Guy Kawasaki started blogging in January and has come up with quite a few interesting posts – a lot of which he’s paraphrasing from his books which I must say are a good read if you’ve ever wondered about starting a business and promoting a product. My personal preference is “Rules for Revolutionaries” and if you buy using that link, Guy gets a referral from Amazon .
Robert Scoble, who does something-or-other at Microsoft (I think he may be their blogger?) has been a long time blogger along with his A-list blogger friends. Sometimes it’s an interesting read when he’s enthused about stuff, I like his enthusiasm for geeky things.
The funny thing is that Robert sometimes criticises Guy’s blog. Sure, he refutes Guy’s recent “How to suck up to bloggers” which details ways to get mentioned on an A-list bloggers main content rather than being an also-ran in the comments. Robert says the way to get him passionate about something is to get everyone in his life passionate. Aha, that must be what Rick Segal (some Microsoft millionaire VC guy) spotted when some marketroid guys were targetting Robert’s kid, Patrick with some free goodies. I’m not sure that’s what Robert meant but when he urges you to get his friends and family passionate I guess he’s looking to score some cool free stuff. More power to you, Robert. What’s the point of being an A-list blogger and getting trackbacks from nobodies – “blagging” is an art when you’re a nobody, it’s an accident (and sometimes a benefit) when you’re A-list. Enjoy the free stuff, mate.
Ah, Robert is a “Technical Evangelist” at Microsoft. It’s in the small print halfway down the right hand side. Yeah, so I guess he blogs for a living. Tough gig.
Anyway, if it’s not necessary to suck up to A-list bloggers then why do people do it? Because they’re the remora hoping that their suck-uppage will merit them a mention on the A-list blogsite which will drive their traffic through the roof and merit them a few sales and, you never know, maybe some opportunistic B-list VC will try and beat YMG to that initial first round investment.
They suck up because they DO need to. It’s their business model.