Cowboy Caleb the liberal arts, grown-up stuff & random mischief

How To Build An Audience For Your Blog

This post, which will be rather long and boring but might interest you if you want to build an audience for your blog which may be suffering from a serious lack of attention at the moment - I will try to explain how you can build an audience.

i’m reading gonzo journal bcoz cowboy caleb posts a multitude of interesting links daily without fail, so i was pleasantly surprised when i found my blog listed under his blog reads. he’s gonna make me a star. i feel it in my fingers. i feel it in my toes.

I found that on a post written by PostDisko on his blog through Technorati. As flattering as it may be, I really need to highlight one thing.

Nobody can make you famous. Not mrbrown, not miyagi and certainly not me. The most we can do is link to you one time. You will be famous for that one brief moment when the whole asian blogosphere descends upon your blog to read that one post we linked to. That one moment only. And after that you’ll remember with great happiness the day you got a few thousand hits. That’s right, you’ll be a one-hit wonder.

Unless you build your own audience.

It’s important to note that I’m not going to talk about how to blog. Tony Pierce has already covered that and although I disagree with him on several points, he’s got it covered pretty tight.

There are thousands of blogs out there. What makes yours so special? You can sit down and think all night if you want, but there isn’t an easy answer. So what’s a poor ignored blogger to do then?

1. RSS is your friend
   Forget your pretty blog design. If you have an RSS feed, which is offered by most modern blogging systems, then you should max it out. Most bloggers use an RSS aggregator to read your RSS feed instead of visiting your blogsite. This means that they dont have to see your red text on black background anymore. If your RSS feed is not a complete feed, they will have to visit your site to read the whole post (they won’t, too much hassle). Make sure your RSS feed shows the full text instead of a summary - this option is available in most blogging tools. This way you can be sure that bloggers are reading your entire post.
2. Don’t make your readers jump through hoops to comment
   Nothing is more annoying then a blog that requires readers to enter their email (wordpress, pMachine) or login (livejournal, blogger, MT) when they want to post a comment. Isnt it enough that they have already read your entire post and feel like giving you feedback? What you’re doing isnt helping you to score brownie points. Switch things like this off. Use modern comment-spam catching techniques instead of passing on the pain to your readers.
3. Start a meme or participate in spreading one
   Memes are great ways to make yourself visible. If you participate in a meme started by a more popular blogger like SexyBlogger then you’re giving a chance for other bloggers to discover you. And that’s how we discovered the previously-unknown-cute-like-hell Lynn
4. Be consistent in your content
   When Bubblemunche burst onto the scene, he was one sad sack of virgin shite. Many episodes later, he’s still the same. Life has not improved for him. But his blogging audience sure has improved by leaps and bounds. Do you see the moral of the story here?
5. Use images to reinforce your message.
   Sometimes just text alone doesnt cut it. Images can paint a thousand words and make your content more real. With Flickr image hosting, you can now have pretty photos on your blog for free. Just make sure the size is consistent (refer to point 4).
6. Comment on other blogs
   Don’t just lurk. Post a few comments from time-to-time. Comments that consist of short phrases like “Hi, nice blog” reek of shameless self-promotion. Try to post intelligent comments that reflect the fact that you actually read the whole post thus infering that you give a shit about it thereby indebting the author to return the favor (some day).
7. Broadcast your posts
   When you’ve got a good post, share it with others. Inform other bloggers about it via email or comments. Chances are they will plug it and give you credit.

Building an audience is a long process, not a one day job. Following the steps above will point you on the right direction towards building a blog with a steady audience that most importantly interacts with you on a daily basis.

Pretty awesome summary of ideas. From what I’ve seen from major Singaporean bloggers such yourself, XiaXue, Mr. Brown and Mr. Miyagi, you guys are not only proficient and habitual in writing on your blogs (posting several times a day!), but pretty tech-savvy when it comes to marketing yourselves online (i.e. RSS, use of memes, technorati tags, flickr).

