On Blogging

I had a request for a post on blogging. 

Happy to help. 

I, on average, get about 2 thousand hits a month.  As of today, I have 2,187 views for the last month.  Most readers use Firefox, Safari, and Chrome.  The United States is my top country, followed, oddly enough, by Russia.  [shrug]  Plenty of hits from Russia, every month. 

A lot of readers find me on Google.  I don't promote myself in any way.  I have a link to the blog on Facebook, and my favorite message board.  I am also linked on the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome webpage (which I consider a high honor). 

Most of my readers find me from a Google search or a bookmark - I am very honored people choose to bookmark me and read my musings on a regular basis. 

ALWAYS set the blog to moderate comments.  Spammers abound and they want to put all kinds of crap in your "comments".  Blogger does a very good job of weeding the spam, but you will find yourself glad you caught THAT before it posted.  The spammers often choose older posts in the hopes, I suppose, you aren't monitoring them.  But if you have comment moderation on, it will alert you.  You can choose to publish or delete.

I also have anonymous commenting on.  I believe some people, I know well, choose to comment anonymously because they feel it needs to be said.  I can always refuse to publish if it's offensive in some way.  

I get very few comments as a rule.  I've learned not to take it personally.  I feel a majority of the internet users are readers, not talkers.  They find me interesting - they're reading.  I accept.  

I have the blog set for mobile viewing, which Blogger assures me will vastly increase my readership.  [grin]  I do not have any ads. 

I used to subscribe to Guideposts magazine.  I really liked it.  Then it became an ad-infested classified.  I let my subscription lapse.  Same with Prevention. 

I don't want to have one of those sites with annoying popups getting in your face - like the news site where you have to navigate scrolling ads and popups.  Ugh.  I don't want the adware promoting something contrary to my beliefs, either. 

I have enough to eat.  I don't need advertising.  I don't feel bad about that because Blogger mines my data.  If I can read everything about my blog, so can they. 

I'm going to quote advice I've read from books on writing - be yourself.  You have your own unique voice.  Only you have it.  Don't try to be like Flylady or the lady on the gossip show.  It will sound false and people are turned off.  So, if you want to talk about how your cat got sick on the rug your ex husband bought, and how happy you are you couldn't remove the stain - because now you can FINALLY throw the thing out - do it. 

I have been constantly surprised how many hits I can generate on a "boring, everyday" post.  Although I got my best traffic ever after the house was robbed - 7 thousand hits in a month. 

Drama's always good for traffic.