What I've learned so far: Advice for beginning bloggers

I've been blogging for more than seven years now. My blog isn't exactly wildly popular, as far as blogs go. In fact, much of my traffic comes from Google searches by people looking for an explanation for the headless rabbit they just found in their yard, or wondering what ever became of the "That's All!" girl from Hee Haw. But over the years I have made some observations about blogging: what works, what doesn't work, what blogs are popular and why, and things like that. Yesterday I presumed to write these out in an email to someone who is just starting out as a blogger. As the list grew, I realized I was writing something that could serve as a post on my own blog.  So, with a little editing and reformatting and a few added bits, here it is.


- The best way to get people to visit your blog is to leave thoughtful and relevant comments on other blogs that allow you to also post your blog address. The person running the blog will often stop by to visit your blog, and if they have a lot of commenters, some of them might follow your link back to your blog. If the blog that you're commenting on covers topics related to your own blog, you might actually pick up some regular readers.

If you're a regular blog reader, this sort of thing can come naturally. You probably have a few favorite blogs that are relevant to your interests. Perhaps some of the regular readers (or even the writers) of these blogs would be interested in what you have to say on your blog.  Well-written comments can give them a sense of the quality of writing they can expect when they visit.

- But don't leave comments like "Nice post. Visit my blog!" I get those all the time, and usually delete them, because they're usually what's called "spomments" - spam comments usually left by spambots in an effort to drive traffic to another site, or just increase the other site's Google rank by increasing the number of sites linking to it. So even if these comments are being left by real people, they're getting deleted.

OK, confession time: I actually created NEPA Blogs originally because I wanted to come up with a way to increase my Google rank by creating a site that would link to lots of other sites (including mine) and in return be linked by them. Only I sort-of forgot to ask anyone to link back to NEPA Blogs, and failed to even tell most of them that I had linked to their sites. The whole sordid affair is explained here: http://anothermonkey.blogspot.com/2011/05/nepa-blogs.html

- Another don't is "link exchanges" - "You link me and I'll link you." I find that a little skeevy - it's like endorsing a product when you know nothing about it. If you like someone's blog, link it, and if they like your blog, they'll link you.

- Set up some sort of visit tracking program. I use SiteMeter: it's simple and gets the job done, and even the free version provides a LOT of information about how people came to your site. (It also crashed the Internet once. That's something.) You can find out what posts and/or topics people are most interested in.

- Blog on a single topic. This will allow repeat visitors to have some sort of idea what they're going to be seeing when they come to your site.

Some examples:
The Comics Curmudgeon
Cake Wrecks
The Dinosaur Toy Blog

- Blog on a wide range of topics. People will come to your site because they will never know what to expect next! Also, you'll attract a lot of searches for different topics. You can never predict which topics are going to attract visitors.

Some examples:
Francesco Explains it All
EPBOT

- Blog on a popular and/or controversial topic. Sports, politics - people respond to these topics, and these are the easiest ways to get a lot of visitors. If you can stand to blog a lot about sports and/or politics.

Some examples:
Gort42 - local politics, sports
Bad Astronomy - Astronomy, skepticism
The LuLac Political Letter - local politics, nostalgia
The Conscience of a Liberal - Economics, politics

- Don't let the bastards grind you down. You'll get a lot of spam comments, which are disheartening. You'll also eventually attract trolls and snipers. Trolls are people who will come to your site to pick a fight with you, for the real purpose of attracting visitors to their own site. Snipers are anonymous; they just attack to be jerks. Sometimes they will pretend to be multiple people, so it seems like a lot of attacks are coming from different directions. (Here's an example of this: http://nepablogs.blogspot.com/2008/01/shoot.html I think all those negative comments are actually a single, seriously disturbed person.) Enough negative comments may make you want to quit blogging. Don't. Also, don't respond to these attacks (like I did.) These jerks thrive on attention, and every response you give to them just makes them want to attack more. If things get bad, activate comment moderation, where you have to approve every comment before it gets posted, and just don't post trolls or snipers.

- Blog like nobody's reading. If you worry about who's reading you, you may become self-conscious and hold things back. Blog about what YOU want to blog about. Or create an imaginary ideal audience and write posts for them. Even if they're not out there now, in time they may start showing up, and may someday read your posts. (And having lots of posts already written that appeal to them is a great way of making sure they stick around!)

- Eventually you may want to quit blogging, for whatever reason. Don't. Just go on hiatus. You can post a blog announcing that you are taking a break, and people will wait for you to come back. Someday you may want to come back, and your blog will be waiting for you.

- WRITE DOWN YOUR BLOG PASSWORD. I know a number of people who have had to abandon their blogs because they forgot their password.

- Get yourself a "blogger buddy," a friend you know both online and in real life. If they're a blogger, link to their blog; if not, leave them sealed instructions for how to post on your blog. Then, if something happens to you - if you die, or are in the hospital, or suddenly run off and join the Peace Corps - someone can let the world know what happened to you. I first proposed this back here - http://anothermonkey.blogspot.com/2006/04/blogger-buddy-system.html - and saw a real-world application of it just last year: http://anothermonkey.blogspot.com/2010/03/death-in-blogosphere.html.

- You only get so many of what I call "Blogging Energy Units" each day. With them you can read blogs, write comments, write posts, modify your blog, OR use Facebook. When you've used them all up for the day, you're done, and you can't do anything more until you recharge. It's very easy to spend all of your BEUs on Facebook, or reading posts, or writing comments, and then when you try to post on your own blog you find you're all out! http://anothermonkey.blogspot.com/2007/10/blogging-energy-units.html

- Post links to your blog posts on Facebook if you want to make sure your Facebook friends are seeing your posts. But be aware that in this situation people will probably leave comments on the Facebook post rather than on your blog itself!

- Make sure your blog has an RSS or Atom feed to allow "live updates." This will let other people know automatically every time you have put up a new blog post. I know of several excellent blogs that don't have any such feed, and the only way to know that they have a new post is to visit their site and check. If you're following dozens of blogs, like I do, this can get tedious, and is something you'll probably forget to do more often than not.
 
- Restrict your feed using your blog software's settings to foil "scrapers." Scraper blogs are sites that simply steal content from other blogs and repost it on their own sites. This means that people can read your work without ever visiting your blog. Even legitimate aggregators like Google Reader do the same sort of thing, unless you specify that you only want to "syndicate" the first so many characters in your post, or up to the jump-break (as I do.)
 
- Use descriptive or interesting titles for your blog posts. Be creative. I know a few blogs that use the same generic title for each post. This isn't a very good way of piquing someone's interest. Most RSS/Atom feeds display the title of your latest post. Use a title that will make people want to read your post. 
 
- Consider adhering to a blogger code of conduct. Here is a post about one such proposed code.
 
- Keep on blogging. To become a writer you must write; to become a dancer you must dance. Blogging is like that - to become a blogger, you must blog.  If you want to be a blogger, follow Lady Gaga's advice and just dance. Or blog. Whatever.
 
Does anybody else have any suggestions?