Ron Paul, YouTube, Britney Spears & bikini

Simply including this bikini image
should get my blog more hits,
according to the “experts”. Now,
if only it were a shot of Britney in
this bikini, then I’d really have
something.

Can it really be this easy? Did you get here because I posted words from a recent Technorati’s “Top Search” list? Now all I have to do is find a way to convince you to link here and “Favorite” me and I’m golden - right? Is that really all it takes to become an A-list blogger?

Technorati founder David Sifry offers up five tips for making the Top 100. It includes advice like making your blog easy to read and adding lots of links. Done and done. Sifry also suggests optimizing your blog for search engines, but since I’m blogging through a university site, I don’t have much control over this one. His last ideas involve posting frequently and reacting to hot topics quickly. Both are great in theory, but pretty much require blogging be a full-time job (or what you’re doing in-lieu of one). Since I’m only able to hit two of his five, I guess his formula probably isn’t my ticket to the A-list.

Sifry’s not the only one offering tips. Check out Andy’s five ways to increase blog hits. For me, his seem a bit more realistic for those of us who have lives outside of the blogosphere. Among his suggestions: post regularly, pick controversial topics, pick topics that others are likely to link to and comment on other blogs as a way of directing traffic to yours. His final idea is one I’m testing with this post: pick things that people are likely to be searching for and use those terms multiple times.

Did I mention that some of Technorati’s “most searched for” were Ron Paul, YouTube, Britney Spears and bikini?

With these keys to the kingdom, becoming an A-list blogger is within everyone’s reach, right? That’s kind of like saying that knowing how to play tennis means you’re ready to win at Wimbledon. It doesn’t quite work that way. In fact, to use a sports cliche, I’d say becoming an A-list blogger is like trying to catch lightning in a bottle. A few achieve it, but most end up standing in the rain, holding an empty jar.