What I've learned about getting noticed
There are a lot of big-time conservative blogs out there dominating the landscape. They've got good articles, a great track record, and lots of support. There's still room for the little guys, however. You just have to get noticed. Here are some tips based upon what I've learned these past months:
1. Read, read, read. Read the news. Read other blogs (conservative, liberal or otherwise). Read websites of note.
2. Learn what gets people's attention and what bores them silly. Stories of profound saddness, profound probity, profound lunacy and profound hilarity almost always draw attention.
3. Find something to distinguish yourself: a niche (i.e. a subject that few or no one else covers - example: the Dawn Patrol covers Planned Parenthood's lunacy), a writing style, an attitude, a clever blog title. There are lots of possibilities.
4. "Piggyback" on others. This is probably best accomplished by posting what you've found on other blogs and through the use of trackbacks (i.e. links to your website on other blogs you've piggybacked on that are produced either manually or automatically through HTML code).
5. Comment on often-read blogs and be sure to include a link to your website. Most comment sections have a box which will link you blog through your name. If the blog has a weekly contest of some sort (Wizbang and Captain's Quarters both have weekly photo caption contests), participate. If you win or even get an honorable mention, it'll help.
6. Make contacts. This includes the occassional exchange with and link on a well-known blog to a full-blown semi-professional relationship with regular links. (I say "semi-professional" because we are, after all, nothing more than pajama-wearing pundits. *winkwink*)
7. Discover a provable "scoop" and let the bigger bloggers know. Now, admittedly, this isn't easy and relies on a bit of luck. As a personal example, I will cite the online news photos of President Bush with derogatory filenames that appeared on Netscape/CNN shortly after the election. A friend alerted me to that and I quickly emailed other bloggers after confirming it. I ended up getting a link on Michelle Malkin's blog, which caused a huge spike in my blog hits. (I still get hits from that link from time to time.) As a counter example, I will cite the CBS Memogate scandal, which shows that you need to make sure your scoop is provable.
Well, that's it for now. If I think of more tips, I'll add them. I'm also open to other people's tips, so don't be afraid to share them in the comments.
posted by Jay McHue @ 12:20 PM
2 Comments:
You're right, of course, on nearly all counts.
The one link to my blog for my contribution to Hugh Hewitt's symposium on what was right with Bush and wrong with brought in something like sixty hits that first day, two to three times the usual average number of daily hits. Of course, how many of those every returned to read again? Some, to be sure. But most did not.
My wife asked me last night if I care if my blog is read. I told I did. There is a certain cache' to being noticed. I look at it as a kind of performance art. And no artist - no matter what he says - wants to do his schtick entirely unnoticed.
Trouble is, most artists are terrible at self-promotion. It feels wrong, unseemly. I am horrible at it, and it shows. It helps to be a bit brazen about getting one's name out, and I'm just a little gun-shy. And lazy.
As for the niche part, true again. I have not tried to compete with anyone. I figure it's a big world, and there are many tastes. Not everyone is going to like what I do, but I can only keep doing it if I'm interested in it. I blog what I like.
There's a reason why Little Green Footballs and Powerline are as big and as good as they are, and I'd be foolish to try to out-do them.
Again, I just blog what I like. Some days it's foolishness and somedays it's Mencken (as it will be tomorrow) and somedays it's politics and somedays it's just whatever's in my head.
I guess if I have anyone that I consider an example to follow, it would be Lileks, if only because he's such a great writer and he's nothing if not ecclectic. But there, too, I don't presume to try to cop his style. I'd look foolish for failing. He's the best Lileks out there.
Anyway, just a few observations on your observations. Have a great Turkey Day.
Ping, ping, ping and ping some more.
Tooling your blog with this...
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