A Comment Delivered My Blog From Obscurity

Jumpstarted By A Comment

When I first got into the doors of the blogosphere, I felt like I have crashed into someone else’s party. There were many people in attendance but no one seemed to give a damn that I was there. The shy person in me wanted to get out as fast as I could to the confines of an enclave I was more familiar with and where I felt comfortable. The other side of me who seldom leaves a challenge go untried wanted to stay and just make the most out of the situation. I did not need to toss a coin to see which side would win. I did what I believe was the more logical thing to do. I decided to stay. I could always head towards the door if ever it did not work.

I knew that the the first thing I had to do was seek out the acquaintance of everyone I could manage to rub my elbows with. I believed people would only be strangers if you would let them. It did not take long before I found myself into the thick of a blog hopping adventure. My agenda was not only to get to know as many as I could "shake hands" with but also to learn from them. There was always something to learn from each blog I visited and always when a blog post hooked my attention, I wouldn’t go back to my hopping without leaving a comment.

Commenting was a task I took seriously. Always, I had to be very clear with myself on why I am making a comment. I did not want to waste my time nor the author's time on comments I feel was of no value. There were several reasons behind every comment I made. It could be that I just wanted the author to know how much I appreciate his/her work. It may also be that I wanted to share my thoughts on the subject of the article based upon my own experiences. Sometimes, I raised questions on issues the author has raised for clarification on some points I was not very clear about. Whatever the reason or reasons behind comments I made, I always made sure that I did it in a way that was polite, with respect and devoid of arrogance. It was the least I could do as I consider it a great privilege to be allowed to share in the author’s personal thoughts

Then it happened! I left a comment on a physical fitness blog, Inspiration Life. Terilynn, the blog’s author, writes her physical fitness post in a manner which made me really want to give the exercises she suggested a try if only I wasn’t too old to go for it. LOL. She must have liked the comment. She added my blog into her blogroll. Inspiration Life was soon to be chosen as a Blog of Note by Blogger. As a result of the honor, Terilynn’s blog was an instant hit. My blog rode on the fame of her blog. Her blog was getting several thousand hits a day as a result. Visitors to her blog clicked on my link. Imagine my surprise when I was getting several hundreds of hits a day from people visiting her blog. For a blog, that was only three weeks old, that was simply awesome.

The visitors soon dwindled when a new set of blogs were named Blogs of Note. My blog, however, continued to receive visitors from Terilynn’s blog and surely would continue to do so. Thanks to Terilynn, I had met lots of nice people and made friends who had made my blogging saga, a wonderful experience given the fact that I did not fit into the mold of what most people believe an ideal blogger should be. Who would have believed that one comment could deliver your blog from obscurity.

By Julehya

Note: I was intending to write on the subject of commenting ethics but in the process of doing a research I have discovered blogs that have already explored the subject. If you are interested you could see them here and here. The research also led me to discover this beautiful article written by Julehya which not only spoke of how commenting on other blogs could help you get your blog going but also on the ethics she observed when commenting on blogs which I believe every commenter should observe. The article first appeared in November 29, 2008 on the blog, Take It To The Limit. Julehya was referring to her other blog, Before the Sun Sets, in this article. Currently said blog has been put on hold for some reason but Julehya is confident she would be able to relaunch it very soon. Ironically, even Terrilyn's blog is now limited to private access. I feel this article which attracted 32 comments is still very relevant. I have secured the permission of Julehya to have it republished here. I hope you would love the article as much as I did.

Yes Virginia! Your Comments Tell Me You Are Indeed A Bitch

Bitch! That is precisely what one blogger called someone who left a comment, an inspirational thought, on his blog. Why should someone take offense on some words of wisdom? Should he not appreciate it instead? Ordinarily, I am sure he would have if only the one who left a comment showed some sign of wisdom. You see. The subject of the blog was on SEO. Clearly, on the blogging parlance, that comment was a spam. In fairness to the author of the blog, he asked the commenter politely not to spam his blog but rather than show some sign of respect and accede to his request, the commenter went back and left another spam comment instead. That is when the name calling started. His exact words, "Stop spamming my blog, bitch!'

It is interesting how comments we leave on blogs can say so much about us. The “bitch’ maintains a very popular blog on relationships. I used to read her blog until she torpedoed her credibility with that display of what I consider an act of arrogance and disrespect. That one comment she made betrayed that side of her so different from the image she exudes on her blog. And yes! She does spam a lot. I should know I spend plenty of time reading comments. Often, they can be more interesting than the blog being commented on.

