Now quibbles about Left and Right aside, this notion of “the blogosphere” really refers, in this context, to a very specific niche of political blogs that includes Guido Fawkes, Iain Dale et al. There are other political Blogospheres in the UK but THIS one dominates. Let’s call them the “Broadway” bloggers. Now, “Broadway” blogs carry advertising from a company which is owned and run by “Broadway” bloggers, and they make the rules about which blogs are “Broadway” – for example, the size of the audience, the demographics, etc. Perhaps I’m an “Off Broadway” blogger. Ha.

But I digress. That’s the metaphorical explanation of the office politics behind these particular scenes.

My theory about why the Right Wing blogosphere seems to be lacking “new blood”? It’s probably because Iain Dale has done rather too good a job at securing his place as the patriarch of “Broadway” blogs and thus, in many ways, is is the primary gatekeeper for new bloggers… but his attention has been focused elsewhere these days. The barrier to entry is lot harder than it used to be.

I say this because, in the past, I have been linked to by Iain Dale many, many times. Not really because he’s mentioned me, but from his “Daley Dozen” feature where he would link to interesting stories he’d found, which was a fantastic way of finding new blogs, new talent and generally being noticed. You could email Iain and say, “Hey! Read this!” and being a nice guy he sometimes did, and sometimes he’d link it and if you were very very lucky he’d put you in his RSS feed reader.

I don’t really know how much this sort of thing helped – Letters from a Tory was another wonderful blog that would link to me, too, and he’s also gone. I got a lot of links from Devil’s Kitchen, but DK’s psychologically moved on from blogging to focus on business and I don’t blame him for that.

Those days feel like a long time ago now. I don’t know how much this sort of (and I’m turning into a Marxist just saying it…) community support helped my blog, but I can’t deny that it must have been a factor. Without that attention from established blogs, how would anyone know I existed at all?

The point is that if the ‘Right Wing’ blogosphere seems static it’s probably because the ladders that helped the existing blogs to climb have been pulled up (and the primordial soup of voter angst that gave birth to the ones who created those ladders has long since disappeared), while the Left Wing blogosphere is creating its own rival and alternate power/ladder structure – patronage from Iain Dale not necessary a bonus in those circles. Perhaps this is a metaphor for social mobility and people will declare, “Ha! See?”. Oh dear.

So ‘new blood’ has a mountain to climb but, wow, I can’t wait to see the mountain climber that makes it. That’s the basic “Right Wing” argument, isn’t it? Sure it’s difficult but difficult builds character, while the alternative – promoting the mediocre – certainly gets the numbers up but you’ve pretty much won by cheating.

But enough about “new blood”. The only reason this has come up is because the Right Wing Blogosphere feels jaded and burnt out these days… but I’m not quite finished blogging, thanks. I didn’t quit then start again then quit then start again just to quit again now! So shove your new blood, your ladders and your burn-out. I still haven’t destroyed Socialism, Labour still exists, and this Coalition is ONLY bringing spending back to 2006 levels so, therefore, if you don’t mind, I’ve got some writing to be doing.

UPDATE: According to Twitter, The Daley Dozen will return. So, newbies, you’ll have it easy for a bit. Slackers.

UPDATE: I don’t want anyone to think this is a whinge about Iain. It’s not. He works really really hard and owes us nothing. The point is dependancy sucks and newbies shouldn’t be afraid to chart their own course instead of trying to follow those who’ve come before.

“Vince, could you just check these Budget figures for me, please?”
“George, this is a picture of a pony.”

Then there’s the more serious stuff, like spreading the word about the hideous failure of justice in Paul Chamber’s case, and Guardian editors quickly responded, using Twitter to get in touch with and extract a blog post from the man himself.

The Political Blogosphere is, like it or not, divided up along factional lines, into party political ‘swarms’. It’s rare to jump from one ‘swarm’ to another, with only a tiny minority joining up these swarms together by linking to each other. The BNP ‘swarm’ is almost entirely isolated from the rest of the political blogosphere, and curiously there are much more connections between Liberal and Conservative blogs than Liberal and Labour blogs. Curious that, isn’t it?

