Congressman Roscoe Barns and reported that Barack Obama bought an advertisement on
their blog. Berman is frequently contacted by judges who want their opinions publicized
on his blog. Rotherham has been contacted by staff on the hill.
Others are receiving attention from their blog from interest groups and other
institutions. Myers has been asked to speak before the Atheists for Human Rights
organization in Minneapolis. He also talked to several high schools and colleges, as a
result of his blog. Some reported that they had been on mailing lists for organized
interest groups and publicists eager to win attention from bloggers. These findings are
significant, because there has no been scholarly evidence to date that has shown that the
major news outlets and political elites follow non A-list bloggers.
Readership
Bloggers care about readership. Every bloggers uses a counter that measures
unique visitors and the number of hits. These counters also tell the blogger the location
of the readers and whether he or she reached the blog via a hyperlink. The wider the
reach of a blog, the more respect they gain both with bloggers and non-bloggers alike.
They will also be more successful in getting a wider audience for their ideas.
The policy bloggers varied in the daily readership. Two blogs were small in
scope, receiving between 100-500 visitors a day. Three were medium sized blogs and
received 500 to 1,000 unique visitors per day. Three were large blogs that averaged
between 10,000 to 30,000 visitors per day. One blogger did not provide readership
numbers.
The lower and medium trafficked blogs are not necessarily less successful than
the higher trafficked blogs. They may be very successful at reaching their target
audience. Certain key posts may be publicized by higher trafficked blogs within their
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Convention