The Fearless Blogger

Last week I saw a tweet from Guy Kawasaki regarding a new project by Chuck Westbrook to “End the Problem of Blogs With Great Content and No Readers“.

That sounded like a worthy cause, so I decided to check it out.

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Chuck boils the problem down to two issues:

1.  Great Content but No Audience
There are a ton of brilliant blogs that are being read by almost no one. Some authors give up for lack of readers. Others continue to produce clever, insightful pieces that remain hopelessly buried and forever unappreciated.

2.  An Audience Hunting for Great Content to Read
If the blogs with the best content always rose to the top, readers wouldn’t have any trouble finding them. But that doesn’t happen, so instead, it takes either luck or a lot of work to discover good new blogs.

Granted, sites such as Digg and Technorati exist to resolve this very issue.  However these sites are all algorithm-based, so there is a numbers element involved in making sure good/popular content bubbles up to the surface.

So we have a bit of a “catch-22″: without readers, there is no one to “digg” the sites; without the visibility those sites provide, it’s hard to get new readers.

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Chuck proposes injecting a more human element into the process as his three-step solution:

1.  Gather some nice bloggers who believe in helping good content rise. The more the merrier. This becomes our group for the project.

2.  A good, lesser-known blog is chosen. Everyone in the group will read that blog for two weeks.

3.  At the end of the two weeks, the group moves to another blog to read.

Chuck admits this solution is not as scalable as the previously mentioned Digg and Technorati, but feels it is a more successful approach.

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What have been the results so far?

• In addition to Guy, the project has received recognition from “A-List” bloggers Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse, and  Brian Clark.
• The first blog selected, Zoë Westhof’s Essential Prose saw “daily traffic rise from about 15 visitors per day up to 500 on the day that she was announced . . . even after that initial burst . . . she continued to draw an average of 200 new visits a day”.
• Zoë saw a corresponding increase in reader engagement via comments.  She also received valuable feedback from other bloggers via Chuck’s site forum.  You can read more about Zoë’s experience here.
• Aside from Zoë, other bloggers from Chuck’s community reported seeing their readership increase as well.

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What’s next for the project?

“More variety, different types of blogs“.  Based on community feedback, to ensure diversity of selected blogs the next blog will not be about blogging or social media.   Wanting to cast as wide a net as possible, Chuck seeks to build up a panel to assist in the bi-weekly blog selection process.

Other next steps will focus on building project recognition through branding, amping up established blogger recruitment, and increasing visibility through site widgets and badges.

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I love what Chuck is doing.

For one thing, as a new blogger (hey, someone’s 1 month birthday is coming up . . .!) I’m all for organic, genuine efforts to help bring visibility to good content. I also love the opportunity Chuck’s forums provide new and/or yet-to-be-discovered bloggers to connect with and learn from each other.  Heck, I love that in less than a month, Chuck has a community!

Aside from the “what’s-in-it-for-me-as-a-blogger” factor, I love that this is a way to discover new blogs to spotlight here!

The project’s second blog is Richard Millington’s “FeverBee”.

I’ll be posting the names of selected blogs and keeping you updated on the project, but that shouldn’t stop you from visiting both Zoë’s and Richard’s blogs, as well as visiting and supporting Chuck’s site yourself.

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I’ve really only skimmed the surface of Chuck’s project; and I’ve definitely described it from a blogger’s point of view.
What say you?

Do you think it can work?

Does making even a small bit of headway of plowing through the information overload make it worthwhile?

Most importantly, as a reader, do you see a benefit for yourself?  Or does this seem like a bunch of self-serving bloggers giving themselves pats on the back?

Share your thoughts with a comment below!

this is a spotlight post

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photo credits:  Thailand from Essential Prose header, haystack by David Reece, variety by LexnGer | licensed as

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