I haven't been on the blog trail as long as most of the people I've been reading. Well, let me rephrase that. I haven't been on Blogger or any other well-known blog site trying to make a profit. For some people, it seems to be some instant success due to the people they know and the substantive things they write. For others, it has been trial and error with a mixture of great meta-tagging and a wonderful pitch to get the average Joe hooked on them. For me, it's still this winding road of searching through programming and wondering why I just spent 19 dollars on a red spider with bubbles coming out of my butt telling me my site sucks. I've been getting a lot of that lately.
Last night I finally ponied up the ten dollars to get this blog for a year. All mine, all dot-commed out and ready to be pimped out XZibit style. For some reason, that made me want to check the grade of my blog. A week ago, it was at 95% On the WebGrader site. This was before I purchased. I slaved and slaved for that 95% doing everything and Googling my you-know-what off to get it there. I did coding...er...basic coding....er...something. I can't even remember what websites I went to. *sigh* Well, last night I went from a 95% to a 55%! I went through that experience earlier this year in an effort to "optimize" my blog with as many tips as I possibly could without paying for leads and reads and whatnot. As touchy-sensitive as I am, you can imagine the long nights of irritation and vein-pops on my forehead when website after website would either tell me "your site is great!" or "your site SUCKS and this is why...." What infuriated me the most was fishing through all that code with 900 tabs open in Firefox. I wasn't nerdy enough to handle my biz and that meant somebody was going to take my Blerd (Black Nerd) card away.
All labels aside, I sit here thinking about what has worked for me and what has failed. While I contemplate everything from attending a John Chow seminar to sticking to my original guns (networking without all the fancy schmancy, working hard to get ONE retweet....), I CAN tell you what did work for me. It might be common sense, it might just be as lucky as I get, but it works. While I'm between finding that intellectual of my dreams (totally my type. Mother loves a ripened brain full of knowledge.), I need to adhere to what works for now before I screw up the code completely.
Entrecard has worked for me a GREAT deal. This is where the majority of my traffic comes from. It's not that complicated of a system, but it's a little long-ish to explain. Basically it's traffic exchange without all the crazy. You sign up, post their widget on your site. People can come by and "drop" their card in your member inbox. You can also do the same. They're able to rate your site, pay credits from dropping to advertise, and you get traffic. I've gotten at least three (stop laughing!) followers from this. Not to mention, there are members who make sites dedicated to traffic optimization. It's basically the same protocol for the original site. The only thing is that you're in a "directory" of sorts for the price of nothing. This is a great way to find interesting blogs and get some exposure. Some is better than none.
Sometimes Facebook can also help. I set up an account with Networked Blogs months ago to auto-post from both my site's fan page and from my personal page whenever I make a post. For the most part, family comes through. I get a stranger from time to time, sometimes a friend. In the crowd of people who are also posting, their friends, etc., I think it's easy to get ignored if you're a soft-spoken person. I can't necessarily agree and say this has worked best for me. Quite honestly, some people just don't want to read and I'm the worst saleswoman in the world. (Counterproductive, I know!)
As for optimization, I Googled. We all Google or Bing or er...does anyone DogPile anymore? When sites like WebGrade said I sucked, I Googled and clicked their links to learn how to improve. I tried to Google to see why my page rank was at a gray standstill. I tried backlink sites and this site with the bubble butt spider. I did it all night until I finally said "whatever happens will happen". Again, a bit lazy to say but this blog is supposed to be something to help me grow as a writer. The eye of profit and getting 100 dollars in the mail sounds GREAT. But maybe it's just not in the cards for me like it seems to be for everyone else. It can be maddening and frustrating thinking there's some elite club or secret into getting it. Having been in the technical world almost all my life, I should know the tips and tricks and some of the elite. As it stands, I'm just a lady from Chicago who tried to make a measly buck doing what a lot of people worked hard for. It will not happen overnight. I repeat--it will not happen overnight. That part should be common sense and it was never the root of my problem. I figured I had to walk a long trail to get there. With AdBlock, it's a mountain.
