This is almost completely off topic but I’ll spin it back. Back in 2002, veteran blogger and RSS inventor Dave Winer placed a $1,000 bet that by 2007, bloggers would outstrip mainstream media as a Google searched resource. The actual bet wording said:
In a Google search of five keywords or phrases representing the top five news stories of 2007, weblogs will rank higher than the New York Times’ Web site.
The result was announced yesterday. Blogs win.Well done Dave. As one might imagine, every part of the bet and its subsequent outcome are the subject of debate. Trouble is there’s no disputing a 4:1 majority on the chosen topics.
I count AccountancyAge and AccountingWEB as mainstream media. I doubt they see it that way. AccMan’s been going about 30 months. AccountingWEB has been around since 1997 and AccountancyAge came to market when God was a lad. I don’t think I’m doing badly when you consider the editorial, sales, marketing and other efforts the other two have to put in in order to attract an audience. Check out Compete to see what I mean.
From a professional perspective this can only mean one thing. Set yourself out as an authority on a topic area and you can do well in Google searches. As we all know, people looking for advice will likely use Google as a first port of call. If your name crops up frequently enough then you are likely to score in the trust stakes. That matters. And it is th cheapest form of advertising you’ll find on the planet
