How to inadvertently reach the Top 10k on Technorati
If you read my blog regularly or even if you don’t, there’s a good chance you’ve seen the thing called the Schmooze Award sweeping across the blogosphere. Do a search on Google for Power of Schmooze and this very site will be the number one result. Don’t stop there though, just look at the crazy number of power of schmooze results. It’s schmoozemania! Just what is the schmooze you ask? The Schmooze Award was created by yours truly along with my buddy Danielle of Pink Internet Marketing. We thought it would be a fun way to award bloggers who do an exceptional job of getting out and about around the blogosphere and making connections with other bloggers. I don’t think either of us believed the award would become so insanely popular, but people sure seem to like it!
Now then, what does all that have to do with the Top 10k of Technorati? Well if you had asked me that the day I wrote my original post about the Schmooze award I would have said nothing. The Technorati Authority ranking is a number based on how many blogs are linking back to you. The higher your number of back links, the closer you’ll get to reaching the top 10k. As of today my Technorati Authority stands at 361, which puts me just on the outskirts of the top 10k with a ranking of 10,633. At the rate my authority has been increasing since the Schmooze Award conception, it won’t be long before my blog reaches the Top 10k.
With that in mind I’m sure some might ask, “Surely you must have created the award with the idea of back links in mind, right?” Nope. Honestly that idea never actually crossed my mind. In fact if you read my original Schmooze Award post, nowhere in there will you see me ever ask anyone to link back to me when they pass the award on to others. Yet somewhere along the line one blog owner passing it on to another decided it would be a good idea to create a list of rules for passing on the award and included in there a phrase that says something like “Link back to Mike so others will know the origin of the Schmooze Award”. With that the flood gates were open.
In a way I feel like my rapidly increasing Technorati numbers are cheapened by the fact that it’s only occurring because of the Schmooze Award. On the other hand though bloggers really do seem to enjoy receiving the award and passing it along, so is it really so bad to be credited in a small way for that each time it’s passed to another blogger? I’m not sure of the answer of that but it is rather cool seeing the Schmooze nearly everywhere I go now :)
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July 16th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Hey Mike, do you know why we should care about our Technorati ranking? Do any advertiser services pay attention to it or anything?
July 16th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
I guess some still do. Up until just recently PayPerPost used the Technorati numbers as part of their way to rank blogs in their system. I would imagine from an advertiser standpoint they would most likely be more interested in placing ads on a site with a ranking of 10,000 than one with 10 million. Who really knows though? :P
You could probably ask this question of Christy though. She’s pretty obsessed with Technorati…hehe ;P
July 16th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
Bush – Technorati rank is considered important by ReviewMe, Sponsored Reviews, Text Link Ads, and a few others.
Mike – All the people who linked to you did it because they thought you were worth it. The fact that you didn’t ask for a link back to the original post proves linkbait wasn’t your intention. In the blogging world, nice guys finish first ;)
Hmm I wonder where that leaves shy guys haha.
July 16th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
I’m sure we know of at least a couple people that would still consider it link bait, don’t we? ;)
July 16th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
The way I see it, anything can be considered link bait. If you come up with a good idea anyone can point to it and say “He isn’t doing that because it will make things better! He is just trying to get people to his site! Trickery I say, trickery!”
Most of these people are just jealous. They wish they thought of the idea. There is a lot of recycling in the blogging world. New ideas are digital gold.
I firmly believe that if you run your site the way that you want to run it and you produce something of value the links will come. I think this is what happened with the awards.
I think the awards are great. They are a great way to see what other people think of their fellow bloggers. I am personally very glad that you are getting some links back from your good will. I agree with Brown Baron. Being nice is worth a lot in the blogging community and I think you deserve the attention.
July 16th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
Thanks, Andrew :) I certainly have no regrets creating the award with the Danielle. I thought it was such a fun idea. I’m simply blown away by how it’s exploded throughout the blogosphere.
I think you’re right though about link bait. All it takes is someone liking what you wrote to link to it. In this case a couple hundred someones so far seem to have liked what Danielle and I wrote :P
July 16th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
I think it all comes down to creativity in the end, all the planning in the world can’t save a blogger with poor writing skills and no ideas. It’s nice that you didn’t plan it, it makes it even more special! Because your site looks great and you’re a good writer, when people come to collect the badge they’ll remember you! (and link to you and all that other good stuff!)
Bush – Technorati is a big status thing, which can in turn make you some extra money, and it’s REALLY important to me because I’m a Technorati addict!!!!! Yeah I see you up there Mike making fun of me!! If you are higher up (or actually lower down) in Technorati people are more likely to link to you, give you memes, talk about you, review you, etc. Since it’s easier for you to get noticed advertisers are more likely to want to advertise on your blog, and of course it’s super easy to get accepted by all of the blog advertising companies.
July 16th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
You’re too kind, Christy :D
July 16th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
Hello Mike! As I call myself an network evangelist and love to share my daily life from Norway and the Nordic countries; our culture, traditions and habits, I find this initiative from you very interesting. I was awarded today by Eastcoastlife and was flattered of course.
Your post here about how it influence your Tehnorati ranking is interesting. Not that it surprice me as the number of links is what rules, but I think you have a creative initiative here. As you say it is voluntary to join and after all it’s a matter of getting exposure – why else do we blog?
