The Huffington Post Asks Me to do Them a Favor. Really

A link to a new video at BIO Yes they used the magic word “Rovian” in the teaser, so I….It’s great. Well, “Rovian” is a good variant of the magic word. Don’t mean magic in a good way. Do believe in Kharma, and the Rovian will lose to the good kharma.

Personally I agree with Steve’s comment, but grassroots political blogs do impact on people.

Am still in intermittent pain from last oral surgery, and have intermittent cable service. They’re coming on Wednesday with a new box, but they think there is another problem that is causing the modem to stop working every hour or so, somtimes more. Have become an unwilling expert on cable problems in the past eight years. Think it’s probably frayed outdoor cable wire as that is what it usually is when there are low or no signal problems.

Normally I would have made a bigger deal of this and had them come tomorrow. But I’m exhausted, emotionally and physically dreined, and sometimes it does dawn on me that my dental problems are over. Sometimes. So if I’m not around blogs, I will be sometime later this week.

The more I think about the following post the more I realize how easy it is for people to be sanctiminous and say things like “I throw these things out,” when they accept paid advertising, don’t have a sidebar that looks like a billboard for causes, and don’t plug people in nearly every post.

The sad reality is that a blogs “success” has more to do with when it began, how carefully a blog links–you’re not supposed to link to too many blogs that are below you in the food chain. There are books that will teach you the tricks to becoming a Google Six and other ways to “become top ranked.”

Those are the emails that I trash, even when the person offers to teach me the tricks for free. Nothing in life or blogging comes without a price. It’s the price that we’re willing to pay that’s important to me, and I will never sacrifice my blogging freedom.

Here’s Newsweek on the subject of Kos. Just the title is scary: “Can the Daily Kos control the Dems?”

I know. I’m an alarmist not living in the real world. Only the car alarms that I blare tend to self-start long after I have I have finished blaring.

Do you want a populist blogging world where each blogger has a chance of making it? Or an elitist blogging world where only a few can rise? Because that choice is coming.

Cooper I would have loved you anyway.

Sage time traveled in the South, sort of. He talks about an incident that happened when I was very young and still makes me cry.

Here’s a link to an article in The New York Times that explains how JWT bought all the advertising on THP for a week, in an attempt to create buzz over the Internet for JWT’s clients. It’s the lamest way I have ever seen of creating buzz, and I still hold Arianna responsible as she calls herself a blogger. Never did her time in the trenches, but….her blog doesn’t let everybody comment.

Why does JWT/THP have so little respect for the “small” blogger? Why should I do anything for them without getting something in return?

Follow this link I’m not a marketing person. The link and the link it links to looks at this problem from a “viral marketing astroturfing” pov. Last week I wrote about, the sick possibility, an all volunteer Daily Kos TV network–except for Kos himself. This past week I received this.

If you think I’m making too much of this, you’re missing the broader implications of many volunteer bloggers working their tushs off for a few people to profit. Have a link in a bit to Arianna at the Cannes Ad Festival. She spits in the face of every grassroots blogger.

Blogging is new. It can go in many directions. It can be the first meritocracy in publishing. It can also have ten stars and everybody else “volunteer” blogging for ten people who get rich. I won’t be a “volunteer” for them. Nor will I be one of the ten stars.

I put too much into my work to let other people profit from it. If you want to gloat in a comment about how you received an email and trashed it–don’t. That’s the blogging equivalant of not reporting an empty package in New York. The point is to make people aware of this–it could be a new and disturbing trend—without linking to her too much.
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What’s wrong with this quote? It’s most of an email that I received from somebody at the Huffington Post.. Don’t know how many other bloggers got this or some variant of it. Hope that you don’t feel flattered but potentially taken advantage of.

Came across your blog looking for top sites on aging/generational issues–you have a really great site! While I don’t think you’re particularly among the elderly demographic, you might find this clip from Poet Laureate Billy Collins’ poem “Forgetfulness” interesting (and hopefully something you’d be willing to share with your readers). The poem is about getting older and forgetting things, and it’s pretty poignant. It’s part of a new ad campaign by JWT for the Huffington Post (trying to make ads more like content).

The Huffington Post says that it’s a blog, or at least part of it. It began on May 9, 2005 and is ranked 9 on Technorati and 20 on TTLB. I have written a lot on blogging and on how blogs become and stay “big.” Arianna‘s blog is the exception to every rule.

Unlike the rest of us Arianna has limitless resources, and has used it on Huffington I like it. But it’s not a blog. When was the last time you had JWT do your ad campaign?

So clever how the ad looks like content. The video and poem are both beautiful. Damn if I’m going to play it without getting something equally significant in return. “Oh those pesky bloggers.” Straight out of Arianna’s mouth. In another context. Please read it. It’s unintentionally hysterical as it’s about recreating advertising to meet the needs of the new consumer, and how we’re “witnessing the Rise of the Creatives.”

Yeah from the sweat, pores and labor of the regular blogger

Why do I dare say this? I’m a grassroots blogger. When I first began I had no idea what the hell I was doing, but I met a lot of people. We helped each other begin. I was fortunate to meet Tom Baker the blogger formerly known as The Cranky Liberal, and our Duke Dawg Doug early in “our blogging careers.” I bring them up, in particular, because both were the catalysts for two distinct blogging communities with different goals and purposes. Many of the people overlap into both communities.

