While it's probably a waste of my time and certainly against my better judgment, I'm going to comment on some of what was said at Salisbury News over the weekend regarding my "proper" influence rank. Here's the quote:
The fact that Mike is now all the way down to #16 means someone is listening to something because that's where he belongs right now.
I have to differ with that, since that's actually as low as I've ranked over the course of the rating system. On average last year my rank was #6, so over time that seems to be where I fall, some weeks higher and some lower.
I suppose having a low rank just means I have to try a little harder, although my post on Pipkin's pay to play yesterday got a "legitimate" link from Delmarva Dealings, plus a couple other recent posts have gotten other bloggers' attention. I thank them for reading and linking, hopefully those readers see my points I'm trying to make. Speaking of DD, obviously G.A. Harrison will now be a force to reckon with since he's also developed a sister site called Campaign Edge to go along with his linkage to Salisbury News.
It still irks me though that I'm accused of crossposting solely to pump up my Maryland political influence rankings. The fact is, I had high ratings even before I started crossposting with Red Maryland in September. Certainly I crosspost to increase the number of readers I get, whether on my blog or someplace else. Unless you're running a private blog, that IS the idea, isn't it? Lord knows Salisbury News talks a lot about record days and I'll be the first to admit that insofar as Salisbury bloggers go he gets the most readers. Being a event-driven blog that concentrates on what goes on in and around the Salisbury area, naturally people will go read SN because at times there's a breaking story that won't be in the newspaper until the next day (or next week, or never.) He even has began to take in stories from other news sources, sort of like the Daily Times does with the Associated Press wire.
But is it truly political in nature? Sure, there's a fixation on all that's wrong with politics in Salisbury and Wicomico County - no shortage of fodder there - but his political agenda definitely focuses on one person, Barrie Parsons Tilghman. She's the mayor of one small town, a town he doesn't even live in! To each his own, I guess.
Let me give people an example. Each Monday Salisbury News gets a post from Andy Harris with his talking point of the week. It's reprinted verbatim and readers react. I can't complain too much about the strategy; after all I'm a Harris supporter and it's a wise use of resources seeing that people read that blog and insofar as I know it's free advertising.
But I don't always take things at face value. With Harris, I've been critical of the negative campaign he's ran because I've seen him speak and he's got a positive message on the stump, why not take it to the people? And I'll talk about what other candidates on both sides of the race say with a liberal dose of my viewpoint. (That's about the only liberal you get out of me.) Comments and challenges are welcomed here.
It's why I was INVITED to become a contributor to Red Maryland and also into the Maryland Bloggers Alliance back in 2006. People tell me I have a talent for writing, who am I not to believe them?
And given what has been said about me quite frequently from a particular source, a source who also agrees on the one hand that I can write a mean sentence but then runs me down a paragraph or two later for writing too lengthy of posts or for not being a good businessman - overall I'm glad I've stayed independent in all of this. While I do crosspost from time to time, it all starts right here.
For what I have accomplished and built from less than zero is something for which I can take all of the credit. There is only one writer of monoblogue, hence the name. The probability is really great that mine will never be the most-read blog in the world or even in this little town I call home, but I've found that people almost always respect my work and have shown that through placing me on their must-read bloglists. There's something to be said for that regardless of my political influence rank.
Now that I've said my piece, feel free to comment but that's the way I see it. Tomorrow will be time to move on to important issues again.