Blog Thinking 01/08/2005 Of late, I have been thinking a lot about this whole business of blogging. In my previous post, Writers' Blogs and the Mighty PR, I set down my thoughts on a way for writers to get more exposure to their blogs (if you haven't done so already and you're a writer or a reader, please have a look at that article - it suggests a strategy that depends entirely on us working together and you are important to that). But my thoughts on this new medium extend beyond what it means for writers. Thanks largely to John Evans at Syntagma, all things blog-related are now grist to my mill.The more I learn about blogging, the more I realize that I know nothing in comparison to some. As an example, John has pointed out that Darren Rowse at ProBlogger has begun a series entitled Strategic Blogging. This is bound to be a series that no serious blogger should miss - Darren has this to say about his earnings as a blogger: "It is actually difficult to put a figure on it because each month is different and overall my earnings are still on the rise from month to month. However based on how things are currently going I expect that this year my blogging (across all blogs and income streams) will generate a six figure income ($US)."Strangely enough, the amount that Darren earns from blogging is not what interests me. I have never intended that I should earn from the blog, except in an indirect manner. But his thoughts on good blogging are relevant to all of us because he has shown that blogs can be successful in whatever they are intended to achieve. And, if we are not prepared to listen to those who have been successful, we merely make the learning process more difficult for ourselves.I have seen quite a few blogs where pointers are given on creating good blogs. All include some important points but I want to concentrate on just two in this article.SpeedSpeed of loading is one of the crucial matters that should concern all bloggers. I don't care how good the content is or how pretty the design, if it takes more than thirty seconds to load, it stands very little chance of being read. And do not assume that, because it loads quickly on your state-of-the-art, brand new, kicking computer, it will do the same on everyone else's. There are thousands of older computers out there and they struggle to cope with things like fancy Java animations, movies, soundtracks, massive image files, etc. Let's not even think about the poor blighters still struggling along on dial-up.I know that I mentioned this point in my article A Blogger's Lament, but it bears repeating. Think "speed" if you're at all serious about your blogging. And speed means simplicity (which is also good design sense). Forget all the pretty add-ons and fancy graphics; concentrate on having a clear and simple design and your blog might even be read.Traffic ExchangesTraffic exchanges are wonderful things for getting your blog presented to a large and varied audience very quickly. I admit that I use them for all they're worth and at least a couple of hours a day is spent in clicking through the exchanges to earn enough credits to keep my own blog circulating.But let us not imagine that the exchanges do much more than keep the stats looking good; they increase the number of hits dramatically but only a tiny percentage of those hits will result in an increase in regular readers. For writers especially, regular readers are the lifeblood of a blog; without them, the blog will sicken and die. So we need to use the exchanges but be looking at other ways of increasing our profiles too (hence my previous post).Lately, I have been seeing a few complaints that the best of the exchanges, BlogExplosion, has slowed down and is giving only a small proportion of the traffic it once delivered. BlogExplosion has explained that this is because they are currently introducing new systems that will result in even greater traffic in the future. Since one of their improvements is something that I was hoping for (surfing by category), I have to believe them and await the promised increase in due course.In the meantime, it is worth considering the other exchanges to tide us over. If it matters to anyone, this is my assessment of them:BlogClickerCurrently providing good traffic although it is hard work, unrelieved by any free credits or games.BlogaZooProbably the hardest to pin down; I never know how many credits it is likely to consume in a day. Some days it rivals Clicker, on others it drops almost out of sight. I keep going back because of the good days. Occasionally it gives rewards in the form of free credits.BlogSoldiersNice interface, good design, but small - which means one sees the same blogs over and over again. But it is very generous with credits and games - leading to more enjoyable surfing than anywhere else. Traffic from it is generally low but it is forgiven because it's fun.BlogXchangeMy flavor of the month, Xchange, more than any other, has been the one to save my bacon while Explosion has its slowdown. Traffic is very good, although it must contain many repeats since the exchange is quite small. Surfing is also eased by the possibility of winning free credits.BlogExplosion remains as the champion, however. It is so big that it is the only one that can consider introducing surfing by category. And the games, such as the Blog Rocket, provide a means of attracting traffic beyond the usual surfing. We can only wait and hope that the new systems will live up to their promise.
