Mister Snitch!

Blogs that should be turned into TV shows

Perry Belfiore — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 21:47:00 +0000

Bloggers are still getting press, which means that they'll soon be turned into TV fodder. A few blogs we know of are just screaming for a treatment.

• Veiled Coneit, a bracing dissection of The New York Times' Wedding Column's vanities, needs to be made into a reality/documentary show. It's Michael Moore's big chance to get back on the tube, but don't let him host. Put Michael Musto in front of Moore's camera, and let 'er rip. Concept: A twist on 'Queer eye for the Wedding Guy', with a deconstructivist, nihilistic bent.

• Post Secret, one of the breakout blogs of the year, inevitably will get the star treatment. Perhaps it will be like the old "Millionaire" show, where we get involved in people's secrets and straighten them out. Or make them worse, whichever floats Mr. Nielsen's tug. We see a Robin Leech comeback here. Super! Concept: 'I've Got a Secret' for wired postmoderns.

• The Manolo needs some prep for prime time, but the potential is there. We once suggested to Chris Muir that he be made a character in his strip. We even blocked out some ideas for him. We still think this is a good idea. (Perhaps Muir's strip could become a show, with the Manolo's star power to propel it.) Concept: 'Sex in the CIty', told from the ankles down.

• Ze Frank already appears in a host of little videos on his site. A talent waiting to be discovered, Ze was born for some sort of techie half-hour comedy. Concept: 'Pee Wee' for grown-ups.

• The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century is a perfect title for a TV show. We don't even care what it's about. Plus, accordion acceptance runs in cycles, like yo-yos and Rubik's Cubes. Clearly, the time has come for Accordion Guy. Concept: 'Lawrence Welk' confronts the digital age.

• Camp Katrina: Military comedies come in and out of favor. Phil Silvers, MASH, Gomer Pyle, McHale's Navy, Hogan's Heroes, and others have all done well with the concept. Right now, the left would embrace such a comedy just so they could proclaim their support for the military. Bonuses: There's been a dearth of military comedy on the air in recent years, and the show has a potential star in Spc. Phil Van Treuren. The only hitch is the name: "Camp" should start with a "K". Otherwise, let's greenlight this puppy. Pilot: Phil's new C.O. turns out to be Jim Nabors.

• Dawn Patrol, aka "No Sex in the CIty". Flying Nun meets That Girl. Concept: How does Dawn Eden stay chased, yet chaste? Pilot: Dawn baptises her blind date. Bonus: Big ratings in the heartland.

• The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns: Another great title awaiting repurposing for TV. Sam is a Canadian nanny who lives with/works for Mr. Big. We all know how shows featuring Big, or a Nanny, have fared in the past. It's Sex in the City meets The Nanny meets Bob and Doug McKenzie. Beauty, eh? Send it up the flagpole. Pilot: Worried over her flagging Site Meter numbers, Sam agrees to liveblog a Canadian Swingers' Club meeting. To avoid Big's disapproval, she pretends to be attending a session of the Town Council.

• Dustbury: Charles would be the first to protest that he leads a dull, ~~midwest~~ Middle American nonexistence. Never mind - shows about nothing have taken off before. Plus, his pining for unattainable snarkgoddess Maureen Dowd (a central theme of the show) makes the concept soar. This one's American Splendor meets Sideways, meets Seinfeld. Frequent appearances are made by Janeane Garofalo, playing Charles' archenemy, Maud Newton. Next-door neighbor Sean Gleeson stops by frequently to mooch food, get away from the wife, and involve Charles in crazy get-rich-quick schemes. Pilot: Charles falls in a well, just before the Super Bowl. Rather than spoil the party, the gang lowers him down a laptop and some Cheetos.

• The Instapundit: Concept: 'The Shadow' meets 'The Nutty Professor'. Pilot: Glenn worries that his secret Chinese blogging ~~sweatshop~~ opportunity facility will be revealed.

• The Moderate Voice: Concept: A ventriloquist who blogs. [You're probably ready to handle this one yourselves.]

UPDATE: We knew this would happen. Laura Lee is the first to feel left out. (You turned down our marriage offer, Laura, so don't expect any favors from us!) All right then, anyone else who wants to get into the act, post your own TV show in the comments. Let's see if Fox picks you up.

UPDATE #2: Charles says the term 'Midwest' does not apply to Oklahoma. He's right. As Wikipedia says, "Often people from the Coasts act as if any area that is not near the Ocean or in the Deep South is the Midwest, lumping states like Idaho and Utah into the region. As this would add immense area to the Midwest, not to mention do injustice to the cultural differences that occur in different parts of the nation's interior, this would be incorrect if not insulting." Wiki also says the whole "midwest" thing is sloppy and archaic anyway. All right, all right, already. Sorry we mentioned it.

Charles also tells us that Sean Gleeson is not right next door, but 3 miles away. (Looks closer on the Google map though.) However, Charles does not object to our references to Sean's moochy tendencies, get-rich-quick mentality, or spousal aversion. And here we thought we were just making it all up!

UPDATE #3: Charles insists the Google map says 3.6 miles. Hey, we only said it looks closer! On the map, it looks like a quarter inch, okay?

UPDATE #4: Glenn Reynolds objects to the pejorative "sweatshop" and requests "opportunity facility". Who are we to argue?

UPDATE #5: The Shoelover runs with the idea.

UPDATE #6: G as in Good H as in Happy saw this coming.

UPDATE #7: Samantha Burns points out the differences between herself and The Nanny. We say, "Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha".

UPDATE #8: Dan Riehl suggests that MSNBC might look at blogger-TV as a shot in the arm, ratings-wise. He may be on to something. A Microsoft-owned network programming shows based on blogs... seems right.

UPDATE #9: The Manolo is down with it. Super fantastic!

UPDATE #10: Fausta approves of the idea, but wants to add to the list of, uh, blogshows.

Categories: Blogs+that+should+be+television+shows

Mush

Perry Belfiore — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 07:18:00 +0000

That's what Hoboken's built on: "stuff" mushed into landfill.

It's not just us - much of Jersey along the Hudson was built that way. So were parts of Manhattan.

If you saw a map of early Hoboken (sorry, we don't have one handy) you'd understand why this practice was common around here. The hudson does not flow in a neat straight line. In earlier days it meandered well into Hoboken, and much of the land was separated into tiny islands or peninsulas by rivulets of (often stagnating) water. Much of the town, in other words, was Marshland (insert your own joke about last year's election here). This was highly impractical, mainly because industry wanted to be as close to the water as possible, for shipping reasons.

To complicate matters, we're below sea level. Officially, Hoboken's a flood zone. So when new buildings are put up, they're not sitting on granite as they are in Manhattan. Piles have to be driven down to reach the bedrock, otherwise they'd eventually sink.

Judy Marciano pauses to photograph the process. You have to appreciate a real estate broker who knows her business from the ground up.

Also: Hoboken gets a slick-looking new car wash.

Categories: Hoboken+infrastructure

Where are 2005's best posts?

Perry Belfiore — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 06:57:00 +0000

They're here. A compilation of the best posts we (and our readers) could find, from 2005.

The best way to navigate this post is to Jump to topic:

The best posts: Blogosphere • General interest • Funny business • Politics • Iraq • Katrina • Ethics • How-to • Localblogging • Essay & first-person • Sports • Economics • Science • 'Best-of-blog' posts. (Topics are listed roughly in descending order of relative number/quality of compelling posts.)

About this compilation: What we've learned by doing this • FAQ • Pitching the 'Best Posts' to publishers • How YOU can further this project while promoting your site

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Of interest to writers in the 'sphere: Insightful or useful to bloggers.

• NOW: That's what I call blogging! 43 top web hits, from across the blogosphere. (Hilarious.)

• Gerard Van der Leun is doing some of the finest writing in the "blog medium" today. In the style of Kipling, he lays down The Law of the Blogger. Defining a new phobia for a new medium: Fear of Instalinking (with a 'second opinion' here). And here are more of Gerard's cyber-notes. [top]

• As if there was insufficient hubris involved in declaring one year's 'best' posts, The Kommissar raises the stakes by anointing The Greatest Post Ever. Yes, it's another traffic-driving contest, but the linked posts have merit. (Few were entirely satisfied with the picks, but that's what happens when the Komrades at Central Planning run things.)

• The life-cycle of bloggers. Step 1: Start reading blogs. 2: Start a blog. 3: Become a stats whore. 4: Confuse 'real life' with 'online life'. 5: Retire from blogging. 6: Return in 72 hours. 7: ... [top]

• Why bloggers must keep their posts in The Vertical Blog Tunnel as long as possible. (That is: Cultivate loyal readers who are also bloggers.) Read this as many times as it takes to sink in, then read the post it refers to, and all the links that close it out. A great study of why some blogs 'work' better than others. (Wise bloggers know that any blog that produces a post this insightful is worth a return visit.)

• Why is the mainstream press so interested in 'people-fired-for-blogging' stories? If I were cynical, I’d suspect that the media was afraid of something. [top]

• The insightful and elegant Nonist site attracted considerable buzz with A Public Service Pamphlet on Blog Depression, along with Frailty, thy name is blog, and Blogging as a giant hamster wheel.

• Are you an 'elite' blogger? Here's a simple test.

• The sociology of blogrolls.

• The most popular posts on the official Google site during '05. [top]

• How to alter the wording of your Truth Laid Bear Egosystem ranking, and some hacks for Blogger users, and an introduction to Technorati tags.

• How to get Slashdotted, 'the easy way'. [top]

• Top Ten web moments of 2005: Any list that leads off with Gary Brolsma's joygastic, immaculately-synched Numa Numa dance-for-the-ages needs to be included here.

• How not to start a blog in ten easy lessons (illustrated): The Pajamas Media story. [top]

• Advice for new bloggers. (And probably some older ones as well.)

• More things bloggers should not do, and the Church of Connectivity. [top]

• Dean Esmay asks why there's such hostility toward Pajamas Media. Dean's readers advance many theories. Best: "Because nobody ever got famous swatting at gnats."

• This Seobook post is a great resource for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of how search engines rank sites/posts. (This subject, like so much on the web, is a moving target.) [top]

• A mere mention of Ted Rall, and all hell breaks loose.

• Jason Calacanis offers his netcentric predictions for 2006. [top]

• The ten 'most powerful women' in blogging (and a few sleepers).

• The increasing specialization of blogs, and the most influential 'economic' bloggers. [top]

• Just as no bar or hotel today hangs a sign touting 'phone service', broadband will be ubiquitous when these novel signs no longer exist.

• How bloggers led the way after the tsunami. (Not a blog post, but an article on blogging.) [top]

• Morbidly fascinating: MySpace bloggers, very young and very full of life, who died tragically.

• On the 'net, where shrill hysteria and outlandish accusations are the norm, why would anyone opt for self-restraint? Vulgar morality. [top]

• There are a number of worthwhile posts on blogging (some of which we have highlighted in this post) in this thread. From Grow-a-Brain.

• How bloggers make (or try to make) money from their efforts, and Adverblogging: American Express pays some bloggers to do their thing. [top]
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Of interest to Internet users in general:

• Kottke is online 24/7. Here's the best stuff he found this year.

• Similarly, Jersey City's WFMU is steeped in musical culture. Here's their pick of this year's posts with MP3 attachments. Take 'em for a spin on your iPod. (Note: This is yet another post that has vanished from the ether. As a replacement, we offer this WFMU MP3 archive. [top]

• Best Photoshop images of 2005, as voted by Fark readers.

• Digg came from literal nonexistence this year to emerge as a 'net powerhouse that surpassed the mighty Slashdot. Alex Bosworth's insightful post examines the dynamics of Digg, a social system made up of: Readers (those who only show up to reap the fruits of the Digg machine), Diggers (the 10-20% who click 'Digg'), Hardcore Diggers (those who wade through the queue of submitted stories to move the deserving stories up and dump the unworthies - Digg's movers and shakers), Submitters (those providing Digg's raw materials), and Publishers (content creators hoping that Digg will energize and empower their efforts).

These groups interact and get their own rewards within the system. Alex concludes (paraphrasing) that: "Blog publishers create content they want dugg, submitters scour the 'net for stories they can add to their 'published on the homepage' list, digg queue watchers looking for cool links before anyone else has seen them, and digg readers reap the benefits and provide that highly-sought mass audience. Plus, because Digg now has so many users, the 'Network Effects' brings great rewards for the sysops (the owners of digg.com). And, it seems to me that the Hardcore Diggers is the group with the most power in the system. Publishers have an interest in getting their stories dugg, so who better to court than the Hardcore Diggers?" [top]

• Molly believes a process of defining a new professionalism for Web developers and designers is underway.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Funny business: Humor's a tough nut. Some folks like the Stooges, others prefer Gilbert & Sullivan. And then there's those of us who want to see the Stooges perform Gilbert & Sullivan.

• Jake Bronstein had a busy year. A 'performance comic', he's bathed in a public fountain, freed a supermarket fish, used a color copier as a photo booth, had his wallet stolen and gotten it back. And he's photographed it all. [top]

• Huffington's Toast was one of the most consistently milk-out-of-the-nose funny sites we read in 2005. (Since we rarely drink milk, that's saying something, even if we don't know what.) An Open letter to Jane and Al, from Michael Moore at the Fat Farm takes the form of 'Camp Granada', but the entire site is rife with more-or-less equal-opportunity ripostes.

• On the 'real' Huffington site, Steve Martin proves he still knows funny, with a piece that should be subtitled 'How to be an Online Pundit WIthout Really Trying'. [top]

• Engadget 1985. No, it certainly didn't exist then, and that's what makes this satirical piece priceless.

• Mr. Beth ~~admits~~ ~~is coerced~~ ~~blackmailed~~ says: Loving me is a Dirty Job. [top]

• Ze Frank demonstrates his communication skills (video).

