There has been some debate about whether the traction Jeff Jarvis received with his Dell Blog Campaign is down to Jeff being an A List blogger.

As Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz commented on their podcast #50 - I am not an A-List blogger, so how have I gained a daily readership of close to 3,000 on my haveyoursay.com campaign against Land Rover ?

The answer is that I had to win credibility from the blogosphere before my readership proved itself. Neville rightly encouraged me to identify myself and when I ‘came out ‘- I watched people move from the Campaign site to this blog site – accessing my career profile – almost doing a mini-due diligence on me before they took the haveyoursay.com campaign seriously. Once I had won their credibility, people started posting comments and trackbacks and my readership and traction increased exponentially. Therefore, the power of the blogosphere is available to anyone out there: just be prepared to establish your credibility first.

In their Podcast #50, Shel questioned how we should manager the blogging platform when it gets into unreasonable hands. I am convinced that if a brand is being beaten up unfairly, people will come to its rescue. Whilst I have struck a chord with many Land Rover owners, others accuse me of blackmailing the brand, and some describe me as obsessed and advise me to let go: everyone is entitled to their opinion and bloggers express theirs openly for the world to see.

My take is that the blogoshpere is a pretty free and fair medium – as readership, contribution and general uptake increases – there are enough credible and reasonable bloggers to ensure that a matter settles in a balanced and credible way.

A natural force exits between blog readers and contributors: credibility and reputation mediates the game.
Note: Originally posted at SmartApps

Blogsphere rules, Reputation, smartapps