Now, if you still do not think comments do say much about the person who makes it. Consider this one. “ I love pomegranates. Are they edible?” . That was a comment that someone left on a pomegranate photo post. Do tell me what you make of it.

Your thoughts are imprints of the person that you are. Next time you leave your thoughts in posterity on someone else blog, make sure it speaks well of you.

Stay Away From My Blog, You Bitch!

Let me give this post a bit of drama. I hate being predictable. It is a trait I least covet. Predictable is boring. It offers no excitement. So before any of my few readers, that includes my mom, would start calling me a bore and start striking their names out of my readers' list, I would like to treat them with my brand of the unexpected.

To do that, I need to get you on board. Here is what I need you to do. Look at the title of the post. You would notice that it got nothing to do with what I am blabbering about so far. You see, I purposely left out the content. That is the entire crux of the scheme.

Here is the deal. I want you to make a guess as to the gist of that content. Give me your best guess by way of comment to this post. Be as specific as much as you could with your answer. I would choose three from among those that made the correct guesses and offer their blogs one month of free advertisement on my blog. The winners will be announced on the third of November.

This is so easy so I am giving you no clue. Okey! just this one. It has got nothing to do with Lady Gaga calling herself one lucky bitch.

Now go play along and let us have fun.

By the way, in case you did not know. Men too can be bitch.

Make Your Blog's Content Sexy And TheTitle Hot

“What topic would I write about?” must be a question that many bloggers who have just entered the burgeoning blogging field, like myself, often have to ask themselves each time their blog calls for updating. For me, I always refer to the objectives I have set forth for my blog to get the answer. I have to make sure everything I write about must help translate results for what I want to accomplish with my blog.

Much as I am tempted to write about my steamy sexual escapades as I am sure it would earn for my blog hundreds of hits, I won’t. Hey! Sex sells. Why else would plenty of bloggers post pictures of almost naked women on their blogs that got nothing to do with their contents at all? I am no prude but if a scantily clad woman's photo is used in a post simply to attract male readers' attention, in my book that is exploitation. You might take a different view but that's my personal take on the matter.

Anyway, forget about that steamy escapade part, I was just kidding. I am not even going to write about my adorable kid no matter how wholesome that maybe. It is not because my wife has sternly warned me not mention anything about our private lives on the net which I would definitely not do anyway but such subject has got nothing to do with my blog’s purposes.

From one noob to another, and to anyone who wants to listen, I strongly advise that you consider finding yourself a niche in the world of blogging. I could not think of a more effective way of distinguishing yourself and cultivating readership than to concentrate on a specific topic or interest.

Now, if you have decided on a topic based on what your blog intends to achieve, remember to write it in way that it comes out sexy. Trim it of excesses that don't fit into your blog. That is not all. Your sexy content would not get attention unless it could jostle its way of up of the heap of millions of other contents seeking to be discovered. Give your content a hot title. That should enable it it to kick its way out to the top.Titles could often make or break contents. It is the title which likely readers who would find your entries through a search engine that would help them make up their mind whether to pay your page a visit or consider such visit a waste of their time.

Okey! Let me try and give this post a title so alluring, you could not resist reading it if only to prove that the idea of of a hot title really works. It should if you have read this far.

The Entrecard Ad Snappers and That Little Voice

Would you ever buy an ad at 500 EC? Personally, I wouldn’t. So as I watched the price to advertise on my site grow from 2EC to 500EC during my first three weeks with Entrecard. I just grinned at the price knowing no joker was going to snap it. After all 500 EC is more than an hour’s work. I was wrong, one joker did. No! I take that back. Mike's Blog Marketing Tips snapped it. “Ok! People take risks and that is how gains are made so don’t act like it is a big deal” I reminded myself and left it at that.

But you can count on me not to leave it at that for long. Blame it on this little voice that found residence in some hidden sanctum in my head which kept drumming on me to “Go make it worth the EC credits your advertiser paid for, idiot! Gains are made because someone makes it happen. Besides, it is the ethical thing to do”. My weakness! Spice your argument with the word ethical and I am silenced. I could go ahead and win the argument but I am gonna pay for it with bouts of insomnia. That would not be worth any EC.

