Look at the top bloggers. The Writers at Boing Boing know how to write, like Cory Doctorow is a published author, granted “journalism” is slightly different, but still. Look at Engadget. It has about 40 posts a day, and all the writers know what they are talking about, and all of them know how to write.

Another good way to be a top blogger is to get lots of exclusives, that’s why tech blogs are some of the most popular, it’s something with a large fan base but not a lot of regular (IE. TV and Weekly magazines) news outlets for it. so the blogs can get the exclusives before it’s on tv or in a magazine, the same can’t be said about things like sports or political coverage.

You don’t need to cheat your way into becoming popular, there’s no formula. Just be good at what you do and you’ll gain respect.

I will agree with Calacanis whole-heartedly on one point — this is obviously just a lame attempt to turn the PayPerPost thing into some sort of “working man’s” struggle, when sadly, these folks miss his ultimate point — if something like PayPerPost thrives, it threatens to ruin the entrepreneurial opportunities that blogging creates for EVERYONE. If blogging becomes synonymous with “people getting paid to write about stuff”, the perceived authenticity and passion dwindles, and with it, so does the audience.

As bloggers, we deal with enough stigma, as geeks, as “navel-gazers” — the last thing we need is to add shill/whore to that list.

Speaking with Henry Copeland at Blogads in depth, and witnessing many of the Adsense success stories, I do believe that 2-3 months of hard (but smart) work can pay off in ad revenues, without having to whore out your posting to paid placements.

But you’re right Nick — the 2-3 conferences/events a week part is a tad ridiculous, and if it was really true would only further the point that Henry made at SXSW, that “A-list” status is reserved to those who live on the coasts, where there’s actually enough events to fill out that dance card.