Good blogs don’t need to have opinions to become well read. They do need links; it’s their air supply.
Consider what Adam Weinroth wrote. He analyzed the highly effective habits of Robert Scoble, Dave Winer and myself…
The A-listers are viewed by many as pundits or pontificators – but from my perspective these guys are not actually putting forth a whole lot in the way of declarative statements or analysis (at least not through their blogs). In fact I’d say they’re acting more like radio DJ’s (playing attractive mixes of someone else’s original content), rather than artists.
Although most of them are very intelligent, they’re really not using a blog as a platform for conveying intelligent thoughts – they are primarily routing people to other content, sometimes providing summary information.
He’s right. The best bloggers are connectors. Neville Hobson, Scoble and Buzz Bruggeman taught me this. And when Ray Charles died, I learned it first from Dave Winer with this simple link.
Opinion has its place and it is certainly very important and valuable,
but links are primarily what get me visiting certain blogs every
day.
Steve Rubel is a PR strategist with nearly 16 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Edelman, the largest independent global PR firm.
He authors the Micro Persuasion weblog, which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice.