In the wild, bloggers tend to group together inside networks to survive. These instincts have been honed over several years of dangerous online activity. For instance, they survived the Blogger buyout, the various Wordpress hacks, and the influx of comment spam. They’re strong creatures.

But there’s always one that stands apart from the rest. When you spot an Alpha blog, we suggest walking backwards slowly. Do not break eye contact, as the blog will likely take you down like a gimp zebra. Just stay calm. Here’s several ways to spot an alpha blog.

1. You notice your hair stand on end when you visit their blog. It’s a biological reaction to the blog’s superior writing, resources, and design. It could also be related to the large RSS numbers seen in the Feedburner counter.
2. When challenged, the alpha blog will exert superior debating skills, causing the beta blog to falter. Alpha blogs do not casually exist, but are regarded as authorities.
3. Alpha blogs eat first. Their posts circumvent other news sites as they have contacts within organizations. Who wouldn’t go to the alpha blog with their spectacular press release?
4. Beta blogs act on command of the alpha blog. The alpha blogs say, “Use this monetization method,” and within weeks thousands of loyal beta blogs have implemented the method. This also works for contests. Beta blog contests usually fall flat, while Alpha blog contests win the web.
5. Alpha blogs receive their status from sheer willpower. They gain momentum with readers through superior content and marketing maneuvers. They can however be toppled by beta blogs. In this highly social species, politics may take a part in determining the next alpha blog.

In this highly social society, it’s often blog eats blog. Be sure you know your territory well. You may be walking into the jaws of an Alpha blog.

I’m a fan of many great movies. I think the best would be classics from my youth — Pulp Fiction and the Big Lebowski for sure. I’m a huge fan of Dark City as well. I can go on, but will just leave it at that. I do have a point in telling you the movies I enjoy. The more memorable movies I watched came to me when I was younger. Maybe they made movies better back then. I think it had to do with time.

I had more time to watch and to appreciate a good movie. I could watch it more than once. I could revel in its scripted glory.

I think the same can be said of blogs. I found many that I fell for right away. I read them everyday. I have become attached to them. With all these great blogs in my feed reader, I find it hard to add new ones to my daily routine. I know I must branch out.  In this episode of the Weekly Implosion, I’m looking at various blogs and sites that affected me in a positive manner.

The Nominations Are…

I have found many sites helpful with my creation of this blog. One person in particular was there from the beginning. Jeff at Buzz my Blog who has also guest posted here.

I’m sure many of you have run across the goatee sporting tech guy’s website. Joe Tech needs no introduction, but his participation in my blog’s jettison to success has been formidable.

Ben Barden’s blog. What an inspirational blog. Need I say more?

Many blogs have affected me in a positive manner. I just wanted to shout out to a few of them in this post. They’ve won my Oscar.

Other Nominations
My blog would be nowhere without Entrecard. I signed up for the service probably ten days after launching my site. I have not looked back. At first, I dropped my cards on others politely. Now I push for 300 a day, and have built up quite a collection of ECs.

I found many of my current RSS subscriptions from the service. I also love the forums on the site, although they are a little slow. I have a few items for sale in the shop. One being a post idea, which actually is more difficult to fulfill than previously thought. Overall Entrecard has only been second to Stumbleupon as far as referrals to my site. The service continues to grow and become an internet success story.

I also enjoy the PostonFire.com site. I ran across the site when I was surfing through Entrecard. I was skeptical at first. I mean, it looks like Digg; it sounds like Digg; it must be a Digg wannabe, right? Only partially. The site has icons of fire, so that was a definite plus for me. I do like to ignite things. Along with the smart graphics, comes a really nice layout. Everything on the site appears readable, and friendly. The process of signing up wasn’t difficult, and adding friends, posting new articles, and firing other’s submissions all comes easy. Overall I love the site, and its helped me find a few new readers.

Upcoming Explosions
I swear I’m going to do a podcast. I’ve been busy with freelance writing lately. I’ll make some time though. Next week should see a recurrence of humor posts. I think they’re some of the hardest posts to write. Humor itself seems elusive in text form. I’ll try to capture some funny tidbits in a post I’ve been working on for a while.

A new barrel of fuctional blogging joy should be on the way. Look for a new Powder Keg Review this week.

Have you considered joining a blog network? I’ve been asked to put my blog into one. I’m thinking about it, and I’m going to write about it. The questions I have will be posted here with answers from the network owner.

Is there a turf war among bloggers? Do we protect our niche with the ferocity of inner city bangers? Gangs are no laughing matter - they are a violent, abhorrent part of our society. This is why I cringe a little when I ask, do bloggers have gang tendencies?

John Chow of the MMTs (Money Making Thugs) challenged Shoemoney in the recent past to a showdown for the most RSS subscribers. The classic turfwar was on. Who could amass the largest gang to lay the smack down on the other? In the end, Shoemoney was victorious.

Bloggers tend to belong to many different blogging networks, like mybloglog.com, blogcatalog.com, blogrush, entrecard to name a few. This natural instinct to survive by joining a group connects bloggers to that gang mentality. And those with killer instincts know that the middle of the pack serves as the best protection.

While a blogging network does not bring up images of Scarfaceto most, it can help you survive in this vast blogosphere. How else can we get the word out to our prospective audience? We need these services to survive. Otherwise, we’re out cold on a street corner, looking to re-up (been watching too much The Wire).

The John Chow vs. Shoemoney RSS feed contest may seem like a common contest, but in reality it was a marketing ploy for each of them to gain massive new subscribers. I’m sure they both benefited from their RSS feeds climbing so quickly.

This post, while tongue in cheek, should provide bloggers with a key understanding - we are all better in a group. We’re stronger with our homies at our back. Let’s face it - there’s been a blogger who has helped your blog immensely since you first started out in the biz. Someone who helped you fix your faulty css, create your logo, install a difficult plugin, or just link back to you from a post.

You betta recognize!

I read a day or two ago (God knows where - thanks Entrecard!) about a blogger who refused to link to his competitors, even though they were friends and he enjoyed their writing. He was afraid his readers would slink away in the night to read his competition’s writing and then never return. I’m here to tell you - if they go, then you need to step it up. Stop sheltering and start supporting your readers. Let them know what’s out there. You can’t shield them from the harsh world of the blogosphere forever.

What am I saying? I’m saying we need each other. We can’t worry about what colors the other bloggers are wearing. We must focus on our similarities and work together to survive. Regardless of rank, we can all benefit from link love, a helpful comment about stylistic material, a favorite in tehnorati, a digg, or a simple comment on a post.

Represent Bloggers! Do something for someone who helped you out recently or even when you first started out blogging. It won’t go unnoticed.