Open The Dialogue

Steve Rubel is calling out a few select bloggers for their lack of linking to the "competition," saying that "Bloggers Should Think Coo-petition, Not Competition" - and I don't see how they aren't. As Chris Thilk points out in the comments, it's not as if every single blog on the Weblogs, Inc. network isn't linking to the "competitive" blogs over at Gawker Media. Those of us posting at AdJab most certainly do link to pretty much any "competitive" blog out there in the same space - advertising - as we are. For the fine folks at TV Squad, another blog I have some experience with, the site lives off links in and out with regard to "competitive" blogs. Everyone wants to have the scoop, and no one really has an issue with linking to the person who had the story in the first place.

Understood that Steve is concerned about Jason Calacanis' comments about the Wall Street Journal not linking to bloggers for the most part, but that doesn't mean that any major site isn't linking to its competitors, irrelevant of what one particular site has to say about the links it's indexing.

Now while I do write for the Weblogs, Inc. Network, I most certainly do not speak for them in any official capacity, but I will say that it wouldn't surprise me when a site of the size of Engadget - or Gizmodo's - doesn't link to a direct competitor. Let's just call them outliers, IMHO not the right example for this argument. One of the reason that Steve's blog, Jeremy's blog, and anyone else in the PR space has done so well is because none of us really care who we link to (you know what I mean) or who links in to us, as long as it's a worthwhile story for our readers. If you keep blogging for blogging's sake, and because you are good at it (or aspire to be, or enjoy it in general), that's all that matters. Don't fret about who you are linking to, and who you're not. Just go with it.