Be More Than a Blip in the Blogosphere!

Adapted from an original article by By Dan Zak
Washington Post Staff Writer - First Published
Sunday, November 4, 2007; Page N02

Here's another look back thru the iternet time machine! Dan Zak starts off his article on a cheery note:

For a rookie blogger, there's nothing more disheartening than seeing "0 COMMENTS" at the end of a six-day-old post. Or checking your traffic stats on SiteMeter and finding you've gotten only three page views that day: two from your mother and one from someone who was looking for nude photos of Jennifer Lopez and Googled his way to your post about knitting booties for your infant niece.

"No one cares about your blog." It's a mantra that's been around almost as long as the blogosphere. But it doesn't have to be true. Washington has a thriving, tightly knit blogging community (as evidenced by the 1,000-plus blogs that zip through the feed on the site DC Blogs), so the chance is good that at least some people will care. There are several things you have to do to help make this a reality. Below are 10 tips from DC-area bloggers who started small and steadily found an audience:

Okay, here's where we must begin our update / edit!

1. TELL STORIES RATHER THAN STICKING SOLELY TO LINKS OR PHOTOS. That may have been good advice in 2007, but in 2009 many blogs, popular ones, are solely links or photos!

2. CREATE A VOICE FOR YOURSELF. Zak starts off with "Find one and brand it..." and, yes, that still holds true in 2009. You gotta be YOU!

3. MAKE EVERYTHING EASY TO READ AND ACCESS. Sadly, with so many widgets and banners and boxes and people with broadband, wifi and DSL:::they forget that there are still many people all over the planet who don't have the speed or the loading capacity. I held onto this premise with my blog as long as possible (and still do to some extent: I won't place videos on my blog for this reason), but the movers and shakers have moved on, and if you're not with them (even in the long tail) you're gonna be stranded in the cyber universe without a ride!

4. SIFT THROUGH BLOGROLLS AND CREATE YOUR OWN. Nah, not now... the blogroll is unfortunately becoming a thing of the past... and with so many bloggers abandoning their blogs, it might be better to be without a blogroll rather than carry a bunch of blogs that are either dead or don't bother updating anymore! I still do a blogroll, but how long can I keep it going?

5. WIDGET YOUR PAGE. Zak wasn't writing about what we think of as widgets today. His widgets were Technorati and BlogRush. The only widget you NEED on your page (aside from maybe a twitterfeed if you tweet regularly) is the RSS subscriber and maybe a tagboard like C-Box if you like to interact with your readers.

6. COMMENT EARLY AND OFTEN. Zak continues:"Spend about twice as much time commenting on other blogs as you do writing on your own," says Capitol Hill resident Janet Daly, 26, who has blogged at http://www.loveisblonde.com since August 2005 and turned five daily readers into 500. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't love getting a lot of comments. It's great to get so much positive feedback, and I feel like I've made some great friends through blogging. But it also means I spend a lot more time on my computer replying to comments and commenting on other blogs in return."

Yup. Comments are nice, but some blogs don't get them and some bloggers don't want them. I've left both blogger and haloscan comments enabled, should anyone care to leave words.

7. PRAY FOR A LINK FROM THE BIG BOYS. Zak, this should be #1. This is still your brass ring, bloggers!

8. NOMINATE YOURSELF FOR AWARDS. Some bloggers have latched onto this big time. There are too many bogus pretentious and pompous "awards" out there. Please keep them to yourself, and bloggers, if some idiot gives you the "kind blogger" award or similar BS, just write back, say thanks, and keep quiet about. You look like an idiot when you blog "so and so just awarde me the kind blogger medal!" NOBODY cares!

9. POST WITH VERVE AND CONSISTENCY. Yup - people like consistency.

10. JOIN THE CROWD. Zak recommends joining blogging community sites -- we can extend that farther today into MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, friendfeed and more!

BONUS!!! LET'S ADD ONE MORE: In the 2009 global economy, it makes sense to MONETIZE your blog (with stuff like Google AdSense, for example) and take advantage of programs and services that help you earn money while blogging! I recommend Hits4Pay: it is one of very few high-paying advertising programs on the net. Signup for free and receive $10 as a Free Reward!