Scoble wrote a post that all kinds of people are linking to (1, 2, 3, 4). Most seem to agree with him. Which isn’t much of a surprise. Scoble’s pretty good at STAYING an A Lister.

However, as someone who skirted with blogging fame, and then let it die away, let me tell you the truth.

First, Scoble’s tricks don’t work. Why?

Well, it’s kind of like being a geek in high school (in the 90s anyways). Scoble’s tricks basically boil down to “get a new haircut, get some new clothes and get your friends to think you’re cool”.

Which is ludicrous.

Just like in high school, the only way to be a blogging A-Lister is to sell your soul.

So, here are 10 simple steps to selling your soul:

10. Talk about what everyone else is talking about, adding your own spin, and linking to everyone else who is mentioning it.
9. Disagree with A-Listers. If you have the balls, “challenge” them to prove they are right.
8. Use A-Listers names in your posts. Name dropping is good.
7. Disagree with conventional wisdom. Dave Taylor is really good at this. It’s even better if you have a solid point (like Dave often does).
6. Blog. A. Lot. 4-5 posts a day is a minimum.
5. Go to conferences and meetups and geek dinners. Giving up your entire social life will give you a “virtual” one. No, really, it’s better!
4. Talk about controversial topics. Say that the FireFox memory leak IS an issue, and that the team’s response to it is the EXACT SAME THING as Microsoft would say about similar issues in IE.
3. Make up lists. Top 10 lists are great. Funny top 10 lists are better. As you can see, I’ve given up on the latter.
2. Find ways to get all the top people on your Skype list, and talk to them at least once a week.
1. Start a Web 2.0 company, then sell it.

The truth is that if everyone did the above, every blog would suck. Your blog would have no personality, no value beyond the hour in which a given post was written and wouldn’t gain you any lasting attention.

Be you. Be different.

Blogging is just like high school. And, just like high school, who is cool right now doesn’t really matter. What matters is who is still cool in 10 years, and you are much more likely to get there if you don’t listen to Scoble’s advice than if you do.