Right there with you Thomas. These lazy marketers trying to exploit the system just don't get it. They don't realize successful business blogging is about developing and deepening (is that a word :)) relationships with your readers and potential consumers in your niche market. Marketers who pursue these methods will undoubtably feel the wrath of the blogosphere, much like Dan Rather.

John-Paul Micek
Advanced Business Blogging

John-Paul!

My friend and brother! How are you? Catching big waves for me? :-)

Yes, you are right. I this issue is simmering on the backburner and I get the sense that it's being watched. As the marketers go at and trying to one up each other with more powerful tools for this, we'll only see more of the same and as you've stated, the backlash.

Hey, thanks for stopping in and contributing. I'll give you a call shortly.

Best Regards,

TL

You mention in your post that the barrier to entry to being a top blog is low. What do you consider are the metrics of a top blog? At a recent UK blog conference this was set at 1,000 visitors per day - what do you think?

Hi Connected and thanks for posting.

My comment was directed toward blogging success in building traffic from good search positioning and reaching a target audience. This can be done easily with a blog and without the use of these abusive blog and ping tools.

IF one is willing to publish with a blog and deliver real content for a real audience then with patience and time a successful blog will emerge. This is assuming one is publishing information others are interested in.

While I can point to 'objective' metrics as an indicator of a top blog another measure of a top blog can based on it's authority and influence within a niche but more importantly with its target audience or readers.

I believe numbers are important but proportional. If your niche can't support 10,000 visitors a month than that metric would not be realistic in deciding if you have a top blog. Quality before quantity and then build from there. If you are hitting the right audience for your message than you are well on your way to success.

It would be a bit difficult for me to fix a exact number since again, topics, interest and niches are determining factors for how many visitors you "can" (not will) generate.

To really measure blog success you must establish goals that allow you to objectively measure that success. What does "top blog" mean? If it means 1000 visitors per day then by that measure you have a top blog. If it means that you are linked to by other top bloggers in your niche and these other top blogs are actually linking to you then you have established your targeted results.

Certainly a top blog can be said to have high visibility, high visitor volumes and is highly influential and authoritative. There is much that happens between starting out and getting there.

Start with your goals. What do you want your blog to ultimately return to you for your investment? If you get 1000 visitors a day then what? What does that traffic means and how should that help YOU?

Just some of my thoughts. Great question! Again, thanks for commenting.

Regards,

TL

Hi,

This is Vladimir from Pingoat.com.

Here are the real facts about pinging your blog:

- a ping helps you for updating your information on different websites

- a ping won’t deliver traffic to your blog, a ping will generate indirect traffic to your blog by sending requests to webpages that are using RSS feeds for content.

- a blog is just a blog, it’s not spamming, you won’t get banned unless, you are really spamming (check www.spologspot.com - it’s an extension of pingoat)

Hope this solves the problem a little bit