I love comments and surge toward the computer several times a day to see if I have any. I usually don't.
A good day is when I get a comment. A great day is when I get a comment from someone new. A phenomenal day is when I get a comment from someone new whom I have never met. An out-of-this-world day is when the someone new whom I have never met, lives in another country. So you, my dear, were an EVENT.
Traffic on these "Here's me and my life" blogs seems to grow slowly. I averaged 8 visitors a day for a couple months, then it crept up to 17, and now in my fifth month I'm at a wild 32. But I'm not sure that it's not still those same 8 loyal readers -- okay, maybe 10 now -- and more browsers traffic.
The four traffic boosters I have found are:
1) time, for word-of-mouth to spread, and for people's habits to develop
2) being linked to or talked about in someone else's blog
. That always seems to drive a little trickle over, some of whom might stay.
Also -- can't remember if you've done this yet -- I recommend adding an email link on your site. Some people prefer to write in private.
My rules of thumb:
1. Intraverts never post. But they may be some of your most faithful readers, highly engaged, committed.
2. Extraverts post. Chatty people -- like me -- who like to be known, usually pipe up.
3. You cannot predict who is going to become a faithful reader. Writing a blog is like scattering seed. The rest is up to nature. I read yours, for example, because I like the taste of your mind. It is somewhat cool and observational, and you feel like two of my friends, so I enjoy it. I also happen to like how you see the world, your reflections on it. And I LOVE that you live in Amsterdam. I am addicted to other countries, cultures, languages. So any little glimpse into that other language -- like when some of your coments were in Dutch -- or country, like when it rained on the flat roofs -- is fantastic.
11:02 PM
Rachel Rutherford said...
Arrgh, I hit a key that posted my comment before I was done writing it. I was in the middle of my thoughts on what drives traffic to a site. To recommence:
The five traffic boosters I have found are:
1) Time -- for word-of-mouth to spread, for people's habits to develop, and for you to hit your stride as a writer.
2) Being linked to or talked about in someone else's blog -- this always seems to drive a little trickle over, some of whom might stay.
3) Post daily -- people don't have time to read many blogs a day, so for yours to make the cut, it has to reward them steadily.
4) Be personal -- as with any writing, the more personal & specific the better. Readers want the daily dailies. More accurately, they want to know you. I'm not very good at this yet, but I hope to improve. My best post, I think, was about going to our old house and my father's grave with my mom and neice.
5) Post pictures -- I use Picasa (free, now that Google bought them) & Hello (somehow connected with Picasa, also free, that I downloaded at the same time). This is set up to automatically resize your pictures for blogger, and stick them in a post. I can tell you more offline, if you send me your email address.
6) Live in a cool place like Amsterdam.
7) Add value -- educate us somehow. Your pointing to other links, sharing your journey of "I'm a new blogger, here's what I'm finding out", discussing links you like, all falls in this category.
I'm sure there are others. Ask around. Let me know what you discover. You are already in the experiment. Just by having your own blog, you will learn.
This is my experience, anyway; your mileage may vary.
11:19 PM
Rachel Rutherford said...
One more -- you can also get a sense of how many people have visited your site by watching your Profile Views number go up. It's not completely accurate, since some people may recheck it. But still... it's currently at 74. If it suddenly jumps to 84, well, you know another 10 people have popped in.
I find this a solid reliable way to gauge whether there actually is traffic. Or perhaps it gauges the amount of new users. Whatever. It's a metric.
11:22 PM
Rachel Rutherford said...
One more thought. (And, it is occurring to me, perhaps I will re-use these comments as my post for today.) The most fundamental thing about readership is, like all human relationships, it's a chemistry thing. There is just no way to predict or control who happens will like the way you think & perceive. But the ones who like it, REALLY like it; they want more, and they keep coming back. The ones who don't like it, move on. In this way, blogging is an honest, if scattershot, medium.
Also, as you keep your blog over time, it develops power. When I talk to someone I haven't met in a while, I say, "Oh, you should read my blog." That catches them up, in luscious detail and great vividness. Plus, they may become a reader.
Instant feedback is addictive. I remember in high school I had a pen pal in Israel. I had written to a high school there which, it turned out, had closed down, but the principal, a kindly 56-year-old man, agreed to be my pen-pal. It was not exactly satisfying. Then, the next year, I found another pen pal, a boy my own age, 100 miles away, who loved snakes and reptiles, had lots of them, and wanted to become a herpatologist. It fizzled when we graduated.
Blogging is like pen pals on steroids -- way better, way faster.
Saturday, September 04, 2004
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