The Wittery Blog (The Witty Writer Marketplace)

The Serious/Not Serious Series on Jargon

You Cannot Be Serious:

Practice saying and writing the following:

“Mwah, mwah! It’s simply marvelous to see you, dwarling. May I appreciatively press parts of your delectable flesh and tell you whopping great lies about how gorgeous and clever you are?”

And repeat: “Mwah, mwah! It’s simply marvelous to see you, dwarling. May I appreciatively press parts of your delectable flesh and tell you whopping great lies about how gorgeous and clever you are?”

Do this ten times a day until it becomes second nature to you. If you do several things are likely to occur:

o you will turn into one of the most shallow human beings on the planet
o people who used to like you will go off you
o you will get funny looks in the supermarket
o the police may be called (this usually only happens when actual pressing of physical flesh takes place)
o you will be equipped to win favor with the Linkerati

It is the latter occurrence that we are most interested in, you getting it on with the Linkerati online.

Who are the Linkerati, you ask? Where do they live, in silver, silk lined palaces with cons so mod you’d think you’d gone into the future? Do they dine only on puréed swans’ down and angel sneezes? Do they fart glitter? Tick yes to all of the aforementioned, and more. The Linkerati are the web’s wonders, the internet elite and you, as a humble serf like being who probably smells, must learn to court them.

Seriously:

Linkerati is a term used to describe people of influence online. The clue is in the name. It’s all about links and mentions. This select bunch includes popular bloggers, tweeters, social media mavericks, and forum poster gurus. It consists of a group of online influencers who are happy and willing to create and share links to resources that they find interesting.

It is a common phenomenon for marketers, individuals and businesses with an online presence to spend a lot of time trying to attract the attention of the Linkerati. Content created for the purposes of attracting the attention of the Linkerati is often referred to as “linkbait”.

If a member of the Linkerati mentions you or your business (and links to your website), it can have a powerful impact on your site traffic and bottom line. Quality links from high ranking sites of the Linkerati can send your traffic through the roof.

If you’re just starting out online and you are seeking to build a presence, is there an alternative to spending time waving at and flirting with the Linkerati?

Try this approach instead:

Keep an eye out for up and coming sites and people online and spend time building relationships with them instead. You will learn a lot more doing it this way. The journey is also likely to be more enjoyable. When you seek attention from the Linkerati, you are seeking attention from people who have already made it and who have social proof on their side.

Why not be more adventurous? Find new people to follow and interact with. Seek out tomorrow’s influencers. Be ahead of the crowd.  Be the purple sheep with yellow polkadots and take your own direction. It may surprise you when you notice that other multi-colored sheep start following you. You will then have morphed into a member of the Linkerati class yourself.**

I would like to share my recent experience of the blogosphere: I’m new to the blogosphere. (I’m lucky because I get help with my blog from my witty writer friends.)  I have started commenting on others’ blogs, both Linkerati blogs, newer blogs and blogs with small audiences. When I comment on lesser known blogs, I’ve noticed that I often receive gifts in return that sometimes bring a tear to my eye. It has taught me a valuable lesson.

What’s your experience of the linkerati and the blogosphere? Do you comment on lesser-known blogs? If so, do you find it rewarding?

Other Jargon Buster Articles:

Attraction Marketing;  Buzz Marketing; Content Strategy;  Duplicate Content; PageRank; SEO; SERPS; The Cloud; User Experience

Other Resources:

*Rand Fishkin, founder of SeoMoz.org is credited with coining the term Linkerati. From what I can gather, he first used it in 2006.

**It seems there’s a new trailblazing website on the horizon. Check out BryanRicard.com. His tagline is a Ralph Emerson quote: ”Don’t go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path… and leave a trail.” The importance of the “Leave a Trail” quote gets its own little section over at Bryan’s site.

Welcome to The Wittery Blog (aka The Witty Writer Marketplace)

You’re in the right place if you’re looking for Witty Freelance Writers to add zest to your business content. (Simply click here,  click the Register button [remembering to wipe your feet first] and give us some info about you. We don’t do spam (can’t stand the taste). There’s even a limited free trial where you can post your project for free.

[FYI, The Wittery Writers are responsible for the "Not Serious" parts of this series. They can do your witty too.]

Witty Freelance Writer with a burning desire to join the wit mob? Click here, remove your shoes and then come through to the application form (you can’t miss it. It says “Apply”)

If you’d prefer to follow the scenic route instead, start off at the home page. See you soon.

Tags: blogosphere, high ranking sites, internet elite, leave a trail, linkerati, popular bloggers, quality links, site traffic, social media mavericks, social proof, tomorrow's influencers

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 16th, 2010 at 7:25 am and is filed under Jargon Buster - Serious/Not Serious Series, Witto. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.