In How to be a successful blogger part 1 I discussed some simple blogger settings and advised people to submit to google and use pingomatic to help to get more web traffic your way. But as I thought about where to take this next it struck me that there is a more basic question to ask- Do I want people to visit my site?
Really, such a question is part of a fundemental one that every blogger needs to ask themselves- what is a successful blogger? The answer will be different for each of us. If your desire is to be the next instapundit you may as well forget it, as the role is taken. Settling on what level of success is acceptable for you is difficult. Most bloggers if we are honest about it swing from feeling thrilled and intoxicated by a rising level of attention and then at times wanting to just hide away in relative obscurity.
I started my blog for me. I remain my most important reader. But I would be lying if I didnt admit to wanting other people to benefit from reading these witterings. Bloggging is actually a very transactional mode of communication. If my blog benefits others they will come back, comment on it and so send others to read again.
It amazes me that there are still so many blogs that dont seem to get the need for this transaction to take place. A blogger “sells” his blog just as surely as any salesman. There are various currencies of blogs and the rewards that you obtain in these will inevitably define your own view of your success.
What are the currencies of success? I can think of several and will outline them here- if anyone can think of others do let me know.
The benefits to the writer. Many a diary or journal-writer has advocated the great mental and spiritual benefits to writing things down. As a preacher having a place to bash out ideas and thoughts and store clippings and quotes was what drew me to blogging. I am convinced that I have become more able to express ideas and concepts simply and conscisely as a result of just producing the blog. Arguably I could feel I had been successful purely and simply on this measure, but there are few bloggers who can continue to write blogs for very long in a vaccum.
Readership There is something amazing about gaining readers. Knowing that your blog has visitors is intreging. You begin to wonder about them- who are they, where are they, what are they reading, why do they come, is it just by chance, do they come back…. A million such questions go through your mind. Many bloggers put much score on their hit count. But where do these hits come from? The answer to that question leads nicely to my next two currencies-
Search Engine rankings Many of my visitors come from search engines. Often because my blog comes high up in the rankings for certain key words. Thus, like many bloggers I do from time to time check my log file to see what search words I am getting hits from, and yes, at times in the past I have been glad to see that my blog comes either at or near the top of google for certain search words. Most bloggers would at least like to be able to say to someone “Just do a search for my name on google and my blog is the first hit….” even if it was just there mum! Google in particular loves blogs, and if you follow a few basic tips which I will give you in a later post you should find that you can get some visitors from that source. But, after a while playing with google gets boring and leaves you wondering- is this what success is measured in? Numbers and rankings are not enough, and you find yourself yearning for other measures of success.
Links This is the source of much controversy for some reason. Some blogs seem reluctant to either give these out or seek for others to put them on their blog. But links are the way people find other sites- they are simply signposts.
Links can be seen just as some kind of popularity context, and indeed the ecosystem bases its measure of popularity purely on this measure. There are two different kinds of links both of which are precious.
The first is the link to a specific post. This is the best in many ways, especially if it involves an interaction with your material. It is fantastic when something you write stimulates someone else to write either in support, clarification or contradication of what you just said. This cut and thrust of discussion is what it is all about. So be liberal with these links- they are what blogging is all about. But one thing, for goodness sake drop the blog writer an email comment or trackback and LET THEM KNOW you have reacted to something they said. Some of us are not good at checking blogdigger or technorati for posts which refer to us. I wish that whenever someone posted about me (positive or negative) they would drop me a line to let me know.
A great example of the benefits to blogging that linking to one anothers posts can bring has been some of the discussions between myself and jollyblogger- we havent done one for a while but in the archives there are some great examples of us bouncing off one another. I would love to see more of this going on in the blogosphere.
Other types of link are the blogroll- a list of links in the sidebar. These are important as apart from anything else the blogs you choose to link to tell me a lot about you as a blogger. A link is a vote for another post or blog. It is an honour to receive a link on any blog. There are some automated lists which I will talk about some more when I do a post on blog promotion.
Influence I have hinted at this already, but for most bloggers knowing that others have not just read but listened to material you have written is a great reward. Every email or comment which thanks you for something you have said is a real reward. Blogging can really serve others- I know I have learnt a lot from it.
For me a successful blog is one that does what the writer set out to do. You must ask yourself what you want to achieve. Do you want a general blog or one that specialises in a certain area. Unless you are certain of your area I would suggest that you start general. The liklihood is however that you will find yourself gravitating into one area or another. That is great, and if it happens you should seek out communities of like-minded bloggers. You may even find real friendships which lead to meetings in real life spring up. For me, that has been one of the real boons of blogging- meeting other bloggers. Bloggers are wonderful people by and large and it is a real blessing getting to know some of them.
If you define success appropriately there is no reason why you should not be a successfull blogger. Remember if you aim at nothing you will hit it! Decide what you want to do with your blog and go for it!
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