Gone Away ~ The journal of Clive Allen in America

The Writers Blog Alliance
05/08/2005

I am pleased to announce that the Writers Blog Alliance (WBA) is in existence in beta form. Those who have been following its development over the last few days can rush off now to have a look - just click on this link. I warn you, however; it's huge!

If you're wondering what I'm talking about, I'll try to explain briefly. WBA began as an idea for increasing the visibility of writer's blogs. It occurred to me that we are all in a race for traffic, the lifeblood of blogs, but we're losing that race because our market is smaller than that of the big guns, the blogs on the A-list. In the blogosphere, success is measured by links; the top sites count their incoming links in the thousands whereas we think we're doing pretty well if we get a hundred links. And quality of link counts too; if you can achieve a link from a blog on the A-list, your own blog's importance (and traffic) will increase dramatically.

The problem is that writers will never get links from A-list blogs; they deal in news and current affairs, oddities and gadgets, we provide good writing that does not depend upon the latest events (I know the journalist writers are an exception to that but they need to consider the toughness of their opposition - the A-list bloggers are entrenched). We're in a bind: without links to high traffic sites, our blogs can never rise above the cacophony of the millions of blogs, to be noticed by our potential market; but none of the top blogs are ever going to be interested in what we're offering. What we need is a few heavyweight blogs of our own to dish out links to us so that we can be noticed.

At that point, I realized that we would just have to start creating blogs like that. Worldwide, there are thousands of writers' blogs. If we were to get together in a central blog, all linking to it, the result would be a blog that packs some punch where the search engines are concerned. And, having achieved such prominence, the blog could give links to the participating blogs and their importance would increase, too.

The theory seems good but it needs to be tried. I spoke to Deborah Woehr of The Writer's Buzz about the idea and she ran with it, adding her own thoughts for a writers' community to the mix. The result is WBA, a mansion designed to cater for writers and readers. It has a directory, forums, a news section and a magazine. At the moment, we are using the news section as a blog, while I work on setting up a blog dedicated to the site.

And it's the blog where my idea will be put into practice. It will be very simple, a straightforward blog with regular posts and a blogroll. Note that: a blogroll. Everyone who registers with WBA will be included in the blogroll. Of course, we will expect that members will link to the WBA blog too; in fact, Deborah has already designed a button that members can place on their blogs. Without that, the blog will not achieve enough importance to benefit writers.

We should remember that a blog must be updated regularly and often, if it is to rise in the estimation of the search engines. Deborah and I cannot provide enough posts to keep the WBA blog updated as frequently as it will have to be (at least once a day, preferably more often). The intention is that members contribute posts to keep the blog ticking over. If many are involved in that, the burden will not be too great. So we are asking that you be prepared to write the occasional article for WBA. It is a small price to pay for the potential exposure we are aiming at. And, of course, each post writer gets another link to their blog in the signature to his or her article.

There is much more to think about in tackling this venture but I am saving that for a series of articles for the WBA blog. Let me just say here that the outline above is only Stage One of the plan. Stage Two arrives if and when the blog achieves the importance envisaged.

This venture will not succeed unless writers and readers join in. All depends upon membership and links becoming numerous enough to impact the search engines. So I would urge all who have an interest in writing to go now to the WBA, have a look around, press a few buttons and notice that you're not the only one there. Then register and become a part of tomorrow! It's free; what have you got to lose?

Clive

Matthew
Unrelated to your post but I just wanted to say "hullo" as I've not been by in a while.
I hope all is well with you and yours.
Date Added: 05/08/2005

Gone Away
Actually, I've been so busy over the last few days that I've not had the chance to visit your blog either, Matthew. We're all fine, Mad recovering well from his motorbike wreck and working from home now. I'll sneak over sometime today and see what you've been posting - and check to see that you're all well too.
Date Added: 05/08/2005

John (SYNTAGMA)
An impressive edifice, Clive. Deborah has certainly put some work into that. Since it has a very specific focus, it may do very well. I've given it a bit of exposure on Business Week's Blogspotting. They're asking for nominations for unusual blogs to increase our creativity. Someone should alert Problogger too, it's the kind of thing he'll post about. And Blog Herald. Tell you what, I'll do the Blog Herald now, and you do Problogger! In fact a formal media release would get a lot of exposure and traffic.
Date Added: 05/08/2005

Gone Away
Yes, Deborah has really put a lot of work into this - I'm hugely impressed (these Americans - so full of energy!). I'm having to work too now - she's handed the job of creating WBA's blog to me and it's in WordPress, of which I know nothing! Still, I have Mad to help me out a little (by the way, did you notice the changing header? Mad's latest tweak).

Great ideas for publicity, John - I was going to notify ProBlogger but the others hadn't occurred to me. Thanks for doing the Blog Herald. And can I ask another favour? I've got my hands full learning WordPress at the moment and know nothing about media releases - would it be possible for you to bash something out?
Date Added: 05/08/2005

John (SYNTAGMA)
Sure thing, Clive, I'll do that this afternoon. I did notice the changing header : excellent, though the old one is back now. Glad to see the old gecko is still up there basking in his exposure. Or is that you? :-) Wordpress is supposed to be easy once it's configured and set up. If you're doing it from scratch though, not so simple. Good luck.
Date Added: 05/08/2005

Gone Away
Thanks, John, much appreciated. They're all chameleons actually - and yes, they're me! ;) You'll find that the picture changes every time you access my site - there are four pics so far and the blog selects one at random every time the page loads. Clever programming by Mad!

Mad is helping with the business of learning WordPress so it shouldn't be too painful. I hope...
Date Added: 05/08/2005

Mark Cross
I'm in!! I just joined the WBA this morning. I wish the veture well. The connections here and there and the sense of community that the WBA can provide us is what I am most looking forward to. Massive exposure, which I wish the WBA and all of us individually, is simply icing on the cake if you will.
Date Added: 05/08/2005

Gone Away
Great, Mark, let's hope this really gets off the ground and achieves something! Interest is pretty high and things are looking good. :)
Date Added: 05/08/2005

Josh
Very cool mastheads, Madmin. Very cool. :P
Date Added: 06/08/2005

Gary
I'm impressed. I tried to register my blog there and I thing I screwed things up. I'm not sure. Anyway, thanks for doing this. Also, like your new alternating chameleons.
Date Added: 06/08/2005

Gone Away
You're showing as a member, Gary, so I presume that everything worked okay. And glad you like the new chameleons! Kinda fond of them myself... ;)
Date Added: 06/08/2005

Madmin
Thanks Josh, I value your opinion. :D
Date Added: 06/08/2005

Josh
Aiieeegh! Xoops! Run fer thum thar hillllls!

Sorry. As a developer for another CMS, I am contractually obligated to make a snooty remark. :P
Date Added: 07/08/2005

Josh
On that same note, of course -- if you guys need any help with the code -- any help at all -- PLEASE don't hesitate to ask. No, Really. I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing. I think. :P
Date Added: 07/08/2005

Gone Away
Thanks, Josh, I just might do that. I remember who fixed my Firefox for me and explained about tabbed browsing... :D
Date Added: 07/08/2005

Mad
.o0(Hmm I explained about tabbed browsing months ago)
Date Added: 07/08/2005

Gone Away
I'm old, Mad. It takes me a while to get my head around something new... :D

But what have you done with my Technorati? I want my Technorati buttons back. :(
Date Added: 07/08/2005

Josh
Mine disappeared too -- and occasionally it throughs a javascript error.

They really are not trying very hard over there.
Date Added: 07/08/2005

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