How to get linked from the A-list

Robert Scoble is a genius. I will say this over and over. If there's one thing he knows how to do is to create a brand of his name as the A-list blogger of the people. His trademark 'Who are you' opening question, his disarming laugh, his simple 'everyman' questions (most of which he knows the answer to I'm sure) and his ability to stem the flow of negativity with brilliant stunts all contribute to his power.

But this post is not just to suck up to Robert - I'd like to ask a question.

His latest post (and stunt) is a thread where he asks the question "Do A-lister bloggers have a responsibility to link to others". In it, he asks that question and then opens the comments for everyone to spam a link to their own stuff.

One of the commenter’s, though, raises a very interesting point.

Krishna Kumar Writes:

The PageRank algorithm is probably one of the key factors in this whole argument about link sharing. While the initial search engines used the “content” of your web site or page, nowadays (because of content spammers) authority (determined by incoming links) matters more.

The problem is that if a newbie or Z-lister has something really important to say or has some great idea, he or she will not get the necessary audience to propagate that idea.

I am not sure how this can be resolved because the commercialization of the Internet along with SEO businesses have changed the rules of the game that unfortunately now negatively affects new ideas.

And yes, a tech-savvy person can get his or her idea spread, but what if the person (non-profit, medical field, etc.) has no clue about Google juice and stuff like that.

I know that back in my Z-list days (I am now on the Y list for those keeping track) it was/is hard to get a post you think is fantastic noticed by hardly anyone. But is that because the A-list is so hard to break into or because the tools for mining the long-tail are so poor?

Does Google Juice matter? Does being on the A-list matter? Whose A-list are we talking about?

I've said it before and I will say it again. Personal Relevance is more important than Popularity.

People who care about what I'm saying should find it - irrespective of how many incoming links I have.

Why? Maybe because I am not as popular as Robert but I still want to be heard. Don't we all? But more importantly because a local school does not need (or want) Robert's audience. They want an audience of locals. And locals should be able to discover that content without knowing what RSS is.

Added to the Megite Index

Over the last few days some new stuff has happened in relation to this blog.

First, we seem to keep appearing on the TechMeme related discussion section whenever I post about a topic that happens to be covered there. Second, someone from Megite (or an automated bot) has commented on a post and declared that we should be congratulated because we are now part of the Megite index.

Does Megite work the same way that TechMeme works?

This is how I understand it:

1. They crawl a subset of blogs (the 'A-List') and then algorithmically determine and cluster the topics they're talking about at any given time.
   
2. They look for outgoing or incoming links from those blogs to find additional discussions to link to/cluster.
   
3. They look for patterns in outgoing links (from their index of blogs 'A-list blogs') to determine which blogs are worthy enough to be added to the index.

If this is the case, does this mean we have somehow been automatically determined as a Quality/A-list Blog by the Megite engine? Should we expect to be profiled on their home page more often now?

At the risk of angering the Megite gods, who's to say that this is a worthy blog? What is the definition. Is it based on how many A-listers link to us? How many comments we get? How often we post about similar topics to A-listers? How many links we get from A-listers?

And who's to say what the A-list finds interesting is relevant to everyone - or to me.

These questions are actually more relevant for Techmeme because Megite at least has a nifty feature whereby you can upload your OPML and it starts to build a personal homepage just for you. That's a great feature.

I have also met Gabe from Techmeme and he's a great guy. He tells me he is cooking up lots of new features so I am sure it's all in the pipeline.

But I am still interested in what constitutes a worthy blog for the public 'front page'.

As for Tailrank I'm not sure if it works the same way either. Kevin has not taken the time to explain it to me. I wonder if we are in their index yet? What's the go with that Kevin!

In any case - if we are now part of a few blogs that are considered Megite worthy - thanks. If this is a normal occurrence and nothing special (maybe even some comment spam) then... I am less grateful hah.

Update: Kevin posts about the Megite comment spam issue as well. He seems to agree this might be attention getting behavior that is a little over the mark as well. I think that if it was a personal message with a personal name or even a private note via email (our contact details are not hidden) it might be a better approach.