You’ve been blogging since February. Unless you fill a niche that needed filling and needed filling now (FontLeech classifies… they’ve been up for a few weeks but seem to have a large base already) building a readership takes a long time. You have to provide content that makes people want to come back.
I have yet to figure out how to do that, personally :).
Even so, the content isn’t the issue…it’s getting people to know that there is content. I don’t know, it’s all very frustrating! And you know with the continued explosion of blogs and such it’s just gonna get harder and harder to stand out. And this version of the blog has been up since Feb…I’ve been through a few different versions since august. Sadly, I can’t figure out how to carry over the old posts, other than copy-and-paste. One day I’ll get them back in the system, but for now it’s just new stuff.
Even so, the content isn’t the issue…it’s getting people to know that there is content.
Content is always the issue… if you have compelling content that people want to read you will get readers, you will get people linking to you, you will get exposure.
I look at your site, and I just see a blog. Perhaps create a page or two and explain what you’re trying to accomplish on your site. Once you do that, your readers might see more depth to you…and stick around for more. Of course, good content is needed.
Narrow down your topics of interest.
Like ColdForged said, give it time.
Visit lots of other blogs, leave lots of interesting/funny/insightful comments, and eventually people will follow you back home. 🙂
What’s so special about your blog? Is your blog a site for information or yourself? Are you spreading your amibtions to target several audiences limiting your focus on who your blog is really intended for? As you say, it’s going to be harder to stand out from the crwod, so you need to decide:
1) why did you create the blog
2) who is the blog for
3) what does it offer that others don’t
4) how is it better than existing blogs
What andrea_r stats is very well said. The best to let yoruself be known is to visits the sites you like, and make comments there – youget the option to stick your URI in the comment so do so (though nothing tacky like “visit my site! it r00lz”.
If your ambition is to cover topics already covered by other sites, in a manner that is different, it will be more popular. If you’re covering the same topics with a same repetition and/or copying and pasting and linking then few will bother.
I don’t honestly care about rankings all that much – I use my blog as my therapy, and so only about 20-30 people visit it on a regular basis, no one comments but they tell me what they enjoyed and what they didn’t. It really doesn’t bother me. If I was to answer those questions I put they would result as follows:
1) for my therapy/sanity
2) for me
3) it’s about me and no one else
4) it’s not better, it’s just mine, so it’s better for me
my audience is me, but then for most I think the audience is someone other than themselves, so I guess you could say I’m more an exception tot eh rule and therefore ignore everything I said:)
I see how brash the whole “content isn’t the issue” sounds, but I never meant it in that way…what I was getting at is I have a lot of content I’m prepairing to get on the site. The problem I was trying to display is that I just don’t get hits…looking at the server logs I get like 2-3 a day…sometimes more, but not oftern.
I had thought about leaving comments on other sites, but I have to say I don’t really like that idea. It’s not that I’m against the process, it’s just I have like one hour a night of free time, and I’m usually already wasting it on my website. I can’t wait until I have more time, cause I would love to be more active in the ‘community’, but for now that’s not an option.
You know I’m looking at it in the same way as Jinsan, except I don’t have the 20-30 people 🙁 I don’t know…I get all worked up over this site sometimes, only to remember that it’s probably better if I don’t get a lot of traffic. Blah! It’s all so complicated!!!
But seriously, thanx for the tips. I’ll see what I can pull together this weekend…
If you put the content up, then hopefully you’ll get the hits.
Commenting on other blogs is not just an idea – it’s something proven. A few of the people in my blogroll I think did the same because I linked to them or I comment on their posts almost regularly. Of course, if you can’t put the time into it, you can’t expect much to come out of it. That’s just the way it goes.
No need to rush, just slowly get your content in. If you haven’t already, tell Adam Curry about your new Podcast and put it on the iPodder.org Podcast directory. You never know if he’ll like it! If he does, and he puts you on his show, you’ll be sure to get traffic.
Relax man, you’ll be fine…give it time. 🙂
– Bryan
Is there a particular reason why WordPress doesn’t include meta tags in it’s header.php file?
Because I would have thought that search engines might be interested more in your site if you put meta tags in the header.
(Excuse me if I’m wrong)
EDIT: I see your site has a PageRank of three, so your site must be ok, code-wise.
I have a PageRank of three?!? How do I find that info out…maybe I am doing better than I thought, I’m just not gathering the information correctly.
There’s a Firefox plugin which shows the PageRank of the page you’re viewing, but Google doesn’t seem to show your site on a search for ‘inthewayboy’, but only http://photos.inthewayboy.net on the 3rd page.