My two favorite expressions: “I delete not debate on Courting. Go to BIO.” Not that I’m planning to debate but somebody will. and “steal the dawg’s blogroll.”

With little money but much much time Tom, the Dawg and I have created amazing communities. I don’t debate because I don’t have the time. I have blogged in up to four blogs at a time. This was the closest week I came to taking off from blogging in going on 20 months. And only because I fell apart physically after a minor oral surgery. I have undergone five more major ones and blogged that afternoon. Arianna has also said “that Internet rewards obsessives.”

I’m waiting. Does she really believe that bloggers like me want to help make her richer, and will be so happy to run her ads? Why sure Arianna, I live to give myself more work so that somebody else can profit.

It’s a little different than helping a new blogger meet people, and show them the technicalities. Blogging, to me, is about bringing people together. My posts tend to be long and often are researched. They might be non-linear, self-absorbed, and a myriad of other things but Courting’s rankings reflect the work that I put into it. Have taken Courting and BIO on vacations. Yes I’m obsessive. The rewards have all been intangible, and most of the time that is great, but sometimes….

Somebody left a comment who was also approached. He‘s looking at it from the advertising end. Very interesting.

My real life work, friends and family have taken a back street to blogging. Since I have received publicity and have been nominated for awards, my friends and family have me confused with somebody famous, so they’re being very understanding.

Blogging has both brought me closer to, and taken me away from my true goal–world peace. Damn I confused myself with Miss America again

BIO is a grassroots political blog that grows hourly. I’m not sure what Courting is other than a blog I made from nothing to “top ranked for a non-political, non-Christian, non-radical right personal blog.” And for a baby boomer that’s nothing short of a miracle. I don’t write baby boomer. We’ve been reminiscing since the 80’s about how great life was when we were kids and that’s grown old. I don’t do menopause or aches and pains unless of course they’re my teeth. I know that I have much to learn from people who are both older and younger than me so I remain flexible as to age.

Advertisers are so eager to embrace the younger demographics that they fail to notice how many blogs written by baby boomers are popular with younger generations. If I am, I assume….Maybe it’s me

Grassroots blogs require a lot of work. Courting is a one person show and I wouldn’t feel comfortable asking anybody to guest blog for me while I’m away. It’s not that important to the rest of the world. It’s priceless to me.

In the past few months people have sent me resumes, problems to solve, asked if I would “share” this book with my readers when I don’t have the time to read the books I want to read. I understand these requests. Might be powerless or not want to help, but that’s the price a “successful” blogger pays.

That’s just it. Most “successful” bloggers pay, if not much in dollars, too much in hours. These hours multiplied by the pay the blogger gets or had been getting for real life jobs can come out to quite a hefty number.

Most bloggers who tell me that I complain about everybody but the blogger making money off it aren’t serious bloggers. BIO and I have both prove that we having staying power. We have the blogging chops. This isn’t a hobby to us, it’s a job. It’s a job that we love and it has its many magical intrinsic rewards. But it’s a lot of work. Any blogger who says it isn’t, puts in fluff or posts once a week.

Yet BIO is doing an important job, I’m not afraid to write about personal issues and how they affect me. And every body’s favorite Dawg now has several generations of pups.

Is there anything in the Huffington Post that is of and by the people? Yet they think I might want to share an advert with my readers? Are they crazy?

I have been cutting back time on Courting and am only on rotation once a month at BIO. While I would love to blog full time on Courting and BIO , I have a personal goal and dream that blogging has taught me isn’t a delusion.

Comments designed to get a rise out of me stopped doing that sometime ago. Has Arianna ever seen comments that insult every part of her? Would she understand what I was talking about? Don’t really think so.

From where I sit, and it’s usually in front of a computer monitor, Arianna is acting like the Empress who asks the servant to clean the kitchen fully once again because Arianna dropped some crumbs.

Any blogger who knows me knows that I don’t ask for favors. That I put my money where my mouth is, literally and cause wise.
When I read Arianna’s comments about “The Rise of the Creatives,” I did laugh. Then I became angry. Because this isn’t the Renaissance, and I’m not going to spend endless hours painting detail while somebody else gets the credit.

I want what she’s have having because I deserve it. Courting and I came out of nowhere. Yet here we are

On a personal note, I have little faith in TTLB because it fluctuates so much. But I had a personal goal that I didn’t talk about. James Dobson and I were neck-in-neck. It feels so great to beat a member of the radical right. That’s a blogger’s intrinsic satisfaction. But it doesn’t pay the bills. I don’t do ads on Courting. I would rather pay her expenses myself and feel free to plug who I want to when I want to. Plugging and linking are good things that bloggers can do for each other. They help keep the playing fields level and eventually make new ones.

Have watched both my Technorati and TTLB change so often that I don’t take them seriously. Some people would say that I can afford to say that. Am nowhere near Arianna’s rankings. And I had a real interview with George Clooney that I just didn’t think was up to standards. 🙂

I very much appreciate every positive thing that has been said about me. I’m a writer. Any publicity is good publicity. I almost didn’t write this because I didn’t want to give The Huffington Post any.

Who am I but the Peasant Girl patiently waiting by Arianna’s side for more orders? Screw that.