I will have mine up in a day or so:-)
July 16th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
@Christy – Wow! Now that’s service! Thanks for the complete answer, now I just have to go and do something about it. *sigh* One thing at a time right?
July 16th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
Hi Renny! Congratulation on winning your Schmooze Award :D Never been to Norway but I’ve seen pictures and it looks like a very beautiful place :)
July 16th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
Fantastic idea!
July 16th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
Congratulations! Maybe lots of other web memes will appear based on this theory of yours. :D
July 16th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
@Vampire: Thanks :P
@Grace: Hehe…thanks ;D I imagine some people already do create memes for the sake of links :P
July 17th, 2007 at 2:58 am
Woohoo!!! I wish I could say it did the same for me, but alas!!! What is nice about this is that neither of us thought about this before, which is kind of silly really.
BTW this is comment #41. I have been trying to avoid comment #41 but I could not. It was was too hard. :)
July 17th, 2007 at 10:08 am
I won’t tell anyone how many comments you’ve left this month. It’ll be our little secret ;)
July 17th, 2007 at 10:38 am
All these awards being given out… I guess one day I will be worthy of such an award. :)
July 17th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
Mike, if you appreciate your ranking: congrats! If you dont: still congrats!
I only came to look at your site the first time, after Christy had given me this P-o-S award, not only because you had played ‘a nice role’ in the development of that award, but also because you where nice enough to make a funny comment on Cristy’s Coffee Break about this ‘lame excuse award’ I mentioned ;-)
Then I came back a couple of times, to find that you not only have a great site and a great sense of humour, but also a sincere and genuine interest in trying to help people improving their schmoozing skills.
That is what counts. And if Technorati cannot count that up, they just don’t know how to count and make a connection.
July 17th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
@Bucky: It’s only a matter of time. The schmooze is literally everywhere :P
@Jos: Thanks, I appreciate that! I do enjoy helping others and if I can do it with a little humor that’s even better :D
July 17th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
@Mike – Thanks Mike for keeping my secret… Gee I hope no one looks at the top left corner of your blog. :P
@Christy – Don’t feel too bad about being a Technorati addict – I am an everything addict (Analytics, Technorati, Alexa, etc) In fact I have not signed up for Analytics yet with my new blog because I am too obsessed with these things and I waste my time looking at stuff that I should not be worrying about right now.
@Jos – I really get a kick out of how this award gets “lost in translation”. :)
July 17th, 2007 at 10:08 pm
Somehow the linkback to you either escpaed me or wasn’t relayed to me, but I received your schmooze ward and just saw the mention of you as the originator. I thougt you might want to see
my photoshopped version of the award. Thanks for starting it – its lead me to some interesting blogs.
July 17th, 2007 at 11:13 pm
@Danielle: I’m sure no one will notice the LEFT HAND CORNER of my blog. Not at all :P
@CS: LOL…that’s a pretty good likeness to my illustration ;)
July 17th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
No no… it’s just one of the first things you see after all :)
July 18th, 2007 at 6:51 am
@Danielle: some people overhere actually DO seem to think the P-o-S Award is some google adsense ad for some gym around the corner. And I’m not even using the CS version. :P
July 18th, 2007 at 10:35 am
@Danielle: You’re half way to 100! You can dooo it :D
July 18th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
[...] I officially moved into the Top 10k on Technorati, as I had anticipated I would probably do soon in an earlier post. I must admit I don’t really feel any different. There’s no flood of advertisers [...]
July 18th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
@Mike – Oh, I fully intend to make it to 100 comments by the end of the month! I have made it my personal mission. (Were you imitating that guy from Water Boy… You can dooo it!) :D
July 18th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Yes, yes I was :D The fact that you know that makes you even cooler…hehe.
July 18th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Awesome! I love that movie, and I can’t say “you can do it” without imitating him! I could totally tell from the tone of your… um… typing?
July 18th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Ain’t that Forrest Gump, over there?
July 30th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
[...] sensation known as the Power of Schmooze still seems to be full steam ahead and I’m still inadvertently receiving back links by the bucket loads from it. I logged in to Technorati today to see that my [...]
August 1st, 2007 at 1:42 am
Hiya! I came into this site through Danielle’s site (we met on Blogathon Day…I’m still recovering.)
Just thought I’d say that I am enjoying what I’m reading and will be back. I think this schmooze thing is fun. I have a soft spot for ideas that go wild! :)
August 1st, 2007 at 1:59 am
Hi Linda! Yeh you could definitely say the schmooze idea went rather wild…lol ;P
August 2nd, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Thanks for replying! :-) Hee, but it sounds like fun.
I’m about to join your (plural) You Comment, I Reply movement. I think it’s a great idea.
Btw, since you use Wordpress–which plugin did you use for “related posts”?
August 2nd, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Hi Linda :) The plugin is called DLC Related posts…or something like that ;P I actually made a post not too long outlining 9 that I like to use with all new wordpress installations and that is one of them :)
August 14th, 2007 at 8:50 am
[...] rank is currently 14,803. If the 7-P’s continue this move, I could break the top 10,000 like Technorati Boy did, and maybe even the top 5,000 like Mr. [...]
August 26th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
[...] your site a back link superstar – I guess we all know by now what the Schmooze can do for your back links but if you don’t have a little schmooze up your sleeve, perhaps [...]