Five things almost every blogger has done, but none of us probably should
July 12th, 2007
1.) Talk about how few readers you have. It’s either false modesty or it’s true. If it’s true, cialis buy cialis you make new readers wonder why they should bother with you, recipe either. Talking about your “three loyal readers” works for the guys on Car Talk, find but not the rest of us.
2.) Mention you aren’t going to be
3.) Make readers click on a link to another site in order to understand your post. Just include everything relevant from your source material in your own post. (This is a mistake that I still make all the time.)
4.) Post about milestones. Honestly, no one cares if this is your 3rd post or 3,000th. Just make each post worth reading.
5.) Talk about the weird things you see in your web stats. I’ve find that I’m always fascinated by the weird search phrases that bring people to From Where I Sit, but I’m hardly ever interested in the weird things other bloggers find in their server logs. A quick application of the Golden Rule tells me I should probably keep the fact that someone found my blog by searching Google for ” same old bullshit” to myself.
Entry Filed under: Blogs
11 Comments Add your own
1. Nick | July 12th, 2007 at 9:02 am
6. Blog About Blogging.
2. Fred | July 12th, 2007 at 9:14 am
Not Guilty
Not Guilty
Guilty as Guilty can be.
Kinda Guilty.
Slightly Guilty.
3. Administrator | July 12th, 2007 at 9:52 am
I disagree, Nick. Obviously.
I think there is a great deal of value in blogging about the technical aspects of blogging.
Or how to promote a blog.
Or whether or not to take comments.
Etc…
4. Mike | July 12th, 2007 at 10:53 am
I’ve been guilty on all six counts at some point, but so what? It’s not like I’m getting paid for this.
1) What blogger doesn’t despair when you’ve written the best post of your life and only 20 people visit your site that day? Everybody whines, it makes it personal.
2) I respect my regular readers and I think it’s a courtesy to them to tell them when I’m gone. Courtesy is never wrong.
3) Sometimes that would be like giving away the punch line to a joke. What I don’t like is a post that only says something like, “Damn Straight.” with a link.
4) I agree on this one, the numbers are irrelevant. But to someone new to blogging it is amazing that X number people stopped to read your stuff.
5) C’mon, it can be funny.
6) There are a lot of blogs started every day and I’d like to think that blog posts on blogging help the newcomer. Nothing wrong with that.
5. Bruce | July 12th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
You make some great points on the “what not to do.”
I’m guilty of pointing people to a past post. Sometimes it’s because there was a good comment chain going as well, which you can’t summarize. Or use of a great picture.
But mostly it’s just laziness.
:-P
6. Administrator | July 12th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
I’m not trying to establish any rules. I hate rules myself.
I just think it’s interesting that almost every blogger has done all of these things (including me) and mostly they’re either not really necessary or not interesting to the reader.
But I’m certainly not going to judge anyone that still does them (Except Nick. But I always judge Nick, anyway. :)
7. triticale | July 12th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
Sometimes, and it should be something other people aren’t likely to be linking, a pointer is all that’s needed. I suppose it’s a matter of trust, but goatse’s been taken down, hasn’t it?
8. Owen | July 12th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
I’ve done 1, 3, 4, & 5. Sorry, folks.
9. Administrator | July 12th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
And you’ve never done #2 because you never take a break, damn you!
10. Josh Schroeder | July 13th, 2007 at 12:20 am
Car Talk? What’s that? [Click!]
11. Administrator | July 13th, 2007 at 8:38 am
lol
I never said don’t put links in your posts. I said don’t make them necessary to the understanding of your point!
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