Archive for the 'Blogs' Category

I’ve been blogging now for about 15 months. Actually it’s longer than that on one of my other blogs (See Trevor’s Birding) but that was on another platform.

I find that blogging for myself is very satisfying as I see the number of articles mounting into their hundreds with over 400 on this blog and over 500 on my birding blog. It is also satisfying to see the number of comments steadily increasing each month along with the total number of visits. On my three blogs I have a total number of visits of over 500 per day. This is very encouraging.

It is also encouraging to see my writing skills developing the more I write. I can now “write on demand” knowing I have set myself a target number of posts to write. I also set myself a target number of words to write every day. I’m a little short of this target but not far.

Writing for others:

A growing trend with blogging is to write for other blogs, such as a network of blogs. My son recently challenged me to consider doing this but I haven’t yet taken the plunge. I almost did a few weeks ago when an opportunity arose on a topic I could have written with my wife. I didn’t apply and the position was filled. I can see some advantages in writing a blog for a network, for example. Some of these advantages are:

1. All the technical stuff is taken care of.
2. Regular income.
3. An expectation of regular posts – this is great for discipline.
4. The benefits of being in a large network – some of the promotion is done for you.
5. A sense of community within the network.

At this stage I don’t think it is for me – unless someone out there has an offer too good to refuse. Remember – I have the time, I have the skills and I have the track record.

To read more on this topic read this article: Blogging for yourself vs. Blogging for others on Darren Rowse’s Problogger.

When you start out in blogging you write and write and write, day after day until suddenly, you have A COMMENT! Someone is actually reading what you have written on the internet. What a wonderful day. It makes you really happy a feel that all the writing has finally paid off.

Then you read someone else’s blog and you see that one post has had 143 comments! Reality hits like a thunderbolt. That one comment does not seem so great after all. Still, it was exciting, and it is the start of greater things. All bloggers start this way. First – nothing. Then a trickle of comments – then more nothing. Eventually they start to come in fairly regularly. We all like comments but bemoan the fact that we don’t get many.

The truth is, very few readers of blogs actually leave a comment. The percentage varies depending on who you are reading, but it is generally believed to be about or even less than one percent of readers actually leave a comment. I’ve not done an analysis of my own stats but as a ball park figure it seems about right.

How to get more comments on your blog:

There is one simple way of doing this. Go out and read other blogs – and leave a comment. Try to do this every day on a number of blogs. You may only have time for three or four comments a day. Fine. It’s a start, and others start to notice and start clicking the link back to your blog – and many of those leave a comment. You are starting to develop a community. They soon turn into loyal readers and away you go.

I also make it a policy to send a personal email to every person commenting for the first time, thanking them for their visit and comment and inviting them to return. This has proved very beneficial.

10 Reasons Why Commenting is Good for Bloggers

Chris Garrett has written a list of ten reasons why commenting is good for you and your blog. His list makes a lot of sense and is something we could all do.

Now over to you:

• You can really make my day and leave a comment OR
• You could help me by commenting on how you get more comments.

Have you ever considered the enormous potential of the internet and of blogging in particular? This relatively new form of publishing and communication is still very much in its infancy – it hasn’t even begun to realise its vast potential.

The Global Figures:

Here are the hard facts:

• Estimated world population: just below 6.6 billion (as of March 10th 2007)
• Estimated internet usage: 1.1 billion (or 16.9% penetration)
• Estimated number of blogs: 60 million (+/- depending on who you read)

The Global Picture of Blogging:

Now consider the number of blog sites. Of those 60 million or so the vast majority are simply “dead”. By that I mean, the person started off with enthusiasm and posted a few entries and then lost interest for whatever reason. Then consider the number of serious bloggers who have multiple sites; for example, I have three sites (plus one on Blogger I no longer contribute to – it’s dead). This must mean that there are far fewer active blogs than the 60 million often quoted and even fewer serious bloggers.

Let’s be conservative and say there are 10 million serious bloggers – those whose blogs are active, meaning they post at least once every month. (I suspect the figure is far less but humour me).

If there are ten million serious bloggers, only 0.15% of the world’s population fall into this category.

Now if you are blogging and you post more frequently, say once a week you are very much in the minority. In reality, very few are seriously into this new publishing trend, especially those who blog daily. The potential for growth is staggering.

The Global Potential:

Now consider the potential readership. The global penetration of the internet is only 1.1 billion or 16.9% of the current world population. Now, there will never be universal access to the internet, not in our lifetimes anyway. But even if the penetration is only 50% of the world’s population, the huge potential for growth in the next decade is exciting. The big growth areas are in Asia and Africa.

If the world penetration of the internet triples over the next decade that would give over 3 billion users world wide. What a staggering growth potential for those who have already established blogs and web sites.

Reference:

• Internet World Stats – World Internet Usage Statistics News and population stats.