BloggingZoom: Zoom Correctly!
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I just zoomed this post about BloggingZoom : Does BloggingZoom bring traffic?
In it, it gave some numbers and I liked the overall post. At the end, s10assessmyblog gave 7 tips. I was going to reply but found myself writing a post instead because of 2 tips:
- 5- Whenever someone zooms you, visit their profile and read their discussions and zoom them, leave comments or visit their blogs.
- 7- Before complaining that no one zooms you, think whether you have zoomed any one. It is a network of bloggers. If you give something, they will certainly return it
I do agree in part with those above but not all of it.
What I propose
You may agree, or not, with what I will propose now you.
I don't think reciprocal zooming is the way to go. I would proposed to only zoomed those posts you like independently of the blogger that zoomed you previously. Zoom but not for the sake of zooming the other blogger but for the content first.
I will use a worst case example if we start start to do reciprocal zooming.
Example: I write a really, really crappy post and then I go zoomed 200 other bloggers. But because you had the bad habit of zooming the other blogger, my post will get in the front page but for no real reasons.
My tips for zooming correctly
This is what I do and you could do:
Read first and Zoom what you like: Myself, I got zoomed but the total number of visitors was lower than the total zoom for some post. Overall, I got zoomed 177 times and got 196 direct visitors for BZ.
Don't feel obligated by others to also zoom them: If you have the time, you may look them up if you want.
Add the Zoom plugin: It's often missing in post. Placing the plugin will make others aware of BloggingZoom.
Zoom at least one other when you add your own post: For now, the quality is there and it's easy to zoom at least one post. It could be something funny or serious that has nothing to do with your blog.
Something Earl could say: Good Karma will follow you in time.
Conclusion
You are still free to do what you want and I'm only proposing a way of doing zooming. Of course, I'm far from perfect but that's what I do now. The main goal is to maintain some integrity to the system while it's still young by zooming what you really like.
Anyway, you may eventually zoom the other blogger back weeks or months later for a post that you really like(the Karma part).
You will notice that I did not mentioned how you should enter the information. Vic make a good post recently that I, did zoomed.
Now, you can zoom this post if you like it 
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12 Comments on this post
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Frank C said:
Don’t be fooled by the number of hits coming from BZ vs. the number of zooms. I’ve zoomed articles without clicking through from BZ simply because I had already read them via RSS subscription.
But, I agree, you just shouldn’t zoom in the hope of getting a reciprocal zoom.
December 14th, 2007 at 9:31 am -
Steve McGrath said:
I only took the easiest number I could get. In my previous posts about BZ, I had already mentioned indirect visitors like StumbleUpon. RSS is another one and like you mentioned, you read them first.
December 14th, 2007 at 9:38 am -
Vic said:
Steve same here. Because some times it takes me a while to go read a persons blog sometimes I read four straight articles they already had submitted to BZ then I go and vote all at once so if you look at your stats you will see only one hit but four Zooms.
December 14th, 2007 at 11:51 am -
Steve McGrath said:
I’m sure that many do read post first like those who replied here. At least, we know why the numbers may be lower in some cases and it does give more explications to BZ newbies!
Hmmm! It could be a good topic for the FAQ. Why my visitors are lower from BZ?
December 14th, 2007 at 12:16 pm -
Tim E. said:
I don’t see anything wrong with asking your friends to look at your articles. If they don’t like it, they don’t have to zoom it. I have read quite a few that I arrived at from BZ, but I didn’t think they deserved my vote, so I didn’t zoom them.
Why in the world would you promote things that you haven’t read and liked? That’s sorta like cheating…..December 14th, 2007 at 3:33 pm -
Steve McGrath said:
“I don’t see anything wrong with asking your friends to look at your articles”
Me neither. If you can and have time, then go for it! But it must not be an obligation. Like I wrote, you may zoom them later on another post.But like Frank wrote:
“But, I agree, you just shouldn’t zoom in the hope of getting a reciprocal zoom.”December 14th, 2007 at 3:54 pm -
Manick said:
Thanks for linking to my post and adding to the discussion I have started.
It seems that my message has not been clearly communicated. I tried to imply that blogging is purely cooperative. You could have written this post without any link to my original post. I would not have complained. I could have just read this post and left without commenting it. You would not be complaining either. But, both of us did favour each other in the process. This is what I tried to imply.
Don’t be alone, doing nothing other than writing a discussion and leaving BZ. When someone zooms my article, I don’t want to react like nothing has happened. Participation is important and this is an interactive network.
I agree that reciprocal zooming should not be a blind process. I do zoom only those articles that I like. But, whenever someone zooms my article, I take some time to go through all his/ her articles. I will spend that extra effort and time on bloggers who have zoomed me or commented on my articles.
Thanks.
December 14th, 2007 at 9:00 pm -
Steve McGrath said:
I don’t mind linking to post that I like.
At this time, BZ is still young and manageable for some with more time. It’s okay. Now, look ahead in 1 year when BZ is bigger than Digg(got to dream). Are you going to visit everyone if you get 1000-5000 Zooms(bigger dreams
)? So, by not automatically visiting or zooming those who zoomed us, no one will be offended. Again, no one should expect it even now.I see blogging and BZ as ways to give information. Doing that, I share my experiences. If they zoomed a post, I know that my information was appreciated by someone else. It’s like a comment saying: “Great post!” If someone leave a comment, it’s fine with me and I will reply if it needs to. But you don’t see John Chow or ProBlogger answering back every comments. I’m sure that they would if they had time.
December 14th, 2007 at 10:00 pm -
Manick said:
Steve,
Thanks for your reply. To put things in perspective, my blog is small with about 1000 visitors/ 2000 page views a month and just under 50 susbscribers. I need to work hard to get that little extra traffic. If I have 15000 subscribers, then thats different.
With BZ being small, I am getting some good bloggers to notice my blog. Certainly, BZ will grow above Digg one day. When that day arrives, I want to have my network intact with some good blogger friends (like you). This is similar to increasing your subscribers. They are there to regulary visit your blogs/ comment your posts. When the network grows much bigger, there is someone out there who recognizes user id and takes some time to read your submissions.
I am quite happy to be involved in this discussion. Thanks.
December 14th, 2007 at 11:28 pm -
ジェイソン (Jason) said:
I’ve never Zoomed a post I haven’t read. While it’s nice to get reciprocal Zooms, I agree that any gaming of the system will only rush BloggingZoom to obsolescence (which is not cool). If the quality is there, people will Zoom
December 15th, 2007 at 4:16 am -
Steve McGrath said:
Manik: You are welcome to the discussion like everyone else
Jason: “gaming of the system” will be done eventually but we will be top zoomers by then and thus, our opinion will matter perhaps a little more.
Those who commented here had to read the post first so it’s not a surprise that you have good habits.
December 15th, 2007 at 9:36 am
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