StumbleDigg: Should I change to get more attention?

Several times a quarter someone “diggs” or inserts into Stumbleupon one of my blog posts. The ensuing spike in pageviews is astounding and have ranged from a 100% to a 3,000% increase in average daily pageviews for the times a particular post is “active”.

As such, I’ve often thought that I could easily shift the focus of my energy on driving traffic. Provocative blog post titles, compelling and targeted copy to Apple fanboys (for example) and other ways to grab attention would be pretty easy for me to do.

That would defeat the purpose of this blog. This is a container for me to think out loud and connect the dots, publish stuff I care about, build a personal brand and simply to be in the game and the conversation. If I began to whore myself out just to get traffic, it would deter me from those reasons.

I can see the quandary traditional media finds themselves in as attention is diverted from their commercial publications to the millions of other places that are screaming for it. They can’t do a whole lot for free and thus have to balance trying to scream for attention without devolving in to yet another rag to put in the bottom of a bird cage or with which to wrap fish.

Since I don’t need to generate a nickel from this blog, I can do whatever I feel like — which includes trying to focus on the high road instead of taking that low road — and focus on building value for myself and anyone who stops by to read.