A Blogger's Lament 15/06/2005 I admire those who retain a sensible perspective on blogging. By that I mean the bloggers who post when they have something to say and otherwise live ordinary lives that do not depend upon the blog. How wonderful it must be to have no concern over whether the blog is read or not, to care less about statistics, to post without even a thought of whether you last posted yesterday or a month ago. What freedom that must be!The rest of us are slaves. Oh, we can explain that there is a purpose behind what we do, that the blog serves us in the achievement of some high-minded goal, that it is merely the means to an end. But the fact is that we become slaves to the blog. To blog with a purpose implies that we intend to reach others, for whatever reason. And that means we have to be concerned with traffic, to know that others are reading and that we become more effective in drawing return visits to the blog. So we become interested in statistics, beginning perhaps with a hit counter but soon desiring more details. Then we begin to learn how to ensure that the numbers continue to mount: post regularly, know your audience and deliver what they want, make the blog attractive and easy to navigate. All these are the elementary things that add up to blog success.But we hunger for more and so, eventually and inevitably, we head for the traffic exchanges. Now the pressure really increases. Suddenly the blog is being viewed by hundreds and we have to think about how to capture some of those fleeting visitors, how to turn them from browsers into regulars. The blog has won and we have become its slaves.You can argue and point at those who have not posted in weeks and yet still have their blogs circulating through the exchange. My answer is that these are not bloggers; they are wannabes with more money than stamina, would-be bloggers who paid for the exposure and then found something better to do. They may irritate us as the same old post comes up yet again while we work the treadmill but, in truth, they are the ones who have escaped enslavement. They are out there somewhere enjoying life!It may annoy us that they leave a legacy of constant repetition for us to suffer, but I shrug my shoulders and endure their few seconds of reiterated fame for I know that they earn me one more half-credit towards more viewers for my blog. And it's my blog that I serve - willingly and consciously, it's true, but it is still servitude.There are others within the eternal circulation of the traffic exchanges that I do feel sympathy for, however. There are some blogs that are frittering away their credits for little reward. And, because it seems to me that someone ought to point this out to them purely from the goodness of his heart, I have decided to volunteer for the task (well, all right, I admit that I am also motivated by irritation at the blogs that I will never read because they have disqualified themselves in some way).The first of these creatures that I feel so sorry for is the slow-loading blog. Let's face it, even in the best of traffic exchanges, the blog has only thirty seconds to impress. And, if that time is taken up by the blog loading all sorts of junk from other sites, traffic counters, animations, pretty graphics, and buttons that want to phone home, we're not going to wait to read the thing. Some blogs keep my computer's processor so busy that they stop the timer but, hey, don't imagine that this slows me down for a moment. I time the thing with my watch and click on through at the end of 30 seconds - works every time.Sometimes my own blog can be slow to load. Invariably, the cause is one of the few buttons that I allow it. The worst offenders are Britblog and Technorati, sites that often seem to be very slow in delivering the information requested by the button. They survive on my blog only because they also deliver benefits beyond the occasional inconvenience of slow loading. But these are exceptions; let any of the other buttons cause a problem and they will be out before they know it.To have long strings of buttons is only increasing the chances that one of them will cause the blog to pause in loading. The same is true for everything you add to your blog. Flickr comes to mind as the worst offender of all. There are hundreds of blogs out there that sit immobile while they call photo after photo from Flickr. Am I going to look at even one of those photos after being delayed for so long? I don't think so!Of course, photoblogs depend upon such resources for their existence. Ignoring the fact that I don't look at photoblogs (or sound blogs for that matter), there are better ways of going about it than using an external server like Flickr's and so becoming dependent upon its speed or lack of it. If you must have a photoblog, put the photos on your blog server; that way, if the server is slow, at least it's not an outside source over which one has no control that is causing the problem. There is such a thing as optimising as well, reducing the size of the photo file to ensure that it loads quickly, but that is a whole new subject that I won't go into here. As an instance, however, I would mention that the photo of a gecko in my last post is only 47.4kb in size. Even under dial-up, that will load in a split second.As regards the fancy graphics and animations, I will say nothing except that they are tantamount to shooting yourself in the foot. Clear and simple wins the race every time. And, of course, win the race and there is at least a chance that a blog-clicker might read your blog.Speed is not the only matter to consider, however. There is also the problem of screen resolution. The majority of monitors these days are set to a resolution of 1,024x768 but a sizable minority still use 800x600. Have a look at your BlogExplosion stats to see just how many of your visitors are set to this resolution. Are you willing to risk that minority skipping your blog because they can't read it? The computer I use at the moment is ancient and so I am limited to 800x600; and some blogs become hopelessly entangled when viewed at this resolution. Some put text over other areas of text so that both become illegible. Others extend beyond the right edge of the screen so that I would have to scroll backwards and forwards to read the text (sorry, but I just ain't gonna do that).So do yourself a favor and have a look at your blog under 800x600. You might be surprised at what you find. Doing something about it can be a problem, I know. It is incredible to me but some of the templates put out by the blogging sites are the worst offenders in this regard. Professional programmers ought to know better. But even this can be overcome. I have a blogging friend who uses a template designed for 1,024x768. She has avoided any problem by dividing the screen into three columns and using the far right column only for things that don't matter. View her blog under 800x600 and everything that she wants you to read is in plain view.Understand, I am not criticizing here. It matters not to me whether anyone else's blog is legible or not. These are just suggestions made in a spirit of helpfulness, as one blog slave to another. Just think of all those hard-earned credits that you might be wasting...
