Apparently I've been drafted into this Ecosystem deal and I'm not sure how I feel about that. I found out by seeing a referral from there. It likely happened through an innocent mix up. I wrote NZ with a question and through some mis-communication and there being another blog in the Ecosystem with a similar name as mine, it wound up in my site being included. It looks like NZ has his hands full with bigger issues these days, so I'm not even questioning it. But I do have some concerns on a couple of different levels.
First I don't get the rankings - and as I have never had my site meter public, traffic is a non-issue for my ranking there. My current site meter visit average is 305 a day with 502 page views if you're interested. My links on the ecosystem are 63, which makes me some kind of flippin rodent, or something. At one point, post election, I was getting from 3,000 - 4,000 a day when I was posting graphics on Fallujah. But I opted not to follow that approach for the blog and let the traffic go. I do believe you can chase traffic to a good extent by modifying content and working to get it linked and noticed in certain places. But I also think that approach can lead to a quick burnout if you aren't doing something you really want to be doing everyday. Traffic isn't the be all and end all of blogging. But it is an attractive lure.
Anyway, I see some "large mammals," etc, and anyone can find them, that do, in some cases, less than 100 visits a day. I have problems with a system that purports to "rank" things when the logic doesn't add up clearly for a non-geek like me. I suspect to some extent joining mass blog rolls leads to those larger "link" numbers. But what the hell good are they if no one ever uses them? Seems silly to me. So, that's my first concern.
The second is how being listed like that can influence your decisions as to how to blog. I'm competitive by nature. If I'm on a list, I want to climb up it by nature, not just languish near the middle or bottom, or whatever. That's one reason why I avoided the ecosystem deal until now. And maintaining any kind of serious blog and some traffic is tough work. I'm not complaining but until I started, I couldn't have imagined how much it takes just to keep up a small blog. There's many issues I won't bore you with, but they're there. One being, if I don't post constantly and with something readable, most any traffic you've built quickly goes away.
That's certainly less true the longer you blog and the broader your audience. But I've only been at it six months and I'm not that widely read. And my decision to be "colorful" at times with language probably closes down some options. Np problem - as I made that choice consciously.
So, do I start chasing links? Clean up the language? Start jumping on breaking news and tidal waves I may not want to write about all the time because that's where the traffic is? Not sure, I doubt it, but the urge is there. Like I said, I'm competitive. Guess I'll just have to see where it goes now that the worms are out of the can. Oh, and I am listed as Carnivorous Conservative, which thrills me even less. I liked the name. But it no longer applies.
I sent a request for a change but not sure what can be done as I use a domain mapping technique that doesn't do away with the original URL. We'll see. But if I can't be listed by the current blog name for technical reasons, I'll have to see that I get off the list. It just doesn't work for me. But NZ seems to have his hands full with so many larger issues, and as I understand it, this is a huge and very positive but volunteer effort on his part, so it isn't quite like quitting an AOL. In all fairness, immediate or even significant customer service is probably a bit too much to expect. But then, I didn't volunteer. I was sort of drafted, even if through an honest mis-communication. ; )
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