• The USDA's Nutrition Pyramid has been scrapped. Here's what they're replacing it with. [top]

• An exception that proves the rule is Darth Vader: The Blog. We couldn't pull a 'funniest' post to share, because it's the concept of Vader keeping a blog that's funny, rather than any individual posts. This was a popular theme this year, which will probably endure: Fake/funny blogs from celebs du jour. During her 15 minutes, "Harriet Miers' blog" was enjoyed by many.

• More Star Wars: This clumsy (and apparently bootleg) Chinese frame-by-frame translation back to English suggests that we must look pretty inscrutable to them. Mind the explanatory links under the translations. (This post is not exactly undiscovered country - note the 510 comments.) Inspired, is this. [top]

• Even more Star Wars: Dressing up for the convention (a photo essay).

• Miracle Whip on 34th Street: An over-the-top (or not) Baltimore Christmas (photo essay). Also from this site: If they had pocket protectors in the 18th-century, you just know Ben Franklin would have been wearing one. [top]

• The Family Circus meets H.P. Lovecraft, from Accordion Guy.

• The Decadent West takes the question: "How many 5-year-olds could you take on in a fight?" and breaks it down to a, uh, disturbing degreee. (Warning: Language. But otherwise, it wouldn't be decadent, would it?) [top]

• Translating Public Relations-speak into English. An anlysis of a press release by the great Daring Fireball site.

• Some read The Sneeze (Half zine. Half blog. Half not good with fractions.) and consider Steve the funniest human ever to live. Others read it and reconsider the meaning of 'life'. You decide. [top]

• A Patton story you won't find in the history books. (And here's a 'best-of' post from this blog.)

• On the Internet, sometimes they DO know you're a dog: A troll thinks he can safely assault Michelle Malkin via email. Within hours, he loses his job. (You'll have to scroll down to catch the drama.) One of the more widely-shared 'net moments of the year. [top]

• The Celebrity Anagram Interviews: In which the answer is an anagram of the celeb's name.

• Keeping score, on Deadwood. (Contains strong language - unless you actually watch Deadwood, in which case it's probably no big deal.) [top]

• Scooby Doo meets Hunter S. Thompson, from IowaHawk. Indeed, has anyone considered that only mind-enhancing substances could make that rowg rawrk?

• The Manolo, he presents The Gallery of the Horrors. [top]

• We like the moon. (And cheese Zeppelins.) [video] Don't ask, just click.

• Worst. Interview. Ever: Comic Book Guy interviews Mary Mapes.

• Things not to say at the family Thanksgiving table. [top]

• Suburban Turmoil is worth a look for the page design alone, but check out What they don't tell you about birthin' babies. It's not the pain, it's the indignity.

• An open letter from a frequent critic offers help and advice to G Dub. [top]

• Wuzza on first? Bud Abbott considers names for his blog.

• Unmasking the mysterious cloaked figure. [top]

• Better living through science: The anti-terrorist pickup truck is guaranteed not to be targeted by suicide bombers. The PunkROKR fuses the best of the iPod with the best of Motorola's best-selling phone, proving that more is - well, more.

• Six Meat Buffet wraps up 'Twelve Days of Christmas Gifts' for his liberal friends. Assuming he has any left. [top]

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Politics: As if we could avoid it.

• What's the difference between libertarian and liberal?

• "It was a tragic year for the Democratic party and for responsible politics...the Party became a kind of unrelated bloc of factions, each refusing accomodation with another." Senator Eugene McCarthy, Democrat, 1988. [top]

• "I learned much of my politics in my grandmother's kitchen... Not my partisan politics, mind you... she was as Republican as they came... What I learned from Grandma was that hard work was unavoidable, there was always time for decency and compassion, and political rhetoric was bullshit." A great post from Street Prophets.

• The ten worst (best?) quotes from the Democratic Underground, 2005. Related: A sparkling analysis of the left-wing blogosphere. [top]

• A psychoanalyst puts the left-wing on the couch. Related: Philosophical underpinnings of leftist beliefs.

• A la Gauche notes right-wing anti-abortionists' bloody Christmas message, pits Bill O'Reilly against Ludacris in a battle of the vulgar, shows how to Google-bomb Sean Hannity, describes what constitutes an 'ethnically offensive' team mascot, and alerts readers to the ongoing genocide in Sudan. [top]

• The 'babe theory' of political movements: The ideology associated with the most attractive women, wins.

• Worst examples of leadership in 2005. [top]

• Using advanced communications tools to build bridges and unite, rather than divide. By Joi Ito.

• Let's finally get serious about separating religion and state. An unserious piece from Xanga. [top]

• There are plenty of things that would work for Africa but won't be done, partly because of those who are demanding that things be done. Scribal Terror

• Africa again, from a New York Times editorial: The road to hell is paved with Live 8. [top]

• Picking the wrong time to protest Global Warming.

• Hugh Hewitt will stop at nothing to emulate his beloved President. [top]

• The problem with declaring unrealistic guarantees of prosperity and happiness to be 'human rights', by Paul Noonan. (More about "the new rights" from property-rights-minded Hamstermotor, who encourages all squirrels to vigorously defend their nuts.)

• Newsweek assures its overseas readers that 'America is Dead'. But if that's so, why aren't they telling their American readers? [top]

• Remember when it was liberals who wanted to change the world and the right who wanted to marinate in nostalgia?

• Hostility in the face of changing needs and technology through the years: Great moments in labor relations.

• Maybe not all that cruel, but it's certainly unusual: The Gitmo 'terro-gator. (Flash toy) [top]

• Using behavioral statistics to determine how Judge Roberts will persuade the Supreme Court.

• Desperately seeking grace under pressure: Stanislav Petrov and Russ Feingold. [top]

• The Barista figured she was on safe ground in offering up a Democratic Party feel-good rally to her readers in True-Blue Montclair, in the heart of Democrat-dominated New Jersey. The response was surprisingly hostile.

• The top ten (plus thirteen) categories of MSM/DNC bias, as noted daily in media news accounts. From The Cassandra Page. [top]

• A daughter of a Democratic Senator with civil rights roots says agree to disagree, and move on in Iraq. Also: The agony of abortion.

• Arklahom Boy fisks Rabbi Boteach [top]

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Iraq:

• Michael Yon's 'most important photo' of the Iraq war. Also: Yon on how real-life fighting unfolds: "Once the shooting starts, a plan is just a guess in a party dress." (Yon's photo had been taken down for a time because of a dispute with the Army. This has since been resolved.)

• Yon's writings remind Captain Bogs of other lessons from Vietnam. [top]

• A letter from a battlefield hospital brings several commenters to tears.

• A homemade 'greeting card' telling a hospitalized soldier to die practically melts down a server at Two Babes and a Brain. [top]

• A grim milestone approaches in an unending war, from Transterrestrial Musings.

• A tribute to Corporal Jonathan Bowling. [top]

• Nearly 300 women from all over Iraq attended the Second National Iraqi Women’s Conference. Events such as this were covered almost exclusively by bloggers.

• Photos of Iraqi children at play in Baghdad during the three-day Eid holiday. [top]

• Covering the Iraqi elections, by Iraq the Model.

• Solid backing for the State of the Union Message from The Diplomad. Don Surber is moved by a subsequent speech he calls "Bush's Gettysburg". [top]

• Deconstructing "Mother Sheehan". (Also: Photos from her book signing.)

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Katrina:

• One of the great blogs to emerge in 2005 was Operation Eden, a magnificent photo-essay of the aftermath of Katrina. It soars above the insipid cliches (many of which proved wrong) offered by the commercial media as 'definitive' post-Katrina news. Here's an excerpt from a Christmas post:

"Something amazing is happening in my mom's little town of Pearlington, Mississippi, something inspiring and hopeful, something full of love and renewal. A grass roots movement is growing from the mud and despair of Katrina, and it's making my heart grow by three sizes just to know it exists. I want to nurture it, protect it, share it with you. Its spirit was embodied in one amazing day this week, a day that represents to me all that is right with the world, all that is good and caring in the human spirit."

• Katrina response timeline from Rightwing Nuthouse was probably the most-linked (even by the left), and was by most accounts the most complete account of the response to the hurricane.

• General Honore's press briefing coined an indelible catchphrase that spread quickly. [top]

• Overindulging on media horror tales that later proved to be bloated and false, some leftist bloggers went wild with allegations and hatred.

• "One of the defining media moments of all the hurricane [Katrina] coverage" (Chicago Sun-Times) was a lie. From WuzzaDem. [top]

• Leaving New Orleans as Katrina is about to hit, Ernie the Attorney writes: "Katrina is going to completely change the City I live in."

• How DirectNIC kept the computers running while everything else in New Orleans melted down. Without their heroics, and the heroics of medical workers and a few others, the damage would have been vastly worse. No single post is highlighted, this is a singularly-focused blog covering issues the media ignored. A primer in the raw for future disaster-preparedness. [top]

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Ethics: Many bloggers claim to have the right answers, but wiser bloggers seek the right questions.

• What it means to be poor. The most heartbreaking post of the year.

• What's the matter with kids, today? (Maybe it's us.) [top]

• Postsecret centers on a simple idea, compelling enough to have kept it in the top-ranked blogs throughout the year. (The site been turned into a book.)

• Why book publishers are trying to run a shakedown scheme on Google, and why it probably won't work. [top]

• Mourning the roads not taken. From Dustbury.

• Lessons from a decent man, whose decency lived on after his passing. SIgmund, Carl & Alfred [top]

• Hard to believe that Dawn Eden might be alone on a Valentine's Day, but love is real and V-Day is manufactured. Rather than conjure up some romance to suit the occasion, she'll wait for the real thing.

• Bigotry and hatred aimed at a party guest tell a larger tale, at Alarming News. [top]

• On leadership: Is God, or the Devil, in the details? Perhaps it's both.

• When every 'help wanted' ad looks the same, it's essential to learn to 'hire different'. Uncommon wisdom from Creating passionate users. (Also: Finding the 'happy spot' in application creation.) [top]

• Family values: They're not just for Republicans anymore. A refreshing post rejects "Rose-colored Republican glasses" but hangs in there to ask difficult questions about the impact of divorce. A slew of commenters wrestle with it.

• Sophistpundit's Personal Foundation for Discussion. [top]

• A rise in female predatory behavior: Listing over 100 instances of females raping minors.

• Annual advice to graduates. [top]

• A thoughtful piece on autonomy and liberty: At what price of discomfort and inconvenience will we embrace these ideals?

• Do we have implicit biases? How can they be measured? Does political correctness mask society's problems? From Tedrow Drive. [top]

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

How-to:

• 'How to become an early riser' seems like a benign subject, yet it became one of the most widely read posts of the year.

• Related: Alarm clocks are bad. How to wake up and feel better. [top]

• How to hack an elevator so it stops only on your floor.

• Ever come across an mp3 file on the Internet that you wanted to download for your iPod, but lacked the time? How to deal with it. [top]

• How to get into Playboy Magazine. (The real deal, not what their PR people will tell you.)

• How to measure your communication effectiveness. [top]

• A case study: How Sony's bouncy ball commercial maximizes its impact by extending its reach into the classroomsphere and the blogosphere.

• How to land a man. [top]

• From Mark Boulton's elegant site: Five simple steps to designing grid systems.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Essays and other 'first-person' writing:

• An amazing, almost minute-by-minute liveblogging as the London subway bombing unfolds, from last July. And an Englishman in New York has his eyes opened.

• Possibly the Essay of the Year: Tribes, by Bill Whittle. It's also one of the longest pieces in this collection, but worth it. [top]

• Watch a Hollywood deal go down. And down. And down...

• It's a Wunder-Kraut life: "The day my youngest daughter was born, we found out about her clubbed left foot. This post is about what it took to make it from that day to now - when she can run." (Includes video.) And here is a 'best-of site' compilation. [top]

• Death Hippie notes that not enough people use medieval weapons.

• Lowering the flag on Saul Bass' most famous creation, by Michael Bierut. [top]

• Toot, whistle, plunk and boom: Nostalgic analysis of a classic Disney short, at Ward-o-Matic. [top]

• An adventure with road kill.

• Mitch Berg's Coming of age story. [top]

• Wealthy sports franchise owner & blogger Mark Cuban tries to figure out how he became the originator of 3 of The New York Times' 91 ideas for 2005.

• There are wide distractions and narrow distractions, and the 'net is one very wide distraction. Paul Ford struggles to narrow the focus, so he can get some work done. [top]

• The 'Real ID' act, and the fallacy of 'identification' cards as a security measure.

• Two days after last July's London bombings, an extraordinary commemoration of the end of World War Two was held. [top]

• Brainster offers his views on religion and anti-religion, unusual topics for this blog.

• Finally realizing that Curious George promotes animal cruelty. [top]

• 'Libertarian Girl' mystery unmasked.

• Apparently only four people have never read The Da Vinci Code. Geoffrey K. Pullum wishes he could be among them. [top]

• Kottke goes pro.

• When 'smart' just gets in the way. [top]

• A medical blog analyzes Terri Schiavo's CT brain scan.

• Checking out of the Heartbreak Hotel, from Audience of One. [top]

• Ken Adams: Why no one respects the mainstream news business, and What really happens when the minimum wage is raised.

• America is a good idea, or: We have met the enemy, and he is us. [top]

• What writers assume about their readers in a politically polarized era: The art of insulting half your audience.

• The egg and I. And Japan. [top]

• The Ten Percenter, by Phila Lawyer (now defunct).

• Left brain female remembers: "I'm not raising my daughters to become victims." [top]

• Where the sidewalk hates: Welcome to the desert of the real.

• Special moments make juggling family, work, and Christmas worthwhile. [top]

• Experiencing the sudden rush of widening horizons.

• A wannabe writer wonders where to go from here. [top]

• Buggsy's Onions.

