The John Gruber Success Story

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Macheads and Apple geeks already know this, but John Gruber’s blog Daring Fireball is a heavyweight. This sparked a post on Silicon Alley Insider about the “King of Apple Geeks”, which is basically a demonstration in how powerful a blog can be, using the Ninjawords app censorship report as a starting point.

It’s not so much of a news story over at SAI, but more of a success of a fellow blogger report, which is always nice to read. I especially like the raw data which is provided at the end of the story:

John, reached by e-mail, wouldn’t comment on how much money his site makes, but he says it provides his full-time income. He says the site has recently been close to averaging 2 million monthly pageviews and about 250,000 monthly unique visitors — including some very important ones at Apple headquarters. He also estimates about 150,000 subscribers to his RSS feed.

Say what you will, but a powerful and influential blog sure packs a punch. Even if it is minimalistic in its approach and uncluttered by ads.

Gawker Writer Recruited by CBS

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CBS Interactive has recruited blogger Richard Lawson from Gawker, according to Silicon Alley Insider who also has a quote from Lawson:

I’ll basically be doing what I do now, just probably fewer posts a day plus some actual reviews and stuff. I’m excited/nervous/gassy. All that.

Richard Lawson is one of the key entertainment writers on Gawker, and apparently averaged 2.4 million pageviews per month which is top of the bill according to the SAI story. In other words, a blow to the Gawker Media network, not only by the loss of a writer but also in pure money since it is unlikely that his replacement will reach the same levels quickly.

Lawson will write for CBS Interactive’s TV.com.

Mashable The New Tech Blog #1, Passes TechCrunch

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Is this news? Not really, but I find it interesting to see that Silicon Alley Insider is reporting that Mashable now has passed TechCrunch, according to Compete.com. Complete with graph and everything. But is traffic everything? Of course not, new startups still dream of being featured on TechCrunch, and I bet they’d still prefer that to Mashable. Actually, I think the two blogs are so different that the whole comparison is a bit flawed.

But again, isn’t it interesting that a third blog (SAI) is comparing two other blogs to each other, and writes about it? Almost makes the blogosphere echo chamber debate seem motivated again.

Biz Stone’s First Name Becomes News

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There’s a pretty interesting piece on Twitter’s Biz Stone in San Francisco Chronicle. Actually, it hit the web two days ago, and I glanced it, deciding not to cover it here. After all, there really wasn’t anything new there.

Then I read this post by Silicon Alley Insider, built around a bullet list of trivia pulled from the SFC piece, and headlined by the shocking fact that Stone’s first name is Christopher. Granted, the Silicon Alley Insider piece is light-hearted, but come on? Isn’t this what Twitter is for, tweeting links and trivia stuff like this?

TechCrunch Gets Office, News Hit Techmeme (Sort Of)

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Techcrunch LogoThis is just too hilarious not to mention. Michael Arrington posted about TechCrunch finally getting their own office because of complaints from neighbors. Apparently they didn’t like the traffic or something, read more about it on TechCrunch. That’s all well and good, Arrington can certainly post about something concerning his site, and it is even somewhat relevant.

Then Silicon Alley Insider does a news story on it. I was amazed to see that one, especially since more than half of it is a quote from the TechCrunch post.

And it hits Techmeme, granted, not in a big way, but still. Naturally, we’re adding to this with this post, but this is fun stuff, and interesting as well, when looked at as a phenomenon. Gotta love the blogosphere.

Plane Crash Liveblogged on Twitter

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The immediate access to microblogging service like Twitter means that you can get eyewitness, or even victim, reports live. Like Twitter user 2drinksbehind, who blogged about a plane crash in Denver. Silicon Alley Insider screenshotted the whole thing, but do dig into the 2drinksbehind timeline if you want the real deal.

Fortunately, no one was killed in the accident.

In other news, if you want to be prepared to share your story using a mobile phone, Mashable provides a massive list of tools.

Gawker Media Takes a Pop at Los Angeles Times’ Record Month

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Gawker Media, the blog network lead by Nick Denton, had a great July, it would seem, with no less than 6 sites setting new traffic records. Impressive indeed. The official posting also notes:

Also important is the year-over-year growth that continues with this new high. Gawker Media’s network traffic level is 70% higher than last year, 330% greater than in July 2006, and a whopping 700% higher than three years ago in 2005.

That is some growth for sure. [Read more…]