Smithers MINNEAPOLIS

Bloggins

So now that Gilby has hung up her cleats some of the rest of you are considering bagging the blog as well.

Fine, go ahead. Do it. Less for me to read anyway. Just make your final post a link to my site so I can capture all your traffic once you bail out.

Maybe you are not serious? Maybe you want to continue blogging? Are you sure?

I have been at this for three short years now and have been happy to find the readership of this site growing each month. If I can convince you to keep up with your blog, let me offer you some suggestions on how to make the most of your site for yourself and for your readers.

• Decide who your audience is.

Sounds easy enough. But, keep in mind who the number one most important member of your audience is. It’s me, Smithers. The second most important member of your audience is you. You have to write about things that you are interested in first and foremost. You are never going to make it as a blogger if you try and write about things that you think might attract attention to your site. You’ll never be able to keep up with the Paris Hilton and Anna Nicole posts. Just write about who you are and what you do and what you are interested in. Fundamentally, you should not give a flying crap if anyone else is interested in what you write about.

• Decide who your audience really is.

But, in reality, who are we kidding right? If you really did not care if anyone was interested in your writing then why the hell would you bother to post it on the internets? So traffic to your site does serve as some motivation. Sort of like a doggie treat to keep you doing what you really want to do in the first place. You do want to do this in the first place right?

Those who read my site regularly know that I write about cycling, politics, news and the odds and ends of life. The political stuff is probably the most boring to the widest number of readers but it’s something that I am interested in so I keep writing about it. The cycling stuff probably attracts the biggest audience because other cyclists like to read race stories and industry gossip and they love to bag on other cyclists, which I certainly give people an opportunity to do all the time. I write about different things and it attracts a diverse crowd. But they are all things that I am interested in. If I was only interested in hits to my site I would just post pictures of pron.

• Get linked.

Have you registered your site with Google and Yahoo? Are you listed on the City Pages Blog Directory (or your local equivalent)? Maybe you don’t care about getting your blog out there (yea right…). But if you want people to read your site then you should make it easy for people to find your blog when they are searching for things that they are interested in reading about.

• Write regularly.

A blog is a beast that lives inside your computer. You have to feed it every day or it will die. You don’t have to feed it a dozen times a day like I do, but if you want people to read your site regularly you have to give them something to read regularly.

If you really want to blog then you should be thinking about topics during the course of your day. If you think of something interesting or funny during the course of your crappy life then write it down and write about it later if you don’t have the time at the moment. Send your self an e-mail to remind you of the topic for when you get home from your lame job.

What ever you do, don’t sit down in front of your blog posting web page with a blank slate and a blanker mind and expect to pull off the greatest post of the century because it ain’t gonna happen. If you don’t have an idea of what you are going to write about then don’t bother attempting to blog because the end result is going to be pretty ugly.

• Mix it up.

Pictures, video, interviews, etc. etc. People like to see things other than a computer screen full of text once and a while. Big time bloggers post photos of their cats on Fridays. You could do something like that, just not with cats please.

• Read other sites.

Reading other blogs will give you ideas regarding writing styles and topics. The more blogs you have the time to read the better. Reading will help you become a more better writer and junk.

• Rip them off.

See something you like on another blog? Shamelessly adopt the idea as your own and run with it. Who cares? So long as it is a good idea and something that you are interested in you can use anything to spice up the content on your site.

• Track your hits.

A good ego stroke when ever you need it. I have used Sitemeter since I started blogging and now I have added Extreme Tracking because it’s so extreme and I am all about being extreme. Tracking the hits to your site is valuable information to see if your readership is on the incline or the decline, especially if you are thinking about ending it all. 10,000 hits a month? Keep it up! 2 hits a month? You should read your own blog more often I guess.

Tracking your site traffic also helps you discover who is linking to your site and what kinds of search engine results brings readers to your site. If you see someone sending over quite a few links then go check out their site. If they are providing a link to your site and you like their work then share a link back to their site.

OK, so that’s about it for now. I hope you don’t drop blogging, but you have to want to do it. For me it’s something that I have to get out of my system just about everyday or I will go stark raving mad. Maybe it’s not the same for you.

Whatever.