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Slacker Manager

Directing traffic (metablogging post)

by Bren on March 31st, 2005

Okay, I’m not particularly fond of metablogging, or blogging about blogging. Enough people do it, some even do it well. Regardless, I had an email conversation yesterday about exactly this topic, and I figured the stuff I wrote was worth throwing out there.

Disclaimer: I don’t know what I’m talking about. Other people know way more about marketing themselves than I do, but I’ve paid attention to what I’m doing with Slacker Manager and, who knows, it might help someone else.

Assuming you’ve got a reason to blog, then in no particular order, here’s the braindump…

  • Choose a blogging platform that can grow with you. Generally speaking, if it’s free, it’s got limitations. Free is perfect if you’re just kinda figuring the whole thing out, but if you think you’re going to devote even as little as an hour or two a week, consider upgrading. If you’re totally new to this, then here’s the quick rundown of options: you can host it yourself or you can have someone host it for you. Unless you really dig nosing around in the code, just get on board with a hosted service (typepad, blogger, whatever…)
  • Write good stuff. Content still rules, so if you have something to say, get on with it! Everyone reposts other people’s stuff now and then and sometimes the blog world seems totally circular, with everyone pointing to everyone else and nobody saying anything original. It’s fine to point to other people, just try to add a little bit to the conversation. And get something original up once in a while.
  • Spread yourself around. Whatever your interests, find your community and begin to interact with them. Leave comments liberally. Learn to use trackbacks, and encourage others to do the same. ‘Course, put some meat into those comments and trackbacked posts. If you’re always doing the "me too" thing, people will get a little tired of you and they won’t come visit.
  • Be not afraid (of controversy). It’s okay to be out of the mainstream now and then. It makes for interesting reading. If you’re gonna take the controversy road then I beseech you, please make decent arguments and be sure you know what you’re talking about. It’s one thing to have a position that nobody agrees with, but it’s quite another to have a position that everyone knows is offbase because you didn’t do your homework.
  • Seed yourself. People will eventually link to you, but you can jumpstart the process by seeding yourself into one of the various blog carnivals, or even into an appropriate category in del.icio.us. Go easy on the delicious stuff though.
  • Don’t believe the hype. There are services that claim to bring in tons of traffic to your blog. If you want people stopping by for their obligatory 30 second layover at your place, then go for it. Personally, I’d rather wait for the folks that really want to come visit. (see how I’m working in a little controversy here?)
  • Tag it. Use your categories, technorati tags, and/or del.icio.us tags to drive a little extra traffic. Lots of folks are going to the extra effort of putting technorati tags at the end of their posts. It probably helps. I categorize my posts, but don’t make my categories public. Not because I’m all secretive, but mainly because I’m too lazy to rejigger things the way I’d like them to be. Who knows how much I’ve suffered because of this.
  • ChangeThis. I’m a huge fan of ChangeThis.com. They’re providing a great service for spreading ideas around. Go drop off a proposal and get something up there–be sure you include your blog address in your profile. It’s a great way to begin establishing yourself in your field of interest.
  • Be a giver, not a grabber. Lend a hand to others. Be kind and help out folks who are just figuring their thing out. Got expertise? Be generous with it. It’s totally cool to pitch your for-profit services, but give a little something away while you’re at it. And I’m not just talking about teasers, be real.

That’s the big stuff. There’s more to say about some ego-ish stuff, like keyword tracking, statistics and figuring out what your readers want to read, etc. You can let that stuff wait until later–if you’re just getting started, keep your focus on your interests.

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24 opinions for Directing traffic (metablogging post)

  • Rob M
    Mar 31, 2005 at 5:51 am

    Oooh man I am so disappointed–you don’t sound like a slacker at all! Seriously, great post. But being something of slacker myself, I never could quite understand this trackback thing. How does that work?

  • Fred
    Mar 31, 2005 at 6:21 am

    Hello Brendon!

    You don’t know what you are talking about? If I check your feedburner counter I can’t really agree with you. You know what you are doing and you are doing it well (really well).