So the best thing about Twitter? There’s no such factional boundaries. Even if you don’t follow people who disagree with you, someone you DO follow will echo something they’ve said and you begin to build a picture of wide spectrum of opinion. For me, as a blogger, being able to hear people’s reactions and keep up to date with current events means I’m constantly refreshed and full of new ideas of topics to write about – at least for now. It’s not just me, either. Steve Bell, the Guardian’s cartoonist, has obviously been paying attention too.

I do hope I’ve not driven people mad with my abuse of Twitter over the last 5 days. I’m sure things will be returning to normal soon. You can find my Twitter stream here at http://twitter.com/charlottegore, and if you fancied joining the 1,229 people that seem perfectly content to tolerate my crap then, well, I can’t actually stop you.

Finally, if you’re already following me and you actually like it (what’s WRONG WITH YOU?) then do feel free to vote for @charlottegore at the House of Twits. They’re trying to create a chart of political twitterers. It’s pure willy waggling, of course, but being squeezed between Guido Fawkes and Iain Dale has brought out my competitive streak. I throw myself at your mercy!

One of the quirks of the Bottys is that bloggers can’t win twice. This should be fantastic for long established bloggers that haven’t yet won. These include Millennium Elephant, a much loved blog and Liberal England by Jonathan Calder – one of our most well read and highly regarded bloggers.

Of course, new blogs appear all the time that makes the competition tougher:

Jennie Rigg has shown how you can run a political blog that attracts a mainstream, non-political readership by writing in a completely unpretentious style, mixing the personal and the political. I would love to see Jennie win, because it would demonstrate that the judges can look beyond normal expectations about what a political blog should be.

Then there’s Costigan Quist, who’s been demolishing bad journalism all year by actually reading the reports that journalists don’t – with a healthy dose of humour, well written prose and smut thrown into the mix. This horse has legs.

Relative newcomer to the Lib Dem blogosphere Mark Thompson has gone from nothing to being everywhere in a matter of months. His post revealing a link between the safety of an MP’s seat and the likelihood that they would abuse their expenses showed how a blog could actually make the news, not just echo it.

There are some really nice/good/clever/funny blogs out there that don’t often get much attention that would really benefit from the boost they’d get from being short-listed or winning. Does Irfan Ahmed deserve a nod for sheer punky chutzpah, even though he’s apparently ruled himself out? What about blogs like Caron’s Musings, or Cobden’s Comments, or Cicero’s Songs, or Moments of Clarity? All of these blogs are excellent in their own way, and these are just the handful that spring to mind.

These blogs – and all the other unsung blogs that I don’t even know about – need your help. It only takes just one single nomination to be considered by the judges, so you’re better off nominating the weird and wonderful over and above the well known.

For LD bloggers who want to boost their chances now is the time to go through your archives and pull out a selection of your own best posts (NOT posts written by other bloggers!) for consideration for ‘post of the year’ and to give the judges a nice easy ride through your Best Of. I am, essentially, tagging the whole LD Blogosphere with this, because that’s the kind of evil sadist I really am. Good luck

As with previous months, I’ve pulled out the Lib Dem blogs from the top 100, although this month I’ve included them all rather than just the top 10.

Lib Dem Voice manages to climb to 5, which considering how fixed those top slots are that’s a remarkable achievement for the team there. Mark Thompson’s blog jumps 10 places and gets inside the Top 20, something I thought impossible just a few months ago – whatever it is he’s doing, it’s working! A great month for Mr Quist, too.

Liberal Vision are starting to creep up there too, which is reassuring. Alix Mortimer’s wonderful blog continues to slide, but then she so rarely blogs which does make it difficult for other bloggers to link to stuff she writes. Making sure that she can’t win Lib Dem blog of the year more than once has robbed her of competitiveness, I’m sure of it

#10. Join a Party

Seems obvious really, but you’re not allowed to blog about politics unless you’re a party member, and importantly if you’re not writing about general party politics or political ideology then you’re not really writing about politics at all. So there.

