Blogging Tips

I've read several blog posts lately about how to be a successful blogger and frankly, I don't think I'm going to pull it off.  There is typically a list of things one should do in order to get more traffic, but the lists usually make me cringe.  I blame my mother, because she raised me to cringe when tooting my own horn.  It was a very good thing she did, mind, and it's made me a better person, but it's also made successful blogging a difficult business. 

Take comments.  To get my site noticed, I should hare around commenting on blogs and tactfully leaving my URL as an arrow pointing to, well, me.   That just seems tacky.  I read blogs everyday and when I find I can actually make a comment that adds to the discussion, believe me I do.  It just seems spamish to leave an atta boy post with my link. 

Then trackbacks.  As I understand it, trackbacks are for when I find something noteworthy and/or  have something informative or interesting to add to a post.  I always forget about trackbacks and when I remember I wonder if I've really added to the discussion and end up deciding not to trackback.  When in doubt, be courteous is what Momma taught me.

In addition, there is the emailing of my supposed brilliant thoughts to other bloggers in hopes they will link to my site.  I cannot bring myself to do this.  It feels too much like bragging or begging and I do neither.  I've emailed exactly two people with a post.  The first time it was a solicited type thing, as in email a funny story which tops this, and of course I couldn't resist.  The second was an issue I really wanted to address and I emailed it to several people who had more influence than I did so that I could get the message out.    That seems modest enough to me; 2 years of blogging and 2 emailed posts.

Well, I could go through the entire list, but suffice it to say most of the hints I've read are not ones I'll be implementing on this blog.  Which brings me to my point.  Thank goodness for John Hawkins at Right Wing News, because he finally had a blogging tip I could embrace.  To paraphrase, put your picture on your blog. 

I don't feel pushy or tacky about that at all.  I'm paying for this site, so if I want to put my picture up on the front page I'll just go right ahead and do it.  Of course, now that I've done it, I'm noticing my blog isn't really all that spiffy and I should piddle with the colors, examine the format, and remember to link to all the fine folks I've been neglecting to link because I've been too busy to update the blog-roll.

Tomorrow is another day...

Comments

[Francis W. Porretto]

Lana, you **are** a successful blogger, by the only measure that counts: We who know of you look forward to your stuff, and enjoy it as it appears.

Most of us have no more than a two-digit audience, you know. Eternity Road only gets three hundred visitors on its best days. The Web is like that. But class always tells, given time. Hang in there.

[Lana]

Thank you so much, kind sir. I appreciate that more than you could possibly know.

[aldahlia]

Regarding trackbacking:

If you link to someone else's entry it's generally appreciated to trackback to it, regardless of whether you've "added to the converstation." I promise it won't come off as "What's this nut talking about?" but, more, "Hey! Someone linked to me!!" It's courteous to let someone know you're talking about them : )

[Lana]

Oh great! Now I've spent the last two years gossiping about people behind their backs! :0

Never entered my mind to look at it that way...

Thanks