300+ Amazing Shots Of Battle At Kruger! Well, not really.

Right as I was in the middle of collecting material for PrintRadar’s newest list article, I bumped into a serious rant from the guy who made the CSSVault long time ago. The target, Smashing Magazine, and pretty much the rest of the community and bloggers who accepted the Smashing Magazine “way”, and that means lists in general. So, what’s with this amazing Battle At Kruger title? Well, all that kinda reminded me of that event, with lists being the buffalo who was caught in between the attacks of the lions and alligator, with the late support from the pack, if any. Oh yes, and the reporters to document all that. Silly, I know.

First of all, I love lists. I find them very useful when you need to check out what is new out there, or you are simply searching for something. Google and other search engines are not Gods, and sometimes while browsing through the lists you might end up seeing something that you would never find by using them. What’s more important, you will know that it is related to the list topic, so you won’t end up on some non relevant, one keyword bait, website. I do really appreciate the effort and time that some authors put into their posts. With that being said, let’s move back to the topic at hand. And yes, you’ll probably see that list I was talking about earlier very soon.

Battle At Kruger - Just In Case Someone Really Wanted To See The Shots

Second of all, I support Smashing Magazine “way” all the way, which should be obvious from the previous text. And I am not saying that to be a suck up, pardon the expression. I really find their news useful. Period. As I already said, I like lists, and I think Smashing Magazine, and other similar blogs, are doing a great job. Don’t know about PrintRadar though. Probably not. What I want to say is that they are also not all about lists. There are tons of great and useful information beside, or in between the lists. For example, when would you hear about someunknownnamehere.com website, which is run by a very talented artist from some unknown country, if he or she wasn’t showcased in that list? The answer is simple. Never. When would artists get so much traffic if it wasn’t for those lists? The answer is again simple. Never. And we all agree that traffic is what counts on the web. Because, when someone sees that single masterpiece of yours, that someone will want to see more of what you have to offer. If nobody sees nothing, what is the point? Websites are made with that purpose, to show the world what you can do, and to get more clients based on that portfolio. At least in designers and artists case. Either way, someone has to recommend you, just like in real business today, where you have to fight the fierce competition.

Now, why am I talking about generating traffic for those websites, when the obvious reason for making lists is the so called, link bait, which solely purpose is to generate your own traffic. Because, I’ve been studying latest PrintRadar traffic, which is still very small because we are still new, and posts featuring lists. What are the findings? Huge percent of all that traffic, ends up on original sources. What, does that mean? It means exactly what I said before. Those lists are nothing more than extended advertising for original creators. And you get them for free, just by doing stuff you are good at, and thanks to list researchers. How about that? Is there anybody in this world who wouldn’t want free advertising in front of millions of people every day for free? I don’t think so.

Making lists also takes time. It is not true that it is easy to do. Try to do one and you’ll see. Sure, we make mistakes while trying to make them, like we did on some of the posts, but you also learn so much stuff along the way. Self education. That is priceless. Not one of my teachers could ever dream about having that volume of high quality stuff going through their art gallery. We don’t need to dream about that. All we have to do is click and scroll those mouse buttons within virtual art galleries.

Battle At Kruger - Just In Case Someone Really Wanted To See The Shots

Is PrintRadar one of so many copycats? Yes it is, in a sense of the publishing model that it is currently based on. Is PrintRadar making lists to drive traffic? Yes it is. Will PrintRadar continue to publish lists? You can bet on it. Why? Because it will help not only PrintRadar, but it will hopefully help some readers who end up here, and it might help some of the artists, or even developers to expand their visibility or find some tools. Simple as that.

Now, I have to admit that I somehow agree with Scrivs also. Yes he made some really good points in that article, and through comments, but when you attack someone with such bombastic title, and with such incentive, be prepared to hold on to that opinion all the way. There is no backing down and lowering the ball. Now, why and with what I agree? I agree that there is simply too much of us. The so called copycats. But what are you going to do, than fight for your space, because no matter what are you going to write about, there is probably someone out there who already wrote the 101 list. Yes it is funny, being that I support that kind of publishing, but it can be annoying from the publisher perspective. Not from the readers perspective, because that means even more sources. What else? Yes, there are no quality articles? No, there are plenty of quality articles, it’s just that they are not being featured in lists and you can’t find them. So actually turns out I don’t agree with that part after all. Just kidding there, but really, there are. I tried a couple of times to follow that path before too, and believe me, it was like talking to the wall. But, when you break down that wall, with some heavy pieces of machinery, then you can refine it with some precise ones, if you know what I mean.

On the end, what are art galleries and museums? Stacks of properly labeled artworks? Well, that sounds a lot like lists to me. Do you find those places are ruining the community? OK, let’s just cut here, before I fall even more into the fire, and regardless of what has been written so far. Probably will go unnoticed anyway. So, my opinion is that there will be more and more raising voices against this kind of publishing, even if I don’t know why. What I would like to hear, are the real reasons why are those lists ruining the community? No one orders you to read those articles. No one is stopping you to do quality talk with other designers. No one is stopping really talented artist to publish their work online in what ever form they want to. All in all, lists will stay around in one way or another. Way to go buffalo!