Clive
John (SYNTAGMA) A good summing up of the options, Clive. And thank you for the kind mention and link. Every one helps. I would just add one other option : search engine traffic. These are the real loyalists to your cause because they care enough about the topics you blog on to search it out on the net. It means blogging on good search terms that will attract traffic. If that sounds very technical, it isn't really. You just have to decide on your niche and go for it. Somewhere I've got an Excel file of the top 3000 search terms which I picked up on the web. I'll try and get a link to it over on SYNTAGMA ~ if I can find it, that is :-) Date Added: 01/08/2005
Gone Away Thanks, John. The matter of search terms (and Technorati tags) is something that I know I'll have to get into. The problem at the moment is that I can do nothing until Mad feels fit enough to work with me on a re-design of the blog. It needs to be organised into categories that can then be tagged and so on. All in good time, I guess! Date Added: 01/08/2005
Ken Sad to say, Gone Away, but I don't think I belong in this world. Date Added: 01/08/2005
Gone Away It's really about aims and objects, Ken. For some, to blog occasionally and have just a few readers is sufficient. But if, like me, you're blogging to reach a large number of readers, it becomes necessary to learn about the ways and means of increasing traffic. And there is so much to learn! In the end, it all comes down to the question: why do you blog? The answer to that decides how you will proceed. Date Added: 01/08/2005
Devil's Advocate Somewhere, in the back of my mind, the simple act of quoting a purported annual revenue strikes me as unseemly opportunism, and doesn't do much to help the sport. Especially when mentioned as if it were from an offering from on high (think infomercial): "I now make (n) figures a month from my ponzi sch... reclaimed real estate business, and yeeeeeeeeuw can teeeeuww!! My point is this -- and forgive me if I seem blunt, Gone, but I think it begs: Are you looking for hits, or are you looking for a larger, loyal readership? I understand that the first undoubtedly assists the second, but how much of it is pointless reverberations in an echo chamber? Yep, there are blogs with PR:7's and 8's -- blogs that have such a following and great content -- but I think I can say without much hesitation that they never used BlogaZoo to get there. You have an incredibly rich reserve, you do, and I think concentrating on a brilliant idea like the writer's blog alliance may be better than the quid pro quo that exchanges offer, eh? My $0.02. Date Added: 01/08/2005
Gone Away Darren's statement as regards earnings can be trusted, Josh - he is one of those pro-bloggers we envy. But you are right in what you say about the traffic exchanges. They do bring in the occasional visitor who becomes a regular but the majority of hits are brief and probably don't mean a thing. I accept that since I am still developing other methods of attracting traffic. There is my ego to consider too - thanks to the exchanges, my stats look pretty good. They don't fool me into thinking they represent the real situation but they are some comfort until we can get the Writers' Blog Alliance off the ground. Oh, and thanks for the two cents (at this rate I'll be able to buy that farm any day now...). ;) Date Added: 01/08/2005
Josh You'll not buy the farm on my account, good sir. :) (I love a good dubble entendeery!) Date Added: 01/08/2005
Gone Away LOL Date Added: 01/08/2005
John Excellent post Clive and good pointers for new and exsisting bloggers. The more traffic, the more people read our blogs, isn't that what its all about? Keep up the good work! GBYAY PS. I read your comment on Bamboo Bell, I would love to read what you propose. Date Added: 02/08/2005
Gone Away Thanks, John. As for my comment on Bamboo Bell, I was thinking aloud more than anything else. I appreciate the way Rick Bell often articulates what I have been thinking quietly to myself and sometimes I think I ought to be more "in yer face" about my Christianity. But his latest post made me a lot easier about the fact that my Christianity is a largely unseen foundation to what I write. Too often we see unhelpful and silly arguments between Christians over matters that are peripheral to our faith; this merely serves to confirm those who do not know Him in their opinion that Christianity is a matter of interpreting a book that they doubt anyway. Perhaps we should be more concerned about living and being what we believe than about whether the other guy's doctrine is correct. My point (if I have one) is that my Christianity gives me a view of the world that cannot help but come through in what I write. If anyone senses this, they are welcome to ask and, at that point, I take it that I have been given permission to explain what I believe. ;) Date Added: 02/08/2005
Melly Hi Clive, I just got back (I was away) and saw your comment on my blog - thanks for visiting. I'm also very happy I came here today because I found this to be a very good post, very helpful. I totally agree about the exchanges, but it's not just the visiting of other blogs that matters, it's the comments too I find. Don't you think? Date Added: 02/08/2005