I had to get more traffic to my site so as to generate more ad clicks. To do that, I needed to up scale my daily dropping from one hundred to the maximum three hundred. That was not enough. Like the crazy that I was, I went on ad buying spree. I was just new to Entrecard so I didn’t have ECs stockpiled that I could use for the purpose. I had to source out the ECs I needed. As to where and how, just go ahead and play the guessing game.

Again, just to calm that little voice, I worked out a generous “triple it” formula. If someone buys an ad from my site, say at 500 ec, I would make sure that on the day the ad runs, I would have 1500 worth of ads of my own running.

The formula worked. The result gagged the little voice. The advertiser is happy. The little voice is happy. I had a good sleep. But not for long. The ad snapping went like crazy and the ad price to my site soared. The price went to 2048 ec credits and the Serian Man snapped it. This raised the ad price to my site to a ridiculous 3,072 EC’s.

I immediately dumped the formula. If I stuck to it, it would have brought holes into my pocket. I limited my ad buying run to a reasonable distance. To temper that little voice, I decided to add the Serian Man to my link list. If that was not good enough and I hear a whimper, I could always drown the voice with a glass of gin tonic.

The 5 Things They Didn't Tell You When You Started a Blog

In the beginning, it always sounds like a simple idea. I want to start a blog. Anyone can. But, there are some things no one tells you. I will tell you what I learned.

The "five minute installation" at wordpress is not "five minutes" but more like a four hour torture session. It's designed to check if you are serious about this blog thing. After four hours, I found the fantistco button on my cpanel and I was up and running. No one shared that helpful hint with me. I just saved you four hours.

Your theme is more important than you imagine. It is your reader's first impression. More importantly, it's not easy to change after you have posted for awhile. Spend more time on a theme than I did.

Traffic analysis tools like google analytics are required but I will issue a warning. It is the first person in the morning to tell you that you have no friends. Don't even think about visitors. Here is how it works. You wake up hoping that someone found your site in these early stages. Maybe they will subscribe too. But the stats say three visitors. They also spend less than two minutes on your site. It's more like a drive-by stop. Google analytics should just say "good morning, you are still a loser today. Why don't you write another post for you and your mom."

How many times have you heard "write content and the readers will follow". It sounds easy. In the beginning ideas flow on the blog. But, finding good ideas to write about everyday is not easy. I let search traffic guide me. Isn't that how the Google algorithm finds the best site. Hopefully, I can do that and convince new subscribers and at least one-third of my current subscribers( my mom) to return and read because the posts are good.

Another axiom is "contests are an easy way to get traffic". Who wouldn't want a chance to win a free prize? Don't count on a thousand visitors. But, isn't that what John Chow did. Then a week later the two people who signed up for it are laughing at the fifty-fifty chance at your free prize. The funny part is that you had to tell your mom that she can't enter. Now, you have alienated one third of your subscriber base already. One thing that helped me was that I found contest blogger. It's a great site that features blogs and their contests. It's one of those great sites. After you are done visiting, you kick yourself for not thinking of it first.


Author: Mike Gentleman writes about current hot search topics with a sarcastic tone at his website Whassupjack

What You Want To Do With Your Blog But Can't

Have you ever been faced with the dilemna of "To do or not to do" about your blog?

Have you ever been placed in a situation where much as you want to, you have to refuse posting items your friends or fellow bloggers requested you to post as you don't want any distractions that would dilute your blog's image that you worked so hard to build ?

Were there activities you would have wanted to undertake for your blog but again it is not in keeping with your blog's theme or image?

You are not alone? Could you imagine how a poetry blog would appear if it were sprinkled with all those blog awards? Poetry is a serious read and a blog on poetry must set the mood for its readers if they are to get absorbed in their reading experience and enjoy it. This means that distractions must be reduced at the most minimum level and those blog awards I am sorry to say are clearly distractions. Or take a Philosophy blog or a Political blog which are suppose to let their readers do some real thinking. Pepper such blogs with those fancy awards and surely their blog image will be altered. Think of the impressions of their cultivated readers who visit their blogs expecting some serious stuff only to be greeted by some kind of an award half of the blogosphere seem to have received.

The same could be said of contests. It maybe a good strategy to promote your blogs sponsoring contests but for some kind of blogs, contest could dilute the image these blogs want to project.

Bloggin Circle could be your blog's way out from such dilemna. We could run or hosts your contests. We could also acknowledge your awards in your behalf. All these services are free. No strings attached. It is one of the services we offer to blogging friends.

Image courtesy of:
www.oregon.gov/OLCC/