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April 7, 2008

Time.com Goes Trolling For Blog Links

Erick Schonfeld

26 comments »

bestblogs_landing.jpgHow does a big magazine site like Time.com get blogs to link to it? Put up a list of the Top 25 Blogs where readers can vote for their own favorites.

Okay, we’ll take the linkbait. TechCrunch is on the list, but so far only 57 people have bothered to vote. That is completely unacceptable. So please go rate us up the list, loyal readers. You can also vote for other blogs including Boing Boing, the Consumerist, Daily Kos, Engadget, Freakonomics, Indexed, Lifehacker, and The Huffington Post. If you must.

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 10:15 am and is filed under TechCrunch Network, Web 2.0 News & Ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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    April 7th, 2008 at 2:34 pm

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Comments

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  1. free press release

    April 7th, 2008 at 10:22 am

    time tested and most effective link bait scheme. you fell for the bait. ok, we will vote for you. we are going to try some thing like this. it works for Time. will it work for us?

    webmaster
    PressReleasePoint

  2. Adam Singer

    April 7th, 2008 at 10:42 am

    @ Free Press Release:

    Probably not, tons of people in the blogosphere try to do this daily.

    Unfortunately your site simply doesn’t have the same weight behind it as Time.com…sorry.

    There are other ways to create fun linkbaiting campaigns, do an original one - and don’t just link the Top sites - they’re being linked to everywhere and you’ll never get reciprocal links from them. Do it with niche-mid sized sites for best results. You can do the top sites only if you are really innovative and do something special.

    The only reason TechCrunch links is because it is Time Mag.

  3. 113.com

    April 7th, 2008 at 10:43 am

    Effective bait… :-o

  4. SearcH◆ EngineS WEB

    April 7th, 2008 at 10:44 am

    What is even more fascinating is that TIME - being a political magazine - the top blogs on their readers lists are NOT political; they are more informative and lighthearted tech news

  5. John Stoltenborg

    April 7th, 2008 at 10:47 am

    They slam Slashdot and Ars Technica as being overrated. Does anyone else agree with them on that?

  6. engtech

    April 7th, 2008 at 10:49 am

    What I found striking was how the heck did they quality the top blogs?

    There are blogs in there with less than 50 inbound links, and less than 20 comments on the most popular posts.

    I’m guessing they went on content more than any popularity metric — which isn’t a bad thing at all.

  7. nobosh.com

    April 7th, 2008 at 11:21 am

    nice job to Time, it really paid off quickly.

  8. rodica

    April 7th, 2008 at 11:27 am

    @ John Stolenborg - That’s a great point. I was surprised to see those two blogs in the overrated section, although I am not sure a Time.com rating makes much difference one way or another.

    The reasons why the blogs got there are fairly subjective too. For example, it’s quite short-sighted of Time to consider Slashdot overrated because it captures a technical audience and has a persistent voice.

    Ars Technica is a recent addition to my rss reader, but I love the thoughtful analysis and the blend of tech & business it offers. “fruitiness” is in the eye of the beholder!

  9. randy

    April 7th, 2008 at 11:41 am

    Uhm, I count at least 3 or 4 left-wing ‘blogs’, yet I only counted one conservative blog. Am I missing something?

    WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED?

    For god sakes, where is NEWSBUSTERS.ORG on this list? NB is way huger than the grand majority of these liberal blogs “TIME” magazine is trying (and failing once again, as their miserable turnout conveys) to puff up.

    TechCrunch: 10
    Engadget: 10
    Slashdot: 9

    TIME, for its flaming bias: 0

  10. karthik

    April 7th, 2008 at 12:01 pm

    Erik

    How about you link Time.com but throw in a “nofollow” in there!!!!

  11. Low

    April 7th, 2008 at 12:02 pm

    I’ve rated TechCrunch 10.

    F**k other blogs!

  12. Jaffer

    April 7th, 2008 at 12:28 pm

    I haven’t even heard of 20 of the blogs listed there ! I guess I need to get out more !

  13. Julian Baldwin

    April 7th, 2008 at 12:31 pm

    strike down another 10 to the mix :^)

  14. sid

    April 7th, 2008 at 12:59 pm

    i have rated techcrunch 10 and try to do it at least 2-3 times to get the first place :-)

  15. Pulu

    April 7th, 2008 at 1:35 pm

    Where oh where could Time have gotten a crazy idea like that from??? Hmm… I wonder who else had a link-bait scheme just like that…….

    http://crunchies.techcrunch.com/

    Oh right… TechCrunch did. My bad.

  16. Michael Arrogantington

    April 7th, 2008 at 1:36 pm

    @9

    TC isn’t a liberal blog - they link & share criticism equally.

  17. free press release

    April 7th, 2008 at 1:51 pm

    @Adam Singer

    Thanks. You are correct. It will not work for medim site like ours. We have to try something different. It is better to try niche bliogs.

  18. OneSided

    April 7th, 2008 at 2:03 pm

    For Time, in terms of politics, there is only one political view that exists: liberal (blogs). It’s like conservatism is not even present.

    Time and time again: the Left is for diversity, except for diversity of the thought.

  19. Ryan

    April 7th, 2008 at 2:09 pm

    woot - voted 10 twice

  20. Michael Bakovic

    April 7th, 2008 at 2:11 pm

    I’ve voted 10, keep up the good work TechCrunch!!

    Meanwhile check out my blog for ways to earn cash online..
    http://www.mikesmoneyclub.blogspot.com

  21. Lawrence Salberg

    April 7th, 2008 at 2:22 pm

    Hilarious. I always love it when mainstream media stumbles onto the internet with declarative statements about what is hip and what isn’t. They actually need us to rate these blogs for them - because they sure as heck don’t know.

    ARS Technica is overrated? By whom? They and Slashdot are now, thanks to TIME, in the same list as Ihascheezburger.com? Hey, we all understand that most TIME magazine editors fried half their brains on pot in the 60’s, but surely they can’t be that far gone, can they? Maybe we should have blogs rate the best magazines and forget to (conveniently) include one of them. When that one questions it (TIME, Newsweek, People, etc), we should just respond “Aaaah… we felt you were over-rated. We’ll take it under consideration for our next survey”.

    Thanks again, TIME, for showing us how completely out-of-touch you are. While you are wondering if TechCrunch can survive in a “down market”, you might better wonder that about your own business.

    Anyway, what down market? For blogs? Geeeessh…. time for my vitamins…. the effort it takes to educate these carloads of clowns is more than I can bear.

  22. Howard Owens

    April 7th, 2008 at 7:30 pm

    Where would blogging be without Glenn Reynolds and Instapundit?

    And it’s still one of the most popular blogs in the world.

    Where is it?

    I guess libertarians need not apply.

  23. SEO Design Solutions

    April 21st, 2008 at 1:40 pm

    If it were only that easy for all of us to get traffic on that scale. They have one ingredient that most want, a loyal audience that refer to them as the go-to source. Just as you are for the many who read the blog… You have my vote.

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