    You only forgot one thing that you mastered: Be yourself when writing. People want to see the guy behind the blogger.

    I would also like to suggest a platform for beginners: blogsome.com. It’s a full Wordpress system available for free. I putted my comments blog on their servers and I’m more than satisfied. Wordpress if a professional blog software available for free and blogsome is a server that host Wordpress and give you free accounts.

    Rob: trackbacks are a way to say: “Your article is great and I also blogged about this subject, there is the link”. It’s a way to link posts with same subjects. It’s a way to tell to readers of a specific post that you also blogged about this subject. Then, if they are interested in it, they will follow the link and read your post as well.

    Thank for this post Brendon; it’s always a pleasure to remember these essential things about blogging,

    Salutations,

    Fred

  • Bren
    Mar 31, 2005 at 6:40 am

    Yeah, good addition, Fred. Being authentic is good advice. Also, good note re: blogsome. I haven’t used blogsome, but I’ve used WordPress on my personal blog and it’s good stuff–can’t go wrong with WordPress.

    Rob, Fred gave the quick overview for trackbacks. The detail is that if you’re quoting someone else’s post, go to the comments section and find their trackback URL. The trackback URL for this post is right under the end of the post and right before the comments. Copy the URL and put it in the trackback field in your blog software (most blog software has this field, some of the free versions don’t). When you save your post, the software makes a comment-like notation on the other person’s post. It’s just a common-courtesy way to give a little credit, while at the same time giving readers another place to go to read similar stuff.

  • Fred
    Mar 31, 2005 at 6:46 am

    Hello!

    To finish the discussion about trackbacks: there is a free standalone trackback pinger system: http://www.aylwardfamily.com/content/tbping.asp

    Enjoy and spread your words :)

    Salutations,

    Fred

  • ana
    Mar 31, 2005 at 6:54 am

    Very good advice, Brendon. Thanks for reminding me of ChangeThis.

    But I have to disagree with your statement that “if it’s free, it’s got limitations”. There some great tools out there that work great; WordPress, for instance.

  • Bren
    Mar 31, 2005 at 6:57 am

    Thanks for the reminder, Ana. Yeah, in my mind I was thinking of free *hosted* packages–blogspot, blogger, etc. Then Fred pointed out blogsome, which apparently uses WordPress. So maybe an amended statement would be “if it’s free, beware of limitations.” :-)

  • Karen
    Mar 31, 2005 at 8:11 am

    Bren,

    I had to laugh when I read this:

    “Everyone reposts other people’s stuff now and then and sometimes the blog world seems totally circular, with everyone pointing to everyone else and nobody saying anything original.”

    That is so true. Sometimes, I have to stop myself from reading blogs for a couple of days or so because you see the same topic rehashed on a number of sites. Just when you come across something original and fresh and want to post about it, you invariably find that someone else has written about it, and more often, written better about it than you could have. When this happens, I try to remember that we all have our own unique perspective and our own voice. Blogging has just provided the tool, and hopefully, the audience to hear your voice.

    I enjoy reading your site very much.

    Karen

  • Lifehacker
    Mar 31, 2005 at 1:23 pm

    HOWTO roundup: the web site owner edition

    How to: Drive more traffic to your blog Use blogs to land a new job - Heading off potential employers who Google their candidates Start a wiki - For a collaboratively-editable site Block other sites from remotely loading your images…

  • Lifehacker
    Mar 31, 2005 at 1:27 pm

    HOWTO roundup: the web site owner edition

    How to: Drive more traffic to your blog - Some good advice for building your weblog’s audience Use blogs to land a new job - Heading off potential employers who Google their candidates Start a wiki - For a collaboratively-editable…

  • Talking Story with Say Leadership Coaching
    Mar 31, 2005 at 2:41 pm

    This is why the Slacker Manager is Mr. Smart and Cool.

    Bren does it again. If you are blogging or thinking about blogging click over and read his post. As I’ve said so often before, I learn a lot from Bren. Directing traffic (metablogging post) on Slacker Manager. Come to think

  • Jonathan Aquino
    Mar 31, 2005 at 8:41 pm

    What’s wrong with Blogger? BoingBoing runs on it, and it’s a great site!