Gone Away Hi Melly. I agree that comments are very important in that they can establish exchange of ideas between writers and readers; they also indicate that some visitors are actually reading the blog! Date Added: 02/08/2005
John Thanks Clive, for the explanation, I totally agree with you! GBYAY Date Added: 02/08/2005
Josh Shoot. Looks like it might be time to juggle your form variables, Madmin -- that guy's got a lock on you pretty good! Date Added: 02/08/2005
Madmin Nah I'll regex for the spamtards common words Hill, using .NET's rather nifty global.asax... just as soon as I get a round tuit. Date Added: 02/08/2005
Gone Away .oO(Ah, found it!) Here's your round tuit, Mad... O Date Added: 02/08/2005
Wayne Hmmmmm ... well, I think I've mentioned before that using blogexplosion made me feel dirty. And in all of my clicking around, I only found one other site that appealed to me. I tend to think that if you blog consistently for a few years and turn out a reliable product, you'll get a more loyal readership that by any other method. Also, commenting sincerely on other people’s blogs tends to help. Whenever someone new is generous enough to leave a comment, I’m always eager to visit that person’s site. And I've been wondering if I should say this or not, and decided I will: a lot of the blogs that call themselves "writing blogs"? Aren't very well written. Something about the self-consciousness of the blogger-as-artist seems to pollute the work. Their prose is turgid, takes itself way too seriously. Other bloggers, who just seem to have a blast blogging, are often much better writers. But you'll never hear them refer to themselves that way. Your own blog, as I've said before, is rather brilliant, in both design AND content. Date Added: 02/08/2005
Gone Away All good points, Wayne. I know exactly what you mean about the traffic exchanges making one feel dirty. Yet you're talking to a man in a hurry here - and the exchanges help a little in the right direction so I use them. ;) The other matters you mention are part of my arsenal too. But a few years? Don't know if I have the stamina for that; I live from day to day! As for the quality of the writing in some "writing blogs", yes, it's pretty varied. But what I see is a large group of common purpose regardless of ability; I am mercenary enough to want to use that for my own ends. It will benefit all if it works, so I can excuse my motives in that way. I knew from my teens that I was designed to write; but I also knew that no-one has anything worth writing about until they're a good deal older than that (there's a controversial statement - I'll probably regret writing that...). So I hunkered down to live my life, saving the writing for later. And now that "later" has arrived and I reckon I've earned a little impatience to see things get moving. It's like having something to say but being forced to keep quiet for fifty years before being allowed to speak. Humor me a little in my willingness to use just about any avenue to get published! ;) But I do thank you for your kind words re the blog - 'tis that kind of thing that makes it all seem worthwhile! Date Added: 02/08/2005
John (SYNTAGMA) I've been thinking about your ideas of a writer's alliance and how blogs can help writers. As a result, I'm hoping to put up a piece tomorrow called : "Blog Tips For Writers". This, I hope, will be part of Darren's BlogTipsFest for August. I had so much traffic from Problogger this morning thru the link that I'm going to attempt a repeat performance :-)I was interested in what you were saying about Christianity yesterday. Did you know that Darren used to be a Baptist minister and now runs a Christian mission called The Emerging Church? He's an interesting guy. Date Added: 02/08/2005
Gone Away Great idea, John. I look forward to reading the article (but I'll come direct, not from Problogger!). This morning I was reading various articles on Darren's site and noticing that many of his tips and suggestions don't apply to writers (length of article, for instance). Of course, there is much that can be applied in any blog but we need to be thinking about how writer's blogs differ from other blogs and working out a strategy from there. I didn't know that about Darren; in fact, all I know about him is what he has written in his "About" page. The Emerging Church sounds very interesting. Date Added: 02/08/2005
Ken Thanks for the reply you posted on my blog, G. A. I may yet take you up on your offer of technical consultancy! When we're both multi-millionaires, we'll sit and smile quietly at all of this over glasses of ice-cold champagne! Date Added: 02/08/2005
Gone Away Roll on the day, Ken! :D Date Added: 02/08/2005
Actressdancer Now that I am back, I will be attempting to resurrect my dead blog. Any hints on how to get ones friends reading again? Perhaps my "young" age is the reason I have such difficulty in creating anything worth posting...lol. Yeah, that's it. I'll stick to that excuse :). Date Added: 02/08/2005
Mark Very good info here. I'm pondering a redesign of my blog, but am curious why the blogging world likes to present so many of these blogs in such narrow column format? Do they think everyone is still using a 13" monitor or something? I'm just curious why one would waste so much screen real estate. Thanks, Mark Date Added: 02/08/2005
