« links for 2006-07-13 | Main | Skinned Feed Readers »

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Only Generous Bloggers Influence

Yesterday I went to lunch with Keith Ferrazzi, author of the bestselling book Never Eat Alone. During our lunch we talked a lot about the increasing importance of relationships and how corporations and individuals need to live by the network effect. He said that to build a network you must be generous. This got me thinking. How generous are individual and corporate bloggers? The answer is some are very generous, others completely aren't. And those who are generous are by far more successful and influential than the rest of the pack.

Robert Scoble and Mark Cuban are two of the most generous people I know. Not only do they pump out lots of great content that's worth reading, they are giving when it comes to links and their time. They also publish full text feeds, a hallmark of benevolent bloggers. FInally, they share deep and profound thoughts that they probably could keep proprietary.

Then there are others - and I won't name them - who are not generous. In fact, even worse, they are grievous. They syndicate snippets rather than publish full text RSS feeds. They don't credit other bloggers who they clearly steal content from. They are filled with just nasty criticism, rather than a balance of ideas and constructive advice. They focus solely on themselves and not an iota on others. I have unsubscribed from all of these blogs. They're just not worth my time. By the way this doesn't just apply to bloggers. It goes for comments too. I ignore any trash that people leave on my blog or others and only focus on that which is constructive feedback (positive or negative).

The generosity dynamic that exists in the blogosphere is really important. If you want to have a successful blog - one that is read frequently by even a small audience of import - you have to be generous. There's no way around it. You have to lavishly dish out links, advice, news, ideas, commentary, freebies, you name it. It's up to you. However, if you're going to live on the Dark Side of the blogosphere and be stingy, you will live a lonely life.

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c5e1c53ef00d8342fafa653ef

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Only Generous Bloggers Influence:

» Only Generous Bloggers Influence from eLegal Canton
That's the title of a post by Steve Rubel of Micro Persuation. I saw him speak at the Mesh conference a while back. Basicaly he says the best bloggers offer something useful and constructive. Its worth a read. I hope... [Read More]

» The Daily Incite - July 14, 2006 from Security Incite: Analysis on Information Security
July 14, 2006 Good Morning: With the exception of the SurfControl/Black Spider deal yesterday, most was quiet on the information security front. Which after this week, is a good thing. Im way behind on my real work, so its catch [Read More]

» Steve Rubel Gets a Good Start On Online Influence, But Proposes One Bad Business Blogging Rule from Advanced Business Blogging
In a recent post title Only Generous Bloggers Influence, Steve Rubel makes some excellent points on online influence and persuasion. Most were right on, but one has the potential of becoming a dangerous business blogging rule. First, whe... [Read More]

» Be Generous to be Effective from FreshBlog
This is all about constructing a community, and virtual interactions have to be civil &c, just the same as real-life interactions. Find and contribute to your microsphere through generous interaction.... [Read More]

» Only generous bloggers influence from Russell Page
Only Generous Bloggers Influence An interesting take on being a lovecat in blogging from Steve Rubel. (tags: blogs steverubel micropersuasion bloggers blogger blogging tag tagging http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/5408114) ... [Read More]

» Washington Post buys into the "generosity" meme from Canuckflack
Steve made a point last week about building influence and audience through generosity - the free sharing of information and a willingness to send your reader off to other parts of the blogosphere for further analysis. Today we find out from the NYTimes... [Read More]

» Why I Switched to a Full-Text Feed from Eddie Awad's Blog
After reading Why I’m asking for full-text RSS feeds by Constantin Basturea, and Only Generous Bloggers Influence by Steve Rubel, I have decided to publish my blogs feed as a full text instead of just a summary. As... [Read More]

» Full Feeds Petition? How About A Copyright Infringement Petition? from Daggle: Danny Sullivan's Blog
Robert Scoble points over to fullfeeds.com, a petition web site against intentionally disabled rss feeds. Fine, I'm in a ranty mood. I'll give my argument in favor of summary feeds, along with the irony that the petition site itself doesn't... [Read More]

Comments

Search


My Photo

Follow Me on Twitter

Subscribe

Contact Me


  • Email Me

  • My Employer

Read My Favorite Feeds

Miscellany

Related Posts Widget for Blogs by LinkWithin