Election Night HQ

By Election Night HQ’s Publisher

Michael Schuyler, the publisher of Reality Bytes, posted the following piece on Blogs4McCain (although he did not post it on Reality Bytes itself, as far as I can tell.  Here’s what he had to say, in a piece titled, “Let’s Get to the Next Level”, on the topic of McCain blogs:

The biggest issue right now is the one of “electability.” John McCain is electable; the other Republicans are not. This is proven by countless nationwide polls; it’s not just a few supporters waving signs and shouting themselves hoarse. We know the reasons why: Experience, honesty, character, his stance on the issues, his humanity, to name a few. But the fact is that many Republicans (and many Republican voters) do not yet understand this. For the party faithful who should be paying attention and lead the party, this is shameful. For the voters who vote Republican, it’s understandable. Both these groups need to move toward McCain. If recent mailings are any indication, the campaign seems to understand this. The question I have for us is: How do we do this?

I’m not convinced simply blogging about these issues works. I have no evidence my own blog, Reality Bytes, is read by anyone except, perhaps, sometimes, some of you. But three dozen McCain bloggers reading each others’ posts can’t be accomplishing much. I’ve got 39 blogs on the McCain blogger list that Marston provides. 39? How any blogs does Ron Paul have? I shudder to ask. But that still begs the question of efficiency. Are a thousand navel gazing blogs better than 39 navel gazing blogs? Unlikely.

So, I’d like some ideas. I’d like to know how to effectively use my internet orientation to improve McCain’s chances of winning. I’d like your help in devising a pithy one or two paragraph epistle that shouts the message in as effective a way as possible. Then I’d like to know how to say it and where, and I’d like this “blog campaign” to have a strategy to do this that goes beyond reading what are, frankly, repetitive posts linking to the same news stories elsewhere. I don’t want to anger supporters of other candidates, something that is very easy, even effortless, for me to do. I want to be effective, not divisive….

I’ll tell you a recent single-person “win” I experienced. I was talking with my cousin, a person who was conservative well before I was, but who worked on me until I ‘saw the light.’ And I said I was for McCain. He said some negative things, and I found it was my time to enlighten him. I told him why I thought McCain was the only clear winner in this race. And he said, “Hmm, I guess you’ve put me back in the McCain camp. I should probably send him some money.”

My reaction was a predictable, “Yes!!!” But I have to say, that’s what we need to do with the rest of the populace. I like reading everyone else’s pro-McCain blogs, but it’s like being in a hall of mirrors. We need to get the right message out, and I’m asking you all: How do we do that?

Certainly, I think that Michael Schuyler raises some valid points.  Here’s what I’d like to offer as an answer, as a potential road map to help Senator McCain as we get ever closer to New Hampshire:

Without getting into too much technical detail, the key is “inbound links”.  I’ll repeat it twice, for emphasis:

“inbound links”  -   “inbound links”

Michael is accurate when he notes that since we all already support McCain, if we are the only ones reading them, it is of little value to the campaign.  But here’s the key:  the more we link to each other, the greater the likelihood of other McCain supporters finding us.

The more we link to each other, the more favorably we all rank in search engines.  In fact, there is a snowball effect - the more we link to each other (i.e., the more inbound links we all have), the higher we all rank within the search engine.  Not every inbound link is of equal value.  If a popular blog sends one of us an inbound link, that inbound link is rated more highly, than one from a blog of lesser popularity.

So here’s the cycle:

We all link to each other’s posts.  Every time you link to the post of another MV08 blogger, that blogger rises in the search engine.  In turn, every link that recipient blogger sends to the post of another MV08 blogger, gets a higher rank (since he/she is more popular as a result of receiving the first link). 

So while it may seem counterintuitive - the more inbound links of each other’s posts, that we send to each other, the more likely it is that we’ll all improve our standing in search engines.  And the more we improve, the more likely we are to reach - and thus motivate - other McCain supporters, or McCain leaners.  So the more we operate as a team, the better off the McCain campaign will be. 

So, what can each of us do?

Link to each other’s posts as much as possible , and thus send each other as many inbound links as possible.

It warrants repeating:

Link to each other’s posts as much as possible, and thus send each other as many inbound links as possible.

To illustrate, here is a link to Kathy Morrison’s fine piece on her day in the Manchester HQ - a great McCain story on Blogs4McCain.  That just went into Blogs4McCain’s inbound link total, improving its search engine rank - and also improving the rank of any site with a post to which it links…

You can contact Election Night HQ at publisher@electionnighthq.com.