Before you start reading, take a look at your subscriptions and count how many blogs in there are problogs.
In my aggregator I follow 98 blogs and news sites; 84 of them are blog. 37 of these blogs are pro-blogs.

There are thousands how-to-become-a-problogger lists, which advocate for quality content and good design, that promotes usability.
I don’t know how you see it, but some of these pro-blogs are full of ads – so many that you sometimes miss the content; and the content isn’t of the highest quality. Still these pro-blogs, remain problogs.
Why?
A discussion I had with Paul M. Banas made me think about it. I concluded, their success relies on 5 reasons:

1. Authority

Pro-bloggers have established their position in the blogosphere. They have high ranks in PageRank, in Technorati in everything. Being linked from a problog is a guarantee of 15seconds of popularity and maybe some additional subscribers. A link from a problog increases your rank significantly.

2. Discussion

Due to their high popularity, they host the most interesting discussions. Even if a post is inadequate, poorly researched or naive, people will still comment. Either by expressing their disregard or by correcting the mistakes. They will provide additional links, so that the writer (and co-commentators) will get better informed. After all, an active participation in a pro-blog community increases your popularity in the blogosphere.

3. Buzz

Problogger posts can create a buzz; they can be the news. Several people were kicked out of Facebook before Scoble, but it was Scoble’s post that made the news and started such a buzz. If you follow pro-blogger news, you stay up-to-date. When ReadWriteWeb writes about an internet brain implant, it becomes the news of the day.

4. Information

Information comes to Probloggers. The best advertisement for you is to write a great article in a problog as a guest blogger. The same counts, for a new web platform: after a first launch, they send a link to probloggers and ask for a review. ProBloggers are the gate keepers. They are the Reuters of the blogosphere.

5. Quality

A direct consequence of ‘information’ is quality. I don’t mean writing quality content (that is not an absolute necessity anymore). I mean identifying quality. When all kinds of information come to them, they have a vast variety to choose. They choose the most interesting blog posts to link to and the most innovative services to promote. This keeps them on top.

Conclusion

Don’t take this as an assault to probloggers (I like Scoble’s news and am a fan of RWW). But, when I see the quality of a few problogs being so low it makes me wonder why they remain on top. Have you ever stopped a subscription in a problog? Me never.
I know, that if I want my blog to be heard, I have to follow these blogs. They will provide the right input, what ticks each day.
Paul M. Banas posed the question:

I guess I’m wondering if there isn’t a better way to identify quality, that’s all.

I think that’s the hard part. I believe to do that, you have to spend hours and hours researching the blogosphere, finding interesting niche blogs.
But I’m afraid the only way to get heard, is to listen to the problogs as well.

Stanley Kunrick Kubrick (love you; yes you) was once asked, why did he decide to make films. His answer was:
I saw the films produced and thought to myself: I can do that.

Do you say I can do that, when you read a problog post?
When you do it, does it bring similar results?