Putting on the Hitz
I don’t mean to step on the redoubtable Julie Zickefoose’s shoes. But her recent post on the nature of nature blogging and her recent inclusion in the Nature Blog Network sparked some discussion not only on her site, but also at 10000 birds. I had been thinking about the NBN and the blogs that rapidly rise to the top myself. So here I go adding to the cacophony with a little naval gazing of my own.
I don’t know that I originally started this blog with dreams of taking the internet by storm. I wanted to put my observations in words for my own sake and to let some folks back home who might dig what I’m putting down to know what I’ve been up to since leaving the Show-Me State. To that end, this experiment has been an unqualified success. But I would be lying if I said I didn’t have some desire to get my birding thoughts into the wider world. A little blog can do that several ways I guess, and I was excited by the prospect that the Nature Blog Network would bring in some people who were unaware of this site.
I started off high and then sank once the word got out and more well-established blogs got in the act. My drop into the second page was met by a similar precipitous drop in web hits, apparently people don’t typically go that far. This is fine, my blog is not for everybody. As Julie Zickefoose states in the first post linked, trying to please everybody can cause you to drift too far from your roots, which is not what you want as a writer and not really why we blog. I don’t intend for this to come off as sour grapes, many of the blogs above me in the ranking definitely deserve to be there just by quality alone and good for them. Some are more personal and deal with yardbirds and the like, some more scientific, too each their own. The personal stuff may not particularly be the stuff I enjoy, but you can’t begrudge anyone their web favorites. Those tend to be the blogs with the strongest following anyway, while I’d have to say my strongest following is from people who Google “how does a drinking bird work?” (no answers here folks. My guess is magic). I certainly think it’s really great that there are so many options for so many people.
Toplists are good for exposing new, interesting perspectives, but they can be limited by the “blogs are popular because they get hits and they get hits because they’re popular” circle that it can be hard to break into. It’s only concerning because there are so many great options out there, and some blogs that really deserve to be read and maybe don’t get the attention they should. Some great stuff like Great Auk…or Greatest Auk or The Feather and the Flower or The Adventures of Birdgirl or Conservation Conversations languishes on the lower ends of the NBN (ok, that last one is my dad so there’s some nepotism here). Sure we don’t always have time to read blogs all day every day, but read these, love these, add them to blogrolls and regular routines, you will not regret it. I haven’t, and I just took the long way to get to that point.
Edit- Adventures of Bird Girl is apparently no more. Too bad, the internet is such a great way to get young people into birding. Keep writing and keep birding, Bird Girl, wherever you are!
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There are definitely some good blogs buried deep in the back pages of the Nature Blog Network. I try to link to blogs with good writing as much as possible to give them wider exposure, but my efforts only go so far.
I see you’re grappling with the big questions, N8, like, “Where does my blog fit in the universe?” The NBN has agitated a lot of nature bloggers to think about their respective levels of traffic and what it means. I responded to some of your statements at John Trapp’s blog and hope he doesn’t mind if I repeat most of that comment here. My main point is that your blog rocks:
I share the concern that people may focus on the first 40 blogs on the list to the detriment the remaining 136 (and counting!) sites on the Nature Blog Network. But how is that different from the first page of Google Blog Search? At least with NBN, any blog in the network has a chance to appear as a Featured Member on the front page above the fold.
Yes, most popular doesn’t always equate to highest quality but over the long term, the cream usually rises to the top. A directory like (NBN)is designed to help expose readers to a broad cross-section of nature blogs so that everyone finds the sites they’re best suited to. It’s also set up to funnel readers to even lightly visited sites.
N8, your blog is outstanding but pretty new in comparison to most of the front page sites. Keep at it and I know you’ll attract a much larger readership. I’m a fan!
From Julie Zickefoose, posted with her permission:
Dear D.B.
Good thoughts, and thank you for the shout-out. The “who’s reading this, anyway?” doldrums hit everyone, even (and perhaps especially) the NBN “first-page” blogs. Enough is never enough, and it’s that greed for popularity that makes me wary of myself. I’m glad I wasn’t this obsessed with hits the entire first year and a half I was blogging my heart out. Here’s how I look at it: if blogging isn’t soul-satisfying simply for the act of writing and sharing; if it becomes a quest for popularity, then it has fallen off the soul-rail. So I have to slap myself down, as in that post, and remember what the whole point is for me: pleasing the artist within.
Good luck. Your blog and your links are intriguing and I’ll be sure to check them out. More hours in the day, please!
Hey guys, thanks for the comments!
I didn’t want to give the wrong impression, that I’m somehow jealous of other’s success or that I’m not happy with my traffic. Because I’m not and I am, alternately. On the other hand, there’s some stuff out there by better writers than me that deserves attention too. I suppose that’s my main point. Maybe one of these days when we have lots of spare time on our hands we can check out the rest of the list too.
I really like the idea behind the NBN, especially as good stuff can get lost in other toplists to everybody’s detriment. NBN is great for that and kudos to Mike for the idea and implementation.
I’m pretty happy with where I am in the blogosphere, I’ve certainly accomplished what I meant to when I set out. Anything else is kind of gravy.
Thanks for the kind words!
Given how new my blog is, I try not to sweat my popularity, although I’m a bit confused that a jokey rant on the short-eared owls that I didn’t even see myself turned out to be my most popular post.
Thanks for the plug….
You know what I like best about my blog…. Dean Rising, GOAS Bird Recorder asked for our best sighting for the seasonal report, all I had to do was go back to my blog. A right brainer’s file cabinet!
No, I really do enjoy writing a little and posting bird pictures. And the community of bird bloggers is great.
But let’s get real…. No danger of my blog hitting the NBN top 40!
I do love it that I can lurk on yours every day though!
Reasons for blogging; there are many and perhaps one of the most rewarding is when you hit that ‘publish’ button you feel the satisfaction of a job well done, hopefully. Its your sharing of the ‘best things’ about your birding day, or showing the world your world. When beginning blogging that was my draw and attraction; to publish. Recently there is the influencial pull of wanting to get in there with the others and join the numbers game.. but I hesitate, and continue to plod along in a contented fashion, blogging for the joy of sharing with those who visit and then return another day.
I’m the writer of The Adventures of Bird Girl Blog. That blog got hacked and shut down, but I actually have a new one: helenalovesbirds.blogspot.com