• Part one of a series debating church/state issues [top]

• Remembering Peter Jennings.

• A Hollywood extra recalls his times in show biz. [top]

• Harsh lesson: Online discourse enters the brutal real world.

• Selfish drivers don't use blinkers. (Originally an an op-ed article in The Orlando Sentinel, published 9/6/2005.) [top]

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Sports:

• The New England Patriots weren't always the sports world's most prominent symbol of excellence. A not-so-brief history of their years of infamy and sudden rise.

• Remembering a baseball giant who played in a time when ballplayers were indentured servants. [top]

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Economics:

• Willisms impressed with closely-researched articles such as The Bush Economy (why is he blamed for '01 and not credited for '05?), The roots of Germany's economic woes, Why 'guaranteed' employment guarantees prolonged recessions, and Lower Taxes = Greater population increase + Stronger Economy.

• Econbrowser drew its biggest crowd with How to talk to an economist about peak oil. [top]

• Who benefits from 'fair trade'? (Using coffee as an example.)

• Mainstream media meltdown: Stats on all the forms of major media and how they fared as of April, from The Long Tail. [top]

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Science

• Evidence that islands are not evolutionary dead ends

• From Pharyngula: Idiot America: The War on Expertise, The proper reverence due those who have gone before, and our favorite - Planet of the Hats. [top]

• Science and Politics: I want bigger government!, Regressives, Left and Righty excesses of pseudo-science, and The Perils of Ideological Continua and Coordinate Systems. [top]

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

"Best of blog": Some good blogs offer their best posts.

• The Nonist offers Conversations on the plurality of worlds, Drama vs. comedy (or: The most invaluable and time honored art of making something out of nothing), The secret history of the revolving door, The myth of ironus.

• At Neddie Jingo, Al Swearingen guest-blogs. And at the other end of the obscenity-meter, a great tribute to Pogo. [top]

• Camp Katrina marches in with a first-person account of a child's gift to a soldier in Mississippi on hurricane relief duty, Star Wars hurricane names, and a New York Times omission that led to a 3,000 hit day.

• From the articulate Texas Songbird: The 'Tar Baby' card is played, The Million (more or less) Man March lives down to expectations, and hidden agendas at a rally for Stanley "Tookie" Williams. [top]

• Best of Yahoo 360: We were unfamiliar with Yahoo's unique blog service before this compilation began, just as we were (and are) unfamiliar with MySpace, LiveJournal, and other blog-community (if that's the word) services. But 360 certainly spoke up, and we were made aware of some of her members, its strong sense of community, and its problems (primarily technical - several complained about the difficulty of getting content online). Here are some submissions from Yahoo 360 members: The Bus Driver who wanted to be God, Do you hear what I hear?, 'Tis Blessed To Receive.

Rachel: On New Year's Day, are you resolute? Or do you have resolutions?, Christmas Past, Chistmas Future, Christmas Present.

Renee offers research into the subject of abusive relationships, of all kinds and ages.

Javacat: A Peeping Tom in the automotive age. [top]

Hammack goes furniture shopping with the wife, gets educated ("What's a tope?") and passes it along. (Also: Sexist airline signs.)

• Best of Batesline includes Michael Bates' battle with the local paper (among year's most-read posts): Threatened by the Tulsa World, The battle continues. Also: I hate minibars, Attack of the Zombie Blogs, and Beards vs. Politics. [top]

• Best of Elvira: The fateful day when Ubba the Gringo dropped the bottle, and Hit me with your best kvetch elicits a great comment thread.

• Best of Fausta's Bad Hair blog: Let's just move the U.N. to France, How Al Jazeera Sees the World, Observations on Revenge of the Sith (or, how long does it take Padme to get ready in the morning?), What happened to the French riots? and Che Guevara, Beautiful obscenities, and the forgotten dead. [top]

• Best of Jersey issueblogger Smadanek: New Jersey's public sector growth vs. population growth, Comparing campaign spending with election results, and Examining Corzine's Health Care Plan. Ken also discovers that there is a correlation between money and educational performance - but it's not the one you think. (More here.)

• Best of The Skwib: The Lost PowerPoint Slides (4th of July ed., William Wallace ed.), Thag (Want to be millionaire! Not like f#&*ing shaman!), Ask General Kang (Why do women check out your footwear first? Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior?), First draft of Harold Pinter’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Canadian voters in existential crisis, and A Counterintuitive Fairy Tale. [top]

• The best of The Ebb & Flow Institute, 2005.

• There's no doubt where Shining Plate and a Good Broadsword stands. The site's 'Greatest Hits' include Europe, the Whore, and Why I Hate Liberals. Any questions? [top]

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Local blogging: One of the hindrances to the growth of local blogging is that, when the subject is truly local, it often doesn't travel well. We don't know Marty Andrade's local Pizza Shack, nor the issues peculiar to Oklahoma. So, appreciation of these pieces may depend - literally - on where you're coming from. This is why Local blogging is our weakest overall category. Ironically, because of increasing weakness in local reporting, it is also our most important one.

Since we're in New Jersey, we got a number of local submissions.

• Rion Nakaya runs a (mostly) NYC-centric photoblog feast. Enjoy Central Park snowmen and graffiti by the East River. [top]

• Rosenblog finds fallacy in Easy parking as a social evil, notes that Gays often confuse disapproval of their sexual orientation with hatred and bigotry, and tucks into The dense fruitcake that is arcadia. Matt Rosenberg blithely runs counter to mainstream Seattle politics.

• Beck neatly sums up New Jersey's governmental problems. [top]

• Jersey blogger DynamoBuzz examines the fine line between being tough on an industry and driving it out of the state. Also, Why Jersey doesn't get more money from Washington.

• Jersey blogger Enlighten-New Jersey notes that “a litany of complaints is not a plan.” Also: Looking into Corzine's background during the recent gubernatorial election, and examining his self-proclaimed status as “one of the nation’s foremost experts on the economy and financial markets”. Enlighten also kicked off the Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers this year, one of the few ongoing local blog carnivals. And here's a funny piece re a Senior Citizen's ballot questions. [top]

• Farewell to the Pizza Shack.

• An Oklahoma parable and the dangers of a one-newspaper town. [top]

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• What we've learned by doing this compilation [return to top]

1) There's nothing quite like it. The Koufax Awards issues an award (not out when this was written) in the category of "best post". The Kommisar anointed the "Best Post Ever". The latter is tongue-in-cheek of course - there's no such thing as the 'best post ever'. Koufax is focused on "lefty" bloggers, and is being handled much differently than our own compilation. [return to what we learned]

2) It might have lasting value. Ultimately, the value of anything on the 'net is determined by everyone who uses the 'net. It does appear as if this was worthwhile, from the reactions we've seen so far.

Jamie Morrison at The Nonist said something revealing. He said he "thinks" he's seen many great posts this year, because he runs a blog and therefore looks at a whole lot of posts. But he had some difficulty remembering what he saw that was worthwhile. There's so much of it coming at you, and it just keeps coming. It's hard to keep track, and keep safe, the best stuff.Many of you can relate to that.

A lot of the best work vanishes, fast. Many links sent to us had already changed. Many posts that we found in our research - some of the most-viewed of the year - are on sites that have shut down and/or gone offline.

Millions of bloggers, thousands of good posts, but no way to access the statements that could describe the essence of a year, because traffic alone won't point the way. The 25 most-trafficked blogs (we'll assume for a moment that traffic is an indicator of excellence) produced only 4 of the most-trafficked posts. (Figures from BlogPulse.) This crudely demonstrates our contention that compelling posts are not necessarily the product of 'popular' blogs.

Quality posts don't necessarily set off traffic alarms. They fly right under the radar, through no fault of their own. Despite the wonderful self-publishing software tools we use, the primary work of a publisher is not (and never has been) to get books printed. The work of a publisher is to elevate and expose worthwhile ideas. In that sense, the blogosphere is almost completely barren of 'publishers'. Instapundit and Lucianne.com tackle the job, but such trusted editors are in too short a supply in comparison with the demand. Also, they don't produce a yearend archive, a wrapup - a time capsule.

Enlighten - New Jersey noted that one needs to be thinking about a collection like this throughout the year, because even great posts will fall through the cracks of time. If we do this collection again, we have a means in mind to help this be more than a last-hour marshalling of content. Not that we did badly with what we got. We had been concerned that we would see nothing but posts dated December, but that never happened. Still, out of sight out of mind is the rule with most blog posts.[return to what we learned]

3) An effort like this becomes more valuable in a year, more valuable still in ten years. Don't you wish you could see the 'best blog posts of 1996'? How about 1966? That's how this year's best posts will be valued one day.

But there's no getting around the human effort needed to discern and judge what one is looking at. Google can't do that yet. It's likely it never will. These posts need to be assembled, examined, explained, and ordered in a way that makes them compelling to read.[return to what we learned]

4) Many blog posts are 'outsider literature'. Some blogs have 'gone pro' and are offering content as commercial and mainstream as The New York Times or any other publication. But most still come from an outsider perspective. Those blogs are our primary focus. [return to what we learned] [return to top]

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• Our pitch for a book.

At this writing we are working with an well-established literary agency in an attempt to interest a publisher. (Once we have interest we will contact the individual bloggers for permissions, bios and other details.) A published book obviously would be of benefit to the ongoing project.

• We encountered many rejections.

Before we found an enthusiastic agent, we encountered many rejections. This pattern will almost certainly be repeated by the publishers we pitch. The most commonly offered reason for passing on the project was: "Publishers (and readers) won't pay for content already available for free on the web". We strongly disagree. If this were true, then current blogpost-compilation books by Post Secret, Seth Godin and Overheard in New York (among others) were big miscalculations on the part of their publishers. In addition, if this publishing model were not viable, Wired News would not be able to repurpose Wired Magazine's content on its site, and see both entities thrive. (But they do!) We believe that that these publishers are showing foresight by tapping into a new source of literary creativity, at the front of the acceptance curve.

• The three main fallacies of the 'people won't pay' rationale:

1) The core assumption is that the book-reading audience and the blog-reading audience are one and the same. Not true! Some blog readers rarely read books, while many book readers rarely read blogs.

2) The primary value of this compilation is the research involved. Few people would ever find all these posts on their own. And if they did, most people would prefer to read this amount of material in books form rather than on a computer screen.

3) The unparallelled success and staying power of Readers' Digest demonstrates that there is a substantial audience for a 'guided tour' through the literary jungle. This goes double for the blogosphere, which is far bigger and wilder than the commercial printed media ever managed to be. Readers don't have time to assess the best of millions of choices on their own. They want help from someone who knows the lay of the land. [return to top]

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• Frequently Asked Questions

• Who's included?
• Will we do it again?
• What are in the best interests of the collection as a whole?
• Why is a book needed?
• Isn't it too late to publish a compilation of 2005 posts?
• Why are you trying to make money off this?
• "The blogosphere is far too dynamic to be captured in a book"
• Where are the 'best posts' from Mister Snitch?
• Can all the "best blog posts" of a year really be compiled?
• What makes a 'weak' post?
• Isn't it true that most blog posts aren't even worth reading?
• Were all the posts submissions?
• If there's so much poor-quality stuff out there, why were almost all of the submissions included?
• How did you end up with "better-quality posts" than an average Carnival?
• How can you make the collection compelling and readable?
• I don't agree with the pecking order you've established.
• What about all the other 'best blog' contests?
• Couldn't you just round up the 'best blogs', and let me find the 'best posts' for myself?
• How can I help this project succeed?

1) Who's included?

We're including almost all of what was submitted, as we promised. Some sites that had multiple submissions had to be pruned back (anyone who likes a site will go looking for more, anyway). And a few links just didn't make the cut, as far as we were concerned. But basically, if you submitted, you'll see the post or at least a similar post from the same site. (We were going to stop at 100, but we're well beyond that. Had we stopped at our original goal, we'd have done this collection a disservice.)

We have made the "best of the best" of the posts self-evident, by means of placement and subject grouping. Also, the most outstanding posts of this collection will be included in the printed version (which cannot include all submissions). [return to FAQ] [return to top]

2) Will we do it again?

If it's widely seen as valuable, we'll probably be incliined to refine the effort, expand it, and repeat what worked for next year. The 'net being what it is, we'll know pretty quickly if we achieve traction. [return to FAQ] [return to top]

3) What are in the best interests of the collection as a whole?

To be linked as widely as possible, to be as compelling as possible, to endure as long as possible, and to be seen by as many people as possible. This effort cannot continue if there is no widespread interest, and without a central location for 'best posts' much outstanding writing will be lost each year. [return to FAQ] [return to top]

4) Why is an accompanying annual printed publication necessary?

Publishing this book creates a focus for resources and interest that is vital to this project's long-term goals. The book also enables an outreach beyond the blogosphere, into a braoder readership. Blog posts, at their best, are "outsider literature" deserving of a place alongside "commercial" work.

Finding these posts required a substantial effort. This collection cannot be found by a simple Google search. Most of these posts would not be found on the blogs winning the various "Best Weblog" competitions, which are (mostly) traffic-driving contests. In order to contnue finding such posts, and to find more and better ones in the future, this effort must be sustained. A book helps enable sustainability.

One function of a 'Best Posts' book is to bring these posts to non-English speaking audiences. True, they could use Babelfish or a similar translation service, but how would they find the posts iin the first place? A book also makes these posts available to the majority of the world's people, who still have no access to the Internet. [return to FAQ] [return to top]

5) Isn't it too late to release a compilation of 2005 posts?

That's up to the publisher. It's likely that these compilations will come out in the summer or at Christmas, and extend from midyear-to-midyear. This first book would be a "2005-6" edition, for example.[return to FAQ] [top]

6) Why are you trying to make money off this? Shouldn't blogs be free?