Madmin I'll field this one. Good question Mark, I chose a fixed width, two column layout for a number of reasons. Web design is often a case of catering to the lowest common denominator. It's very likely that people running 15" monitors with a resolution of 800x600 will visit this site (in fact the author of Gone Away works uses one of these antiquated monitors). I acknowledge that most users in the Western world will have higher resolutions and I might be prepared to ignore a very small minority (I have in a similar vein decided to ignore Netscape 4 users) but the third world still has lots and lots of old monitors. I don't wish to alienate a potentially large audience so I keep to a fixed width layout. I must admit that as a learning and developing designer I am influenced by what the trendy guys are up to and this kind of layout is in vogue at the moment. I guess finally I like it, I have produced fluid layouts that maximise screen real estate but I'm not keen on them and they can be very problematic in narrow windows. Date Added: 03/08/2005
Mark Thanks for that answer. I really wasn't thinking so much about the third world (geez, another arrogant American - all we need, huh?) and with all the constant advances in technology, just assumed that people were at least up to 17" by now. But heck, I live in the boonies and am still on dialup (god awful), so who am I to think people should be on larger monitors? :) I'm curious what happens when somebody visits my blog and has a smaller screen. I'm thinking it should just elongate and not get all whacked out, but perhaps I'm wrong. Maybe I need to visit a local library with some small screens and check it out. I can resize my monitor screen and it looks ok, but maybe that isn't the same thing? I sure wish I had all the techno wizardry abilities of some of you guys, but too many things to do in a day and I'm afraid that will most likely not happen, so I'll probably be stuck with templates and trying to recode them with the small amount of html lingo that I do know. Thanks, Mark Date Added: 03/08/2005
Mad Mark looking at your site at 800x600 using the developers tool bar for Firefox I'd say it works ok at small resolutions. It does get a bit cramped but I've seen fluid designs respond worse so it's not a huge issue. You make a good point too about dial-up users, again this is somewhere we work to serve the lowest denominator technologicaly. I always try to minimise load times so as to keep the 56k audience sane. Date Added: 03/08/2005
Gone Away Welcome back, Actress! :) The way to get your friends back to the blog is exactly what you have done here - make a comment on their blogs. Also trail the URL around in chat for those who don't have blogs. But consider joining one or two of the traffic exchanges too - you could meet new friends doing that and add some pressure to keep blogging. ;) .oO(I knew I wouldn't get away with that statement about having to be old to write...) Date Added: 03/08/2005
Gone Away Thanks for fielding that one, Mad - been afk for a few hours. If I can just add a little, Mark (ah, the one who pontificates from the mountain - now I know who you are!), as a blogger who has to use a 14 inch screen at the moment, I can tell you that there are two main problems with templates designed for 1,024x768 when viewed at 800x600. Either they force me to scroll sideways to read text that disappears off to the right, or they layer text areas over each other, making both illegible. Your own site is fine, however - looks great at this res. Watch the loading speed, however. All those photos take ages to download, even though I have DSL, and the site remains frozen in one place until they've finished. If I were you, I'd ditch unnecessary ancilliaries too - that clock is notorious for increasing download times and it's really superfluous to requirements, sitting just above the system clock as it does. ;) Date Added: 03/08/2005
Mark Excellent advice - I was thinking about dumping the clock for the same reason and your point about pics is well taken (could be the Flickr box that keeps showing different pics). For the photo of the day ones, I may return to smaller sized images to hurry up that download and also possibly cut down my blog to 7 days rather than 14. Since a lot of this stuff is cached on my computer, I often don't realize how long it is taking to load. Thanks, Mark Date Added: 03/08/2005
Josh I've sorta said pfft to dialuppers -- I am the guiltiest of men when it comes to overusing background-image. If web design were art history, my pages would certainly be Rococco. :) Flickr is a victim of its own popularity (to wit, lots of hits on a server farm that can't grow fast enough) and quite often the biggest pain when it comes to loading speeds. The technorati script, also notorious for lagging page loads, is damned near the last thing on my page. Not for long, though. I tire of its trespasses! :) Date Added: 03/08/2005
Gone Away If your pages are Rococco, Josh, Piet Mondrian was over-elaborate... Date Added: 03/08/2005
