Wikio

LFAT asks "Is Wikio worth worrying about?" My answer - no. At least, not for me. 

When Wikio first registered The Appalling Strangeness, this blog was in the lower half of the Top 100 in the political list. It went up and down a bit, but recently it has been in freefall and now resides at No. 146. Behind the newerlabour blogspot; which you have to get permission from the head newer labour drone to read. At the same time, the trend in terms of readers is to go slowly but surely upwards. A bit of a discrepancy there, then. 

Of course, it is down to the way Wikio assesses blogs. More people read this blog than when it was in the Top 100; however, less people are linking to it these days. I don't really care who reads this blog or who links to it - the fact that people do both is a constant surprise and delight to me. However, if I had to choose between those largely meaningless popularity measures for an anonymous blog, then I would rather have more readers than a high ranking on Wikio. Occasionally I write something worth reading; on those rare occasions, I like to think at least someone is taking on board what I say.

This sort of debate does come down to what you want from your blog. Some people - like Mr Dale - see their blog as a career, and a spring board to better things. I'm firmly in the camp of those who blog for their own pleasure, and to vent spleen on t'interweb. Any readers or influence that this blog picks up is a pleasant by-product; they aren't this blog's reason for being.