[tmbchr]™

Web Writing As Fishing



Been thinking a lot about various metaphors for what I do here on the web. Blogging for me has become kind of like fishing or trapping. You throw some bait into the water and wait to see if anybody swims by and takes it. I guess you could look at all different kinds of metrics to gauge your success: visitors per day, number of comments on a particular post, how much money you make off advertising that month, etc.

Nevermind the obvious “net” and “web” analogies to fishing, spiders catching flies, etc.

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11 Reader Responses

  1. Ian Says:
    May 16th, 2008 at 4:38 pm

    So, would that make you a fisher of men, or a fisher king? =)

  2. Big Elk Says:
    May 16th, 2008 at 5:22 pm

    I’m fishing for Artificial Intelligences from the Future.

  3. Big Elk Says:
    May 16th, 2008 at 5:59 pm

    http://youcanfish.info/wp/2008/05/16/web-writing-as-fishing/

    Web Writing As Fishing
    by @ 3:49 pm. Filed under Uncategorized

    tony@bichant.bizland.com wrote an interesting post today on
    Here’s a quick excerpt
    Blogging for me has become kind of like fishing or trapping. You throw some bait into the water and wait to see if anybody swims by and takes it. I guess you could look at all different kinds of metrics to gauge your success: visitors …

    Read the rest of this great post here
    [link]
    Leave a Reply

  4. Ian Says:
    May 16th, 2008 at 9:21 pm

    So, a fisher of gods then, or spirits, at least. Careful you don’t catch the Logos.

    Tony there is apparently a google advertising professional. Unless these artifical intelligences are making websites too?

  5. Ted Heistman Says:
    May 17th, 2008 at 1:11 pm

    You mentioned before that you like to employ people in the comment section to bring you info.

    In a way the commenters are like the puppy. Maybe you don’t like the puppy analogy, though. Its kind of taken on a life of its own.

    But anyway, I comment here a lot. How do I know if I “add+ value”? Julia said she would let me know if I don’t. I am conscious of the fact that I sometimes dominate conversations. I try to be considerate. But anyway, I like to assume people are wrong. That they are on the wrong track. I am the anti-puppy. But I often get people to bring their ideas out better.

    This is a natural tendency I have. But it only goes so far. I think it accidentally works in helping me learn things. But really what would be better is to be more systematic about it. To adopt a philosophical position of “emperical skepticism”

    So I am in the net, I am part of the puppy. But the only reason I am here is to figure out your thinking. I am attracted to novelty. I can’t prove you wrong until I figure out where you are coming from. My sense is that you have tapped into some things that are leading edge, truly unique.

    But I could be wrong. Are you the ringmaster? The Master of Cerimonies? Where do you fit into the carnival? Are you the organizing principle? The Center?

    The puppy is an extension of you.

  6. Ted Heistman Says:
    May 17th, 2008 at 1:23 pm

    AI can be a lot of things.

  7. Julia Says:
    May 17th, 2008 at 1:56 pm

    The puppy is an extension of you.

    I am the puppy, you are the puppy, they are the puppy, coo coo ka chew.

  8. Big Elk Says:
    May 17th, 2008 at 2:40 pm

    What puppy are you talking about?

    But the only reason I am here is to figure out your thinking.

    Good luck! I gave up on that myself a while ago.

  9. Ian Says:
    May 18th, 2008 at 11:32 pm

    Personally, I am offended at being considered an artificial intelligence system. Ain’t nothing intelligent about me. =)

    And if there is some kind of larger shared identity thing going on here, I don’t necessarily think anyone needs to be a ringmaster. Or we all are. Or, I don’t know, maybe Julia’s right: coocookachew!

  10. Ian Says:
    May 18th, 2008 at 11:34 pm

    Although I do like the idea that we are all demi-gods. This is what I meant when I said early that maybe the internet is training wheels for the self. It is teaching us how to be these intelligences. No need for a puppy if we can do it all ourselves.

  11. Steve Mills Says:
    May 19th, 2008 at 1:00 am

    Just the fact that you are rewarded for the “long tail” of your content Tim is reason enough to consider yourself a fisher of the intertubez.

    You lay the bait and the “net” of google helps ensnare new prey to click on your tasty links, and feed you with adsense flesh.

    Its a good strategy.

    And there another fishing aspect of it too, you write something and then you wait. Sometimes you have cast the line right and they bite, sometimes not a nibble. Sometimes the waters are teeming but no one wants to hook on the line. Ahh the metaphors you could use.. I like the analogy anyway, its cool.



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