#9. Make sure you’re On Message

Before you post a single thing, make sure you’re familiar with your party’s policies and principles. This is crucial – going against your party is the fast track to a spanking from London and other party members turning their back on your shiny new blog. You want people to like you, right? So make sure you’re telling everyone what they want to hear.

#8. Blog Design REALLY MATTERS

To be a truly successful blogger you MUST:

- Lots and lots of advertising. Sign up with Google Adwords, Message Space and every other thing that’ll have you. A blog without adverts doesn’t look professional.

- Lots of buttons, widgets and if your blogroll doesn’t have at least 200 links then you’re going to look like a noob. Don’t be a noob. Think of it like modding a car. If you can fit it, you should fit it, because the more junk the MOAR AWESOME your blog is.

#7. Troll like you Mean It

Trolling is the art of being deliberately provocative in the aim of getting a reaction. As far as blogging goes the winner is the person who gets the most reactions – the ultimate win is to troll the BBC or Sky News, but that’s only for the professionals – for now, you want to troll other bloggers. Get yourself over to Wikio, go through the Top 100 and find something you disagree with – then write your own response – don’t worry about being right or wrong – the important thing is to be as annoying and stupid as possible, because that’s what gets the biggest reaction. Link back to the original post and any other blog posts you can find that might be relevant.

Those bloggers, being notified about the links, will stumble across your effort and, amazed by your stupidity, will feel unable to resist explaining to their readers why you’re so incredibly wrong.

Congratulations. You’ve successfully trolled. Don’t worry about what people will think of your incredibly stupid writing. There’s always people that will agree, no matter what you write. Just hold your nerve.

#7a (Bonus) Pick a fight with Tim Ireland

The fast track to internet fame, if your trolling isn’t working out as well as you hope, is to pick a fight with Tim Ireland. You won’t regret it. As much free publicity as you can possibly handle is yours, assuming you find the right combination of words to incur Tim’s wrath. A little bit of research is all it takes to discover the buttons to push.

It doesn’t have to be Tim, of course – the trick is to find a blogger that cares what complete strangers think, unload your opinion in their face then wait for steam to come out of their ears.

#6. Jargon makes you look clever

The more ‘isms’ the better, but that’s just the start. You must – absolutely must – reference as many philosophers, politicians and political science jargon as you can possibly squeeze into each post. The trick is to hide the fact you haven’t got a clue what you’re talking about in huge layer of academic waffle so that the readers blame themselves for not understanding what you’re talking about. Everyone will assume you’re a genius and will go out of their way to boast that they think your blog is superb because it makes them look clever, too.

#5. Facts are for losers

The last resort of the loser who’s been on the receiving end of a rhetorical blog-lashing at your merciless hands is quoting facts. Bah. Facts. Truth. Reality.

These things are NOT the concern of the successful blogger. The correct response to someone presenting you with ‘facts’ to counter one of your blog posts is to call them names and make suggestions about their personality. After all, someone might be armed with facts but no-one wants to take the side of a paedophile. Fight the man, not the ball. If you punch the man in the nuts, you’ve got the ball all to yourself.

#4. Sycophancy will get you Everywhere

If trolling doesn’t work, the alternative is to flatter the arse off as many top bloggers as you possibly can. Seriously. Write blog posts gushing about the efforts of anyone you like – just make sure you really pile on the love. Trust me, this never fails. Just make sure you flatter lots of bloggers – you don’t want to look like a stalker, which is what might happen if you focus on just one person.

#3. Never give up. Never surrender

Occasionally name calling might not work. You might be tempted to admit defeat, to say, hey, I’m wrong. Some people on the internet have occasionally read books and might actually understand the subject you’re talking about better than you do.

Trust me – never give up. You give up even once it looks really bad. If you hold your ground and just shout louder and louder then they’ll respect your tenacity – and don’t forget, no matter what you say there’s always going to be people that will take your side – especially if you stick with the Golden Rule number 9 – Always Be On Message. The weight of a whole party behind you… woo.. they can’t argue with that, no matter how many ‘books’ they’ve read.

