Some time ago, I got an email from a guy starting a new political website, LeftyBlogs. It was setup to extract local content, by state, from blogs he deemed “progressive”. He alerted me that he had included a feed from Okiedoke, complimented the blog, and solicited my input on a feature he was beta testing called BlogWire.

Want to track what’s happening in the progressive blogosphere for your state? Want a “sticky” feature that will bring your audience back to your blog again and again and again?

Add the BlogWire from LeftyBlogs.com to your site.

It’s just one single line of HTML that displays the latest 15-30 headlines from your state’s liberal blogs.

I played with the script, offered some constructive suggestions, and praised the project overall. However, I chose not to include the script on my site as I do not necessarily label myself a progressive. In spite of that, LeftyBlogs is growing and, what I would deem, a success.

As Okiedokers know, most of my blogging focuses on Oklahoma; much of which is political. This results in many of my posts appearing on LeftyBlogs and drawing an above average amount of traffic compared with other Oklahoma blogs on the site. But there is a problem; I don’t always express the official “progressive agenda”, and at times am a jack-ass. Therefore, the “progressive” LeftyBlogs administrator periodically removes Okiedoke posts from the featured local state list, leaving posts from blogs blithely beating the Democratic drum.

What I’m wondering is why Okiedoke is kept on the LeftyBlogs blogroll at all? I actually like the site, but never asked to be listed as a member blog. And regular readers know I’ll just as quickly mock an Equus asinus as a Pachydermata.

I’ve learned a few things about blog traffic over the past three years. I know ways to increase my visitor statistics more than it is now. I realize that political bloggers sticking to a left-wing or right-wing agenda draw, and retain, more visitors than I do. And I am well aware that routinely using sarcasm and pissing people off causes me to lose readers and blogroll links. So be it.

And if you’re wondering what to label me, progressive or regressive, I prefer aggressive.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 24th, 2006 at 9:32 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.