Some blogs are certainly free. Others are (usually thinly) profitable commercial publishing enterprises. Money needs to be made simply because there is a great deal of work (and a modicum of risk) surrounding this sort of endeavor. Sitting near a beautiful blue ocean in Jamaica, that should be free. [return to FAQ] [top]

7) "The blogosphere is far too dynamic to be captured in a book".

Someone actually said this on another blog. And that's one way of looking at it. Another is that there's a proven business model for gathering top-quality material under one umbrella. (Readers' Digest and Time-Life are well-known for repurposing material in this way.) In researching this book, we've learned that not all blog posts 'date' badly, and some serve as good time capsules. Many of them go offline within a year or so, and without some sort of capture they are lost forever. (Several of the posts in this collection had to be deleted or retrieved from Google caches, because their link had gone bad.)

There are other reasons for having this material in book form. A book allows for layout possibilities and reading flexibility (i.e., the park, the tub, Africa) that a computer won't allow. A book gathers everything nicely into one place and generally makes the material easier to read. [return to FAQ] [top]

8) Where are the 'best posts' from Mister Snitch?

We thought we'd never ask. Here they are! [return to FAQ] [top]

9) Can all the "best blog posts" of a year really be compiled?

There are far too many posts created each year to know (or claim) that we've found every excellent one. Besides, the concept of "best" is too subjective to stand much scrutiny.

However, if you ask: Can we compile a representation of a year's best posts?, the answer is: Certainly! And that's really what the "Best Blog Posts" compilation is. [return to FAQ] [top]

10) But aren't blog posts pretty 'disposable'? Why compile them?

It's true that most posts have the halflife of a dead flounder in the sun. However, the sheer volume of posting alone suggests that exceptions to the rule must exist.

Some posts can encapsulate a moment, or define a year. Humorous posts, if they're truly funny today, should get a laugh tomorrow. The value of collecting the best samples of a year's work is suggested by the Internet Wayback Machine, which archives old sites. These posts are a curiosity today, but in ten years they might well be of much greater value.

The Nonist's Jaime Morrison tells us: "I've read many great blog posts this year, or at least I assume I must have, since I'm still online everyday endlessly cycling through sites. But it's such a time sensitive sort of medium, great posts come and are almost instantly swallowed by others... it's easy to forget."

For those who think that the 'Big Blogs' only link to other Big Blogs, it may surprise you to learn that a significant number of the posts linked by Instapundit during '05 are already 'missing links'. Probably some worthwhile ideas worth reviewing have been lost forever. The 'net is still a place of quickly changing fortunes, cooking up fresh opportunities daily. No one has anything 'sewed up' by a good margin, and the idea that data lasts forever is a myth. [return to FAQ] [top]

11) What makes a post not worth consideration?

Weak posts usually suffer from a poor approach and writing, rather than a poor choice of subject. Many bloggers either don't have the time to write well (understandably), or they lack the chops (not everyone writes for a living). Good writing is primarily in the re-writing. A good post requires no additional clarification. At best it should delight and surprise. Its meaning should be transparent and compelling.

"Gotcha" posts, where someone on the opposite side of the political sphere is caught in a stumble, are generally not moments for the ages. Writing must stand on its own, and not depend on the charged (and fleeting) passions of the moment. Too many posts, in retrospect, just don't hold up. [return to FAQ] [top]

12) I keep hearing that most blog posts aren't even worth reading. Is that true?

"90% of anything is junk", or so the old saw goes. (Maybe more, depending on who you ask.) That includes blogs, clothes, shoes, jobs, etc. But that's the point of this collection - to capture some of that 10%. [return to FAQ] [top]

13) Were all the posts from submissions?

No. We did a good deal of research, using various tools and plain hard work. Some sites, especially Baseline, checked for posts they had linked to throughout the year, and sent us their findings. [return to FAQ] [top]

14) If there's so much poor-quality stuff out there, why were almost all of the submissions included?

Here's our dilemna: If we treated this compliation like a regular Carnival, including all comers, readers might pass it by. Carnivals become bloated with submissions they're obliged to include. This leaves it to the reader to sort out what's worthwhile, forcing each reader to become an editor. In other words, Carnivals ask most readers to work harder than they should have to, or are willing to.

On the other hand: Weeding out submissions imposes an irreversible editorial bias. And this collection is based on broad support, not a juried (narrow) selection. This mandates inclusivess, because why would anyone support this effort if their favorite posts were not included?

It's important to encourage a broad base of contributors, to engage as many eyes and tastes as possible in the task of finding worthwhile posts. We cannot possibly be in enough places to see a representative range. This compilation is a bottom-up effort rather than a top-down imposition of tastes. It's primarily about the Best Posts, but it is also about new or unempowered voices. [return to FAQ] [top]

15) Well, how did you end up with "better-quality posts" than an average Carnival?

• Because this is an annual collection, each blog's best effort is captured, not just whatever had been written most recently. This meant better content than most Carnivals' fare.

• For this contest, most contributors were willing and eager to support posts that were not their own. That came about partly because continual drum-beating in support of one's own posts was not necessary to insure their inclusion. This was not a zero-sum game in which one blogger's inclusion meant another's exclusion. [return to FAQ] [top]

16) But, even with better-quality posts - if you're all-inclusive, how did you make the collection compelling and readable?

As we assessed the submissions, we created categories for them. Some categories seemed to comprise more compelling posts than others. Those we placed at the beginning, working our way down to categories with less-compelling posts.

Within each category, we likewise placed the posts we deemed 'best' at the top. This is how we edited and elevated the 'best' work without excluding items that some will prefer. [return to FAQ] [top]

17) I don't agree with the pecking order you've established. I see some posts at the bottom that I like better than the ones you placed at the top.

Folks who feel we've botched the job won't give us their support for next year. But, if enough people approve of our overall performance, we can go at it again with their help. We'll see what the public decides. Remember, though - the only reason for anything to be missing altogether is that you didn't suggest it. [return to FAQ] [top]

18) What about all the other 'best blog' contests?

Those contests rate entire blogs, but they don't single out posts representative of each blog's best effort.

Many of those contests are traffic-driving affairs: The blog that sends the most traffic to the award host's site wins. A traffic-driving contest has its merits - a site that can drive a lot of traffic may have a large, loyal readership for a good reason. Then again, we all know that popularity is not necessarily indicative of excellence.

Often, the voting in these contests has little or nothing to do with rewarding excellence at all. For example, we've seen posts on politically-charged sites urging their readers to vote for a particular blog just because the 'other (political) side' should not allowed to win. In such cases, winning a 'blog contest' is a vindication of one's political beliefs, and nothing more.

It should also be noted that a blog may contain some excellent posts but not be an excellent blog, simply because the author is unable or unwilling to blog frequently. No "best blog" award can recognize such a blog.

Many outstanding blog authors don't have the time to cultivate an audience. Or, if they do, they may not want to harass their readers into casting votes for them day after day. For many reasons, the larger "blog awards" leave many excellent blogs and blog posts unheralded. [return to FAQ] [top]

19) Couldn't you just round up the 'best blogs', and let me find the 'best posts' for myself?

The 'best blogs' don't necessarily have the best posts! For example, we think Instapundit is a terrific blog. But it does not have 'great' posts, because what Prof. Reynolds is trying to do is quickly inform you of an important post he's seen elsewhere. (That post might itself be a 'great' post, or it might just advance some story he is following.) His posts generally read something like this. Other sites might focus on great community interaction, while the posts themselves are no more than average. There are many reasons why a blog might be one of the 'best' blogs, without having the 'best' posts.

Here's a crude example of this principle: Let's compare this blogpulse list of "2005's top blogs" -

1) Boing Boing 2) Engadget 3) Michelle Malkin 4) Albino Blacksheep 5) Instapundit.com 6) Power Line 7) Gizmodo 8) Think Progress 9) Political Animal 10) Slashdot 11) Little Green Footballs 12) Eschaton 13) PostSecret 14) AMERICAblog 15) Captain's Quarters 16) Talking Points Memo 17) Penny Arcade 18) Business Opportunities Weblog 19) Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger 20) Gawker 21) BuzzMachine 22) The Huffington Post | The Blog 23) Informed Comment 24) The Volokh Conspiracy 25) Wonkette

...with its list of the blogs on which "2005's top posts" actually appeared -

1) Jenny Elkind 2) Instapundit.com 3) AMERICAblog 4) Krautboy/LiveJournal/Star Wars costumes 5) Committee to Protect Bloggers 6) Whatever 7) Broken Toys 8) Europhobia 9) Electronic Frontier Foundations 10) Wicked Wish 11) Batesline 12) Bruce Schneier 13) Engadget 14) Wicked Wish 15) Min Jung Kim 16) The Abstract Factory 17) Instapundit.com 18) Michelle Malkin 19) Steve Gilliard News Blog 20) Ongoing 21) Steve Pavlina's Personal Development Blog 22) John Battelle's Searchblog 23) EFF: Deep Links 24) Michelle Malkin 25) Daring Fireball

The 25 top-trafficked blogs produced only four of the 25 top-trafficked posts.

What does this mean?

• It indicates how the top fish in the ecosystem depend on the lesser fish (as much if not more than the reverse).
• It suggests that finding the "top blogs" will not necessarily lead to finding the "top posts". [return to FAQ] [top]

20) How can I help this project succeed?

If you are a blogger, there are two ways you can help this project succeed:

1) You can include one of the banners shown here in a post or in your sidebar. Since this is a post of long-term value, please consider placing it in your sidebar.

2) You can help us find posts for future compilations by placing one of these buttons in your sidebar. These buttons announce you as a sponsor, and drive reciprocal traffic back to your site.

Here's how it works. The buttons lead to a post designed to briefly inform readers about this series of compilations. Readers are invited to leave URLs where they found excellent posts, for consideration. In that same post, every site with a button in their sidebar is prominently linked as a 'Best Posts' sponsor.

If you incorporate one of these buttons, let us know and send us a link (email mistersnitch [at] hotmail [dot] com). The link can be to your front page or any page you wish, but we suggest a post saying something about your support for the 'Best Posts' concept along with a list of your site's own 'best posts'. (Blogs using the larger buttons and offering better placements get reciprocally higher positions in the 'sponsors' list.)

Assuming we do come through with a book, publicity from its publication will be used to drive traffic to this post. We will also take out ads on other blogs specifically requesting links to be considered for future books. In this way, we expect this 'contribution' post to drive reciprocal traffic to our sponsors. It's our way of saying thanks for their support.

If you are not a blogger, you could help by mentioning 'Mister Snitch' and this 'Best Posts' project on any other sites you visit, (when appropriate, of course!). Any links to our front page will always lead to the 'Best Posts' collection. [return to FAQ] [top]

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Best Posts of 2005 banners:

Copy and paste any of the codes below into a post or sidebar to help us announce the 'Best Posts of 2005'.

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[return to 'How can I help'] [return to top]

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Buttons for sponsors:

Copy and paste any of the codes below into your sidebar to help us find the best posts for future compilations. Email us (mistersnitch [at] hotmail [dot] com) with a link to your blog and we will reciprocate. (We'd like to link to your "best of blog" post but will link to anywhere you choose on your site.)

Code for 80 x 15, small/sponsor:

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Best of Mister Snitch! - 2005

• Humor

Hurricane (after Dylan)
Whodunit?
Top ten rejected Jersey state slogans
Letting go of Christo
Hoboken changes name to HoBeCa!
Bill Gates changes his name to THE Gates
Batman vs. Bayonne
Bet you can't indict just one!
Hulk sue!
Men in Black (capes)
The Greatest Post Ever
Proper usage of the word 'Bling'
Blog whore of the year
If Dr. Seuss wrote 'Star Trek'
Lapsnorkling!
Best. Complaint. Letter. Ever.
Exclusive: Meatwad to replace MSNBC 'Katrina' logo
Dating and popcorn magnates - one and the same?
She was kind of evil. But she was our kind of evil.
Well, here's something you don't see every day
More Amazon madness
Sybil's Cave to become Batcave!

• Politics

Bad press for the President
Global warming nesting dolls
The debating game
In defense of the wingnut
Baby, we were born to walk
The 2005 Hoboken municipal election
No respect
Maybe it's just us
Deconstructing 'Street Fight': Why some insurgent candidacies take hold, while others fail
Famous Hoboken resident runs for Governor
Bet you can't indict just one

• Essays

How to write for Pixar
Images we found on Jan Peters' website
Love Potion Number Ten
There really is one born every minute!
The basic laws of human stupidity
Heirs to the Horn & Hardart
Sentimental journey
So you want to be a newspaper publisher
Our After 9/11 site is online
Stevens in collapse?
I say it's spinach, and I say - more, please!
A tale of two Tillies
The hidden face of 'public interest'
Podcasts - Small videos, big profits
Holy income property!
How to make a Fantastic comic book adaptation
When Han Solo left, he took the Force with him
The giant foam finger of fate
Revenge is a dish best served by Reply Mail

• About blogging

What makes a blog stand out
Blogging styles and traffic stats
The difference between bloggers & MSM
Why we linked to Camp Katrina
Of unspoken longings and site traffic
Think globally, blog locally
Blogging advice (not from us – mostly)
The Manolo, he does the marketing!
The Manolo, he loves the capitalism!
General advice to bloggers

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Categories: Best+posts+of+2005+compilation

Class act

Perry Belfiore — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 18:44:00 +0000

After not posting in months, this email showed up:

So Snitch, what happened to your pathetic online
diary? Did all four of your readers stop visiting the
site after posting three "stories" in nine months?

Realhoboken continues to be Hoboken's most popular
online magazine, however, despite your laughable
attacks on the site and me. We're in touch with what
Hoboken residents want to read, and we're proud to
represent their lifestyle and values.

Best of luck getting your book published. I'll be sure
to look for it on Amazon.com by 2016.

Cheers!

