This graphic is one a great many clarifying ones you’ll find on David Armano’s Logic+Emotion. His “Visualizing the Social Network” is on my wall at work to trigger conversation.

Some are going to look at this graphic and see a suggestion that the blogosphere is a “pyramid scheme”. On the other side of the fence, this particular post is bound to upset certain myth pushers. When I see it, I can’t help but think it upholds both Shirky’s Power Laws, Weblogs, and Inequality, Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail and well almost every list on Technorati (just replace “authority” with “influence”).

I’ve made the point before that what linkage helps bestow a blog (linkage alone isn’t enough) isn’t authority (no one has authority on the web), but “attention influence”. The thing to note is the importance of the number of links is relative to the community of interest. If you work within a small niche, then having just two or three inbound links by fellows participating in your niche will go a long way to have voice there. As Jeff Jarvis says, small is the new big. He’s right.

Dave Rogers puts it like like this:

It’s a competitive world, and the blogosphere is no different. Some people have little stomach for competition. I’m ambivalent about it myself. If I have to play, I play to win. I’m not playing this game. If you want to have a large audience and be influential, you have act like a jackass sometimes to get attention, much like a certain high attention-earning weblogger whose initials begin with the same letter that jackass starts with. There’s no shortage of that going on. You have to kiss up and piss down. You’d think that it would help if you’re intelligent and write well, but there are quite a few high attention-earners who exhibit neither of those qualities. A gift for the good snark or sly put-down helps. Or maybe you can make scribbles, or wear a skirt (that only helps if you’re a male). It helps if you have A-list patrons who’ll transmit trust and authority to you. It also helps if you flog the popular memes, and endorse the ideas and metaphors of the A-list. Taking off your clothes has helped some. You can be a contrarian, but you’ll get a ration of shit from the conventional authorities who will call you names and invite you to sit down and shut up, so come to that party with a thick skin.

In short, you’ll pretty much have to sell your soul. But, if you work really hard at all that, and are more than a little bit lucky, you’ll have your audience, your influence and your authority. Maybe you’ll have your dignity, but that seems like an optional commodity these days. I guess the thinking is that you earn that back once you make the mainstream media circuit.

Now, some of the earliest bloggers didn’t have to sell their souls. They earned their trust and authority when there was relatively little competition, and some of them sound as though they don’t like the game much anymore either. But you already know the problem with the rat race – only the rats win.
Welcome to the world.

Where I differ with Dave is that I believe that by being true to your niche, your community of interest, by being real, you stand a far more likely chance to reach out and connect with others. But this is a difference in opinion over tactics, not need.