The Role of Ego in Blogging

Blogging is different from other forms of media, save the op-ed page of newspapers, because it is all about the blogger and his or her personal views on a topic. Readers read blogs because they want to know what the blogger thinks about a subject whether politics, or gadgets or about having 8 planets and coming up with sentences to remember them all.

The point is that blogging requires ego to survive. It’s Darwinian. Survival of the Fittest. Is there any reason why long-tail bloggers never seem to get past the long-tail. That’s not meant to be a slam against them, but the truth is that it takes guts to make it out here. It takes ego.

Several months ago I wrote an entry on Darren’s site about being being elite. I caught a lot of hell from it, and I imagine I’ll catch hell for this entry. In that entry, I made the claim that MySpace Blogs blurred the lines when it came to internet content. What was good and what wasn’t? What was quality and what wasn’t? What sets the A-lister apart from the long tail? In that entry, I made the point that elite bloggers do the things that are necessary to be highly ranked in Google, to attract visitors and to get links back their blogs. Elite bloggers do the things they do because of ego.

And that’s not a bad thing. Ego in blogging means knowing when to push the limits for the sake of attention or to be heard, and recognizes when it’s wiser to stay out of the fray. Good ego means knowing when to say when for the sake of profile, reputation and furthering goals.

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• Stumble it!

About the Author: Aaron Brazell is the lead editor of Technosailor.com and a social media expert. His passion is to see companies and individuals use the internet and web technologies wisely and effectively to promote their brands and companies. He is Business Development Manager for Lijit and he worked as Director of Technology at b5media from 2005-2008 and is currently an independent consultant.