In reflection, I believe that blogs should not be about popularity. As as you mentioned, we should all have our own audiences, be it big or small. I urge fellow bloggers to post “meaningful” content rather than try to compete for hits. Be consistent and people will come to you. As I am a graduate student busy with research papers, I can’t blog as regularly as I want, but I do my best and I comment on other blogs a lot hoping to meet interesting people. Although I don’t get a ton of comments on my own blog, I get a lot hits from Google searches thanks to the kind of unique academic and social technology articles I write.

The gist of it to add to CowboyCaleb:
1. Be yourself in writing
2. Be consistent in posting
3. Market yourself in RSS, memes, emails, IMs
4. Enjoy it!

[ I am shamelessly exercising point 6 now. ]

You need to add: Love writing / blogging.

Passion shows. If you care about your work, it will show. If you are in this because “everybody else is doing it”, or for the 15-second of fame - there are easier ways to get the self-gratification.

And stop putting text content into tiny scroll boxes that occupy 20% or less of the screen layout! You can seriously annoy your readers doing that.

1) RSS feeds summaries are ok once you have reached the popularity of boing boing and the likes. I mean most news sites force you to visit their websites to see the entire article don’t they? Just like salon where you have to get their pass code to read the entire article and people still do that. That’s how they earn the money…

2) **Points to Cowboy Caleb’s comment system meekly and mutter under his breath “stupid commenting system”** :p

7) Don’t always work as plan. Sometimes will piss off the owner of the blog and they will just ignore you or delete your comment. hehe, you want to plug my this post?

I don’t get a few thousand hits from being linked to you ;)

Being popular has it’s dangers too…hehe

1. being sacked

2. unwanted female/male rabid attention

3. too bz replying comments, u don’t have time to comment on other blogs.

4. life dominated by blogging…which is pretty sad..i think

5. forgetting which is the real you…or mixing up.

6. probably more…but im probably lazy or lack of brain cells tonight…hehe

xD

funny thing…i still duno whats RSS…dare not click or do anyting with it…maybe next time lah. hahaaha

9: “Unwanted male/female attention”? Since when has attention from the opposite sex ever been unwanted?

9mm: Check this explanation of RSS in plain simple English, less geek… http://rss.softwaregarden.com/aboutrss.html

ah 9: you know i read your entries through my newsreader by subscribing to your site feed you know…

fwaaah… *suaku*

Kevin > Hey, you summed it up very well. You can post several times a day by using the publish-into-the-future aka scheduled publishing feature offered by wordpress.

Knightofpentacles > Hahahaha I totally agree about the tiny textboxes. So uncool.

zhiyang > actually RSS feeds are essential. I don’t even bother to read sites with no feeds these days. It’s much easier to grab a feed and scan through the topics you are interested in. Also, my comments system sometimes doesnt publish your comments because it enters the moderation queue due to it containing more then 2 links or forbidden words.

aneki > :(

9 > Dude, I exclusively read your site through bloglines. You want a screenshot issit?

suspiciousbastard > when the opposite sex knows who you are in RL and decides that she wants to do something to you?

Cowboy: I tend to post it as soon as I finish writing. Do you personally find readership higher when you spread your posts out rather than clustering as we sometime do when we post more than one item at a time?

BTW: Read your “about me” page… I’ll be 28 this year so we’re both in mid-life :P

suspiciousbastard> when you are interested in the same sex. lol.

oh ya, I know wordpress 1.5 added that anti-spam feature. Cowboy, can be more lenient? More than 3 links than spam la..

But I mean if Salon (and other subscription based websites) shows everything on RSS, they sure cannot survive (actually maybe can survive, just that never earn that much…)

NSFW links gets you even more traffic! Post more!

There’s so much to read, so little time. After Caleb recommended Bloglines, I’ve been using it since. Ah 9, try lah. Easy to use one.

On point 5, images are good. But I think I’ve posted too many images on my site. It’s loading the pages quite slowly. My intergneck and compooter not so fast one.