Joe Concha

You'd figure that would be enough vitriol for most folks. But, just to make sure I got the message, he dropped this comment under my 'Valentine for Deadwood fans' post:

"Well, it's a pleasure to see that this POS web rag has also finally expired.

Meanwhile, Realhoboken.com, the online magazine that you criticized every moment you could, continues to be Hoboken's hottest publication. We win, you lose, and that's hardly surprising. Good luck with your book that will never be published. "

Joe, I'm sorry you've been so preoccupied with the two posts critical of your site. But your comments have opened my eyes! Truly, you have a great online publication, and I do not.

Thanks for thinking of my book. I, of course, look forward to the outcome of your mayoral campaign.

It's always such a pleasure hearing from you. Drop in anytime.

Categories: Clownboys

Rebuilding after Katrina: A tale of two states

Perry Belfiore — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 23:15:00 +0000

Lately, many pundits are blaming Washington for not acting to rebuild New Orleans. It may be that cooler heads now realize it's a very bad idea for Washington to get into the city-building business. It may also be that they've noticed what's happening in Biloxi, as Popular Mechanics has.

From Popular Mechanics' blog on the subject, on the way to becoming a major article:

To understand the full impact of Katrina, you have to make a distinction between New Orleans and the rest of the region. New Orleans suffered devastating inundation due to the various levee breaks... Outside the city you see a different story... Compared to New Orleans, where whole neighborhoods remain deserted, Biloxi is crawling with construction teams. Most of them are busy rebuilding hotels right at the water’s edge.

For a number of reasons (pursue the PM report to get into the full range of them), private enterprise is hard at work to undo Katrina's deveastation - everywhere except New Orleans.

One reason for this, and the overwhelming one in our opinion: Private enterprise doesn't care to invest in areas notorious for political corruption.

Categories: New+Orleans, Flood+aid, Hurricane+Katrina

All your search string are belong to us

Perry Belfiore — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 19:21:00 +0000

With Google's Zeitgeist fresh in our minds, we came across this site's 2002 Zeitgeist. What's yours?

Here's (the apparently abandoned) TwonkBlog's Zeitgeist, circa 2002: "Twonk" (of course), "Saurkraut balls" (despite 'sauerkraut's sour spelling), "God of volcano" and "God volcano!", "NYC pork roll egg and cheese", "I need a nap" (apparently Sluggo is not alone), "Lunchmeat bonanza", "pbth" (understandable since the word comes up so rarely), "mumblety peg", "ireland alcohol stereotype", "ireland barmaids", "ireland trip notes travelogue", and "travelling through ireland".

Got 'geist? Send it! We'll post it, and then, all your Zeitgeist are belong to us.

(For those unfamiliar with the 'net's inside joke: All your base are belong to us, also here.)

Comments on Zeitgeist from Google's official blog.

Also: Finding trends in Google searches.

Categories: Search+strings, What's+your+Zeitgeist

All book, all the time

Perry Belfiore — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 09:41:00 +0000

Half the book is complete, which should be more than enough for the proposal. Now we have to finish the marketing pitch, which is what we will focus on today in lieu of posting. Over the weekend, however, we promise the mother of all posts (really, we seriously have one coming). Pretty much all the posts in the book require some adjustment to make them suitable for a book. We noticed a post by Dawn Eden to the effect that the post material included in her upcoming book also needed to be rewritten. With the trend toward "blooks" we wonder if everyone is finding this to be true, or whether some blogs can just get slapped into print form.

Categories: Book+report

Instant (blog) Karma

Perry Belfiore — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 07:38:00 +0000

"Snapshirts" examines word usage on your site and returns its karmic text cloud. We ran a few experiments.

Overall, not bad. But we don't think this algorithm really does these sites justice. We'll be watching for Version 2.

Categories: Snapshirts, Text+cloud

Google News exits Beta

Perry Belfiore — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 10:16:00 +0000

Not much real news here, actually, except a reminder of Google's interest in news.

We still see an enabling of local news reporters as being the next step.

Categories: Google+News+exits+Beta

Valentine for Deadwood fans

Perry Belfiore — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 15:53:00 +0000

The best show on television ends tonight. For those who already mourn its passing, this irreverent tribute.

Real DW fans will know that I SHOULD have said 'this irreverent fucking tribute'. But this is a family blog. Sometimes.

Categories: Deadwood

Reaching for the Cocoa Crispies

Perry Belfiore — Sun, 22 Jan 2006 18:25:00 +0000

How rabid can the Red Sox blogosphere really be, if we're the first to mention the Coco Crisp trade?

You'd think this would be the perfect Sunday breakfast post, but not a peep from Red Sox Nation yet on Coco Crisp.

They won't be silent long, though, since the move (along with the acquisition of Alex Gonzalez at short) fills the gaping hole they've had up the middle this winter. It will be interesting to see what is made of the popular Damon's replacement. If Crisp's name is any indication, he won't be any less colorful than Damon (but we don't know enough yet to say).

Okay, here come the verdicts on CC. Joy of Sox is OK with it. The commenters (so far there are two) do not seem as sanguine. Baseball Musings thinks the deal lacks snap (as well as crackle and pop), while Most Valuable loves the player, hates the trade (which did sacrifice a top prospect, although prospects often do not pan out).

Jeff (below, comments) is clinging to 2004. We can live off 2004 for a good while as well, since if you're going to break out of a lifetime of misery, that was the way to do it. But we still want competition in the AL East between... well, you know. Probably we still have it.

Now, if only winter was over and the season started tomorrow.

Other current posts on the trade.

Categories: Coco+Crisp, Boston+Red+Sox+trade

What, and who, is 'liberal'?

Perry Belfiore — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 06:20:00 +0000

Contemplating Dean Esmay's assertion that the left is not liberal, and a widely-linked post describing a means to avoid a governmental showerhead regulation.

We just encountered this Ludwig von Mises Institute post concerning government regulation of showerheads. It's emblematic of the sort of government-mandated conservation measures the left clamors for. (Take for example how Paul Newman demands government regulation of our gasoline consumption.) The author, Jeffrey Tucker, laments this regulation as a foolishly misguided effort.

Tucker's post is typical fare on sites branded 'right' or 'conservative', so we checked the 'about' page to get the von Mises story. We were told that "the Institute is the research and educational center of classical liberalism, libertarian political theory, and the Austrian School of economics." "Austrian economics" aside (unraveling that concept requires at least a whole 'nother post), what's compelling is that "liberals" (classical or otherwise) would embrace a viewpoint commonly described today as 'right wing' or 'conservative'.

We stopped by Wikipedia, to drill down into "classical liberalism". We were not surprised to see the entry flagged with a warning sign ("The factual accuracy of this article is disputed."). The uncomfortable dynamics of the problem may be expressed this way: If it's "liberal" to object to governmental regulation of markets and freedoms (as von Mises does in this showerhead article), how can "liberals" justify their support of such regulation?

The disputed Wiki entry notes that "classical" was "applied retroactively" to the word liberal "in the 20th Century" (it does not say when, or how) "to avoid confusion with an accepted modern definition of liberalism".

In other words, during some period in the 20th Century, a break with liberal philosophy and ideals occurred. To retain the self-description of 'liberal' in spite of this break, it appears that modern 'liberals' renamed their predecessors (rather than assuming a new name themselves).

What did "classical" liberals believe, and why this linguistic whitewash from their successors? Wikipedia says:

Classical Liberals subscribe to a very basic and universal understanding of the world and the rights of all humans. Classical Liberals believe in private property, free markets, economic competition, freedom from coercion, limited government (all economic freedom), the rule of law, and individual rights (Natural rights is also used). These are inherent to all people, of all faiths, cultures, societies, ethnicities, and histories and that all peoples are capable of achieving liberal government and liberal societies not just western cultures. (Classical) Liberals prefer a Laissez-faire style of government with a microeconomic focus and understanding of economic operations.
Classical Liberals do not believe in wealth transfers (though admire the goal of helping the needy), tariffs, or other trade barriers such as quotas, regulated markets (also known as a Mixed economy ), capital controls, wage and price controls. As a general rule these macroeconomic policies (favored by groups varying from Communists, Fascists, Nazis, socialists, social democrats, and liberal Keynesians) reduce the general welfare of society and according to Hayek and Friedman will ultimately reduce and eliminate the political and civil freedoms enjoyed by the people. Conversely, Hayek and Friedman believed that this economic freedom would help build and protect political and civil freedoms.
Milton Friedman's Free to Choose and Capitalism and Freedom are examples of this philosophy updated for modern man and woman to understand (classical) liberalism.

Limited government, open markets, opposition to price controls, individual freedoms - that's what the "right" professes. "Libertarians" and "conservatives" also lay claim to such beliefs.

What do today's ("nonclassical") liberals believe, then? Again, from Wiki:

Liberalism is an ideology, or current of political thought, which strives to maximize liberty. [1] Liberalism seeks a society characterized by freedom of thought for individuals, limitations on the power of government and religion, the rule of law, the free exchange of ideas, a free market economy that supports private enterprise, and a system of government that is transparent. This form of government favors liberal democracy with open and fair elections, where all citizens have equal rights by law, and an equal opportunity to succeed. Liberalism rejected many foundational assumptions which dominated most earlier theories of government, such as the divine right of kings, hereditary status, and established religion. Fundamental human rights that all liberals support include the right to life, liberty, and property.

What seems to have happened here is "classical" newspeak. "Liberals" stated desire is to achieve the same stated goals as "classical" liberals. Yet the means espoused by the "classicals" has been almost entirely abandoned. Whereas a "classical" liberal would be properly suspicious of increasing government intervention as a means to increase liberty (as Orwellian a concept as you'll find), today "liberals" demand governmental intervention whenever they feel it advances their beliefs (the showerhead example).

We expected, and found, contention over the 'ownership of liberal values', since Republicans are notorious for their stated desire to downsize government and 'liberalize' markets (not that this is always the result of their actions, of course). Wiki again:

In the United States the Republican Party has paid lip service to classical liberal philosophy since New Deal era. However, Republican president, Richard Nixon proved to be no friend of classical liberal philosophy by instituting price controls on goods during an economic crisis in the 1970s. The Democratic Carter administration oversaw the deregulation of the airline industry while also restricting the money supply (a harsh monetarist policy) to combat stagflation which plagued the United States.

Wiki is on solid ground here, as Nixon (and Ford) certainly did lose faith in free-market principles, while Carter showed more belief in them than one might expect from a Democrat. (Then again, Carter played against stereotype in many aspects.) After that, however, the author's point shows signs of strain. Reagan achieved only "small liberal gains" (certainly untrue upon examination of the entire liberal agenda as described by Wiki itself), while Clinton is credited with "balancing the budget" (no mention is made that Clinton raised taxes to achieve this).

Wiki concludes that "neither the Democrats nor the Republicans maintain political platforms that reflect classical liberalism" and that "within the United States, classical liberalism is rhetorically confused with conservatism." In support of this allegation of "confusion", Wiki quotes from the Cato Institute site:

"Only in America do people seem to refer to free-market capitalism--the most progressive, dynamic, and ever-changing system the world has ever known--as conservative. Additionally, many contemporary American conservatives favor state intervention in some areas, most notably in trade and into our private lives."

Here, however, is what the Wiki author omitted from Cato's definition:

"Classical liberal" is a bit closer to the mark, but the word "classical" connotes a backward-looking philosophy. Finally, "liberal" may well be the perfect word in most of the world--the liberals in societies from China to Iran to South Africa to Argentina are supporters of human rights and free markets--but its meaning has clearly been corrupted by contemporary American liberals. The Jeffersonian philosophy that animates Cato's work has increasingly come to be called "libertarianism" or "market liberalism." It combines an appreciation for entrepreneurship, the market process, and lower taxes with strict respect for civil liberties and skepticism about the benefits of both the welfare state and foreign military adventurism.

The Wiki piece ends this way: "According to most classical liberals, modern liberalism as it is practiced, is mostly rhetorical lip service to liberalism's highest ideals of freedom, rather than a function of its basic assumptions: the free market." We can't argue with that, but we also notice that despite an evident desire to do so, the author cannot hand the full mantle of "classical" liberalism to those who most strongly desire to claim "liberalism" as their own. (S)he therefore resigns his/herself to watering it down for everyone.

Those who, like this Wiki author, are quick to remind us that Republicans do not fully embody ~~liberal~~ 'classical' liberal ideals, should themselves be reminded that Republicans do not generally claim to be liberal. Democrats, however, do make this claim.

Why is the left so concerned about protecting their 'liberal' pseudonym, or at least keeping others from ownership of it? Perhaps it's because, stripped of terms such as 'liberal' or 'progressive', the left would simply be the left. As such, they would be seen as champions of famously failed ideologies (communism, socialism). Far better to be associated, at least rhetorically, with principles linked to prosperity and freedom.

Dean puts it most economically, and honestly: "The Left is not liberal." Like von Mises, Dean Esmay is a "classical liberal", but unlike von Mises he refuses to concede to the altered appellation. He proclaims his liberalism in spite of those now claiming the banner, rather than in solidarity with them. Dean's admirable stance flies in the teeth of both the false usurpers of the term, and their opponents who are now determined to discredit it.

Postscript: We found 53 sites (besides ourselves) linking to the von Mises' showerhead story. The vast majority expressed satisfaction in having found a way to work around the government's showerhead legislation. Someone please alert Mr. Newman.

More about liberal history, and 'The Trouble with Libertarianism'.

Categories: Left+does+not+equal+liberal

Google subway map for NYC-area & Newark

Perry Belfiore — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 05:04:00 +0000

This Google map tells you what subways to take.

Like most map programs, you select a beginning and end, and the map describes a route. In this case, it shows which subways to take (including all 4 boroughs covered by the MTA, all PATH destinations, and the Newark CIty Subway). It also offers a time estimate (predicated in part on what time of day you'll take the trip). The design is simple, the execution swift and detailed.