If you give up then those people taking your side will be crushed. You’ve not just admitted you’re wrong – you’ve told your newfound followers that they’re wrong too… and they won’t forgive you for that easily.

No, the trick is to stick to your guns, no matter what. People respect that.

#2. In case of Emergency, invoke Cultural Relativism

You can argue against someone’s opinion, but you can’t argue with the fact that it is someone’s opinion. As far as blogging goes, this is the magic ingredient. “Yes,” you’ll write, “but it’s what I believe, and who’s to say what I believe is any less valid than what you believe?” and, dumbfounded they’ll admit they’re powerless to argue and promptly declare you the winner.

If someone starts spouting nonsense about how there are some things that are a matter of fact rather than opinion, condemn them as old fashioned absolutists and remember step 5 – name calling is a way to make sure people don’t want to side with your enemy.

#1. Always Invoke The Majority

As far as ‘can’t lose’ strategies go, you’ve already got a few – stick with the Party line and you’ll have an army of people with your ‘back’ as they say. Fight the man, not the ball to avoid getting into debates about ‘facts’. Invoke cultural relativism so you reduce everything to ‘you’ve got your opinion, I’ve got mine’. This turns political debates into little more than popularity contests – so armed with flattery and trolling you’ll no doubt be able to declare yourself the ‘winner’ of all your blogging battles.

What ties all this together though? What’s the true secret to becoming a true ‘teflon blogger’ that causes outrage (and thus wins lots of readers and followers)? It’s invoking the majority. If ‘everyone’ thinks it, then it doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. Your opponents will realise they’re not just arguing with you – they’re arguing against everyone, and that makes them some sort of internet crazy and thus the loser by default.

There you have it. Charlotte Gore’s Guide to Ultimate Blogging Success. Let’s hope this time next year someone who’s read this and taken it to heart will find themselves in Iain’s Top Blogs list. Let’s face it, how can you lose?

This year it’s not being hosted directly by Aunty Dale. As a special treat, it’s being run by his ambitious organ, “Total Politics” with the full backing of Labour Barf, and Lib Dem Voice. This makes it not just a battle between bloggers – it’s a battle between parties, too. Be still my beating (and cold, black) heart.

See, last year and all previous years it was run by Iain himself. Cynical Non-Tories said, “this is just a cheesy way to get a million links from everyone, isn’t it? Isn’t it?” The result? Tory blogs dominated. They’d have dominated anyway, but still: Bias! screamed the internet. Much stalking and bitter acrimony ensued as recriminations and accusations of a ‘fix’ were thrown around.

So being held in neutral territory means no excuses. This is a warm-up for the General Election. The outcome of this contest is the portent of what’s to come! Yes, it’s really that important!

The questions, which fall to you, are very simple:

1. Do you know of, or read, 10 or more political blogs? (that excludes, I reckon, about 80% of blog readers)
2. Can you be arsed sending an email for which there’s no reward, no benefits other than, potentially, making some big headed, egotistical twat of a blogger feel ‘a bit chuffed’ for a couple of minutes in about two months time? (that brings us down to about 2% of blog readers left)
3. Can you follow basic instructions? (there’s about 3 people left now)
4. Do you honestly, honestly have nothing better to do? (ah, you’ve all gone home)

So, look, assuming you’ve survived the cull and passed this test you’re no doubt full of the glow of being special.. really really special… and because I just can’t talk you out of it, I suggest you point your browser at the Total Politics Page Of Solicitation, where you shall receive further instruction and cake. Okay maybe not cake. Or maybe cake.

I for one will be voting for whoever does the best job of humiliating and debasing themselves in the pursuit of my vote. Stuart Sharpe’s winning by a mile so far. Don’t believe the rumours I’ve already voted – believe me: your grovelling will not be wasted.

For the curious, I came a very satisfying 46th out of the Top 50 Lib Dem blogs last time. I’d like to not appear at all, and that way I can pretend the establishment is out to get me, therefore moulding my blog into a beacon of self pitying bitter hatred for everyone else for the next year. Can’t wait!

