The Freak Parade

This is a blog with pretty modest traffic. Even so, I keep an eye on the stats, as I’m sure just about everyone who keeps a blog does. Recently I posted a list of .NET utility libraries and mis-categorized Ayende’s Rhino Commons by including it in that list. Ayende then posted a very short entry in his blog setting the record straight, but linking back to my original post. Suddenly, traffic  went through the roof. Like I said, we don’t get many spectators here, so it was a rather dramatic event. It reminded me of Lord of the Rings, and I felt like I had unwittingly “put on the ring.” I wonder what it feels like to command that kind of attention, such that if you look in one direction thousands of others all turn their heads at the same time to follow your gaze.

The moral of the story is this: if you have a blog you are trying to grow, cover it glue using the techniques described here and here, and then annoy Ayende (or another powerful sneezer). Of course, you don’t have to annoy them, impressing them enough to link to your post would be just as effective, but that is much harder to do. Tragically, I was taken quite by surprise, so there was no time to get out the glue.