It would seem that for the last eight years I’ve been going about this blogging thing all wrong. Let me ‘splain.
I’m putting together a blog project for a new-sprung group of budding bloggers — folks who, for the most part have never blogged before, in many cases aren’t familiar with blogs. I thought it’d be helpful to gather some of the collected wisdom on the state-of-the-art of blogging, and in so doing found more material than I’d realized existed on blogging for fun and profit. Mostly for profit.
I’d known there were folks who make a living by way of their blogs and the resulting ad revenue. I hadn’t imagined just how *many* of those folks there are now… nor had I imagined how many exist for the singular purpose of extoling the virtues of, and methods for, making money by blogging. I guess it’s a new millennial variant on the late-night infomercials of yore: “You, too, can make money without hardly tryin’!”
A sampling of the tenor of these modern-day Guthy Renker wannabees:
- 43 Web Design Mistakes to Avoid (I guess they couldn’t manage another seven)
- 30 Traffic Generation Tips
- 28 Ways to Make Money with Your Website (sic)
- How to Write Your ‘About Me’ Page
- Double Your Website (sic, again) In 30 Days
If I were to apply the very bestest, most oft-offered advice, I should: focus on a single niche, differentiate my blog from all others, do interviews, write really good titles, offer free stuff, be opinionated and — apparently — write a dozen different blogs, each on a different subject. Oh, and post every day. Preferably many times.
Funny thing is, there’s actually some really good advice hidden in there… especially for someone who has no intent of becoming a professional blogger, or a professional huckster of blogs. And I’ll get to work on that ‘About Me’ page presently.
As far as I can tell, the weblog rules that matter are:
1. Have good content. If you’re good when you stick to a specialized subject, then write about that. If you’re good at a broader range of subjects, that’s fine too.
2. Update frequently. Monday morning is the most important time to have a new entry up.
3. Don’t publish lackluster articles just to have something new. Frequent posting makes people who are already reading you more likely to come back, but dull, slack, hackneyed, or error-ridden articles make readers go away and not come back at all. Bad writing can do a lot of damage fast.
4. Use clear, simple, declarative titles on your articles. That’s all your RSS subscribers will see. If they can’t tell what the article is about, they’re much less likely to click through and read the whole thing.
5. Make yourself easy to find and link to. A name and an email address are good too. You don’t have to use your full legal name, but you should give people a way to get in touch with you.
6. Go ahead and optimize your site for search engines, but please understand that there’s only so much it can do. Good content is far more important.
7. Cherish your good commenters. When one of them says something smart, promote it to the front page. Everyone wins.
8. Kick out the jerks and trolls. They cost you far more traffic than they represent or bring in. While you’re at it, always clean out comment spam as soon as you spot it.
9. If you want people to link to you, link to them first, and say why you’re doing it. This is far likelier to convince the blogger you’ve linked to that you are a person of superior taste and perception. Also, never fail to credit a link you pick up from someone else.
10. Don’t blog to make money. Blog because you love it. If you keep loving it, and your readers love it too, start thinking about selling ads.
Teresa —
Thank-you –very much– for such a thoughtful comment. Just so’s you know, I’m taking your advice to heart (including item #7… expect to find this on the Bloggle home page momentarily.)
As to the individual points you raise:
1. I wrestle mightily over what I should and should not write about on Bloggle. As it stands the content here reflects only a few fragments of the vast tracts of stuff and whatsit floating around in my head. And even then it’s likely a bit much.
2. Fail. (But I’m working on it.)
3. Thanks for this, in particular. Of late I’ve found myself clicking the publish button with some regrets; wishing I had the time to make my writing more clear, my point stronger (or even apparent.)
4. Oh, but I love a good title. Even so, as I watch the number of Bloggle feed subscribers rise I’m making an effort to make my titles more relevant.
5. I pass!
6. Oh! I think I pass again. Go, me.
7. Excellent advice, as noted above.
8. I’d be delighted to kick out the trolls, if only some would appear. I think I’ve had only one or two trollish comments in the last 8 years.
9. I am now filled with dread that I may have failed to attribute a link somewhere, and will be cross-checking my recent links for the balance of the weekend.
10. More excellent advice. Eight years on, I’m still enjoying my little outpost on the web. I still struggle, mind you, with issues of relevance and purpose, but then that’s much like the rest of my life. If I solve them I become the Buddha, yes?
Teresa Nielsen Hayden? Like, the Tor editor?
Does that mean you got a book deal?
Save for the particular exceptions of celebrities, debutantes, dilettantes and their ilk, a book deal is generally predicated on one having written a book. None of these apply. š
In the event I successfully rake together the loose collection of scenes scattered on my desktop like leaves on a wind-blown November morning, Teresa and Patrick — who have edited so many of the works I’ve been drawn to the last several years — would surely be the first folks I’d turn to. Which is yet another of those reasons that I’m delighted she’s dropped by.