Members the stranger Posted October 19, 2008 Members Share Posted October 19, 2008 How can I get more traffic to my blog, short of advertising? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted October 19, 2008 Members Share Posted October 19, 2008 Be careful what you wish for Stranger... I just left a comment on your blog! [Feel free to not approve it, though. Not that it wasn't a sincere comment coming from right where I live -- and maybe even toned down 'cause I know you and love you. In a secure-in-my-manhood, hetero kinda way, mind you. ] But... seriously... you can post in comments threads on news articles and always leave your URL, and post in public affairs/political BBs and make sure you have your URL in your sig line or at the bottom of your posts. Then again... everyone with an opinion (and some who don't) seems to have a blog. Have you ever been to my political blog? Probably not. Judging from my numbers. If you visited, I'd probably see the bump. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members the stranger Posted October 19, 2008 Author Members Share Posted October 19, 2008 I've been meaning to check out your blog. And do I have my comments on approve first? Hmm..I'm not to concerned about approving them first...whatever people feel they need to say. Oh yeah, I love you too, man. I'm trying to make sure mine isn't just politics, I try to get a good variety of stuff in there...vids with no video, humor, etc... Now you got me curious about this "toned down comment". Was it relating to my sanity? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members the stranger Posted October 19, 2008 Author Members Share Posted October 19, 2008 I approved it, it's a totally valid comment. I may not agree with it, but it is a valid point of view regarding third party support. But, did you have your link in it? I forgot to check? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members the stranger Posted October 19, 2008 Author Members Share Posted October 19, 2008 What's friend feed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted October 19, 2008 Members Share Posted October 19, 2008 It's a feed output aggregator -- for instance, mine's got my song blog, my new YouTube account (no vids of my cute cat on this one), my Last.fm thing (not that anything happens there but I SHOULD make it happen -- does anyone goe THERE -- I mean to Last.fm, not my page -- I'm pretty sure I know the answer to that one! ), and, I think my political blog. Or not... I was trying to get the political blog (which is just a typical 1/5th comment, 4/5ths quote op's news blog) to show up on my TK+friends page but... I must not understand... maybe I AM spreading myself way too thin... when an obsessive-compulsive starts going ADD, watch out. (And I'm referring to attention deficit disorder, not analog-digital-digital. ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members slight-return Posted October 19, 2008 Members Share Posted October 19, 2008 B Then again... everyone with an opinion (and some who don't) seems to have a blog. Have you ever been to my political blog? Probably not. Judging from my numbers. If you visited, I'd probably see the bump. I think that's one of the problems with blog in general (much like the criticisms of podcasting and I suppose DIY music recording) -- merely availability isn't going to be a big driver to the blog esp if it mainly commentary on works widely published elsewhere There is just isn't enough value add there. One thing you can do it raise the production values -- focus the blog more, get more original material (interview/ collborate-host recognized experts), increase the breadth and depth of any original research. It's time consuming and effort intensive, but that's where the value can be. Otherwise it can just come of as "armchair quarterback ranting to other armchaird QBs" (it's a common gripe with Garageband for instance...that he only exposure you really get is to other acts looking for exposure) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted October 19, 2008 Members Share Posted October 19, 2008 Some of the music blogs are extremely interesting because the person will discuss cool, overlooked, rare, and interesting music...and have music examples or downloads. I rarely read blogs, but if I do, they're almost always these sorts of blogs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members the stranger Posted October 19, 2008 Author Members Share Posted October 19, 2008 It's a feed output aggregator -- for instance, mine's got my song blog, my new YouTube account (no vids of my cute cat on this one), my Last.fm thing (not that anything happens there but I SHOULD make it happen -- does anyone goe THERE -- I mean to Last.fm, not my page -- I'm pretty sure I know the answer to that one ! ), and, I think my political blog. Or not... I was trying to get the political blog (which is just a typical 1/5th comment, 4/5ths quote op's news blog) to show up on my TK+friends page but... I must not understand... maybe I AM spreading myself way too thin... when an obsessive-compulsive starts going ADD, watch out. (And I'm referring to attention deficit disorder, not analog-digital-digital. ) Don't feel bad, I often ponder the fact that I have so many internet fixations, it's hard to manage them all. (remember the wiki thread? i really didn't follow through on that one) I think a good idea would be a site that let you log into myspace/youtube/your blog/etc from one central place. A social networking site to maintain all your social networking sites. One thing I found super cool is that now you can post to your blog right from youtube (at least I can with google/blogger) and that is way cool, considering I do a lot of vid posting on the blog. It would be great if myspace let you replace your myspace blog with your own (if you maintain one outside of myspace), or at least do like the youtube thing. Which comes back to the original idea, which is some way to aggregate your own content across multiple sources. