Why I Blog

I was reading the most recent I and The Bird that I participated in on the Nature Blog Network, and when I finished that entry, I read the next one.  It was about competing for readers on your blog, and how there are limited readers to go around for all of the blogs out there.  It goes into different tactics to win and keep readers.  I really wasn't that interested in that part, but it made me think about motivation for doing this.  Here is a copy of a response that I wrote that would not publish for some reason ( I seem to have issues with filling out those forms to make sure that I am not an automated computer program trying to spam a blog):

It's funny, but I agree with this post.  I work really hard to post my blog entries and I don't understand what makes my blog go up and down the rankings in terms of how people know that there is good material or not on my blog.  I have had my blog go from 500+ in ranking on Fatbird to under 400 in less than two days, but I don't do anything different.  I look at other blogs and wonder why I have more people coming to my page than they do and others who have thousands of visitors and don't have anything worth visiting (at least in the recent past).

Rankings aren't everything, but they are a point of pride and a meter of the volume of visitors coming to see what I want to show the world.  I don't do this to be the highest ranking blogger, I just want to share the things that excite me with others.  I used to put it all out on a forum, but I felt like I didn't have enough or even the right people seeing what I have to offer, and so I blog.  It takes me literally days  to put out one of these entries and I want people to like them.  I want to share my experiences and obviously my pictures with people who may or may not even be birders.And if they are birders,  they may be in other parts of the world and not have the opportunities that I have.  Most importantly, I write these blogs so that I can remember the trip later.  I forget everything and it is like a journal that I can read to remember the exciting times that I have.

All I have been writing in this response is about me.  That is not my intent.  One of the things that I really like to do is help others.  That is what I like about birders, they too like to help others.  They are usually some of the friendliest people that I come in contact with.  So I will take some info from this posting, and some from a previous one about networking with others and although we compete for readers, we can also bring new readers in from the outside who were not reading any of our works previously.  That is what the pretty pictures are for ;)

I just wanted to share that with you.  Have a great day 

8:01 AM - May 14, 2009 - post comment

Blogging

Hi, Dave.
I think that one thing that affects readership a lot is how often you blog. If people like what they see, they come back within a few days. But if there's nothing new within about a week, they drift away.
So you could try splitting your posts into smaller chunks and posting them separately. This would take you more or less the same amount of time but might increase your readership.

jeffmoh - 2:48 PM - May 21, 2009

Untitled Comment

I really liked this post, so I blogged about it as well.

http://alpinebirds.blogspot.com

Dale - 3:02 AM - May 29, 2009

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You cannot believe any stats you come across Dave, especially those on Nature Network. I have been registered there for over a year and am still in about the same position I was then although I have now gone from 2 people per day to about 200. Who cares about rankings anyway? I have wonderful people who visit my blog everyday and I visit theirs in return and it is enough for me.
Joan
http://saphotographs.blogspot.com/

Anonymous - 6:18 AM - May 29, 2009

Don't worry 'bout it

Don't watch your stats, Dave. All it will do is cause heartburn and headache.

Do what you love, what you're passionate about--and let the chips fall where they may.

Ranking and scores and all that gibberish kills good blogs while it advances the bad ones. Follow your heart; the rest doesn't matter.

Best regards,

- Jason
xenogere.com

Anonymous - 7:06 PM - June 16, 2009

Let me add this...

Oops, I forgot...

One thing you might want to look into changing is the way your RSS feed is served. Right now it's a limited text summary with images stripped out. Most people hate being forced to "click through" to see the whole post, let alone the photos. Web 2.0 is based on push services, not pull, so folks being unable to follow your blog without having to visit the site will be turned off.

Maybe that will help.

Best regards (again!),

- Jason
xenogere.com

Anonymous - 7:19 PM - June 16, 2009