The other day, I wrote a sarcastic post when Mark Cuban was whinning about how people link to his site for self-promotional, or as he termed it, “blog-pimping,” reasons.
I pledged not to point to another post of his (and technically I haven’t — I’m merely pointing to same post) because of my desire not to be seen as a blog-pimp.
However, blog-pimping is getting good press today. Indeed, in the Washington Post, there is a story about how effective AOL vice chairman and sport team magnate Ted Leonsis is as a blog-pimp.
The article is about how, before he started blogging, Leonsis was disappointed with how Google searches turned up lame articles about him. So he determined — correctly I might add — that creating a blog and posting regularly about himself and his schedule and his sports teams and his business and his speaking engagements would be the perfect way to game the Google algorithms with what he wanted the results to be. And one of the strategies (search engine optimizing blog-pimps) was to, well, link to Mark Cuban.
Quote:
(Leonsis) added links to lots of other bloggers, including those talking about local sports and that of another team owner and blogger, Mark Cuban. Those blogs, in turn, link to his blog.
Kidding aside, I think the Washington Post article is a must-read for those of you who want to convince yourself — or your CEO — why blogging makes sense. I think it is correct that Google reward Leonsis for blogging so actively about himself.
I might add that he got lots more than Google juice by investing in his blog, however. He also got a platform to clear the air and apologize when AOL really screwed up on something. His openess — his blog — helped to diffuse a controversy that would have been prolonged had he not had such a place to speak with a human voice.
Blog-pimping is a good thing for whatever the reason.
Update: Irony alert: A blogger (sorry, no links) who is a masterful blog-pimp — a virtuoso of the link-begging offensive troll post — has termed what Leonsis does as “defensive blogging.” Priceless. Quote: “Leonsis is blogging not to increase the flow of information but to narrow it, for his own professional benefit.” Is that why Leonsis has open comments and leaves up blasts from his detractors? My point is this: I don’t give a rat’s ass what someone’s motivation is to blog: defense, offensive, whatever. He joined the conversation. He’s benefitting. We’re benefitting. That’s about as cluetrain as it gets.
Technorati Tags: bloggers, blogging, mark cuban, ted leonsis