The map would be more handy if it worked on a cel phone or Palm Pilot, but it does not. This FAQ page explains why.

More about Google transit maps, from their official blog.

Categories: New+York+City+area+Google+subway+map

Proof that The Matrix changed everything

Perry Belfiore — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 15:39:00 +0000

Before we forget what a seminal film landmark the original Matrix was, check out this great video spoof. Try to imagine seeing that video having never seen The Matrix - there'd be no framework for it.

Categories: Matrix+spoof

The coming collapse of income tax

Perry Belfiore — Sat, 21 Jan 2006 10:44:00 +0000

Impact labs predicts the imminent (within ten years) dismantling of our income tax system. The reason is what interests us most. We don't believe in the viability of most proferred 'reforms' unless there is a macro-dynamic involved. Campaign finance 'reform', for example, fails because money is part of our culture and if it wants to find a way into the political process, of course it will.

In this case, we are offered a compelling theory holding that escalating levels of complexity (which they chart on a curve) are unsustainable:

It can be argued that every major civilization in history has fallen because of unsustainable levels of complexity. In major civilizations such as the Egyptian, Greek, or Roman empires, as well as in smaller civilizations like the Mayan Indians and Mesopotamia, each one reached a point where an ever increasing bureaucracy with an ever increasing number of rules simply overloaded the administrator’s ability to comply with them, and the systems collapsed.

Modern technology has given us the ability to manage systems that are far more complex. And following a similar curve to Moore’s Law, our ability to automate has kept up with our ability to complicate. However, the breaking point will not be the automated systems. Rather, the breaking point will be the human interface and the exacting toll that the income tax system has placed on people to comply.

In other words, tax prep software still does not alleviate the problem of tax code complexity.

The story considers what the trigger that tips the balance will be (it guesses that it will be one well-publicized case), and offers a history of other tax system collapses. Well-researched and insightful.

Categories: IRS+iincome+tax+system+collapse

Iraq to US: Please don't go

Perry Belfiore — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 19:38:00 +0000

Does Iraq want the American military to leave? The answer is yes - if you ask the terrorists.

If you ask anyone else in the country, however, the answer is no, according to this Oxford Research poll.

Related: I want to be a rebel, like everyone else

{UPDATE: Iraq's election saw another huge turnout, with Sadaam's hometown - are you listening, Jack? - seeing an amazing 80%. The liberal blogs, as usual with news unsupportive of their dogma, are saying nothing about this historic event until they can find an angle supporting their POV.}

{UPDATE 2: As they did with the French riots, the liberal blogs have, after a pause to find an angle, begun tentative commenting. It's as embittered and tangential as we expected - the elections are illegitimate, they'll vote for the 'wrong' people, Bush is taking too much credit, no one cares about the poor, etc. On the eve of the election, the New York Times and AP had offered rationales for poor turnouts - but cautiously did not 'predict' them. Instead, they quoted others. In this way, if the elections were indeed poorly attended, the news outlets could claim to have so advised readers in advance. If the elections were well-attended, they could claim that they were merely reporting the views of others. The Politboro notices the same thing.}

{UPDATE 3: While 'activists' at home try to fudge the poll numbers (see comments, below), even the Washington Post admits that the vast majority of those truly active in the war - those fighting it - believe we will succeed if only they are allowed to continue their work.}

{UPDATE 4: One Iraqi woman's opinion (video).}

{UPDATE 5: Mudville on the meaning of today's vote.}

Categories: Iraq+war

The Ad is dead. Long live advertising.

Perry Belfiore — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 02:01:00 +0000

Julie Bosman says that everyone says that advertising is obsolete.

• Is advertising dead?

The Times' advertising column repeats the meme we keep hearing: Ads no longer work.

What we think is that advertising is extremely saturated. There was a time when, if an advertiser really wanted to get a message out, they could 'roadblock' all three networks (the only three national networks) and capture a national audience that did not yet have VCRs, DVDs, video games, the Internet, and hundreds of cable channels.

Times change. These days advertisers can no longer dominate the ad channels and control perception. That does not mean advertising does not work. If that were true, everyone would stop advertising. But they don't, and the ad channels remain full.

What it does mean is that most would-be ad clients should think twice before they enter the arena.

• Understanding Budweiser's situation.

If you're Budweiser, it's advertise or perish. You competition will do it, and take your market share, if you don't. It's that simple. All Miller needs is for Budweiser to slash its annual ad budget in half to steal a big chunk of their business. Everyone knows the game, so everyone antes up.

• If you're still reading this, you're probably not Budweiser.

Most advertising clients aren't in Bud's 'publish or perish' situation, but they generally don't understand the dynamics behind ad spending. Many clients struggling for recognition decide a splashy ad campaign will lead to a breakthrough, and decide that success in advertising is a roll of the dice. Such thinking nearly always results in wasted ad money.

• A tale of tragedy and enduring bitterness.

A retailer's wife loves Tiffany's ads, and tells her husband his company needs an ad conveying that same elegance and sophistication. So he hires some ad guys, and advertises in some upscale publications for six months.

And nothing comes of it. Oh, there's more business for a while. It even manages to exceed the added expense of the ads. But it dies right off at the end of the campaign. The retailer's neighbors look for the ad, but can't find it. Weekends are spent trying to divine what effect the relative placement of the ads are having, and whether the shade of red used is costing them customers. The text is second-guessed. A copywriter is called on the carpet.

The retailer grows queasy. The agency responds, 'You have to keep at it.' So they go another round. This time, the response doesn't even cover the cost of the ads. There's no new traffic in the stores. There's not much by way of buzz.

The retailer concludes that ads are indeed obsolete, and that his experience is proof of it. Further, he now sees the ad guys as carpetbaggers who never cared about his business and only wanted to bleed him dry.

• The retailer's sad mistake.

The retailer is wrong about ads being obsolete. After all, his wife notices Tiffany's ads, and the company keeps advertising even though one might think they no longer need to bother. Who doesn't know Tiffany?

What Tiffany does is maintenance advertising. They know they have an image, just like they know they have stores. If they don't maintain the stores' appearance, they'll become increasingly shabby and no one will pay their prices. Same with their image. The retailer didn't understand that the difference between his store and Tiffany was that his store had no image to maintain. Since his strategy was based on a false premise, it was destined to fail.

He's mostly wrong about the ad guys, too. Sure, they wanted his money. But they also wanted him to succeed. If he made more money, he'd be happy and buy more ads. No ad agency wants to endure constant client churn, or create an army of unhappy ex-clients who'll spend their time badmouthing them. The problem is that the ad guys didn't really explain the situation to the retailer. Maybe they tried, and he didn't listen, so they just gave him what he asked for and hoped for the best.

• The ad guys' folly.

It is true that most of the ad guys we've ever encountered don't really understand their own business. They're in love with their voices. They're terribly clever and sophisticated, and since no one has bought their screenplay (yet), they'll leave their mark in the ad world. They'll win awards to prove their cleverness. (Never understimate the impact of the ego factor.)

A smart ad guy would have talked the retailer out of buying Tiffany-style ads. A wise ad guy would have factored the wife into the equation and spoken to her as well. An ad guy with integrity would have refused the business rather than go down a road he knew would lead to a dead end. George Lois would have threatened to jump out the window if the retailer didn't do it his way.

Unfortunately, most ad guys are not nearly as smart as they think they are, are not terribly wise, and are not George Lois, either.

• How not to choose an ad agency.

If you are looking for an ad agency, you should not be looking for one that wants to impress you with their awards. This is a real time-saver, since it quickly eliminates most agencies. As soon as a client comes in the door they are obliged to run a gauntlet of awards and ads. This is proof that their peers acknowledge their prowess.

Actually, all agencies have walls lined with awards. The subliminal message of awards is that any given agency is, over time, about as competent as any other agency. This is because agency hiring is a constant game of musical chairs in which every ad guy has worked at every shop.

At day's end, award-minded agencies are competing with other agencies in a never-ending battle for supremacy. Clients are the equivalent of cannon fodder.

You should also avoid the recent trend of agencies where tech is their strong suit and marketing expertise is tacked on. Techie marketing techniques are impressive and useful, and these agencies can produce some astonishing figures. They'll show you traffic counts, page views, stickiness, impressions, and clickthroughs in the form of impresssive-looking charts. But between those numbers and the bottom-line numbers you're concerned about lies a vast, mysterious chasm into which you'll pour money. These agencies can wire the tech stuff all right, but that doesn't mean you'll benefit from it.

As it happens, in that same section of the same Times, there's a piece on how Amazon's amazing recommendation technology often falls flat. Two lessons here: (1) The difference between having a technology and making it perform to its full potential is the difference between a generic MP3 player and an iPod, and (2) Technology is not a panacea that cures all marketing ills. Tech is a tool, just like Photoshop is a tool. Both need to be wielded in skilled hands, or the result isn't pretty.

• What's your situation?

Recent years have seen an historically-high creation rate of all types of small businesses. A number of factors have made this possible. These include powerful, affordable tools (computers and cel phones and so on), greater availability of startup capital, and new, emerging tecnologies (the web has enabled all kinds of new businesses, as has nanotechnology, health care, etc.). This is where advertising is currently ineffective: The arena filled with a record-number of smaller companies fighting to be heard above the din, using an almost unlimited pipeline to deliver ads. For well-known brand names, advertising does its job adequately.

Odds are, your company is a small-to-midsized business looking to develop its image. In that case, here is our advice on hiring an ad agency:

• Don't hire an ad agency.

You're not a client for advertising, because:

You are not Budweiser beating back competitors with a pyrotechnic, saber-rattling display of advertising might.

You are not Tiffany, making sure the world remembers 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'.

You do not live in an era in which relatively few companies are striving for recognition. This is not a time in which there are few distractions for advertising messages. Unless your name is Google (in which case your business takes off without advertising anyway), a quick fix is not an option.

You are not competing with a company three times your size. You are competing with companies your size, who also don't grasp advertising. Or marketing. You are trying to grow to three times your size. When that happens, then you'll compete with those bigger guys.

What you actually need is marketing expertise.

• Here's what you are looking for:

Look for an agency that tells you they will increase your sales 10%, that it will take a year, that is will involve no advertising, and that the cost will be far less than your increased sales will net you. Don't look for a quick fix (there isn't one). Look for slow, home cooking. Seek an agency that calls itself a 'marketing' or 'communications' firm rather than an ad agency. Ad agencies, basically, make ads. Marketing firms, basically, market. (Some ad agencies have in-house marketing arms. That's legitimate - if your business grows, you'll eventually need ads. Hence the affiliation.)

You want someone who will accurately assess your overall situation, not someone who will use your business to generate another award for their collection. They will start with the unglamorous (but inexpensive) basics: Press relations, web site, and identification of your image inconsistencies and problems. This means getting to know your business from the ground up, and building results that are modest, but lasting - not fleeting. Lasting results can themselves be built upon.

From that base, lines of communication are laid. Cost-effective means of driving traffic to your web site (potential clients, that is, not teens on their way between gaming or porn sites) are introduced. When you're ready for ads, you opt for highly-targeted direct mail tests, and grow from there.

It takes years to build an image from a standing start, and that's what marketing is about. Marketing builds your image into a size and shape that eventually requires advertising. When you reach that stage, you'll know it. You won't have that queasy feeling the retailer experienced. When the happy day you need advertising finally arrives, your ad dollars will be money well spent, not a spending spree.

Categories: Is+advertising+obsolete?, How+to+hire+an+advertising+agency

It's what Mikey likes

Perry Belfiore — Sat, 28 Jan 2006 03:22:00 +0000

Local DJ and music guru Mike C. offers his Best Albums of 2005.

Next Wednesday, Feb, 1st, Mike is at Manitoba's.

Categories: Mike+C.'s+music+picks

How to Build a High-Traffic Web Site (or Blog)

Perry Belfiore — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 07:26:00 +0000

Self-help Svengali Steve Pavlina (who does in fact have a high-traffic web site) tells us how he does it.

1. Create valuable content.

2. Create original content.

3. Create timeless content.

4. Write for human beings first, computers second.

5. Know why you want a high-traffic site.

6. Let your audience see the real you.

7. Write what is true for you, and learn to live with the consequences.

8. Treat your visitors like real human beings.

9. Keep money in its proper place.

10. If you forget the first nine suggestions, just focus on genuinely helping people, and the rest will take care of itself.

We certainly appreciate his sentiment, although we have to wonder whether this is really all there is to the 700,000 or so hits he gets per month. There's no denying that he has an amazing following.

Here's a bit more on how he's faring.

Categories: Steve+Pavlina

How we're promoting the 'Best Posts of the Year' project

Perry Belfiore — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 00:55:00 +0000

The Best Posts of the Year compilation will be posted late today. If you find it worthwhile, you can help it happen again next year - while helping yourself. Meanwhile, there's news in this progress report.

• Our pitch to literary agents gains some traction.

We held back posting this year's Best Posts compilation because we decided to first pitch the concept to literary agents. We got a few thoughtful responses, and one potential green light from a well-established agency. We'll see how that plays out.

Let's emphasize that this is not the same as saying that the compilation is about to be publiished. Even if we come to terms with the agent, it does not guarantee the project a publisher. Nor does it mean that all the bloggers involved have yet agreed to participate. It simply means there is interest and that we are moving forward. We want to report our progress to all of you who have shown interest and supported this project so far.

A published book obviously is of benefit to the ongoing project. But published or not, we need your support to enable this project's success and continuation into next year. At this writing, we can only report that we are working toward a publication deal for the first installment. But there's no point holding off any longer, waiting to find out.

• We encountered many rejections.

