It pains me to see folks place all their faith in the Series of Tubes, whether they’re trying to sell books about Men in Kilts, punk rock songs with three chords or bust into Hollywood.
And it’s no skin off my nose if they stubbornly keep on doing it. As somebody who believes in science, and numbers, and doing whatever works, I’ll just say this: the Series of Tubes is useful for making friends and other things — but it is not a strategy and it is not a plan, not even for Internet Tough Guys.
This is your standard Internet Tough Guy as a child, deep into his training.
You’d think that a blog getting 40,000 hits a month would be good, right? That’s almost half a million a year.
Try a blog with 400,000 hits a month, written by pro journalists, and about a local topic that local advertisers can latch onto just fine. That’s a smidge below 5 million hits per year.
If internet fanboys are right, then 400,000 hits per month should make you golden.
If internet fanboys are wrong, then 400,000 hits per month plus $3.50 will buy you a soy latte with a shot of vanilla.
This isn’t a hypothetical case. That blog in Seattle couldn’t make it despite all those hits, so they’re combining with another outfit.
Related posts:
30 achy breaky Twitter mistakeys
Top 5 reasons why Twitter CRUSHES Facebook
Quirks and legs matter more than talent and perfection
Using free ink and airtime to BUST THROUGH
Forget the Twitter: free ink and airtime are your MOST DANGEROUS WEAPONS
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Guy – Photo by Suhyoon Cho
Reformed journalist. Scribbler of speeches and whatnot. Wrote a thriller that was a finalist for some award.
Pingback: Old Media versus The Series of Tubes | The Red Pen of Doom
I appreciate the brevity of this blog. It speaks directly to the point. Isn’t that the point? Produce value, not popularity. As far as reblogging blogged rebloggs…please include me is all I ask.
Reblogged this on brainsnorts inc >.< and commented:
I don’t know a lot about writing and the publishing industry, but there are places at which we can learn things. This is one of them.
If I try to reblog your reblog of my blog, will that create an infinite loop and rip up the space-time continuum or whatever?
yes, future boy. and lightning will strike the clock tower. 1.21 jigawatts!!
mind if i reblog this?
Go for it.
Huh. Double huh. I’m not fond of soy in any combination with coffee. 400,000 hits and bupkis, huh? Guess I’m happy with my small, deeply disturbed following.
Interesting, Guy, and brings up a good point. People pay for what they value. What do people value? That’s the question too many people fail to examine.