Goals...
We all have them whether we know it or not. I have gone though periods where my goals were laser focused and other times when I drifted around. Today, I’m drifting in Mexico, reminiscing about this past year and the crazy ride the blogcatalog team has been on.
A year ago, when we purchased blogcatalog, it was a down-and-out directory of blogs. There was no social network and the site looked as though it had seen its best days.
It is no secret that much of our initial inspiration came from MyBlogLog. During blogcatalog’s early stage existence (from Feb. 2007 to Jan. 2008) we were like a little brother looking up to our big brother, to learn how to play the game.
We received a lot of flack for this approach. However, whether wrong or right I believe that if you see someone doing something well, model their behaviour until you get it right and then once you know what they do, find someone even better to teach you. We did that with MyBlogLog.
Goals, though, need to be specific. One specific goal we had was for blogcatalog to pass mybloglog in traffic and alexa ranking. Nothing against MyBlogLog, I truly admire the founders for what they created. I think their influence over the social web hasn’t been recognized to the degree they deserve. There are an untold number of social applications that are inspired by what the team at MyBlogLog did. Nonetheless, a major goal of ours was to pass MyBlogLog in traffic and alexa rating.
That goal has been accomplished and during the past month we have consistently ranked higher than them. Alexa ratings can, of course, be dismissed as a crude measure, however as crude as Alexa is, it still provides a way of keeping score.
The results, though, are no accident. With blogcatalog’s recent string of new feature releases, it is apparent that blogcatalog is no longer playing in the shadow of its big brother. It is also apparent, to me, that the blogcatalog team has grown up and is willing to take greater *risks than ever before.
* MBL, post Yahoo acquisition, is evidence that not doing anything, may be the greatest risk of all.
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