While a lot of people rant on about the A-List and Z-List of bloggers, Tony Hung of Deep Jive Interests offers “A List Types Refuse to Acknowledge Blogging’s Blue Collar Class”:
But with the rhetoric once again reaching shrill levels, …there’s one thing that Jeff Jarvis, Jason Calacanis, or any other A-list blogger fails to recognize. And that’s a whole other class of bloggers who blog for a very different reason that other bloggers blog.
I refer to them as the blue-collar class of bloggers.
They’re not out their writing and contributing so that they can look smart and feel good about themselves when they get dugg. They’re out there writing and blogging to make a few sheckels for themselves and their families. Some are stay at home moms. Others are students. Others are individuals who are just trying to make a few ends meet. Others are just curious.
They’re the guys who are trying to optimize their Adsense pages, learning about arbitrage, and who read Problogger for helpful hints on making a few bucks.
They’re blogging for very different reasons than other bloggers — and they’re not ashamed to say so.
…Blue collar bloggers are just trying to make do with what they’ve got…
The article defends PayPerPost and other advertising techniques often criticized by more popular bloggers, but the point I really enjoyed in the article is the recognition of the “workers” in the blogosphere, the ones who are out there contributing, doing their best to lend their voice to the crowd, and if they make a shekel or three along the way, it only serves to spread the wealth.
Personally, I am not a fan of ads on blogs. Not that there shouldn’t be any, just that there should be some taste when using ads on blogs. There is a growing trend for top notch bloggers, who blog for their business not blog as a business, who are dropping all ads or at least pruning down the ad clutter because that is what their audience wants, and it works for their market.
Still, it’s not often the blue collar bloggers get recognized. They deserve tons of credit. Well done!
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13 Comments
I for one openly criticize the way a lot of these sponsored ad blogs handle their content, often going all out to draw attention to their blogs for the sake of increasing the rankings of their blogs for the sole purpose of making those ads worth every penny. I think they are little more than another form of splogs which aren’t worth salt at all.
I enjoy reading your articles. I will come back to read more again. Thank you.
I don’t really see the added value to the blogosphere of blue collar bloggers. Are their posts more eloquent or have sharper edges? Naah, not from what I’ve seen. If anything, commercial interests might influence their blogging instead of them speaking their free and uncensored minds.
What a joke… a couple of years ago Scoble, Jarvis, and I were the blue collar bloggers. We were hustling trying to get our voices heard and a couple of years later–after blogging daily–the supposed “A List” got some traction and attention.
There is no “A List” — it’s a myth.
There are people who blog every day, have something intelligent to say, and who get linked to more than the folks that are some combination of a) new, b) have little to say, and c)are not hustling.
If you want to be part of the A List you can do it in less than 90 days.
See The dumbest argument in the blogosphere: A List vs. Blue Collar for more.
… and mine. 😉
I’d also like to add that I’m getting more ambivalent about PPP these days, but that’s neither here nor there.
Cheers
t @ dji / bh
Blue Collar Bloggers? I rather call them Blue-Bloodied Bloggers (BBB) 🙂 Are you a BBB?
Yes, but PPP has nothing to do with being a “blue collar” blogger – and since when has it been a hip and cool idea to start bringing “class” into the blogging world?
Yes, a lot of us are simply making do with what we’ve got – but since when has advertising been considered great content?
There is a reason Gruber, Kottke and Calacanis (to name but a few) are top shelf stuff – they write good content. And they’ve been doing it for a while. It’s stuff people ‘get’.
PPP is a ‘space filler’ for those who cannot or will not devote the time and energy it takes to get to where Calacanis, or Gruber are. And if people find that offensive – it’s probably because, in reality, it’s true.
If folks want to make extra dough, over and above adsense, tla, etc – write stuff you’re really passionate about and put some effort into it – if people get it, then a subscription model may be the go.
Exactly, there is nothing hardworking about people that write a few words here and there for the sake of getting money. It’s the people that actually write something good have people offering them money because they are good that are the blue collar bloggers. That’s completely different from going up to someone to ask for money in order for you to write about them.
I think in this sense advertisers get the wrong idea what bloggers can do for them. In the long run, it wouldn’t benefit them at all because people would just ignore it.
PayPerPost or not, I was amused by the reference to shekels. Has shekels become an international currency? Or is it becoming a mainstream reference to money, just like schmooze and schlep have become part of the English vernacular? Well, for anyone who wants to make a shekel, you should be aware that it takes over 4 shekels to buy a dollar…
Wow, this conversation has gone wild, hasn’t it? Maybe the fact that it’s tapped such a nerve is as significant as the subject itself… maybe moreso….
Thanks once again for commenting at my site, and thanks loads for the trackback … my first one! Yay!
I moved recently from Israel. It’s a habit for me. Not a trend. 😉
I’m a blue collar worker and I have a blog that just turned it’s first year in Febuary (though it’s been hosted from Blogger to WP.com to my own WP install, the content has remained).
I don’t do PPP and never will but I do have a place in my sidebar waiting to be filled with ads from TLA but apparently I’m not popular enough 🙂 and I write what I darn well please about life in general and I try to add a touch of humor as well.
So what does that make me?
A “Blue Collar Worker Blogger”? What about those huh?
Just wondering. 😛
And what about those of us who blog not for getting dugg or being on any list, but just to get our voices out there, AND who (so far) refuse to put ads up at all? What does that make us? Volunteer Bloggers? The Red Cross or Peace Corps of the blog cosmos?
I don’t think the “class” categorization is any better than the A,B,C list categorization. It doesn’t really tell us anything new about the way we blog, and categorization should tell us something new. Otherwise it is just labeling which can easily be used to pigeonhole and discriminate. Discussion over the spectrum of blogs who use ads (those that give good, well written/visualized content to those that put up junk just to get the ad revenue, and those in between) is hugely helpful, but lumping them all into the term “Blue Collar Bloggers” doesn’t try to examine anything about that, it just separates them from the “White Collar Bloggers”.
Oh, and regarding Shekels: In some places in the United States it has become a term for money in general. I grew up in Utah, and my Mother would constantly say “save your shekels” when I wanted something. Remember, this is Utah, about as far away from Israel or New York as you can get, and the term has been bouncing around there for at least 60 years.
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