Wayne I like that you said "designed to write," and not "destined to write." Anyway, I agree with you to a point, I really do.When I was in my twenties I was writing lots of stuff, and a kindly professor liked what I did enough to send it to an agent, who wrote me a pleasant letter that was stern enough to tell me to keep my pieces in a drawer for a few years and revisit them when I was older. I had enough sense to follow that advice, and thank goodness! Because those pieces of a decade ago are so saturated with this kind of eager sincerity to please. It’s embarrassing to think I wanted to inflict them on the world.I still work out various writing issues in the pieces I do now (mostly happy domestic vignettes at the moment, although my current task is hopefully more somber if not darker), but I do not believe that everything I currently write is of a publishable (read: marketable) quality. But I'm good enough, I think, to say that I've improved a lot since those post-adolescent years and am doing some decent stuff now.All of this is a very self-involved way of saying that I learn a lot by watching you as you get going here in this blog and keep going with a stamina and skill that impress me. I would just add, though, that I don't think you needed to wait all the way to 50 to do it! Thirty, I hope, is a mature enough age from which to write, I hope. And you must have been writing something, somehow, in the time before this weblog? Date Added: 03/08/2005
Gone Away You always ask such interesting questions, Wayne. I should be writing my next post but here I am, composing a reply to you! Still, I guess we do what we want to do in the order we prefer. ;) The length of my waiting was largely a result of life imposing constraints on me. I found that earning a living took my energies for most of that time, leaving me with nothing to spend on writing (which is why I admire those who can hold down a job and write at the same time). There is one major opus that I have tried to start several times, beginning in the late seventies, but I was never happy with my attempts - all ended up in the bin. Then, in the mid-nineties, I had a period of unemployment that gave me the opportunity to write. I'd have been about 47, I think. The result was the book I'm trying to find a publisher for at the moment (The Gabbler's Testament - remember the name!). Looking back, I realize that I had plenty of practice in the years when I thought I was too busy to write. I wrote masses of short pieces around the central theme of my major opus, details of history and outlines for other works, and then there were business letters - I cannot help myself: when I write a letter, it is really composed and some of my best work of those years went out in letters to funding bodies, business reports and the like! As regards the matter of having anything to write at an early age, I admit that there are those prodigies, similar to Mozart in the music world, who are capable of producing good stuff while young. But I think such cases are extremely rare and doubt that even they can write anything of real and lasting depth until they've had the life experience to supply real wisdom (and that's what we're talking about, isn't it?). I wrote half a novel when I was 17 - it was interrupted by a vacation and I never returned to it. The world was saved from a truly excruciating experience by that vacation. The novel was ultra-modern in style, extremely boring and had little to say. All of which is not meant to discourage young writers. If they have the energy and stamina to write, they should do so (and they will probably find a publisher long before I do - and be able to sneer at me as a result). It's all good practice and experience; but the likelihood is that they will produce their best work in later years... Date Added: 03/08/2005
Wayne Thanks for that answer, Gone! I appreciate it, and think you're probably right about younger writers. For example, I wonder if Jonathan Safran Foer will be around when he's 40 and too old to get away with the precocious little projects that get him so much adulation these days. I doubt it, somehow -- he's just setting off little postmodern firecrackers that fizzle and fade. And now, please, go ahead with your next blog entry! Date Added: 03/08/2005
Deborah I've always written letters, and have kept a diary since I was eleven. My first attempt at a short story occurred around that time. I was sitting in my friend's bedroom, looking at her ancient typewriter. Suddenly, I started typing out a blurb about the school cafeteria at lunchtime. I don't remember anything I said, and I'm sure it was pure crapola. But it was so fun! I returned to my diaries for several years. Then, when I was sixteen, I dragged out a notebook, determined to write my own sci-fi story. I froze, returned the notebook back to its proper place, and didn't attempt again until after I turned 30. I've been writing stories ever since. :) So, you may have something there, Clive. Not only is experience a factor, but confidence as well. Date Added: 03/08/2005
Gone Away Wayne: Post completed and blogged! Deborah: That reminds me of the typewriter I wrote that half-novel on. It was an ancient Imperial, built like a tank, and required a certain forcefulness with the keys that affects my typing style even today. I found that later electric typewriters were so light that I'd move them around the desk with my bashing! Date Added: 03/08/2005
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