[…] ed under: Sitestuff

My old friend Caleb has just written the idiot’s guide to getting your blog noticed. All you online exhibitionists out there who’ve been posting nude pict […]

Bloglines is good, but I love my Netnewsreader for Mac (there is probably an equivalent for PCs). Faster and more responsive than web-based newsreaders. But I still use Bloglines because I can read my subscriptions on any computer, even those in cybercafes.

And yes, one must love to write and love to write well. People may come from a referral, but stay for good work.

Exactly. I try to use those tips as well. :)

suspiciousbastard - err…when those alpha females (coined from some mag out there) have some bone to pick with me? hahaha

caleb - not screenshot…dun need hehehe

lancerlord - where? how? when? hahaha….bloglines?
im like old school….click on the link, go to the person’s site to read….don’t know leh…to me, feels more personal…like maybe the person has done up his site or something…not juz the words.

hehe

mb I only hate it when the reader at work doesn’t sync with the one at home.. so which one doesn’t know which one has been read.

Ah 9: http://www.bloglines.com. Sign up first, then you can start subscribing to sites.

hey yo!

i was really kidding when i talked about being famous from just linking to your blog (why haven’t i had millions of hits yet?!). it was odd to see my blog linked from someone i didn’t actually know - my audience unfortunately are restricted to ppl i know, or their acquaintances. cool to be linked from a blog i read, kinda like warren ellis if you know wadimean. even more flattered now right? haha

on bloglines, i gave up after 2 days, i think i still prefer scrolling gizmodo and such with their familiar interfaces, recognising from pictures and layout what i’ve read and not. newsfire (for mac) has a pretty interface though (sucker for that).

and besides, im a she, not a he.

I am shamelessly doing self promotion here. But simply because I like to share my life, and not just for getting attention like SOME PEOPLE DO. Heh heh.
I agree with knightofpentacles that those little scroll boxes are irritating!!!
Ditto for blogs with teenee weedle text that mumbles to themselves.
I also find blogs with implanted mp3s extremely intruding.
Maybe I am just whiney but. YES! I wanna listen to a song of choice. Not because I’ve just surfed in from somewhere.
Oh well.

[…] as gone all philosophical and guru-like by providing the citizens of the Asian blogosphere tips on getting traffic to their blogs. I have only one word: SMUT But of course you won’t fin […]

here’s the most important rule for me:
don’t touch that publish button if the post is boring.
every other rule can be safely ignored.

mb: you use netnewswire lite or paid version? I am considering to get the paid version then it have the ability to sync with bloglines. cause i don’t use bloglines now very often cause it’s simply too troublesome to read from my newsreader then go see bloglines, all read before…

calm one - dude, if only it were that simple. unfortunately, common sense isn’t all that common, neither is good taste… which poses the age-old philosophical question: if someone boring doesn’t blog and no one reads his blog, is that person still considered boring?

alt - I totally agree with you with the implanted mp3s. Especially when they are waay too loud or just BAD music.

u want a million hits…should link to Zhiyang…

he’s the numero uno in the search engines for Singapore porn.

http://limzhiyang.blogspot.com/2005/03/i-really-shouldnt-be-proud-of-this.html

Wah lau, I don’t know whether if I should be happy or sad that I’m still virgin shite man… Muahahha!

OMGosh! I got an education today.

Goodness gracious me, I didn’t even know I had an RSS feed until someone here mentioned Bloglines and then I finally figured out what RSS feeds were!

*this blog-tech-n00b bows to all blog-tech-demi-gods and is very much embarassed to admit but these tech-demi-gods (with exception of mb) are probably yonks younger than her — gawd, I’m turning into a dinosaur!*

Wow. I got more comments than I usually do at my blog.

Caleb: Well, if that something is s*x, I wouldn’t mind.

Ivan: Hey, you can always try out new stuff. How about changing to a bi when that happens?

9: Hey, use your charm to get that alpha female into bed too. That would rock.

i so agree.

I’m probably an older and bigger dinosaur. I didn’t know what RSS feed is….and didn’t bother to find out ;). Bloglines also too cheem for me. And I can’t really follow all the above techy wisdom without reading the passage twice!!!