Like last month, I thought I’d list the Top 10 Lib Dem blogs that make it into the Top 100. Barnstorming new entry into the Top 100 for Mark Reckons, who has had an insanely good month making a huge splash on the blogosphere very quickly.  Jonathan Calder sneaks back into the Top 30. In general a great month for Lib Dem blogs, no doubt in large part due to the very Wikio Friendly activities of Lib Dem Voice recently (Daily 2×2 posts and Sunday Memes).

In other Wikio news, Jennie Rigg’s new blog is starting to overtake her old blog, too – about time too – I suspect she should get them merged into one so she can get back into this Lib Dem Top 10!

I also seem to have had a pretty good month myself, which is nice. I’d like to say thank you!

*I regret to say that I missed out Stephen Linlithgow’s blog last month. No excuse. Sorry Stephen.

The question becomes why did they redesign?

Clearly they’ve been under pressure from Labour list (thanks to the extreme publicity seeking shennanigans of their greasy former editor) and felt the need to keep up to date… but I ask you, what were they thinking?

Labourhome claims to be a site for grassroots Labour supporters. It’s meant to re-engage them.

Here’s the new logo:

Pleasant enough. There’s the tag-line… ‘back to the roots.’ So, go on, try to guess what sort of picture would go with this message?

Go on, have a guess. Maybe some workers in a factory? Maybe a single mum? Something to do with being a worker and being working class or something like that, yeah? Yeah?

Not quite. The image they’ve chosen is this:

That’s right. The image that represents the Grassroots of the Labour Party is this building, the Houses of Parliament.

Good luck with the relaunch, guys.

UPDATE: Okay, thinking about it, I’m on very thin ice here. I’m not exactly a Pro Designer myself. If Labourhome doods want to come slag off the design for this blog (or for Liberal Vision actually) then they should feel free.

For what it’s worth, and just cos I’ve got the excuse to talk about it, the ‘theme’ for this site’s design is the blueprint motif in the banner. Blueprints are great things. They remind you of engineering, of plans, of precision, and of potential. They’re instructions for something much bigger and better. That’s why I picked blueprints.

UPDATE UPDATE! Well, turns out the design’s a work in progress and they’re going to have another look. Special round of applause for heroically good tempered Andie Fairlie.

In the meantime, the best thing that you can do, if you want to support lib dem bloggers, is to link to other people’s blog posts.

I’m trying to get a feed aggregator going that might, assuming I can get it working, simulate some of the Lib Dem Blogs experience but the number of blogs are many and I’ve only had the patience to throw together about 40 or so. I’m working on it as we speak.

Please do donate cash to Lib Dem Blogs though

UPDATE: If the Yahoo Pipes thing works then it might well be possible for Ryan to significantly reduce his running costs – so it’s worth figuring out even if some kind benefactor dumps all the money he needs on him before the day is through.

UPDATE 2: Experimenting here: Lib Dem Blogs Grab Bag Alpha Feed. It’s not all Lib Dem Blogs.. it’s ones I read, ones I recognise, ones that caught my eye. I don’t know if this works. I don’t know how often it updates, or even if it ever updates. Still, it’s something for now.

More recently, Mark Thompson (of the Mark Reckons blog) who’s created an absolutely humongous splash very quickly with his remarkable discovery of a correlation between the size of an MP’s majority and their propensity to make claims that fail the ‘would a reasonable person think this is reasonable?’ test.

Perhaps the mentality of ‘safe seat’ MPs is different to those with tiny majorities. Perhaps there’s more of an ingrained sense of entitlement to what’s owed, of having ‘earned’ a safe seat through service to the party or through importance. Either way, this discovery has made it’s way into Polly’s column in the Guardian and Alix Mortimer asks if he’s now the most influential Lib Dem Blogger.

Once again the power of original content (rather than merely echoing what’s said elsewhere – which this post is a classic guilty example) is demonstrated, and the ability for anyone to start a blog and make an impact almost immediately is demonstrated.

Nice one Mark, keep it up