The Indie "Virus"

Love the Idea. Hate the Name.

The "Indie Virus" is an idea from Chris Pearson:

I'm starting a new experiment tonight that I'd like to have some fun with over the coming weeks, but there's a catch - I'm going to need some help from you, my critical-thinking, curious readers. Essentially, I want to launch a viral linking campaign with some pretty loose guidelines for the links. I've constructed this in such a way that I (or anyone else who's interested) will be able to monitor the progress of the experiment as it (hopefully) spreads across the blogosphere.

[ The Virus You Want to Catch, March 10, 2006 ]

Technorati Tags: indie virus

Chris goes on to lay out his goals for the experiment:

• To bring exposure to lesser known blogs, especially those outside of Technorati's Top 100

• To "explore the metrics behind a viral linking campaign" launched and perpetuated by those less popular blogs

I consider this to be an interesting experiment and a laudable goal. Much has been written about "A-list" vs B-, C-, and ... Z-list blogs. The A-list includes the blogs "everyone" reads (such as BoingBoing or Engadget). The "other list" includes blogs read much less often by far fewer people, such as, erm, well, this one. :-)

If you're not in the A-list now, you will probably never get there. That does not, however, mean you can't hope to increase traffic and add readers. The "Indie Virus" is one way to go about extending, and sharing, your readership.

As Tinu Abayomi-Paul says in his Locker Gnome posting:

"The Indie Virus: Catch it, spread it, and grow your traffic virally by spreading it to others."

I Have Just One Small Peeve...

Does anyone else cringe like I do when you see the word “virus” used in this way. Viruses are Bad Things. Medically, or on the computer, they have up-to-now always been Bad Things.

It’s not at all surprising that Brandon Wilcox (commenting on Increase Your Traffic with the Blog Virus Part Four, one of many entries on this topic) was confused:

I'm not sure I get exactly what your saying. Are you saying there is a virus that people use to get their link on multiple web blogs?

I expect a LOT of people to be similarly confused.

Those of us who are part of the technical / weblogging community can laugh this off. We can see the irony in using the term "virus" to mean "something (good) that spreads rapidly". We can tell ourselves that we mean "virus" in the same way that people might say "infectious laughter".

But we're the "in crowd". Can we explain to our parents, siblings, car mechanic, dentist, grocery store clerk, nextdoor neighbor, local radio reporter? How soon will we get tired of explaining?

This is as bad as deciding that we’re going to come up with some nifty new email concept and call it “Spam”.

Shudder.

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For Further Reading

• The Indie Virus Affects Possibly Thousands Of Blog(ger)s

• Blogs to Riches - The Haves and Have-Nots of the Blogging Boom -- New York Magazine

• Scobleizer - Microsoft Geek Blogger » Tips for joining the A list

• A Networked World: How To Become An "A" List Blogger
• Viral Blog Marketing — a summary with links to a four-part series

Comments

[Chris P.]

I think you're a bit too wrapped up in the semantics of it all. Screw the grocery store clerk. The Indie Virus is for people who already have blogs and are lighthearted enough to have fun with something like this.

Besides, "The Indie Virus" gets your attention - it got yours! I wanted to catch A-listers' attention with the name, so it looks as though the current name gets 'r dun.

On top of that, the virus wasn't meant to live forever, so there won't be much 'splaining to do down the road, Lucy.

[Vicki]

I gave serious thought to whether or not to post Chris' comment (above). While I have open comments and believe in everyone's right to their own opinion, nevertheless this is MY weblog and I do NOT believe in "screw the grocery clerk".

Many of the problems we, as techies, need to address and solve are based on the fact that we are no longer sole players on the Internet. Our parents, neighbors, children, grocery clerks, and, sometimes unfortunately, "Old media" reporters are there too. We need them. We need to help them "get it".

I dislike the misuse of "hacker" to mean "bad person cracking sites". And, as someone with a background in mictobiology as well as two decades in tech, I dislike use of the word "virus" to mean something positive. Whether I like it or not, words have power. As a tech writer, I'm very attuned to that.

One last thing... never say something wasn't meant to live forever. Once you let it go, you lose control. Whether it lives "forever", or for a year, or dies unmourned tomorrow, is out of your hands.