racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

So downloading Prison Break episodes take much of my time–okay, not my time, but my computer’s time (namely the Mac, since Transmission seems to do a helluva lot better job than Azuerus when it comes to stealing movies downloading Torrents). And then of course there are those other writing stuff. So here I am again with another blog roundup.

* Tony Hung writes on the dangers of linkbait.
* Here’s an interesting way to encourage your mate to blog.
* WTF with Technorati?
* Libraries (and librarians) are not obsolete, and why the “wisdom of the crowds” concept may not be wise at all.
* Acknowledging Problogging’s blue-collar class.

The “dangers of linkbait” issue is about those interesting gimmicks that some bloggers and webmasters have so people would link to their site. True, these could sometimes help jack up your inbound linkage, and consequently your Google juice and technorati ranking. But then again, you run the risk of getting banned if things get too hot. But is it really a bad thing to do?

As for the “blue collar class” of problogging, it’s about the dreaded pay-per-post and why A-listers should recognize the need for this new model of blog monetization. Actually I’m a bit guilty of finger-pointing myself. I’ve grown too reliant on my blog network revenue (i.e., “salaries”) and even AdSense that I initially had doubts when my mom said she got into this pay-per-post scheme with a local affiliate network. I initially told her that she might just be watering down her PR juice (because her blog might be seen as a link-farm) with all those affiliate links. But I guess bloggers have to start somewhere. And I would say with her readership and discussion (judging from traffic growth and comment threads), she’s rising fast to Internet stardom.

Is “wisdom of the crowds” really “wisdom?” JOAB thinks not always, and I agree. Sometimes things tend to turn into popularity contests, and what’s popular may not necessarily be relevant to society at all.

Enjoy the reads!