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members the stranger Posted October 19, 2008 Author Members Share Posted October 19, 2008 Some of the music blogs are extremely interesting because the person will discuss cool, overlooked, rare, and interesting music...and have music examples or downloads. I rarely read blogs, but if I do, they're almost always these sorts of blogs. That's one focus I do have on my blog. Music would probably be the first, then politics, then humor. I've noticed that really a lot of blogs are information aggregation. Folks who want to share the specific finds of their web excursions, or share information. I like doing that, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members slight-return Posted October 19, 2008 Members Share Posted October 19, 2008 That's one focus I do have on my blog. Music would probably be the first, then politics, then humor. Therein could be a problem - those are 3 very broad and demanding masters to serve have you considered breaking them into 3 different blogs or at least areas? This could be esp valuable if, for instance, there are viewers who don't find you politics interesting, but may find your music interesting (esp with charged areas where there is a lot of opinion or difference in taste, the mingling of the subjects may be steering away readership as much as it's drawing readership) I've noticed that really a lot of blogs are information aggregation. That's where I kind of find the downside -- many blogs don't have the horsepower that larger scale info aggregators and are often not particularly deeply researched, so you get "headline aggregation" (ie the depth really isn't there) Folks who want to share the specific finds of their web excursions, or share information. I think that might be the crux of the aggregation problem, it can suffer from social clustering and the research suffers "I like to do that too" may sum it up a little in that it's very very easy for a blog to become, or at least have the appearance of being, a self-serving soapbox which can really disengage an audience Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members the stranger Posted October 19, 2008 Author Members Share Posted October 19, 2008 ... I must not understand... maybe I AM spreading myself way too thin... when an obsessive-compulsive starts going ADD, watch out... Been there, doing that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members the stranger Posted October 19, 2008 Author Members Share Posted October 19, 2008 Therein could be a problem - those are 3 very broad and demanding masters to serve have you considered breaking them into 3 different blogs or at least areas. This could be esp valuable if, for instance, there are viewers who don't find you politics interesting, but may find your music interesting (esp with charged areas where there is a lot of opinion or difference in taste, the mingling of the subjects may be steering away readership) I've noticed that really a lot of blogs are information aggregation. That's where I kind of find the downside -- many blogs don't have the horsepower that larger scale info aggregators and are often not particularly deeply researched, so you get "headline aggregation" (ie the depth really isn't there) Folks who want to share the specific finds of their web excursions, or share information. I think that might be the crux of the aggregation problem, it can suffer from social clustering and the aggregation can follow that clustering Interesting. I'm kind of fond of the variety aspect of it. Yeah, I could see where the conflict thing could come in. I try not to just post links to "headlines" like you say...I do add my two cents, for what it's worth. I can see the aggregation problem. That's interesting because in these couple threads about blogging we have going, I'm actually talking in favor of the "clustering", but your comments are good commentary on other aspects of social networking. You can actually limit the variety of information you are receiving. At least for your average user... I know those of us who post regular are not the types to limit what type of information we are getting. The forum is great for providing a wide range of information, since musicians and music pretty much span the range of demographics. And really the mix of content shouldn't be a problem, since the real content is me. If they are reading my blog on a regular basis, then I don't think they are going to be easily offended. