Continued from The Best Designed Filipino Blogs
How do you create a popular blog post? The answer is: there is no pat answer. There is no secret formula, no magical talisman, no obscure password, no hidden underground tunnel that will lead to the road of fame.
For blogging is an art, not science.
I have read a three years old Filipino blog, which is regularly updated, yet despite the time and effort, has less than a dozen readers. I have read a three month old Filipino blog with dozens of reader. Some reading this, might construe regulars as the formula. I wish this is the case, but it isn't so.
A look at the top pinoy bloggers, tells us that most of the time they create posts which generate no buzz - very few comments, or paltry incoming links. So, yes a popular blogger can make the posts more read, but most of the time the wheel stops - it doesn't spread. Truth be told, because of this natural phenomenon, most top bloggers focus instead on a niche, following the long tail principle, building low referral posts over a long period of time.
There are those who believe that marketing their link to popular sites like digg, will instantly make their post popular. As an experiment, I enter two of my blog entry at digg. Because of their nature, I perceive that the posts will not spread, and alas just as I suspected they have not been dugg at all. I also saw lots of Filipino blog post at digg, which, although quite good, didn't make it to the front page. And even if the post make it to the frontpage, there still no guarantee that it will spread, after the initial burst of traffic. So this theory is untrue.
There are also those who think that heavy handed SEO will make a blog post popular. While SEO can make a blog post known, it will not make it popular per se. Sure, being #1 at Google, will make the post easier to find, but how many upon laying an eye on a post will reference it, blog about it, and tell it to their friends?
A good post usually makes me Feel! Alive! Excited! Moved! They make me want to hurl my body through the skies at supersonic speed, burst my soul in flame for joy, and nuclear bomb my essence back to earth. But alas, not even those who are visited by the muse are guaranteed to be popular. You might view your post as original, compelling, cool, or useful, but how many outside your circle understood and more importantly love your message enough to tell it to someone else?
So if it's futile to dissect the cause of a popular art, perhaps like music, it's better to bask on its effect. For privileged or poor, publicity-shy or social butterfly, freshman or war-shocked, college-educated or otherwise, every blogger now has a chance of being heard with blog as the medium. Yes! Blog is a great equalizing beast. But as George Orwell once said "All animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others." And that is the conundrum: like good luck, the art of taming a chaotic animal will remain to most of us a mystery:
1. The World's Most Photorealistic Vector Art
Total Score: 2,672
Bloglines: 180
Technorati: 694
Google: 131
Yahoo My Web: 28
del.icio.us: 1,424
Local News: 0
Comments: 2152. How to use Wordpress to Run a Magazine, News Website
Total Score: 732
Bloglines: 75 Technorati: 115 Google: 11 Yahoo My Web: 13 del.icio.us: 447 Local News: 0 Comments: 713. How to edit Wordpress themes using Dreamweaver
Total Score: 438
Bloglines: 23 Technorati: 83 Google: 5 Yahoo My Web: 6 del.icio.us: 283 Local News: 0 Comments: 384. The PHP130,000 Philippine SEO Contest
Total Score: 381
Bloglines: 47 Technorati: 221 Google: 12 Yahoo My Web: 2 del.icio.us: 0 Local News: 0 Comments: 995. Hidden Program Of Windows Xp
Total Score: 376
Bloglines: 20 Technorati: 46 Google: 21 Yahoo My Web: 1 del.icio.us: 283 Local News: 0 Comments: 56. Philippine SEO Contest 2.0
Total Score: 337
Bloglines: 29 Technorati: 79 Google: 75 del.icio.us: 0 Local News: 20 (Inq7) Yahoo My Web: 11 Comments: 1237. Open Letter To Our Leaders
Total Score: 277
Bloglines: 9 Technorati: 35 Google: 7 Yahoo My Web: 0 del.icio.us: 0 Local News: 40 (Inq7, ANC) Comments: 1868. Jesus is our Fucking Homeboy
Total Score: 192
Bloglines: 9 Technorati: 40 Google: 3 Yahoo My Web: 0 del.icio.us: 0 Local News: 20 (Inq7) Comments: 1209. The Sexiest Filipina Bloggers
Total Score: 164
Bloglines: 30 Technorati: 44 Google: 4 Yahoo My Web: 5 del.icio.us: 15 Local News: 20 (Inq7) Comments: 4610. How to Convert any Web Template into a Wordpress Theme
Total Score: 158
Bloglines: 10 Technorati: 38 Google: 8 Yahoo My Web: 4 del.icio.us: 138 Local News: 0 Comments: 2011. Lipad Batjay, Lipad!
