Three days ago, I quietly published a story about the daily clashes between cyclists and tourists on the Brooklyn Bridge. I had been planning on doing a month-long study of the issue but got decent pictures on my first shoot and, impatient, I posted them.
Marie liked the pictures, put them up on Flickr and soon, Gothamist, one of New York’s most popular local blogs, part of the world-wide group Gothamist LLC, found them and wrote in to get usage permission. Permission granted, they went ahead and pushed their version of the story, featuring my pictures and giving me back ample credit – which I am truly grateful for.
Since then, my traffic has spiked. The Gothamist LLC web site reports 3.2 million visitors a month. [silence] That’s 3.2 million more than me. Still, just from those links, my Google Analytics burped, Clicky (below) was intoxicated and the newcomer Piwik got dizzy.
And all this, along with reading close to 150 associated comments, has reminded me of a few key web principles, some sad, some happy, all essential.
1 – Controversy is gold.
2 – Networking, respectful content usage and back-linking rule.
3 – Despite my eternal love for faraway silent landscapes, it is always noisy local gossip that generates the most interest.
4 – A dividing white line invites behavioral softness. Border lines should be painted red.
5 – Lots of people have a great sense of humor; a few totally lack it.
6 – The guy below, at least, kept a smile on all the way through. Kudos!
