the(new)mediaslut

(Update: Princessa has a counter-argument why Google’s PageRank is a blogging basic.)

There is a lot of whining out there about Google dropping blogs’ Pagerank.

Yes, Pagerank is important for you to get those paying blog post ads.

However, bloggers’ focus on Pagerank mirrors that of print publishers today where the perception is that the print rag is writing for the advertisers, not for its readers.

Maybe in the region, that is the only way for print rags to survive, but it doesn’t mean bloggers have to go down the same route.

Go back and ask why you have started a blog.

Did you start it because you want to share your daily experiences and thoughts with the world?

What makes blogs interesting and different from traditional media is that it gives readers, like me, a very unique viewpoint to certain issues and experiences.

Whether if it is general news, reviews, etc, I want to read what the individual experiences and the opinions are.

Bring the readers into your world.

That’s why Xiaxue’s blog pull the readers, not because she is the best blogger in the world, but because the blog let readers look into her world.

MrBrown’s blog is also interesting because you get to read what it is like for parents to bring up kids in Singapore and also the problems and highlights of looking after one with autism. And of course his humourous take on Singapore politics.

Yes, the world is voyeuristic, but that doesn’t you can’t take advantage of it.

The strategy should be how you get more readers to your blog so that the advertisers will be interested in it, not how to get advertisers to your blog.

Yes, because Google Pagerank is a formula and that means you can exploit the variables to increase your Pagerank.

But at end of the day, it is your content that pulls in the readers, followed by the advertisers.

The attack on bloggers has, predictably, began.

With Malaysian bloggers running for state and parliament in the upcoming elections, especially as the Opposition, that attack on bloggers from their opponents have started.

Wrote Jeff Ooi who is running in the elections,

My opponent has started to attack me and question the validity of bloggers in general.

On Page A14 of Guang Ming Daily (Feb 27, evening edition), my opponent whipped all bloggers in a broad sweep by stating that “bloggers hide behind computers and live in a virtual world”.

He said “people could only imagine but could never feel the sincerity (of bloggers) beyond the computer”.

Jeff countered by highlighting that it is this virtual world, called the Internet, that he managed to raise RM85,000 in 11 days to fund his campaign.

Would people who could never feel the sincerity (of bloggers) beyond the computer but can only imagine it go all out to donate such a huge amount to a blogger’s election campaign?

Strangely, Barrack Obama is also using a blog to spread his campaign messages for the US presidential elections.

The irony of this is that many still use blogs as an online dairy to update their friends and relatives on what they are doing in real life.

One young executive once told this blogger. “I started blogging so that I can let my parents in India know what I am doing in Singapore. This pacifies them as they have wild thoughts that I could be drug runner in this island state.”

Lack of sincerity or the lack of understanding of why bloggers blog?

Let the battles begin!