Thank you CNET for making Hmm part of your Blog 100 |
(2 votes, average: 3.5 out of 5)
Loading ...Was looking through the referrer logs a little bit ago and noticed some extra hits coming from CNET and decided to investigate. What did I find?
Thank you, CNET editors for adding MakeYouGoHmm as of January 31, 2006 to your Blog 100 list. Would be lying if I said I wasn’t wondering how much of my incomplete list factored in (100 reasons MakeYouGoHmm should make CNET’s Blog 100) and my post nominating myself along with some adjustements for CNET’s first effort. And thank you to reader, Steven Frien who left some very kind words and claimed that only his mother read his blog. Nahhh, but I’ll forgive you for correctly predicting the Steelers would win over our hometown Hawks 
Seriously, truth is I wasn’t just lobbying to get listed, I am very proud of this blog and work hard to make it worth reading every day. I honestly felt and believed that this blog belonged on CNET’s list. However, as I said back then, the top 100 list I’m most interested in being on will always be your top 100 list, the reader’s top 100 list. For without you, readers, let’s be realistic here, I’d just be pissing in the wind.
That’s better than pissing on an electric fence.
I like CNET’s description of this blog: “Good mix of news and links, but the real value-add comes from insightful commentary.”
Every time I try to come up with a description for this blog I stumble. It’s about so many different things, although definitely technology-focused, that it often falls off the radar of many of the technology lists. It’s one of the downsides of writing a blog about, well, almost everything. Depending on what day one reads this blog there might not be anything techology-related here (although that’s rare).
Seems like the last few months though Hmm has been getting more publicity and exposure, which of course I’m grateful for and it causes me to work harder. Perhaps this is a good lesson to those who write every day and wonder when somebody out there will start to notice what they are doing? I’ve been at this blog since July 4, 2003, over 2 1/2 years, and nearly 800,000 words and 3,000 posts later. Don’t give up on your blogging efforts no matter how many readers you think — or don’t think — you have. I wonder how many bloggers give up too soon?
Like any other writer, I still meet with rejection. Just last month ZDNet passed on an idea I pitched to them. I’m still going with that idea, in fact am working with others on it now and will be telling folks here about it soon. I think folks will find it useful and engaging, but then I’m heavily biased.
Last month the Hmm post count dropped off not because I wasn’t writing more but because I was more critical of what was actually posted. Maybe I should dump a screenshot of the posts sitting in the draft bin one of these days?
Maybe now is a good time to ask if any readers would be interested in seeing what has not been posted? Some of this stuff is utter crap, incomplete, half-baked, perhaps just plain wrong and I suspect very few folks would be interested but if it’s left in the trunk, unable to see light, well, who knows?
Why not just add this to another blog of ours? Because most of the other blogs are specialized. Hmm is probably the most open topic blog I write for so if it doesn’t fit here then chances are it won’t fit anywhere.
Some of these posts I passed on simply because of timing and circumstance, or because I felt there were already too many posts out there that were too similar. Or, in some cases, some of these posts will still appear someday in the future. Perhaps on a slower or more relevant news day. This is a little bit like the Rough Cuts gig O’Reilly is trying. Rough draft material can be scary. Then again, I still consider a lot of this blog stuff rough draft material, which frankly has been one of the great allures for me.
Added with the recent Feedster of the Year #7 nod, now I have to remove #2 on my list: “a blog that has never made any top 100 list yet, so it could potentially be fresher to readers.”
Punch the monkey
Readers please continue to kick my ass in the comments if/when the content sucks and/or you strongly disagree. Be passionate, I like that. That will help make Hmm better for others if there is more passion circulating. I only ask to be respectful to each other in the comments and not spam us. We don’t like that and will get cranky. I very strongly do not believe in using rel=’nofollow’ but we will remove links from posts if they are spammy. We have to or the site as a whole might be punished by the search engines.
Maybe some readers will feel that this blog post sucks, but I do try and dial down the self-referential and promotional posts. Really, I couldn’t ignore thanking CNET editors for adding me to their list. Especially after I made a big deal out of not making their list. For those who think this whole CNET list thing was totally self-serving, you are correct. Sometimes in life you have to toot your own horn, sorry, even at the risk of sounding or being ostentatious. I can be humble too, absolutely, but there is nothing wrong with being proud of hard work and sometimes people are punished by being too humble. Forgive me readers for these transgressions.
Thank you again, CNET. Much appreciated. Thank you, readers. Much more appreciated.
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Congrats on making the short list. You’re one of only 4 or 5 on the list that I read. Keep up the good content, and post whatever you feel would be worthwhile to your millions and millions of fans.
Comment by Phil Gerbyshak — February 6, 2006 @ 5:20 pm PST
Ditto what Phil said. I have only 13 feeds loaded in my aggregator, and Hmm was the first one I added. Most of the others I came to know from posts in Hmm. It’s also only one of two or three that I always read in full, whether or not the headline grabs my attention. I think the title says it all. You almost always make me say “Hmm”, whether or not I feel compelled to respond with a comment. Regarding whether to publish posts that may be a little soft in the middle, I’d say trust your gut. If it’s interesting to you, then there’s a good chance it will be interesting to us. The key question is, “Does it make you go Hmm?”
Comment by SterlingCamden — February 6, 2006 @ 5:36 pm PST
Thanks for the vote of confidence and reading guys. Phil your link was broken (had an extra colon in it). I fixed and now all is good. Want to make sure both machine and (wo)men can follow links to commenters.
As for publishing the draft stuff, I’ve been thinking about what I can do with the stuff since Christmas. Will keep mulling that over, but certainly open to suggestions.
Comment by TDavid — February 6, 2006 @ 8:02 pm PST
Thanks so much for fixing that for me. I appreciate it.
My thought on the stuff since Christmas: Pick 1 per week that you think is best, and post what’s you’ve got, invite the comments (don’t delete the comments ;), and then take the ones that get the best feedback and beef those articles up.
Comment by Phil Gerbyshak — February 6, 2006 @ 8:06 pm PST
Congrats TDavid! I really like Phil’s idea about all those drafts….
Comment by FranciscoIV — February 7, 2006 @ 10:10 am PST
Like the others have said, CONGRATS TDavid!! Even if you were to be without the recognition from CNet, I already knew how wonderful your blog is (although, let’s be real, making the CNet list is pretty damn exciting!!)
Good for you!!
You know, it’s funny, I read a lot of information (in both blogs and various sites) on the internet and, as time goes by, I can’t recall half of what I’ve read because at some point, it all sounds the same. But your posts stand out because you have such a great mix of content on your site. Thanks for blogging and keep up the great work…your readers appreciate you!
Comment by Janine — February 12, 2006 @ 8:58 pm PST