Total Score: 145
Bloglines: 2 Technorati: 50 Google: 2 Yahoo My Web: 0 del.icio.us: 0 Local News: 20 (Manila Bulletin) Comments: 7112. Jollibee Scandal: Mascots humping on YouTube
Total Score: 122
Bloglines: 9 Technorati: 27 Google: 3 Yahoo My Web: 0 del.icio.us: 0 Local News: 20 (Inq7 via Cnet Asia) Comments: 6313. iblog2 - The 2nd Philippine Blogging Summit
Total Score: 108
Bloglines: 31 Technorati: 28 Google: 3 Yahoo My Web: 4 del.icio.us: 2 Local News: 40 (Manila Bulletin, Malaya) Comments: N/A14. The Car that Blogging Bought
Total Score: 104
Bloglines: 9 Technorati: 28 Google: 3 Yahoo My Web: 4 del.icio.us: 0 Local News: 0 Comments: 6015. Photoshop Tutorial: How to Make a Web 2.0-Style Logo
Total Score: 56
Bloglines: 3 Technorati: 22 Google: 7 Yahoo My Web: 2 del.icio.us: 0 Local News: 0 Comments: 2216. The Canon EOS 350D that blogging bought
Total Score: 52
Bloglines: 8 Technorati: 20 Google: 2 Yahoo My Web: 0 del.icio.us: 0 Local News: 0 Comments: 2217. At The 3rd China Int’l. Adult Toys & Reproductive Health Expo
Total Score: 51
Bloglines: 8 Technorati: 28 Google: 2 Yahoo My Web: 1 del.icio.us: 0 Local News: 0 Comments: 12UPDATES
Update #1, December 10: Thanks to Marc, for suggesting that I may be missing out other popular posts. I've removed the 7 limit. I'm opening the floor for suggestions. So please if you know of any posts I've missed, send me the link I'll try to include them.
Update #2, December 11: Thanks to Abe, for suggesting that I should include del.icio.us bookmarks, and local news mentions (I'm giving 20 points for every mention). I also included Yahoo My Web, as well as Bloglines count. I also included the links to the various meters use, so that the viewer can see the results.
Update #3, December 11: Thanks to Andrew, for pointing out that the technorati links could be spams. If the links and comments of a post are spam in nature, I will not include it here.
Update #4, December 12: Due to overwhelming response I got via email, I will state the criteria here: a post must at least have 50 total score, and at least 20 Technorati or 20 Google links. I prefer that the post have at least 20 comments, but if the post has a Technocrati high authority link, I would include it.
Update #5, December 12:I suffered a post outage last night, due to blog template tweaking, this post is up and running again.
RELATED FILES
See Also
- The Best Designed Filipino Blogs for 2006
- The Top Pinoy Probloggers
- Pinoy Blog Ranking: Blog Juice & Page Rank
well, i was attracted to #7.. interesting..
congatulations to those who made it to the top 7. more power & mabuhay sa inyong lahat!
i was like snoring reading through the titles of the top 7 posts, but then No. 6 caught my attention.
i think you forgot about this story,http://politicalpinoy.blogspot.com/2006/10/pldt-mydsl-call-center-agent-curses-at.html ,it has 53 comments so far, got a very large traffic, metioned in several blogs and forums, emailed like crazy and is still getting traffic,and although it lacked the engineered SEO tactics and is from a new blog.
hi gentletouchee,
Thanks for the suggestion. See update for the criteria.
i think http://smartbro.blogspot.com would be included in those list. The post Hidden Program In Windows XP have been known worldwide. click this link http://smartbro.blogspot.com/2006/09/hidden-program-of-windows-xp.html
Hi Anonymous,
Hezron Mariano's Post is now included.
How about digg?
http://www.digg.com/gaming_news/Adults_Spend_More_Time_Gaming_than_Teens
Anyway, here few of the links that really generated hits to our blog.
http://gameshogun.ws/Games/2006/09/21/new_azeroth_world_map
http://gameshogun.ws/Games/2006/07/15/latest_continental_cantha_map_for_guild_
http://gameshogun.ws/Snow/2006/06/05/guild_wars_factions_100_full_cantha_map
http://gameshogun.ws/Business/2006/05/19/gunbound_world_champion_hits_the_philipp
http://gameshogun.ws/Snow/2006/05/05/guild_wars_factions_cantha_continental_m
http://gameshogun.ws/Snow/2006/03/27/the_guild_wars_world_map_project
Some of the links above caused my server to crashed @_@ during those days...
I guess, in my opinion, there are blog posts by Filipinos that tend to be missed because their audience is more on the international scene than the local ones. Additional, the "kind" of audience these bloggers have. For example, I also know a few other Pinoy bloggers who generates more unique hits than me or maybe anyone else, but their target audience makes their blog to be missed out by what I call the "General Category" bloggers.
Just my opinion. ;)
Laibeus Lord,
Please see the update above for the criteria.
Since the overwhelming majority of filipino blog post are not on digg, I didn't include it in the factors.
Care to share with us the blogs you came across?
Following your idea of a blog with book links for those people that cannot buy it, here is my contribution:
http://punchandbrodie.com/leo/stanchfield/
http://www.animationmeat.com/notes/waltstanchfield/waltstanchfield.html
Both are the same book, a great book and completely FREE.
Enjoy it!
Sorry, i know this is not the section, but the download section has no comments 1 month ago and i want that you and your visitors can use this link.
uy schoolmate, na extra ang isa sa mga post ko.
salamat sa mga stats - parati talagang may mga interesting na topic sa blog mo. ang galing.
ingat at merry christmas.
jay
Hi Michael,
Thanks for including my posts. I'm doing a roundup in my site and I just checked with del.icio.us, my post on using WordPress to run a magazine site was saved by 447 people. The post on converting any template into a WordPress theme was saved by 138 people. I'm just curious, though, how this post fared.
Doodle,
Thanks for the link. Will add it soon. Yuletide Season to you!
Sir Batjay,
Merry Christmas! =)
Max,
Added and adjusted. Happy Holidays!
Thanks for including iBlog2 here. We very much appreciate it. Hope you can join us in iBlog3!
good info..thanks for sharing..
Sana masama na din ang blog site ko in the future. Thanks for sharing sir!