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members slight-return Posted October 19, 2008 Members Share Posted October 19, 2008 I try not to just post links to "headlines" like you say... (just to be clear when I mean "the headlines" I mean fairly cursory reasearch as opposed to, literally, headlines) I do add my two cents, for what it's worth. Sadly, in the blogosphere, not much - I think that's one of the problems - it's basically saturated with pennies The blogger tends to add their "insightful analysis" because they are so astute and I think the reader is sometimes casts themselves there "hey, that's my role, I'm the astute one - you are just ranting"So it becomes that armchair QB talking to another armchair QB thing and the blogs kind of become seen as "oh, that guy and his soapbox" The use of original research or deeper research or having recognized experts contribute directly or other value adding could help in that regard And really the mix of content shouldn't be a problem, since the real content is me. I think that may be the central problem (ugh, that came out wrong) - that the content is "you" (the persona of the blog author) . That can point to the self-serving nature of blogs - and why readership can often be low or sporadic. If they are reading my blog on a regular basis I suppose that's why I'm commenting...because of the IF -- "if they are reading on a regular basis"... We're trying to boost your readership!! How can I get more traffic to my blog, short of advertising? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted October 19, 2008 Members Share Posted October 19, 2008 I think that's one of the problems with blog in general (much like the criticisms of podcasting and I suppose DIY music recording) -- merely availability isn't going to be a big driver to the blog esp if it mainly commentary on works widely published elsewhere There is just isn't enough value add there. One thing you can do it raise the production values -- focus the blog more, get more original material (interview/ collborate-host recognized experts), increase the breadth and depth of any original research. It's time consuming and effort intensive, but that's where the value can be. Otherwise it can just come of as "armchair quarterback ranting to other armchaird QBs" (it's a common gripe with Garageband for instance...that he only exposure you really get is to other acts looking for exposure) Oh, yeah... I actually do my music for myself and always have. (Starting out, I was certainly the only sane person who would listen.) And I've taken the same approach with my real blog (the song blog) -- at least to some extent -- I wanted to feel like if no one visited it, that it would still be worthwhile for me on some level. (And it has really revolutionized one thing -- I always know where to find my lyrics, now!) And my political blog --which is primarily quotations and excerpts strung together with a little outrage -- I mostly started as a way to save and have accessible information for political, uh, discussion. (I now don't argue politics anywhere anymore, except, of course, just recently in Stranger's politics thread in this forum. And, indeed, I found it very convenient to just refer back to my posts to get the ammo, er -- info -- I needed. But I started my first political blog back in the months leading up to the (we all knew it was) inevitable Iraq invasion, for all those reasons. (That one was called the "Infinitely Unfolding News Rant." After a while, I sort of lost the will to argue with idiots -- and that was at MySpace where the political forum seems like an online tea party put on by the Episcopalian Ladies Auxiliary compared to... well, a certain political forum cyber-geographically near to our hearts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members the stranger Posted October 20, 2008 Author Members Share Posted October 20, 2008 I think slight-return is bringing some good perspectives to the whole blog discussion. These are the types of things I find probably more useful than the "more traffic" basics. Because when it's all said and done, who is the biggest audience and biggest critic of me? Me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members slight-return Posted October 20, 2008 Members Share Posted October 20, 2008 Trying to help where I can While I fantasize that I do -- I don't really have "The Answer" so just thought I'd throw out some ideas (maybe they'll help, maybe not) and perspectives (being that I'm omniscient, you should probably heed them or be crucified) Why I thought my opinion might be valid enough to weigh in was... I'm the potential audience!!! I have no interest in generating a blog myself...but blogging, (audio) podcasting but I really really want it to work not as a potential content producer, but as consumer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members slight-return Posted October 20, 2008 Members Share Posted October 20, 2008 Oh, another quick thing I woke up on (and this is just general to blogs)-- It seems like a lot of blog formatting is directed toward "journal entries" but the authors wind up putting essays in them. It's just (probably a poor choice of words, I don't think "merely" really applies) a formatting thing, but another format might work better than Kerouac scroll of entries Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members merovinq Posted October 21, 2008 Members Share Posted October 21, 2008 If you make your blog comments "do-follow" that might entice more visitors. People like to lionk to their site in the comments. I left a comment by the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members slight-return Posted October 21, 2008 Members Share Posted October 21, 2008 start each blog entry with "As a 17 year old cheerleader I never thought this would happen to me, but..." I thin that might help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members the stranger Posted October 21, 2008 Author Members Share Posted October 21, 2008 That and boob avatars. Boobs equal clicks. -I'm still standing by that marketing assertion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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