A-Lister – Does it matter AND What really constitutes being an A-Lister.

I haven’t much thought of this in a while, but thanks to Gabe at TechMeme and this post from Shel Israel , I was linked to some cool posts and a new train of thought. Man, I hope the Ambien kicks in soon :) .

I have met enough great people from blogging 8 months that if I quit today, which I could not, I would consider it one of the greatest achievements of my life AND there have been some good ones.

Yet, I have just over 120 subscribers which is kind of pathetic.

Do I need to say Pen*s and s#x and b00bs more often and start more fights and link bait or whatever the hell the tricks are?

Maybe. What is funny is that the best two links I get – 20 per day each are for posts I did about Phil Mickelson and his “man boobies” (as a fellow man boober, that makes it o.k.) and Kobe’s dunk on Nash. That’s all well and good, but I am sure that the thousands of people that have read those posts – NEVER READ ANOTHER!

But I digress.

I guess my problem is I never set out with a goal of getting lot’s of readers. It was a fantasy, not a goal. If my goal was readers, based on the global population, this blog is a ridiculous waste of time. If the goal was readers, I should quit and devote more time to charity. Note to self – you can still do this.

From an ego perspective, having 120 subscribers seems really low. But I am also weak, old, goofy looking and have many failed businesses under my belt. My ego has been lambasted before.

But, out of nowhere I meet someone cool or get linked to someone new I love to read or write something smart that gets 30 comments and starts a conversation. How cool is that. It should happen to everybody!

I really like this thought from Douglas Karr and will remember it evry time I get aggravated that what I think is a good post goes underread and forgotten:

“I’m afraid that he suffers from the old school rule of advertising… more eyeballs is better. The new rule is ROE… Return on Eyeballs. If the one person who reads your blog is the one you are looking to network with, work with, or respond to… then your blog’s ROE is 100%!

Success is no longer measured in a high number of eyeballs. That’s why newspapers and other mass mediums continue to fail. People are looking to connect with people that they want to, not forced to connect to those who are fed to them. I’m not looking to make my blog an ‘A-List’ on the Internet, I’m simply looking to make it an ‘A-List’ with my colleagues, friends and family.”

I now have a mantra and focused goal and reminder post. Cool.