Clive
Wayne Ah, you completely had me until you started talking about Flickr, which I feel compelled to defend: my own strip of photos never seems to take that long to load, even when my DSL service is down and I revert to dialup. Or, at least, my blog seems to load as quickly as any other site! I know that Mad keeps your site spiffy and self-sufficient, but we can't call have such geniuses doing web design for us. :) Some of us designers are just sort of hacking it out, code-wise. Anyway, interesting remarks as usual. I was once a slave to blogging, obligating myself to write one entry every other day. Now, I'm happy with twice a month, which seems to be the natural rate of publication for me. I do think about traffic now and then, and especially how to get more readers who aren't from Xanga. But it's not a priority. Date Added: 15/06/2005
Gone Away You have a very sensible attitude to blogging then, I think, Wayne. Especially as you've known what it's like to be enslaved! As regards Flickr, I think that you have taken a wise route there - by not expecting the blog to load your entire collection of photos every time someone opens it! Yours what not one of the blogs I was thinking of when I wrote this article... ;) Date Added: 15/06/2005
Karen (Kendra) Yikes! Now I'm frightened. Does my blog load quickly enough? By the way, I added "Sir Gawain and the Dragon" at Kendralynn.com and posted about it at Fictional Perspectives. Date Added: 15/06/2005
Karen Ooops, feel free to delete my previous post. It seems to have messed up the text and column width ratio. Date Added: 15/06/2005
Gone Away LOL It's just the long URL, Karen. The program can't work out where to put in a break and that means all the lines go to the same length. Mad will fix it. ;) Thanks for letting me know about posting "Sir Gawain and the Dragon". Date Added: 15/06/2005
Josh You are giving me a complex here, Gone. Between my recent and growing addiction to statistics, to the fact that I host my own site on a web server I built... sheesh. At least I don't have any real idea what a "credit" is. Technorati is the only remote request my site makes, and even that pisses me off on occasion. No, my problem is probably the enormous amount of scripting I use, not to mention the graphics files. Heck, my stylesheet alone is ~30kb, and that is plaintext. It wouldn't be so bad, I guess, if I didn't modify it every day. Sheesh, I really need to get to work on my naked template. Date Added: 15/06/2005
Gone Away The day all our blogs load as quickly as yours, Josh, we can feel pretty pleased with ourselves. And thank your lucky stars you have no idea what a credit is - basically it's payment for blog slaves. :D Date Added: 15/06/2005
Ken This is all very, very worrying indeed, Gone Away. My suggestion? A long holiday in some place where there is absolutely no electricity! You're never going to write the Great Twenty-First Century Novel if you allow these things to drag you down. I shall chant mantras to help free your spirit from this enslavement. Date Added: 15/06/2005
Gone Away Wisdom from Ken again! But don't worry, like all addicts, I maintain I can get free anytime I want to... ;) Date Added: 15/06/2005
Wayne My, how you've alarmed your readers! :) Date Added: 15/06/2005
Gone Away Seems that way, doesn't it, Wayne? Perhaps I should have mentioned that the blogs of my regular readers all load pretty quickly... Date Added: 15/06/2005
Ned I worry about slow loading of my blog because I am impatient. I don't have garish colors because I don't like them. I am a slave to the blog simply because I am an addictive personality and it gives me the semblance of a purpose in life. I don't have to worry what the traffic thinks, they don't read it. I should probably take up knitting or something... I think I saw a blog about knitting recently. It had lots of photos... Date Added: 15/06/2005
Gone Away Ned, the day you take up knitting will be a sad day for the world of literature... Date Added: 15/06/2005
Ned It'll be a sad day for the world of knitting. Sheep everywhere will rise up in revolt when they find their wool being taken for such things as I might construct. Date Added: 15/06/2005
Gone Away That's decided then. Stick to the writing! Date Added: 15/06/2005
Way The more I read about this stuff of which I know nothing, the more better I start to feel about my ignorance. Besides, I'd most likely take out a shotgun, were traffic to increase much more. Pesky flatlanders and their nosy noises. Date Added: 16/06/2005
Gone Away You know, Way, I'd believe you ... were it not for the fact I saw you twice on the BlogExplosion Rocket yesterday...! ;) Date Added: 16/06/2005
Way Only because I JUST figured out how to get on the adjectival list! I have no idea where all my credits on that hoot have been going. Date Added: 16/06/2005