The most commonly offered reason for passing on the project was: "Publishers (and readers) won't pay for content already available for free on the web". We strongly disagree. If this were true, then current blogpost-compilation books by Post Secret, Seth Godin and Overheard in New York (among others) were big miscalculations on the part of their publishers. We believe that that these publishers are showing foresight by tapping into a new source of literary creativity, at the front of the acceptance curve.

• The three main fallacies of the 'people won't pay' rationale:

1) The core assumption is that the book-reading audience and the blog-reading audience are one and the same. Not true! Some blog readers rarely read books, while many book readers rarely read blogs.

2) The primary value of this compilation is the research involved. Few people would ever find all these posts on their own. And if they did, most people would prefer to read this amount of material in books form rather than on a computer screen.

3) The unparallelled success and staying power of Readers' Digest demonstrates that there is a substantial audience for a 'guided tour' through the literary jungle. This goes double for the blogosphere, which is far bigger and wilder than the commercial printed media ever managed. Readers don't have time to assess the best of millions of choices on their own. They want help from someone who knows the lay of the land.

• What the agents really meant when they passed:

"I've never handled anything like this, and I don't know what to make of it." (Which is understandable. Books like this are unfamiliar territory.)

• What agents and publishers will say when someone picks up and runs with the idea:

"I'd be interested in something like it, but they have that market all sown up."

• What agents and publishers will say if it becomes as successful as the 'For Dummies' franchise:

"You know anyone who can crank out a knockoff?" (Although we do not expect success on the scale of the 'Dummies' franchise!)

• What agents and publishers don't yet grasp about the "Best Posts" compilation:

Because the bloggers involved care about it, they will help promote the idea to their readers. Very few books can reach the grassroots reader the way this compilation can. We cannot recall a previous publication in which every contributor had both the interest and ability to contribute to the marketing effort so vital to a publication's success.

• Why an accompanying annual printed publication is needed:

Publishing this book creates a focus for resources and interest that is vital to this project's long-term goals. The book also enables an outreach beyond the blogosphere, into a braoder readership. Blog posts, at their best, are "outsider literature" which deserves a place alongside traditional "commercial" literature.

Finding these posts required a substantial effort. This collection cannot be found by a simple Google search. Most of these posts would not be found on the blogs winning the various "Best Weblog" competitions, which are (mostly) in reality traffic-driving contests. In order to contnue finding such posts, and to find more and better ones in the future, this effort must be sustained.

• How you can help this project, and yourself:

When the "Best of" post goes up, it will include options through which bloggers can "sponsor" the effort, driving traffic to a central information location. In return, "sponsors" receive a share of the traffic that this project will generate going forward. We will take out periodic blogads for this project, and should the publication effort bear fruit it will generate publicity for the project. This likewise will build project-specific site traffic which will trickle down to sponsors.

This will be explained in detail once the post is up. Meanwhile, if you have no yet done so, you might consider placing one of the banners/buttons below in a post or sidebar. For those who have this banner in their sidebar already, the URL of the completed post has not changed. You're all set.

Thank you all for your interest and support. We are moving ahead. Copy and paste any of the codes below into a post or sidebar to help us announce this project.

Code for 300 x 61, animated/large:

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Code for 240 x 49, animated/medium:

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Code for 150 x 31, animated/small:

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Code for 300 x 61, static/large:

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Code for 240 x 49, static/medium:

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Code for 150 x 31, static/small:

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Code for 80 x 14, static/nano:

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Categories: Best+Posts+of+the+year+2005

Update on NYC Transit strike

Perry Belfiore — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 07:30:00 +0000

There may be a rapid change of direction in the MTA strike.

It appears that the sources we consulted in our original post were on to something: Roger Toussaint, the Local 100 Union head, seems to have called this strike in a bid for power, caving to a militant union faction. Looks like it's about to backfire in a big way, with upper level union management about to override him.

What a disaster this strike has been for all concerned. It may be the worst miscalculation from a labor leader since the baseball umpires' strike of 1999.

Stop the presses - James Wolcott sides with the rogue union leaders, attacks "padded cell, right-wing bloggers". Calls them 'predictable'. Why, James! How unpredictable of you!

UPDATE: Workers are beginning to cross picket lines. We think: Even money this is resolved tomorrow, with service resuming Friday. Here's Fausta's assessment, with all the quality links you'll need.

THURSDAY'S UPDATE.

Categories: MTA+transit+strike, NYC+subway+strike

The rogue Zombie strike of 2005

Perry Belfiore — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 07:36:00 +0000

{UPDATE: The strike is now over. Go here and scroll to bottom for links.} The workers are walking off the lines. The union bosses don't want it. The public doesn't support it. The judge wants to jail them. And the MTA has already met them more than halfway. Yet the picketing dead trudge on for another day.

Stop the presses - James Wolcott sides with the rogue union leaders, attacks "padded cell, right-wing bloggers". Calls them 'predictable'. Why, James! How unpredictable of you!

I Love New York: Images of communters taking 'alternative methods' to get around.

Michael Bates makes an important distinction about this strike:

One of [Alarming News'] readers defended the union's strike as an exercise of freedom of association and good ol' capitalism, using the leverage they have to get more money. Here's my reply:If this were a situation where free markets and freedom of association were at work, the city would be able to fire every worker who didn't show up today and replace them with someone willing to work. Instead, the union can put city government over a barrel because they have a federally-enforced monopoly over the labor supply for the transit system. That, in turn, puts the citizens of New York over a barrel because of laws that keep the private sector out and give city government a monopoly over mass transit.

The Daily News: Just throw Roger from the train.

CNN: Transport Workers Union International President Michael O'Brien issued a statement on the union's Web site urging all members of Local 100 to stop the strike, as ordered by the New York Supreme Court.

Jane Galt: Clueless union batters the poor, thumbs nose at public.

Jane Galt: Union getting whacked from all siides.

Flickr: Transit strike images.

Like any Zombie, they don't realize they're dead. (Well, now they do.)

Categories: MTA+transit+strike, NYC+subway+strike

Blogger ad networks, and development money

Perry Belfiore — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 08:11:00 +0000

The stated reason for creating Pajamas Media was to form an identifiable blog network with the intent of enabling buyers to consistently purchase a certain readership demographic. We've been thinking about network models and how modest amounts of development money could create vibrant new networks.

The 'Personality-centric' network model

Pajamas Media attempts to provide a central personality, a hub from which the blog spokes emanate. Visa serves a similar function for its banking members, CBS for its network affiliates. Disney lends its child-friendly reputation to other entities (which some, such as Pixar, have outgrown) in order to help sell their wares to families. The Pajamas' cart-before-the-horse problem is twofold:

(1) Pajamas didn't have a recognizable personality they could trade off to begin with. (At their inception, they barely could decide on a name let alone rely on any built-in recognition or brand equity). This embarassing lack of a central identity came in stark contrast to the entity they were most often compared to, The Huffington Post. All their 'personality equity' resided in the participating blogs, and they were huddled behind the PJ banner where they were of no value to the network. (They'd have been far better off calling themselves the Instapundit Network or some such thing, with the reputable Glenn Reynolds overseeing, but not writing, the accepted entries.)

(2) There is no hard evidence that one needs to establish a front-door portal or central ID for a blogging network. For example, the Gawker Network's identity consists of an attitude (and graphics) shared between several blogs. It's probably enough for each blog in a network to carry a few graphic symbols identifying itself as a participant, and that all the blogs be of like minds. (Kids' sites and porn sites, for an extreme example, are probably not a good network mix.)

The 'Locality' network model

WIth this in mind, we look at The Deck, an ad network created to serve a small series (four) of web-design-professional themed blogs. These folks have a well-developed sense of who their audience is, what their ads are worth, how many to display at once, etc..

The Deck seems intent on delivering value to all concerned by not allowing ad clutter. These blogs are well-designed (they are all in the web-development area, after all) - and even their advertisers have well-realized sites. We personally see very few blogs that are as straightforward and easy-to-read as we would like. The blog members of The Deck group are as clean and readable as seems possible on the web today.

We've also noticed that Blogads has created sub-networks of like-minded blogs. Here's a "Government relations" network, and a "Foodblog" network. It's a much less cohesive deal than The Deck offers, however. Clients can choose to advertise "a la carte", buying only parts of the network. This practice undermines the strength of the network pitting one blog against another.

Blogads is more of an ad delivery system than an actual newtork providing added-value branding, marketing and visibility for its participants. It allows a quick, painless way for advertisers to buy space, but does not go much further than that. Compare with TV newtorks' sales model. National ads are sold nationally, and local stations are given some of their own air time to fill as they see fit. CBS won't allow advertisers to choose what cities they wish to advertise in, because that leads to loss of control of the network. It degrades their system. Anyway, the Blogads way is to give advertisers control.

These networks of like-minded blogs are what we call 'locality' networks. The locality is the central focus of each blog, whether it's web design, politics, food, or a physical locality (Minnesota blogs, etc.). The web-design blogs have a particularly tightly-knit locality (they speak very much the same language, care about the same issues, etc.) that bodes well for their success.

We believe that the 'locality network' of independent but like-minded blogs is a far superior model to the 'celebrity-centric' model, whether its run Pajamas-style or Huffington-style.

The 'Weblogs, Inc.' network model

The Weblogs, Inc. network style is a 'network' in a limited sense only. The blogs in the group operate under an umbrella operating structure and share some resources, but they do not share central themes as the Deck network or the more ad-hoc Blogads networks do. Basically, markets were identified and blogs were created to service them. The Weblogs titles have leaders and 'teams' providing content.

Weblogs is a network in that it does share links in order to leverage the search-engine impact of its member blogs, driving them up search engine result lists. The TTLB ecosystem, which tracks such things, mentions them specifically in terms of skewing results in their favor, at the expense of the search engine user.

The weakness of the Weblogs system is that they lack the entrepreneurial spark, drive and risk-taking spirit of independently-operated and run blogs. Their strength is infrastructure. They do not lack for resources, as independent blogs often do. They can provide technical services that most bloggers cannot afford or learn. Put simply, both their strength and weakness is their central control.

What this means in creating blog networks

We speculated on ways in which writers might in future be compensated in this recent post. Blog networks are another way, and they seem more entrepreneurially-satisfying than signing up with Gather or similar services. Advertisers wanting to reach an audience will not want to buy into individual blogs (unless perhaps they're well-established megablogs such as Instapundit). They'll want to buy into a network, such as Gawker, that delivers a consistent, measurable audience across a series of well-chosen, well-run blogs.

Network structure is key. Of these three types, The Deck seems to be the most mature in spite of the fact that Blogads is the longest-established. Pajamas Media, dependant on a weak 'personality', seems like the least viable model. It is their millions in startup money and their affilaition with high-trafficked bloggers who can throw readers their way that is keeping them afloat, not their business plan. With a stronger identity (an established personality such as Huffington), a presonality-centric network stands a better chance, but it still is not our business model of choice. (We note that Huffington, reportedly, is still not in the black. This suggests that while a celebrity name goes a long way, there are limits.)

The best-regarded blog network is Gawker, and its strength is in a series of well-regarded and tightly-integrated blogs speaking to certain market niches. Gawker attempts to launch new vehicles into new niches periodically, and if they fail they are abandoned. The blog is key here, not an invented front-page personality or a celebrity name.

The independent, well-established blogs which constitute The Deck ad network should do well. So should other network alliances following this model. Independent blogs, allied and well-supplied, should outperform other blog network models.

An opportunity for an Internet investor such as Google

In Blogger, Google has essentially the biggest blogging 'farm team' on the planet. They also have an established ad-delivery system, technical expertise, traffic-driving presence, interest in news (in the forms of written word, video and audio), and investment capital. It is well-positioned to create a 'second tier' Blogger system in which promising but established (year or two) bloggers who fit certain niches are given the technical platform and resources to compete at a higher level. Local news blogs, for example, could be set up. Google would provide streams of local audio, radio and images which networked local bloggers would add to and draw from, adding them to their own content in their independent but ad-networked blogs. These blogs would be set-up and designed with the superior features found in WordPress, and feature prominent links to each other.

There are probably many opportunities nationwide for such blogs, but we look at the Hudson County area as an example because we live here and know it. All the elements exist to create a local blog network covering the area. The local papers are fading and offer a poor web presence. City Council meetings would draw traffic if videotaped and brought online, but they are not. There is no live election night coverage, and a shrinking amount of local reporting (the Jersey Journal's editorial section is written by Connie Schultz from the Celeveland Plain Dealer).

Meanwhile, a number of eager, promising blogs exist.

A major investor such as Google, Yahoo or MSN could outperform an ad network such as Blogads by providing added value (the recognition, traffic, marketing and general PR support which is completely absent from Blogads). The investor would provide the technical means to build blogs with the superior 'look and feel' and functionality that higher-end websites have. (This is important in order for advertisers to pull the trigger on ads - a crucial factor in the Deck model is the superior look of the participating sites, which is possible for them because they are, after all, in the web development business.)

Unlike Weblogs, Inc., there would be little or no central control. However, network participants falling under certain performance standards or violating certain terms could forfeit their network status (like losing one's McDonalds' franchise for consistently dirty floors). Ad revenue would be split among the network participants and the investor, with bonuses for bringing drawing higher traffic and so on.

This ad network model would work in many niches (food, sports, etc.) but it is especially potent in local news. Local news networks cannot be duplicated outside of one's locality, suggesting that first-movers with good products would establish themselves in a way that would be difficult to dislodge - rather like the newspapers that came before them.

More: If you still haven't seen the EPIC video that portrays a near-future in which Google empowers a wide network of "news guides", please do so!

Categories: Blogger+ad+networks, Google

A flood of startup money may enable a flood of pro bloggers

Perry Belfiore — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 05:51:00 +0000

We've seen a lot of problematic schemes to enable bloggers to make a living at their avocation. This one, though, looks like it might work.

