
Want To Win At Blogging? Promote Your Rivals, Say Yale Researchers - python_kiss
http://www.informationweek.com/internet/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197801233&cid=RSSfeed_TechWeb
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Yahoo discovered something similar in 1995. At the end of Yahoo search results
they'd have links to do the same search at other search engines. People were
surprised at their confidence at the time. But it wasn't just confidence: it
made Yahoo the natural starting point.

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python_kiss
AskJeeves used to provide users an option to search using AltaVista, Excite,
HotBot, and a host of other search engines. Consequently, AskJeeves always
felt like the "natural starting point".

Similarly, Michael Arrington builds trust by often mentioning Om Malik
(GigaOm) and Richard MacManus (Read/WriteWeb) on his blog. I suppose it leaves
the feeling that "He can't possibly promote a rivals blog without having a
better one himself!"

Ironically, a few weeks ago, Scoble mentioned that bloggers are geedy when it
comes to linking (he mentioned Engadget/Gizmodo as an example, and that sure
did piss them off). I think I will go ahead and forward this study to him :)

That said, I would be interested to know how they conducted this study. From
the looks of it, it seems they simply compared a site's worth versus # of
outgoing links. The fact that we agree with the study might just be a placebo
affect.

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Maybe I'm out of touch, but I don't perceive bloggers to be "rivals".

Links show what the author is reading. If I can relate to him, then I will
likely read the post to see what it adds to the discussion.

