Did you know that there are some Chinese provinces where fishermen still use an ancient technique called fishing with cormorants? It goes like this: the cormorant is tied a string around its neck, loose enough to let it breathe and allow the small fish to pass through, but tight enough to block the bigger fish in the cormorant’s throat. From time to time, the fisherman pulls the cormorants out of the water with the help of a long pole, and makes them spit the big fish. It can be a very productive technique, one can catch a lot of fish like that, while the birds seem to be happy with the process (they are previously trained, I have no idea how’s the training going on).

You’ll ask me what does this have to do with blogging, or with readers appreciation. Well, don’t you feel like one of those cormorants sometimes? You want to have a successful blog (whatever the meaning you give to success), so you try to train yourself and learn from the pros. You are happy with your learning, you manage to get some traffic, some loyal readers, even some money, but where is the really big fish? Woldn’t it be a chance that all important fish never reach your stomach, being stopped by the string around your neck? You are still satisfied and motivated, because you get some fish, but the fishermen (the pros, the authorities in your blogging domain) are even more motivated to have you out there, fishing with them and for them. And they would give you free training for that, but they’ll never teach you about the string which makes the difference. You’ll have to discover that by yourself.

Let’s take only one example of a “blogging with cormorants fisherman”: John Chow. Over the past year, he has trained lots of newbie bloggers, who are now capable of running their own blogs and making money out of those blogs, thanks to John’s advice and tips. How many of them have reached his level of income, audience, or his number of blog comments? Maybe none… But day after day, they spit their big fish back in John’s boat, by giving him thousands of comments, by writing reviews about his blog, by participating into his contests, by passing his pen, by making funny parodies of his blog, by arguing his methods, by making him even bigger. Perhaps some time ago, John Chow was a cormorant himself, but one day he got kissed by a princess and transformed into a fisherman. Or maybe he just realized his cormorant condition and decided to refuse it? Can you imagine that there was a time when John’s posts had only one comment? And even that comment was a pingback sent almost one year later?

Are you still waiting for your princess, or are you already training cormorants?

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