I agree with Ah 9 that it’s more personal to go to someone’s site to read. Maybe I’m a more visual person.

[…] or joy just because someone famous in the blogosphere mentions you. And then Caleb said this: Nobody can make you famous. Not mrbrown, not miyagi and certainly not me. The most we can do i […]

Hi, nice blog :)

I’m surprised that you left out the most obvious point of all: to write for the right audience. Being popular necessarily means attracting the mainstream audience, which means writing about stuff that they would care about and/or would understand.

Oh, and by the way, I can’t even begin to express how much reading Singaporean blogs makes me homesick…

Aiyah. Bo chap lah. Just anyhow whack also can :)

RSS feed? *shudders and runs away*

This is real profound.

[…] roperly blog, here are the links for your kind perusal. » Tony Pierce on How To Blog » Cowboy Caleb on How To Build An Audience For Your Blog This entry wa […]

zhiyang: I use the netnewswire lite version. Works fine for me. Syncing with Bloglines not important for me, probably because I carry my Powerbook home and to work.

I only use Bloglines to read when I am not with my Powerbook. I also have the discipline of adding the same feed to both my Netnewswire and Bloglines, so in terms of subscribed feeds, they are the same. But yeah, the posts read and unread do not sync this way.

Faith: how do you think I have been reading your blog? I’ve had it on my RSS readers from very early on.

mb: I also cheapo like you use netnewswire lite. I use my iBook all the time, so actually rarely need to use bloglines unless in school. :p

You every time synchronize manually not troublesome meh?

Wah, thanks to this post, I’ve put a lot of extra super fancy things on my blog which I had no idea existed. Now, it’s time for me to sit against my electronic tree and wait for electronic rabbits.

Naturally, given the fact that I’m an absolutely crap writer, I’m going to have to learn to “be interesting”. One day, though, I can feel it “in my fingers and toes”, I will be a super cool, popular blogger like all you other dudes.

AWESOME.

Those who worry about having an RSS feed: Blogger automatically creates an Atom feed for most blogs, which most RSS readers will read. Or something like that.

There’s also the Inverse Law of Blogging Effort: your most popular post is often the one you spent the least time on. The most read post on my site is one in which I casually said I wouldn’t buy an iPod because I didn’t like the font. Took me 2 minutes to write, max. Led to thousands of hits. Bizarre, really, but I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s had this happen to him.

[…] et Browned again!  Or Mr Miyagied (Mistered?). Or Tony Pierced!  Yeeow! Or not. ********* … “always tried to stay away from this year’s big […]

I was going to say “Hey, nice blog!” but AcidFlask beat me to it!

E@L

Blogger’s RSS feed isn’t that consistent. Using a feedburner feed on a blogger blog would make it easier for RSS readers to consume the feeds.

My question is, what frame of mind should one have with a public blog? Getting max readership? Presenting a true self online? Common channel of communication? It all depends.

One got to ask, why blog? I mean, if blogging is for money, then it make sense to get as many readership as possible. But if you blog for your own - like a journal, an outlet for your own thoughts, to keep in touch friends etc. - why would you want to build an audience? I mean… I am sure you get my drift.

Oh yeah, I can soooo relate to the fact how blogging can affect your job. My initially-blogging-project-turned-fansite was a pain to deal with when I got to know my boss keep track of it (I didn’t skive, honestly!), but now I have found one of my staff blogs too… well, it’s a different feel, I guess

No matter which audience you are trying to reach, make sure you blog post is relevant to them. That’s the bottom line.

I’m going to be shameless: “Hi, nice blog!”. Yes I’m shallow and have no self-respect. *pleadingly* Link me! Link me! LOL! But seriously, good stuff. Have you linked on my blog - I can’t remember if I informed you earlier - think I did. Anyways hope you don’t mind?

Thanks for the tips. I am new to the world of blogs and I have an enormously important message to get out. Those of you interested, I have a lot more information to share and the White House is very unhappy about my tattling:

http://nuclearsuitcase.blogspot.com/