Popularity

Researchers have analyzed the dynamics of how blogs become popular. There are essentially two measures of this: popularity through citations, as well as popularity through affiliation (i.e. blogroll). The basic conclusion from studies of the structure of blogs is that while it takes time for a blog to become popular through blogrolls, permalinks can boost popularity more quickly, and are perhaps more indicative of popularity and authority than blogrolls, since they denote that people are actually reading the blog's content and deem it valuable or noteworthy in specific cases.

The blogdex project was launched by researchers in the MIT Media Lab to crawl the Web and gather data from thousands of blogs in order to investigate their social properties. It gathered this information for over 4 years, and autonomously tracked the most contagious information spreading in the blog community, ranking it by recency and popularity. It can therefore be considered the first instantiation of a memetracker. The project is no longer active, but a similar function is now served by tailrank.com.

Blogs are given rankings by Technorati based on the number of incoming links and Alexa Internet based on the Web hits of Alexa Toolbar users. In August 2006, Technorati found that the most linked-to blog on the internet was that of Chinese actress Xu Jinglei. Chinese media Xinhua reported that this blog received more than 50 million page views, claiming it to be the most popular blog in the world. Technorati rated Boing Boing to be the most-read group-written blog.

Gartner forecasts that blogging will peak in 2007, leveling off when the number of writers who maintain a personal Web site reaches 100 million. Gartner analysts expect that the novelty value of the medium will wear off as most people who are interested in the phenomenon have checked it out, and new bloggers will offset the number of writers who abandon their creation out of boredom. The firm estimates that there are more than 200 million former bloggers who have ceased posting to their online diaries, creating an exponential rise in the amount of "dotsam" and "netsam" — that is to say, unwanted objects on the Web (analogous to flotsam and jetsam). ***************

What is a Blog?

A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.

Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules.

In simple terms, a blog is a website, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. New stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what's new. Then they comment on it or link to it or email you. Or not.

And we are pretty sure the whole deal is just getting started.

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How To Use Your Blog To Make Every Year Financially Better!

Introspection, and self-actualization are two thought processes that are very unique to the human species. You may be surprised to learn that one of the best ways to discover your potential is to somehow keep track of your progress as well as your thoughts in various instances of life.
The reason that blogging happens to be the perfect medium for recording such ideas is that it’s much more than just a journal. Blogging offers some invaluable bonuses that writing in private does not provide.

It’s been just over a year since I’ve started blogging, and the benefits that have come from this experience can only be summed up as priceless. Blogging has been a wonderful way to share and explore a topic that I am very much passionate about.
Bonuses of Blogging

1. Track progress. Your blog’s archives serve as a time machine into the chronicles of thought that you have etched onto the internet at some point in time. This is an excellent way to see how you differ between now and then. You’ll easily see the things that have helped you to make progress in your life, and repeat this action to multiply your positive results.
2. Get feedback. The audience that your blog attracts will inevitably comment on your writing, thoughts and ideas. They’ll ask you thought provoking questions, as well as offer meaningful advice and constructive criticisms. All wonderful tools to further improve your own life.
3. Share knowledge. You have a gift. You are now in possession of a life, a brain, and your experiences. By sharing your knowledge with the world, you are helping people shave time off their learning curves, avoid detrimental mistakes, and make life altering decisions. That’s a lot of power to have.
4. Meet like-minded people. Birds of a feather flock together, and your cast of hawks will surely make their way to you. Through almost magnetic means, blogging has the possibility to connect people in marvelous ways. Once you meet like-minded people, the possibilities of your journey in life being connected are endless.
5. Running Resume. Your blog is serious business. It has the power to completely sway someone’s opinion about you. It fulfills the needs of lurkers everywhere who Google you to see what kind of person you are. Show them your best. (If you’re looking for work this is extremely important.)
6. Family Links. Not only can the whole family get involved in blogging, but you’ll also be leaving a trace for generations to come. Your great-grandchildren may just be curious about what lifestyle you led, and they’ll have your archives to answer their questions, and possibly guide them through life.
7. Creative pastime. Instead of absorbing heaps of knowledge from the TV or mindless internet browsing, you will have a focused outlet to express your creativity. You’ll be passing time with more purpose than you did before, and you’ll find it to be a great way to escape boredom.
8. Stay sharp. When you have a blog, you will notice that you’re constantly on the look out for article ideas, no matter where you are. This is a great skill to develop because it helps you to become more observant, and therefore more interesting in other facets of life.
9. Make money. While most people will not make a decent amount of money via their blog, there are some that have gotten rich, and even more that make a full-time income blogging. This allows you to have a ‘job’ that can be performed anywhere in the world with a laptop and internet connection.
10. Develop writing skills. Practice is the only way to improve on the art of writing. Writing blog posts provides a very fun and engaging medium in which to practice. ATOMIC BLOGGING!!!