  • Bren
    Mar 31, 2005 at 10:30 pm

    Jonathan, there’s nothing *wrong* with Blogger. Shoots, it’s what I used for my first blog, back in the day. It just isn’t as advanced as other blog systems out there.

    (Aside: BoingBoing runs on blogger? Didn’t know that…)

  • frogmagnet
    Apr 1, 2005 at 2:43 am

    Jonathan, i’m almost certain that BoingBoing is powered by MovableType (with posting done with ecto). their pathnames corroborate this theory ~ just look at their search engine. where did you get your information?

  • george
    Apr 1, 2005 at 6:23 am

    Leaving comments is a great traffic driver.

    http://www.dirtygreek.org

  • Rob
    Apr 1, 2005 at 8:08 pm

    Thanks for the trackback explaination. I think I finally understand!

  • Jonathan Aquino
    Apr 1, 2005 at 9:18 pm

    Hrm - turns out BoingBoing moved to MT a year ago: http://www.boingboing.net/2004/03/11/were_a_movable_type_.html

  • Vidman
    Apr 3, 2005 at 4:33 pm

    Thanks for the tips & bit-o-modivation. It’ll help me to learn how Trackback works, so I can *finally* implement it into my scripts. Three years ago I wanted to offer weblogs to my users, but I couldn’t find any decent add-ons for phpBB (message board) - so I desided to write my own & learn PHP as I went along. (I knew VB,QB) It’s cool, people actually use them! Anyway, thanks for giving me ideas to work on.

    -=dån=-

  • JW
    Apr 9, 2005 at 7:29 pm

    Thanks for the info on trackback. I wasn’t sure what it was.

  • Robin Scanlon
    Apr 10, 2005 at 2:21 am

    Thank you for your advice on blogging. I enjoy reading your blog.

    I think of blogging as an avenue of expression. I have a day job where I have to be attentive about what people think. Clients have access to my blog, but I like to think that anyone that bothers to go there is someone that I have a relationship with…someone who would give a d… about what I might be thinking.

  • GreyDuck
    Apr 19, 2005 at 2:41 pm

    I futzed about with implementing Trackback for the publishing system I’m using, but it generally failed to work as advertised and I lack the “mad geek-fu” to get to the bottom of exactly why. (My guess? My system isn’t really designed to let external code “hook in”, which means things like commenting and trackbacks have to be done very, very manually. Bah.) Unless I can make it do the auto-discovery and auto-ping tricks, there’s not much point in it for me, either coming or going.

    And before you ask, no, I’m not going to jump ship for WP or MT. Monaural Jerk may be a quirky, iconoclastic choice, but it does exactly what I want it to (minus, er, that Trackback thing).

    Anyway: Excellent posting, great advice.

  • Roger
    Jul 20, 2005 at 10:39 am

    Thanks for suggesting Blogsome. Here’s some of the good things some of our users have said about Blogsome:

    http://www.blogsome.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=514

    It has a number of features that other hosts such as Blogger don’t have e.g. organise posts by categories. You can personalise templates or select from a range of wordpress templates. It only take seconds to get going.

  • Deitrich Katarina
    Aug 21, 2005 at 12:09 pm

    Spam Link

    Directing traffic (met…

  • mark
    Dec 7, 2005 at 4:07 pm

    You dont sound like a slacker to me looks like you do too much but thats good coz i like reading.

  • bohemianblogger
    Jun 30, 2006 at 9:40 pm

    Okay… great blog… but… I could use a dictionary of about 90% of what you wrote… here is an example…

    “seed yourself”
    huh?
    “technorati tags”
    huh huh?
    “categorize”
    double huh?
    “trackbacks”
    is that not backwards? huh?

    but this is where I am going next.
    ChangeThis.com

    So… send me a side of definations please.

    ps. what is the kindacapture thing??? was that code for something? I typed in exactly what I saw and nothing…i dont get it, or was that the point?