Fortuna Faveat

may fortune favor us

It is hard to put your finger on what makes a cool blogger. Is it the ability to bring down the powerful? Maybe it is the knack for telling me about the coolest gadgets before anybody else. It could be a unique fiction that tickles the reader. Whatever your preference, one thing is for sure, the hipsters that many despise in the physical world have found a footing in the blogosphere, taking the joy out of blogging for many. It is refreshing to see that they still get their comeuppance in the real world.

Wonkette wasn't allowed into her own clubhouse in Austin, TX. Source: Austinist

For many bloggers, their writing isn’t about making money, being cool, or anything of that nature. Rather, it is catharsis, exhibitionism, or the desire for a simple creative outlet that draws them into the land of blogs. Some people just enjoy putting their thoughts out there for the world to see. For these people, they could care less about being cool. In fact, they actively oppose being cool.But what about the hipsters that want to reach the top of the technorati? My writing has appeared in the searches on technorati.com, but I didn’t do anything purposeful to get there. In an effort to help some blogging poser become tres’ chic, I looked and looked for tips on how to become a cool blogger. There just weren’t any good tips. The cool kids just don’t want the rest of us to know the code to their clubhouse.

In this information vaccuum, I am forced to tell you what I think about the democratization of the Internet (nay, the world?) via blogs. I think it is fabulous. As I have mentioned in previous posts, any opportunity to give voice to the voiceless is a good thing. This is the solution to the “clubhouse” problem laid out above. Rather than play in someone else’s clubhouse, we, the sweaty masses, can just build our own clubhouse. Oh yeah, for the record, my favorite blog (and the only one I read) is engadget. They are the coolest!

I agree, I’m not sure you should be superconcerned with cliques; who wants to recreate high school? It was bad enough the first time.

In terms of how Technorati works technically, ranking is based on the number of incoming links over time. So, what will you write that people will want to point their own readers to? In general, I find a readership rewards regularity (posting frequency; Wonkette is required by her employer to post 12 times a day, come hell or high water). Comprehensiveness is also rewarded — a good and thorough list of resources on a given subject, along with a cogent explanation of how things work, is often valuable enough to point to. The blogosphere is also bidirectional, so pointing to other people and engaging with them at their site in comments on their posts is also an important part of getting engaged.

Do you use an RSS reader, like Bloglines? Might tempt you to read more than one blog.

I think I need to grant Lisa honorary adjunct status. It’s nice to have an outside voice with something to suggest (and teach) backing me up. Unfortunately, no KU pay comes with the honorary adjunct title. I worry about our frequency over the Christmas break. No class and no newroom in operation.