Village Voice Media scamming "the system"

Before I get too "inside baseball" here, Village Voice Media owns alt-weeklies across the country including City Pages right here in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul and any credit for breaking their essential scamming of Digg goes to The Deets.

However, after reading Ed's investigative piece at The Deets first thing this morning, I've done some digging (no pun intended) on the subject for myself.

The web "geniuses" at the various VVM properties across the country had to think that eventually someone would put the pieces together and when City Pages publisher Kevin Hoffman bragged about almost inachievable traffic increases in the past couple months, something smelled fishy.

I know that traffic doesn't grow at those rates through organic measures. I can also attest (at MinnPics) that one quality Stumble can blow the roof off one's traffic. However, it dies off just as quickly as it arrived. That's where the real value in building an organic base of readers comes in. They keep coming back because they like what they are reading. I've had insane traffic bumps on here because people incessantly Google related topics (think camel toe, nipples and olympics) and they kept coming back. To me that proves having valuable keywords is far better than sinking huge amounts of paid time into an internal Digg/Reddit/StumbleUpon/Newsvine/Mixx.

Lastly, gaming the system like Village Voice Media is doing devalues the entire online ad market. As if things didn't suck enough in trying to transition print dollars to online dollars, some greedy suits at VVM get exposed on a national level and could end up essentially ruining the livelihood of thousands of Americans.

While it's okay to Digg your own content, conspiring with others to reciprocate Diggs is clearly wrong. Call it Diggwhoring but City Pages and VVM just got busted.

City Pages thrusts deep and still has it

Many folks are looking at that oh-so attention-grabbing headline and wondering just what "it" is. Well, take a gander at the visual representation of this tune and find out but come back and find out why Minneapolis alt-weekly City Pages still has it from time to time even after I wrote the publication off a few months back.

So what, you ask, caught my attention long enough for me to rethink the demise of the free bird cage liner?

Only a story about one writer's fake attempt to launch his own porn career. (Cue the millions tens of bizarre Google searches landing here... now.)

From choosing a porn name honoring Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty (the writer went with Tim Cockplenty -- get it?) to sporting a Sex World tank top, the relatively new writer spent some time at the Grammys of the porn industry -- The Adult Video News awards in Las Vegas.

After a short time, he discovered that being at the echelon of Ron Jeremy, a.k.a. The Hedgehog, doesn't happen with only a clever name. You need other skills too which porn veteran Tom Byron elaborated on...

"So Tom, I have to know: What do you think is the key to becoming a male superstar in the adult entertainment industry today?"

I hold my breath as he scratches his head and adjusts his sunglasses. "Ah, shit. I don't know. I guess it's just having a big cock."

The feature got me thinking about my chances in the porn career. Is there a place for a pasty midwestern guy who has rarely, if ever, been featured on video? Do I have the drive to go for hours and work myself to the bone? How about the daily grind? Could I push and push without stopping? I mean the industry is hard and only getting harder to enter so how could I have a shot?

Diablo Cody leaves City Pages, Accipoop is born

So yesterday I checked a couple of area blogs which I haven't visited for a couple days months and one, in particular, caught my attention.

It seems that former stripper turned author turned screenplay writer has pulled up stakes from local alt-weekly City Pages and gone back to where she became famous, humble ole Blogger. Even with all the fame that has come from her relatively unknown beginnings, she still writes a blog for all the world to read -- plus it has comments!

Sure, she's got a big moving picture coming to a city near you in December but if Juno doesn't rake in the big bucks, she still has made an impact, at least locally, with the clever names for her collection of worldly good including Foamfucker II (her 80s-vintage boat) and Douchepacker (one of the cats the author/writer/fame-goblin owns) and the never easy to forget tales of her days at the strip club and her time as a peep show performer.

If she can make it big by having nothing more than the tales of her own life and a creative way of making words simply JUMP off the page, then maybe there's hope for me.

Hell, I'm creative. Just the other night as the wife wanted desperately to get some shuteye, I created a new miracle medicine (if only in my head) with the catchy and explanatory name of Accipoop. (See it's a clever combination of two run-of-the-mill words) As time permits, I very well may create some mock-ups of the packaging and give y'all a run down of the disclaimer/side effects I have cooked up for the latest pharmaceutical miracle cure for a condition that didn't exist half a decade ago (RLS anyone?).

Share your ideas, too, about what Accipoop may be. Try Diablo Cody's writing style on for size. Have a glass of lemonade (it's 93 degrees today). Does any topic interest you? No? Alright then.