New Blogs, Traffic, and Other Sundries

First things first...the most annoying New Year's resolution? Not to make resolutions. Do you think you're being original when you write that?

Sorry, just had to get that off my chest.

I once wanted to write a diet book. You see, I had this great idea about how people could lose weight. Serious weight. Take it off and keep it off, forever. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out how to make "eat better, exercise more," stretch into an entire book. You see, when you truly make something a priority in your life, it'll happen. All that other crap: low carb, no carb, South Beach, Atkins, is all a bunch of crap. When all is said and done, it comes back to "eat better, exercise more."

Blog traffic is sort of like that.

There are lots of techniques to boost traffic to your blog. But before we get into that, let's put one thing to rest right now: it's OK to want a lot of traffic. Of course you do. Standing on a soapbox and spouting your philosophy to the world is a lot more fun when the world is listening. Otherwise, it's the digital equivalent of one hand clapping. If an 8-megapixel picture of a tree was photoshopped so that it appeared to be falling in a forest, would anyone hear it? It's not wrong, or shameful, to want to be heard. It's natural. Anyone who tells you that they don't care about traffic is lying to you, or to themselves.

So the question is, how.

The best way to direct traffic to your site is through your comments on other people's blogs. There's a catch-22 buried in there, though, that has to do with time management. You see, in order to insightfully comment on another's blog, you have to have read it. And that takes time. Eventually, when you find blogs you like enough to comment on them, you want to continue reading them. So you end up having to spend a lot of time just keeping up with the blogs you've found so far. That leaves you with a circle of blogs which you read, and comment on.

You have to break the circle. You have to constantly read new blogs, and comment on them, if you want to get traffic. And the comments you make can't just be "congratulations!" or "Yeah, I feel the same way." That might get you a one-time visit from the blog author. You also want visits from people reading your comments. So think. Be funny. Say something witty. When you leave a good comment, you'd be amazed at the traffic it generates. Remember, though, to read blogs that have traffic already. You can leave the best comment in the world; if no one reads the blog where you left it, you ain't gettin' no traffic. Go to some of the old-school blogs. Go to Instapundit and go through his blogroll. Or to IMAO, or any of the others I listed the other day. Leave a good comment on one of the majors, and you'll get traffic, believe me.

Also, in the same vein, leave trackback pings. If you don't know what I'm talking about, google it, to learn. Trackbacks are important, both for attributive purposes, and for readership.

You can also try Blog Explosion, or things like that. E-mail blogs you read and ask them to blogroll you. Most will. Even the majors. They're real people, and in my experience they're remarkably down to earth. And they remember what it was like to just start up, with no readers. Even if they now have 50,000 a day. They'll also give you good advice, if you ask them for it. Remember to reciprocate. Blogroll others. Link to them. It's polite, and it works.

But everything I've said up to now, is the Atkins Diet, or South Beach diet, of blogging. It'll get you there. You'll have readers.

Now what do you do with them? Because, like so many things, traffic -- real traffic -- is all about the repeat business. Word of mouth. It's the difference between readers and traffic. Traffic is just someone who tripped over your site. A reader is someone who comes back, who'll comment, again and again.

So the ultimate question is, how do you get readers? The answer is so simple it defies logic.

Give them something to read.

Do you know why Rachel Lucas is so popular? Because she deserves to be. She's original. She's funny. She delivers the goods. Same with all the rest. Kim DuToit wrote the Pussification of the Western Male. And the entire blogosphere came to his door. Lileks wrote about how he was still furious about 9/11, and they came. (Of course, Glenn can write "heh," and he'll get tons of hits...call him the exception that proves the rule.) Think about the techniques above as, say, a hit tv show. Friends, back in the day. It used to be that NBC would try out new shows in the half-hour after Friends, because there'd be lead-in viewers, who just wouldn't change the channel. But if the show sucked, it sucked. And eventually it got cancelled. Because viewers won't stay to watch a crappy show.

But most of all, you have to write honestly. It doesn't have to be serious, it just has to be yours. Over at IMAO, Frank J. is rarely serious. But he's got readers by the thousands. One of the most harrowing, incredible, new blogs I've found is HeroineGirl. She justs writes about her life, and it's riveting.

If you write to be funny, and you're not funny, I don't care how much time you spend surfing Blog Explosion, you're still not going to get any readers. The blogosphere is not the Internet, where you can pretend to be anyone you want. In here, you have to be yourself. If it's not inside you, then it's not going to be in your posts. I've never liked the term "find your voice" when it comes to writing. It seems too much like a sight gag playing on the radio. But it's pretty accurate, too. You have to find out who you are, and that person has to control content. Which is why I think people blog; to find out more about who they are. Because a phony in life is going to be a phony on the blog. And people don't like to read phony.

Don't get me wrong, the blog can be an amazing tool of self-exploration. But to be good, you have to find what you're looking for inside you, or else the blog will be formless, too.

And have a little self-confidence. Just because you're not getting tons of traffic now, doesn't mean that'll stay the same. There's a large element of luck, and timing, involved with hit blogs. Keep with it. I love the adage, "most overnight successes take about 10 years." It's too true. Nobody, but nobody, is born with readers. Real traffic, like real weight loss, takes perseverence, diligence, discipline, and work. You have to keep at it. Write. Because people like new content. I think one of the better blogs I've come across is Six Degrees of Mediocrity. Seriously funny. But no posts since the 14th of December (almost 3 weeks ago). It'll stay on the blogroll, but mainly because of inertia.

And finally, have fun with it. You'd be amazed at how much "tone" comes through in a blog. If you're having fun, the reader will have fun.

And absolutely last, a word for readers. You like a comment, you see a post you like...COMMENT! Even more than seeing the Sitemeter number go up, bloggers love comments. So speak up. Part of the attraction is the back-and-forth of a good comments section. LGF's commentors have their own community. Kim DuToit's have an actual forum that the Mrs. set up for him. A typical Silent America entry from Bill Whittle will have several hundred comments! All I want is 10.