November 13, 2003

Notes on Blogging #2:
How to become a Higher Being


If you're trying to break into the top ten blogs of the Ecosystem there are a few things that you can do:

a) Be a lawyer (preferably a law professor) -- Number who are lawyers: 9 (7 at Volokh); Number who are law professors: 8 (7 at Volokh)

b) Be a part of the elite media -- Like Glenn Reynolds, Joshua Micah Marshall, Andrew Sullivan, and Jacob Levy

c) Attend an Ivy League college -- Some schools attended by the top bloggers:
Princeton, Oxford, UCLA (2), Darmouth, Yale, Brown, Stanford, Northwestern,
George Mason University

d) Get an Advanced degree at an Ivy League school -- Grad Schools attended by the top bloggers: Yale Law, Brown, Boston Univ. Law, Harvard (3), Harvard Law, UCLA Law, Univ. of Chicago, Univ. of Chicago Law, Columbia Law, Stanford Law

e) Write for the New York Times -- As have Glenn Reynolds, Joshua Micah Marshall, and Andrew Sullivan

f) Have your work published -- As did Glenn Reynolds, Joshua Micah Marshall, Andrew Sullivan, everyone at Volokh

g) Clerk for a (future) Supreme Court justice -- Just like Erik Jaffe, Stuart Banner, and David Post

h) Be a musician -- Similar to Glenn Reynolds, Charles Johnson, and "Kos" Zúniga

i) Be male -- Only one of the top bloggers (Michelle Boardman) is a woman.

j) Be an American --All of the bloggers in the top ten are American

k) Get lucky - Just like Atrios and Calpundit did.


In other words, if you want to be a part of the elite of the blogosphere it helps to already be a part of an elite class already.

Update: I'd like to thank Darren (an Australian) at LivingRoom and Bene Diction Blogs On (a Canadian blogger) for pointing out two other criteria (I and J) that I had overlooked.

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comments
BrotherPhil writes:

1

And we are surprised by this? Who else has the time and money to read and write consistently, and who else has a desparate need to know what other people think? :)

Actually, if you think about it, well-trained adjudicators are excellent writers, even if often smothered in legalese. Plus, highly successful lawyers often have research assistants who do much of the writing they sign off on.... I wonder what would happen if their research assistants started writing their OWN blogs??? (I am SURE their bosses have written clauses in their employment contracts to prevent such action from occuring!)

posted on 11.15.2003 11:25 PM
Bene Diction writes:

2

Thanks for the link.
Look at the top 100.
Or the top 500.
Look at the topics on blogdex.
In the past six months, I've noticed more British, Australian, Canadian and European content at Blogdex, Daypop and Technorati.
I think that's great, and a reflection of what blogging is. Blog on!

posted on 11.16.2003 4:42 PM
Leah Guildenstern writes:

3

One way to read this is as you said, "In other words, if you want to be a part of the elite of the blogosphere it helps to already be a part of an elite class already."

However, another way to interpret this data is that if you are someone who is successful in promoting yourself (able to get into ivy league colleges, get published, etc.) then likewise you will likely also be successful in blogs.

However, this also means that even if a person didn't get into Ivy League schools and get published before because they were not that focused before, by becoming focused in a similar manner, by gaining that drive, you can succede in becoming part of the bloggosphere elite.

Success begets success because the tools/skills that lead to success in one area apply in other areas.

posted on 12.09.2003 2:51 PM
J.P. Carter writes:

4

Excellent comment! My statement was meant to be a sociological observation and not a condemnation of the "elite."

You are absolutely right. I wish I had thought of putting it into those words when I wrote the original post.

posted on 12.09.2003 3:42 PM