I can’t help the feeling that they are becoming increasingly impractical in modern (or rather ancient) cities.
Tsunami Survivors Still Struggle - a couple of photos and the rather sad truth that I witnessed whilst away last week..
Will be back with more next week, and any other thoughts that pop-up in the meantime..
Back From Holiday
Strange how it takes a while to get going again..
Will be back with more soon - just in case you had thought that I’d disappeared.
Posts This Week
I’m unlikely to make any posts next week due to holidays, but in the meantime..
TalkClimateChange
TalkClimateChange Takes a Holiday -Something To Consider In The Meantime - As I’m about to take a short holiday I thought it worth taking a brief step-back to re-think the objectives of TalkClimateChange. Probably not much is going to change, but it’s always worth considering.
Stern Report Not Right or Wrong, Just Irrelevant - An evolution of the thinking in my the previous post.
At The Bar of TalkClimateChange - The left, right and in-between.
Why I’m Green - My thoughts, for the record.
EcoWorldly
British Weather: So-lar, So-Good? - I was surprised at just how effective solar energy can be, even in a place with miserable weather like England.
Bush Climate Speech - World Reactions - Much of the world wasn’t happy..
Posts This Week
NowSourcing
The New Social Media Democracy - My continued thoughts on the future of blogging.
TalkClimateChange
25 Years Later, Climate Change Becomes the New War? - Commentary on the George Bush climate speech of last week. I wasn’t going to bother covering it, but had to in the end.
The Tide Is Coming In… - Plans to let parts of England lie underwater, and the real decisions that we need to make.
Something For The Weekend: Al Gore’s New Video - For what it’s worth.
EcoWorldly
Extraordinary Lengths: Walking Across America For Climate Change - extraordinary lengths indeed.
Reclaiming The City From The Car - bit of coverage for an interesting cause
La Marguerite
Green Advocates Failing in Climate Debate - Some questions that have been occupying me for some time, with some surprising answers. This was picked up on a number of blogs and I have a follow-up post planned for next week.
Coming up for next week:
Why I’m Green, and The Future of The Climate Debate on TalkClimateChange. Reactions from around to World to Bush’s Climate Speech on EcoWorldly, and several unplanned bits & bobs elsewhere.
The New Social Media Democracy
I’ve recently been considering the wider and more long term impact that social media may begin to have on the blogosphere, and on the web-media business in general.
Social media will undoubtedly change things for everybody, from bloggers at the lower end of the media food chain to the global news corporations at the top. Like good politicians, bloggers need to master the process of building a following and becoming nominated to stand in the daily social media elections (my own best performance has been a miserable 50 diggs, and about 15 stumbles – pretty poor), but what are the further implications of the social media phenomenon? Knowing that this revolution is coming, which strategies can be employed to fully exploit the opportunities that social media presents beyond simply becoming a top social media community member?
You can read my thoughts on this issue in a guest post I’ve written at NowSourcing.
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Welcome to Mark's Blog
This blog contains general news and updates on my internet adventures, plus all the stuff that doesn't fit on my regular blogs as well as an archive of my top posts. Thanks for taking the time to have a look!