Gone Away I've wondered why I haven't seen you in my stints on the treadmill, Way. Credits won on the Rocket have to be assigned - go to Assign Traffic on the menu bar at the left and make sure the credits go to your blog. But the best way to build up credits is the standard blog exchange - go to Surf Members' Blogs (right at the top of the menu) and you'll get the idea. Two blog viewings for one credit. And you can make sure those credits go straight to your blog (again in Assign Traffic, make it automatic that they go there) and then we'll see you cycle through with all the other blog slaves. :) Date Added: 16/06/2005
Gary I think there a lot of tricks to get your blog noticed, but for me ultimately it's the writing, the writing, the writing. Some blogs are popular for reasons I can't fathom. The writing is mediocre and the look is ugly, but for whatever reason they rack up the readers. I think a lot of blog readers want dirt and they go to a blog that can give it to them. Others want facts, they admire a blogger who knows stuff that they don't, especially about current events. To some bloggers its entirely about the culture wars. They feel better when they read posts after post bashing the other side. I'm more interested in reading good writing, and I expect you are too, but some people really aren't that much. Date Added: 16/06/2005
Gone Away All true, Gary. And I must admit I agree with you especially about the popularity of some blogs - I look at them and wonder what on earth the attraction can be... Date Added: 16/06/2005
John (SYNTAGMA) Those visitor meters can be pre-set to clock up a million or two visitors before they start! I saw one very mediocre blog which claimed something like 62,000 visitors since April, and boasted about it. Now why do I think that the meter was set to 60,000 in the beginning and the rest gained through blog exchanges? Cynical or what? Date Added: 16/06/2005
Gone Away Good point, John, and it makes those hit counters pretty meaningless. It would be interesting to go back in a month's time and see what figure it's reached then. 62,345? ;) Date Added: 16/06/2005
Phil Dillon Most of us who blog have competing interests. We want to write and we also want recognition. These exchanges have often duped us into thinking that a lot of folks are reading what we have to say. It was a very timely, well written post. I also read your comment on my post from yesterday. Thanks. Your words were very kind and wise. I think you're right about how the Vietnam experience has in some way tempered our view on how and when to use power. Date Added: 16/06/2005
PaintingChef Well, you certainly kept my interest for longer than the 30 seconds. All such great points! I'm enslaved by traffic and statistics, its just too interesting not to mention SO much better than working. Also, guilty of the buttons thing. Anyway, found you on BE and I've blogmarked you, this was a very interesting post! Date Added: 16/06/2005
Gone Away Thanks, Phil. I've been reading your blog for some time now so that's one reader at least that you didn't know about! Must get around to putting you on my links page... Date Added: 16/06/2005
Gone Away Thanks for the kind comments, Susannah (see, I have been to your blog :D). And I love the way you've displayed your artwork - so much easier for the viewer than having to scroll down all the time! Date Added: 16/06/2005
easywriter Hi my name is easywriter and I'm a blog-a-holic. I'm also a compulsive worrier...exits comments wringing hands and muttering, too fast? tooslow, flick'r. Oh no! Not enough content is there too much do my posts make sense or are they a wreck? Date Added: 16/06/2005
Gone Away LOL Easy, your blog is one of the fastest out there. And the posts are good too. :) Date Added: 16/06/2005
Rowan You've read my mind. Really slow-loading blogs are one of my pet peeves when I surf on Blog Explosion (yes I'm one of the addicts!). Like you say, they have 30 seconds to grab my attention and if it takes that long to load, I'm off! Plus, it gives me nothing to read while I'm waiting for that 30 seconds to be over (it can actually seem like a long time when you're staring at a blank screen!). Date Added: 17/06/2005
Ned The slaving for credits on the exchanges is the thing that wearies me. When I first began it was interesting. I found several blogs that I blogmarked and spent a lot of time reading. But I have not seen any new ones in a while and some of the ones I liked well are rarely updated. And there is a certain sense that most blog clickers are not reading anyway, just waiting out their 30 seconds. Numbers don't matter to me if the traffic is just clicking through on their way to the next blog. Date Added: 17/06/2005
