Blogging To Increase Your Audience

As posted by the Theologians Cafe

I have noticed with time that there are a certain group of people that appear to think it is evil for a person to attempt to increase the number of people that read their blog.

I first came across this mentality with one of my first friends on xanga.  She was going to school to be a writer.  Her stated goal was to be a professional writer.  So one day I told her something like, "You have great writing skills and with a little bit of marketing, you could be one of the most popular people on xanga."  She responded with something like, "I don't care about being popular.  I write for myself."

Now I probably used the wrong word.  I probably should not have used the word "popular."  But what I meant was that she could increase her audience because people would like her writing if they found her. 

But it has always struck me how so many of the people on xanga that indicate they would like to be a professional writer of some sort, will tend to act as if they don't care if people read them.  I would think that it would be the goal of the professional writer to be read.  I would assume that professional writers need to sell books. 

I think even William Shakespeare sort of hoped people would come and watch his plays.  So I would assume that the goal of the writer is to be read.

Now you have a second group of people on xanga and this is the group that do not want to have people read their site.  They just post in a public forum.  I am not sure why they just don't write and put it in a word document on their computer.   But they actually post their thoughts online in a public forum.

This leads me to believe that they want people to read their post and to respond.

But you have people that will always comment on a post like this and indicate, "I write for myself.  I don't care if others read."  I tend to think this inaccurate for the most part.  That is like going to a party in college and saying, "I am going to this party but I don't care if people talk to me when I talk.  I only go to parties for myself."

So at some level, I think most of us come to xanga and want social interaction.  I don't think it is evil to want social interaction.  In fact, I don't think it is evil to want more people to interact with you socially.

Do you think it is wrong to have a goal of increasing the number of people that read your site?

How To Get Your Blog Noticed

(1) firstly you can give the link to your blog to your friends/family so at least they can read it

(2) secondly post about it on facebook/ myspace/ twitter so your friends and followers can read it as it gets updated every time

(3) Submit blog to search engines

(4) and then optimize it

(5)  There are several FAQs, which discuss getting your blog noticed and read.

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=14fa23d55246c1c4&hl=en

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=4c853fa28da48af4&hl=en

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=58ce19749a46c003&hl=en

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=5ea78c91417dbbe8&hl=en

Having your blog searchable on the web won't happen automatically, nor will it happen immediately.  A lot of hard work, and patience, is required.

Besides friends and family, your initial readers will come through the "Next Blog" link, randomly.  You get more "Next Blog" traffic from posting more, less from posting less.  And, you'll need this initial traffic.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2008/01/more-traffic-to-our-blogs.html

Most long term readers will initially find your blog through search engine hits, from meaningful searches.  Not from searching for your blog by name.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2008/06/relevance-yields-readership-and-search.html

You have to get the search engines involved, but you won't get listed by them, automatically.  You have to do some work, let them know that you're there, that you want to be listed, and that you are worthy of being listed.

1) Get your friends to link to your blog, where your blog is relevant.
2) Participate in forums, where your blog is relevant, and include the URL.
3) Comment on other blogs, in relevant comments, and include the URL.
4) Put relevant and useful content in your blog.
5) Some search engines may index your blog using the site feed.  Be sure to activate the feed.
6) When you have done all of the above, your blog will have some weight.  Submit your blog to the search engines, for indexing.
7) Post frequently, and keep the content of your blog moving.

http://groups.google.com/group/blogger-help/web/how-to-get-traffic-and-repeated-readers-for-your-blog

None of this happens overnight.  Search engines can take months to index your blog fully.  And even when indexed, don't expect for a search to some key element in your blog to give you an entry on the first page of the search hits.  And remember that owners of other blogs, like yours, are actively working to be included by Google too.  Try to ignore the trolls who babble about SEO.