Bullard Blogs And Makes Some Good Points...

Did I just say that? Yes. If you have been following "Bullardgate" then you will know that I am an avid Bullard follower and reader of Bullards and thus enjoy his rampant mouth and fairly slow reactions to himself.Yet this weeks column is good. It's really good in my opinion. It might be somewhat reactionary and why shouldn't it be? Bullard had lots to react to. I am impressed that he decided to follow a theme two weeks running (A near first in the history of his column I think).There was the same kind of regular Bullard banter that aims to spark some sort of rouse out of the blogosphere. Fool me once David, fool me once. I might be blogging about this but there is not a witch hunt or about bad breakfast this time.Vincent has also blogged about it and wont be falling for the same tricks twice (if they were tricks David??). I doubt any blogger will be. Alas we fell for this columnists attempt at a plan once already and I rue the day we did. Tsk Tsk Bullard lives amongst us now. He might even be one of the first to come out with his disdain for certain other bloggers by name.From Bullards latest column:

Apparently freedom of speech is not as deeply cherished in the blogosphere as it is in the print media.

I give it a few weeks, maybe a month before Bullard feels the wrath of freedom of speech in the blogosphere. I am not sure that a print columnist who receives criticism on a once a week column will be able to handle the non-stop onslaught that might exist here, online.He does have some good points, one of which is that some (he used the term "most") bloggers can't read, let alone write. I agree with this. I struggle to read some blogs, including Wild Frontier with it's strange approach to content. While other blogs are misread, misquoted and mislinked by bloggers. Come on people, get it right. However Bullard makes the mistake of using the term "most" and insinuating that bloggers suck, plain and simple.I must ask a few questions: What happens when the hype dies? Will the Bullog be able to keep up his readership? Does he and The Times team believe that one week of hype equals and eternity of fame and readers? What is there next step to ensure the Bullog lives? Where will it end, with blog destruction, blatantly offensive content or worse?I think that the first step for the Bullog is to see if he can match the skill of the bloggers in the blogoff... come on Davey boy show us what you got. If David accepts this will be a groundbreaking and interesting mash-up between bloggers and print columnists. It will be an extremely fun and entertaining event that will hopefully lay many grudges to rest in the name of writing, blogging and freedom of speech.

Controversy = Visits. So Proves Bullard

Legitimate controversy will always bring hits, pageviews, visits and unique visits to your blog. This is a certainty in my opinion much like death (I am Greek, taxes don't apply). I might have been bugged on Sunday when I broke the Bullard incident, and I think I still am, but who the hell am I to complain when looking at the Amatomu graphs?
The Graphs above clearly illustrate that I am laughing all the way to the pageview bank thanks to Mr Bullard and the Sunday Times!! So, WOOHOO to that.With that said I need to ask a few questions here with recent events in mind; Is it actually better to go straight for the controversy and maintain it much like 1000Mnms and Peas, or is it better to quietly sneak in controversy like Bullard has done? Should I now become a blogger who rants and raves and calls people names 'cause I can?I think that the answer is somewhat of a mixture of approaches. Blogs can quickly become boring and events from Sunday and yesterday clearly illustrate that bloggers are trying so hard to find interesting things to blog about. This is the crux of blogging is it not? Maintaining a level of interest for your readers and keeping them coming back.As far as I have read, every successful blog maintains that to create a successful blog one needs to find or create a niche in the blogosphere and stick with it. For the first time in a long time I understand why. Blogs can be boring, niche markets are often not boring and rake in the unique users interested in the niche.I am happy to be controversial, I really am but I think that there are better ways in the long term to create pageviews. For now, I'll take the Bullard business!

Sunday Times Integrates Online

The Sunday Times newspaper has taken a step in to the bridge between the online world and the tangible newspaper world. In today's publication the Sunday Times has elected to place their headlines and features from their website in a small feature on page two of the publication. Very interesting.There is more however, at the end of two of the main stories on the front page there is a "tell us" option that provides a communication portal to the papers editors for the readers.

Obviously you cannot click this link and be forwarded to an email prompt. But this is the closest thing to a hyperlink that I've seen in a real newspaper. I think this is an interesting and bold step in to the future and I am glad to see that another organisation is challenging the Mail & Guardians movements in to the new media world. Integration is integral for big media to maintain a lead in the media market and it's about time the Sunday Times has made that movement.

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