But We're Petty and Minor with a Bullet! Makes a great slogan, eh? Yes, it's true that there is a "linkage gap" in the blog world. But part of that is built into the system. You can be comprehensive (check out Chip Taylor's long-version blogroll, which includes us, by the way), you can categorize (like Radley, with his Dylan-album categories), or you can say "Screw it," as we do, and keep the list short and sweet. (And I'm glad we do. I wouldn't link to someone I don't read regularly anyway. In fact I turned away the first request we ever got to "trade links" since the other site turned out to be of the, uh, tin-foil hat variety.)

My initial idea of having a blog at all was to have an easy way for us to trade ideas, jabs, recipes for haggis, etc. Having a readership is nice, and we get more than a handful of repeat customers here. Be nice to have some more, perhaps, but in the end you -- and Flyer -- are my audience. (And I'd like to think that even with Sullivanesque traffic, I'd apply the same rule.)

But I know what you mean, too, that there is no real way to sell your blog without one of the hooks you mentioned. The biggest traffic spike we ever had was when we were, inexplicably, the Right Wing News site of the day, which shows the power of one good mention.

We could, perhaps, aim for a libel suit to pump up traffic. Nominations?