In a world of things going viral, maybe it is possible. For some of us, lucrative writing and worthy topics might be all in our heads. As the numbers are crunched, our competitors are already stepping over us and getting all the AdSense clicks and Amazon purchases over things we might find trite but the average user finds helpful. There is a long road ahead trying to figure out what works. It seems as if product reviews and commentary work for me. Pushing everything else...eh....not so much. This is why I admire fellow bloggers who have what I want. They are all polished without half the crap I've got running all over this page of mine. Someday I'll get it right whether someone is watching or not. The first rule of blogging--
Last night I finally ponied up the ten dollars to get this blog for a year. All mine, all dot-commed out and ready to be pimped out XZibit style. For some reason, that made me want to check the grade of my blog. A week ago, it was at 95% On the WebGrader site. This was before I purchased. I slaved and slaved for that 95% doing everything and Googling my you-know-what off to get it there. I did coding...er...basic coding....er...something. I can't even remember what websites I went to. *sigh* Well, last night I went from a 95% to a 55%! I went through that experience earlier this year in an effort to "optimize" my blog with as many tips as I possibly could without paying for leads and reads and whatnot. As touchy-sensitive as I am, you can imagine the long nights of irritation and vein-pops on my forehead when website after website would either tell me "your site is great!" or "your site SUCKS and this is why...." What infuriated me the most was fishing through all that code with 900 tabs open in Firefox. I wasn't nerdy enough to handle my biz and that meant somebody was going to take my Blerd (Black Nerd) card away.
All labels aside, I sit here thinking about what has worked for me and what has failed. While I contemplate everything from attending a John Chow seminar to sticking to my original guns (networking without all the fancy schmancy, working hard to get ONE retweet....), I CAN tell you what did work for me. It might be common sense, it might just be as lucky as I get, but it works. While I'm between finding that intellectual of my dreams (totally my type. Mother loves a ripened brain full of knowledge.), I need to adhere to what works for now before I screw up the code completely.
Entrecard has worked for me a GREAT deal. This is where the majority of my traffic comes from. It's not that complicated of a system, but it's a little long-ish to explain. Basically it's traffic exchange without all the crazy. You sign up, post their widget on your site. People can come by and "drop" their card in your member inbox. You can also do the same. They're able to rate your site, pay credits from dropping to advertise, and you get traffic. I've gotten at least three (stop laughing!) followers from this. Not to mention, there are members who make sites dedicated to traffic optimization. It's basically the same protocol for the original site. The only thing is that you're in a "directory" of sorts for the price of nothing. This is a great way to find interesting blogs and get some exposure. Some is better than none.
Sometimes Facebook can also help. I set up an account with Networked Blogs months ago to auto-post from both my site's fan page and from my personal page whenever I make a post. For the most part, family comes through. I get a stranger from time to time, sometimes a friend. In the crowd of people who are also posting, their friends, etc., I think it's easy to get ignored if you're a soft-spoken person. I can't necessarily agree and say this has worked best for me. Quite honestly, some people just don't want to read and I'm the worst saleswoman in the world. (Counterproductive, I know!)
As for optimization, I Googled. We all Google or Bing or er...does anyone DogPile anymore? When sites like WebGrade said I sucked, I Googled and clicked their links to learn how to improve. I tried to Google to see why my page rank was at a gray standstill. I tried backlink sites and this site with the bubble butt spider. I did it all night until I finally said "whatever happens will happen". Again, a bit lazy to say but this blog is supposed to be something to help me grow as a writer. The eye of profit and getting 100 dollars in the mail sounds GREAT. But maybe it's just not in the cards for me like it seems to be for everyone else. It can be maddening and frustrating thinking there's some elite club or secret into getting it. Having been in the technical world almost all my life, I should know the tips and tricks and some of the elite. As it stands, I'm just a lady from Chicago who tried to make a measly buck doing what a lot of people worked hard for. It will not happen overnight. I repeat--it will not happen overnight. That part should be common sense and it was never the root of my problem. I figured I had to walk a long trail to get there. With AdBlock, it's a mountain.
In a world of things going viral, maybe it is possible. For some of us, lucrative writing and worthy topics might be all in our heads. As the numbers are crunched, our competitors are already stepping over us and getting all the AdSense clicks and Amazon purchases over things we might find trite but the average user finds helpful. There is a long road ahead trying to figure out what works. It seems as if product reviews and commentary work for me. Pushing everything else...eh....not so much. This is why I admire fellow bloggers who have what I want. They are all polished without half the crap I've got running all over this page of mine. Someday I'll get it right whether someone is watching or not. The first rule of blogging--
Blog like nobody is reading. Blog for yourself. They will come.