Valleywag
Once you write enough blog posts, and read far too many blog posts, you acquire an instinctive sense for the principle ingredients of an audience-pleasing offering. However, rather than itemize those ingredients, it's far easier to discuss this magical formula in terms of the instinctive emotional responses you hope to conjure in readers. The broadest of those responses are indignation, titillation, stimulation, and affirmation. Hitting any of the buttons is good. Ideally, you pack as many of those responses as possible into your content, even (and sometimes especially) if they're contradictory. Hitting the sweet spot in the center of all four virtually guarantees bloggy nirvana. In honor of indefatigable Silicon Valley guru Tony Robbins, after the jump, you may explore these four spheres and their subspecies by way of a soothingly hued Venn diagram.
Of course, as this post itself may exemplify, just knowing the target doesn't mean you hit it every time. Something of a work in progress, so feel free to weigh in.
Comments
You should use this as a basis for a blogsite heatmap. Show where certain blogs typically hit. For example, while Valleywag tends to play a slight fade into perversity land, Techcrunch plays a low hook towards novelty. The Consumerist goes straight for the indignation chip shot, and GigaOm tends to play a fairly reliable three iron down the middle.
That's actually a great idea ... scatter graph, here we come.
congratulations my son... in the next life, you will return as an enlightened trackback to a picture of Marissa Mayer's yoni.
nice work on the venn diagram tho... great pic :)
Violet Blue hits this target, but she shoots from the hip with a sawed-off shotgun.
The pellet dispersion pattern changes from post to post. I think it has to do with how many cupcakes she has consumed and what shoes she's wearing.
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