UPDATE: After this was written, we considered investments in blogger ad networks as an economical means to empower commercial blogging.

Jump to topic: A stampede of capital is headling to content sites • New capital's role in accelerating the demise of print • No paucity of interest in content, or in local news • New opportunities • Examining two counter-arguments

• A stampede of capital is headling to content sites

Om Malik has written a sharp piece on Gather, a startup that pays content creators according to the amount of traffic they generate. A number of others are using a similar model: Squidoo, Backfence, PersonalBee, etc.

Malik doesn't think the business model has legs, but we think it (or something like it) will fly, pretty much the same way Blogcritics does. In fact, Blogcritics should be concerned, because they reimburse their reviewers with only attention and swag. Gather and its ilk will pay actual cash. (Whether they are starting out doing that is unclear - Bloggers' Blog says Gather is paying in "Gather points" and does not seem to know how they are redeemed. But competition in this space will eventually force more straightforward payments. Here's more on Gather from the Boston Globe. We think the comparisons Gather's CEO likes to make with eBay are ill-conceived, btw.)

It's unlikely that all these startups will succeed, but one or two will break out. Malik tries to make his case by citing the low pay of beat reporters as evidence that labor cost is not the main problem newspapers today are experiencing. Whether this is true or not (yes, reporters are poorly paid), reporters' pay is irrelevant to the viability of this business model. What's important is that startup money is being invested specifically in the means to enable writers (currently in the forms of Gather et al) to earn an independent living. Sooner not later, the investment trend will embrace localbloggers (the online beat reporter) as well.

As we've noted in previous posts, EPIC provides a model scenario for the enabling of local blogging. The current trend toward empowering online writers is just another EPIC prophesy coming to fruition. [top]

• New capital's role in accelerating the demise of print

Those who cover local news for local papers will jump at the wider exposure the web affords their stories. Mister Snitch gets searches from all over the world for Hoboken news and opinion. While it's true that local papers such as The Jersey Journal and Hoboken Reporter reflect the papers' content, users prefer to get local information from bloggers if they can. The reasons for this include firewalling (the Journal puts its stories behind a paid firewall after a short time), opennness and responsiveness (bloggers are often if not always more approachable and frank than local media representatives), and site dynamics (NJ.com and the Reporter's site are appallingly slow and buggy. Searches do not always work.).

Beat reporters who see newspapers' own obits in the cards will begin jumping to burgeoning web sites as an alternative means to make a living. This loss of talent (it's not easy to find a beat reporter in an upbeat economy) will accelerate the death of local papers, and in turn accelerate reader migration to the web.

Of course, the real reason papers are hurting is because of loss of ad revenue. Just about everyone knows that Craigslist has decimated newspapers' classifieds business, Monster has scooped up jobs' listings, and other sites (including eBay) are picking through the leavings.

Megasites such as Yahoo and Google are showing an increasing interest in news, and in particular local news (it's sort of the final news frontier). Craigslist founder Craig Newmark has openly expressed an interest in funding local online news sources. Amazon's A9 has 'gone local' in its unique way, and will almost certainly build on their hyperlocal database (if they haven't already) by selling local ads linked to their street-level images. It's not hard to imagine local news following A9 (or even Google maps) as an additional incentive to community-building.

As newspapers' stock values fall, many are being placed on the auction block. Few newspapers will be able to find new sources of capital that will enable them to develop online presences, and fewer still are likely to succeed. Meanwhile, the new gold rush of internet capital is heading to content aggregation schemes. Megasites (Yahoo, Google, AOL, MSN) long flush with capital, are looking hard at building local news identities, and are keenly aware of the competition. Local online news will happen sooner rather than later. [top]

• No paucity of interest exists in content, or in local news

Citizen blogging, aka participatory journalism, was a big meme in the last couple of years, but it never really took off. Some are claiming that this, plus the demise of local papers, indicates the public has no interest in local news. We feel strongly that citizen blogging does not work well because it's a great deal of work for no pay. Would-be local bloggers just can't afford to keep it going, and frankly, not everyone can compose a decent story.

The continued growth in blog readership, and online use in general, indicates an increasing acceptance of the medium. It bodes well for the future of online local news - people will take their content online. In fact, many prefer it.

Newspapers are dying, but that also is not necessarily due to a loss of interest in local news. The trends are clear - as surely as the film-based camera is all but dead under assault from its digital brethren, local newspapers will fail. The local Jersey Journal nearly died a few years ago, and was saved only by union concessions and a new (tabloid) format. Their circulation continues to slip. They are dying, and a rich market for local news is going unserved. This is a vacuum that will inevitably be filled, and as blog readership and general online use continues to rise it's apparent how it will be filled.

Beyond the startups, some farsighted radio networks looking to differentiate themselves from satellite radio may decide to get into the online news business themselves, seeking out and competing for local writers. "Local" is what radio has always done best. [UPDATE: Shortly after this was written, Google bought dMarc advertising, a radio ad firm.] They would do well not to build from scratch, but to invest in and build-out truly local, existing news sources. Baristanet comes to mind in that regard. In Jersey City, there are quite a number of small local sites such as DojoMojo that are ripe to be strung together into an online news source. (We don't even have a fraction of the existing J.C. sites in our blogroll yet.) Batesline and Dustbury are outstanding Oklahoma-centric writers with an established regional/national readership who could anchor a local online news entity.

Newspapers are consoling themselves that their online presence will pick up even as their paper-based mindshare dwindles. Dream on. There are a few bright spots among the bigger papers (The New York Times, for all the criticism heaped on its TimesSelect effort, is actually outstanding), but most of the smaller (local) papers' online news presences are dismal. As was succinctly noted in the Craigslist article we mentioned, Craig will "get" journalism long before local papers ever "get" online news.

The Times has never covered the outlying communities well - it's too top-heavy. Craig could cross the country to Hoboken faster than the Times can cross the Hudson. [top]

• New opportunities

How will these local reporters get paid? Seems to us, they'd be paid by the number of readers they attract. This is hardly a novel concept (syndicated writers such as Dear Abby have always outearned lesser-known local scribes), so we can't see where Gather et al are off-base here.

As online local news matures, local writers with an eye toward national and world news will also be in demand. We envision writers such as Fausta not only making a living (doing what she's now doing without compensation), but weighing competing offers for her services. [top]

• Examining two counter-arguments

Jason Calacanis, who sold his Weblogs company for 25 (or so) million dollars last year (to AOL), mocks a Boston Globe writer for quoting Gather's founder Tom Gerace: "Eventually, popular writers will be able to earn a living by posting their work and attracting eyeballs to advertisements.". Calacanis notes that sites like Gawker has paid its writers for years. Weblogs' writers are likewise compensated. Om Malik invokes Jason and reiterates the point.

But Gerace is trying to say something that Malik and Calacanis (both of whom seem to have an anti-Gerace agenda) are missing. Gawker and Wonkette are brand names. A writer leaving Wonkette (as just happened) gets replaced with another writer, and life goes on. Same with BoingBoing - it's founders could leave, and others could fill the pipeline to the brand's audience.

Jason's model - and the model we've seen followed elsewhere, so far - is building a brand out of a niche. A travel blog, a cooking blog, a crafts blog, etc., are created. An audience is gathered to read about these subjects, and (hopefully) it keeps returning for more. The blogs link to each other, reinforcing the brand's channels (after all, some craftspeople also cook and travel).

The problem with both models, for the writers, is that the writer remains somewhat anonymous. That can change - BoingBoing et al are major platforms, and a blogger can make a name for his/herself after some time has passed. (It's less likely that a writer of knitting issues would establish a name that can stand independent of the blog, although we'd never say never.) The writers are obliged to fit the mold dictated by the brand.

Gerace is attempting to build an actual platform for writers - an alternative marketplace. (As opposed to creating a job building someone else's brand.) It's a model that's much more challenging to the writer than filling a channel. They'll have to find an original, compelling voice. (That lack of freedom many writers grouse about when working on a single-issue blog can also be a comfortable, cozy niche. Stripped of that niche and offered the freedom to express themselves, many writers falter. It's the real reason most copywriters never get their movie scripts produced.)

The problem with using blogs to build a writer's rep is the amount of work required in finding an audience. Creating strong, original pieces, not just commentary on others' content, is substantial labor. Add to that the labor (and happenstance) involved in marketing that work (in the many ways the web enables). Then add in the non-compensation factor, and the 'noise' factor.

We suspect that many bloggers signed on to the rather moribund Pajamas Media site in hopes of achieving the kind of high, consistent traffic numbers (with less of a self-marketing burden) that Huffington seems to enjoy. Alas, all brands are not created equal. James Lileks, on the other hand, built his own brand over a number of years. A shortcut to that sort of self-branding is the siren call of author-enabling site schemes.

The blogosphere tends to favor its noisier inhabitants - outstanding writing is not often heard above the din. We recently noted that the 25 most-trafficked blogs of 2005 actually produced only 4 of the most-trafficked posts. Big traffic numbers do not necessarily equate to compelling writing - blogs acquire their traffic through many different factors.

The model employed by Gerace (and others) attempts to solve writers' marketing problems by acting as a destination for readers looking for the best, most compelling writing. Theoretically this creates a level playing field on which writers compete for attention by way of merit, not affiliation with a higher-trafficked blogger. (Not that we object to such relationships, or their attendant traffic, per se. It's part of blogging. It just isn't, or shouldn't be, a major determining factor in what gets written, or what writing gets read.)

Back to Jason's model now: Not all the niche-interest markets have yet been filled. The biggest niche market of all is the blog that speaks to local interests. This is the blog that eclipses the fading local newspaper. It's the last big niche to be filled, because it's the most difficult to fill. Any competent writer can learn enough about knitting to fill a knitting blog's channel. That writer need not even be a competent blogger (i.e., self-promoter) because the brand-blog owner handles that. A blog/online newspaper about Spokane requires a Spokane resident who has blogging and writing (again, not the same thing) skills. The blog then has to be marketed to the people of Spokane. This means you can't just get your x number of required readers from anywhere on Earth, which is what the web does best. It's a handicap that hinders most local blogging, unless you live in a place like New York (Gawker basically covers NYC, but even they focus on issues that can be sold to the rest of the world).

Because of these challenges, the local niche market is still largely fluid, undefined and unfilled. Noted localblogger Bill Hobbs recently took his leave of blogging local issues due to the strain of performing this grueling work over a long period without adequate compensation. The much-touted Bayosphere is also encountering shallow waters. What's about to happen is that the mentality of 'net investors is about to change. Money that can invest in long-term returns (Google, Yahoo, Amazon, Craigslist, etc.) is beginning to take the local market seriously. As local papers diminish, the opportunity increases. Whoever establishes the best local-interest model at the earliest time will dominate the field. Right now the best local bloggers, like Hobbs, are hungry and somewhat discouraged. Fine breaking-story reporters like Dan Riehl are frustrated by the lack of viable opportunities for truly independent reporters to market their work. This could be about to change. [top]

UPDATE: Steve Rubel doesn't believe Gather will fly. Good comments on his site.

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Previously on this subject: Think globally, blog locally, So you want to be a newspaper publisher

Linked to: The Conservative Cat, Jo's Café, Bloggin' Outloud, The Land of Ozz, Committees of Correspondence, Pirates! Man your Women!, and Don Surber.

Categories: Paid+online+content, Professional+blogging

Where we've been

Perry Belfiore — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 16:14:00 +0000

Briefly (well, fairly briefly) – where we've been lately.

Obviously, we've been too pressed to post. We apologize to the Hoboken Republicans, who had their First Annual Lincoln's Day dinner yesterday (Sunday). We wanted to mention it here, and completely lost track. Any Republicans hailing from Hoboken, of all places, are an endangered and oppressed species, and deserve whatever support they can get.

Also, a new Hoboken blog asked for a shout-out here. Matthew Fernandez Konigsberg has lived in Hoboken for 3 years and wants to train for the NYC Triathlon. He's doing this to both get himself in shape and raise money for Israeli charities. He thinks his blog will deal with not only his trials and tribulations in and out of the swimming pool, but also some politics (some about Hoboken) and his general trials in being single in NY/Hoboken. (He should take some tips from Philly 2 Hoboken while he's at it.) We don't know the blog (too busy), but we generally support local blogs.

We're working on the book proposal at this end, which turns out to be more work than the book itself. Our agent is big on marketing, and since we have a marketing background, we have a lot to say on the subject.

Some troll came by (we have a pretty good idea who, not that it matters) to tell us we're pretentious to talk about the book. Don't know why - we do have an interested agent, we do have half a book, and we will soon have a completed proposal. Nothing but fact there. Beyond that, we make no claims. We have no guarantee that the idea will sell or that it will go anywhere even if it does. Still, this is what's taking up our time, and we don't even want to be distracted by the blog. That's why we've shut down for a while.

If we do sell the book idea, we'll be back at this from a somewhat different angle (and an upgraded blog). That's why we're doing this in the first place, for the support. For a while now, we've been looking at ways we might be able to sustain this full-time. The book would be the most desireable option we've seen yet.

We also heard from a troll ordering us to stop using the editorial 'we'. While ordinarily we'd continue any activity that would annoy a troll, the fact is that this is an idea that's outlived its usefulness (we were posting with a different agenda a year ago). So, when we return to blogging we'll return to the first person.

Exactly when we come back, we can't say. The proposal seems a day or two away, but we've felt that way for weeks as we keep finding new ideas to add or refine, pushing the deadline further and further back in time. So, no more deadline projections - it's done when it's done. All we know is we want to give it our best shot. The worst-case downside is that we've wasted a month or so. The upside is a fun new project to get behind.

If some of our trusted friends want to see the proposal, drop a line and we'll send the URL. (Sorry, but we have to know you.) We'd like feedback, but we also don't want this meme passed all over the web before publishers get to see it.

So that's the story. Thanks for asking.

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