The times they are a changin’. Steve writes an interesting piece about changes in the blogging world over the past few years. He points out that Instapundit has been overtaken by Maulkin, which to those of us who’ve been around long enough realize is a milestone of sorts.

Oddly, I don’t read any of the most popular blogs, right or left, because I think everyone is full of shit, but I’m a jaded bastard and my interests modulate weekly. He also points out something I noticed recently myself:

Looking at the ranks now, I'm amazed at how things are changing. People who used to count on 10,000 visits per day are sucking along at 4,000. Blogs I am sure I've never heard of are in the twenties and thirties. What a fickle public we have.

The dynamic has certainly changed. I’m sure much of it has to do with the fact that new blogs are springing up at the rate of one million per day or something. And of course most of them suck. A lot of people still think they’re famous, by whose standards I surely don’t know. A lot people still think they’re going to be discovered, like this whole thing is some kind of digital Shwabb’s Drug Store. And some people are still trying to make a buck without actually working, what I like to call Ralph Kramden Syndrome. And some people think they’re running a media conglomerate:

I see Wizbang has offshoot blogs now, and apparently they're pumping up their traffic count by putting the same Sitemeter code on every blog! Of course, it's possible that every one of their blogs was averaging 34,482 visits as of TLB's last snapshot. It could happen. Quantum mechanics tells us things like that happen. I wonder if I could get all my friends to put my Sitemeter code on their blogs. Then I could charge $900 for a BlogAd.

I live for stuff like that. I think most of us who’ve been around three years or more have pretty much stopped trying. I stopped trying a couple of years ago. It’s tiresome. Leaving comments and linking people who post complete shite—the whole thing stinks of prostitution.

Many have matured. Folks who used to link every day are now writing more and I have a lot more respect for that. I find it hard to believe that people still check the ecosystem. I guess that’s one thing that’ll never change; the enormous ego of the blogger.

One thing I’ve learned over the past few years is that being a link whore is futile. I also learned how to maintain a narrative, and through forced daily writing I’m able to write other things much easier. I’ve submitted writing to people and have had checks mailed to me, which is what I’d hoped for from the start. I’ve developed a lot of friendships as well.

Of course I’ve angered people, run off Jim’s readers and been called a lot of nasty names too. It’s a fickle thing, blogging. And I’m oddly at home in my obscurity.