Wayne Wow -- this is very strange. I'm on blogexplosion, and your blog just popped up, Gone! I think this just means that I was always destined to find your site, on way or another. Date Added: 17/06/2005
Gone Away It also means that you, too, have been lured into the maw of the traffic exchanges, Wayne. ;) Date Added: 17/06/2005
John (SYNTAGMA) The new Rocket at B/E is a much better way to get visitors, I've found. Not only does it save bandwidth ~ you don't have to read any blogs, but it sometimes gives you 15 or so clicks per ride ~ that's equivalent to 30 blogs on the surf. My Sitemeter logs also show that those who click on the rocket stay much longer and produce more page views.You're right about being a slave to the blog, Clive. I think it's all down to stats and traffic, and that's probably linked to the idea that it will produce some hard cash at some point. I've long since given up on the idea of getting an income stream from blogging, so I've transformed from the rather laughable title of "problogger" to the proud one of FreeBlogger. Anyone can swipe my material (they will anyway) if they add a resource box with a link back to the blog. Now I can relax and remove my "slave" badge. Who'd be a problogger? Date Added: 17/06/2005
Gone Away I agree that the Rocket is a very effective way of increasing traffic and that visitors from there tend to stay longer, John. But I cannot bring myself to give up on the usual traffic roundabout either. It brings in 50 to 100 hits a day and, although most of those are brief hits that click on through at the end of 30 seconds, a few stay to read. So I do both - rocket and roundabout (I don't do the Battle of the Blogs - that seems like a waste of good credits to me). I have never seen blogging as a potential source of income; to me, it seems a good way to showcase the goods but I don't kid myself that anyone is going to pay for it. The hope is that it may come to the attention of someone within the publishing industry (yes, I still fancy the traditional route to publication) and it can also be pointed at should I need to give "samples" of my work. It's you who has got me thinking about newer forms of publication. I have a steep learning curve to ascend in that but I keep moving (upwards, I hope). But I have no dreams of being a problogger. My slavery results from the knowledge that the blog must be regularly updated if the reader figures are going to continue to increase. And that is necessary if I'm to be noticed and as a demonstration to a prospective publisher that I am already involved in the business of self promotion. So I keep my "slave" badge for the moment. Indeed, I sometimes wonder whether I'll ever be able to throw it away... Date Added: 17/06/2005
John (SYNTAGMA) Have you come across The Blurred Line blog, Clive? I usually see it on the B/E surf. A young Canadian, Cavan ~ 21 today ~ and a sci-fi addict, had just published his book of the same name by POD through Lightning Source. I believe it's already up at Amazon ... must check, I've promised myself a copy. Anyway, it's a useful case to watch. I hope he does well. He deserves to, not many 21-year olds have the gumption to write a full-length book and publish it themselves. Also, there's a complete financial case-study of a POD published book over at www.fonerbooks.com. There's a link to it on the sidebar. Date Added: 17/06/2005
Gone Away Yes, I have seen the Blurred Line blog, John. Keep promising myself that I'll find the time to delve deeper into it. Now I guess I must do that. ;) Thanks for the info and the link! Date Added: 17/06/2005
Rusty I used to be a slave. Now it is just a nagging thought at the back of my mind. Then I need to get a quasi-regular fix of the blogs I love. I need to change my format. I think I am gonna go with black and white, no graphics. Date Added: 17/06/2005
Gone Away That would be a pretty fast blog, Rusty! ;) Date Added: 17/06/2005
mai i took a deeper look into my blog after reading your comments there, and darn if you weren't right! my text was overlapping at a lower resolution. i set the divs to percentages instead of definite pixel widths, and they look better now. incidentally, your blog loads very quickly, and is quite lovely to look at. so far, i enjoy reading it as well! i'm sure i will continue to enjoy it. Date Added: 18/06/2005
Gone Away Thanks for the kind comments, Mai. And good to see your blog as it was meant to be seen! I still like that drawing very much. Date Added: 18/06/2005
Andy Enslavement? Naaa... it's just attachment. Same with everything. You can be attached to your lawn as tightly as to your blog. Learning to let go is equally hard. Date Added: 18/06/2005
Gone Away Semantics, Andy, semantics... ;) Date Added: 18/06/2005
Andy Possibly... Date Added: 18/06/2005
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