A Rant on Blog Networking

Everyone wants to know how they can get more people to visit their blog. The answer is first, write good content. No one's going to want to hang around your blog if you don't write things they want to read. The second answer is to do, what I like to call, Blog Networking.

Blog Networking is when you comment on other people's posts. This can just be a random thought or you might relate it to a post you wrote, linking to it in the process. Either way, this helps get people to your blog. With the normal comments, if there's a link to your profile and your profile has a link to your blog, people that look at your profile could possibly come to your site. This, however, does not bring nearly as many people to your blog as the linking comment. These comments put a direct link right in front of people's faces and many more people will be willing to click through that link to your post.

The problem I find with this is that every time I do a linking comment I feel dirty. It feels almost like spam, like all you're saying is, "Look at me!", even though whenever I do it, I try to make it relevant. So, I don't do it much. Which means my blog doesn't get noticed and it doesn't grow, because, with all the blogs out there nowadays, you have to do something special to get noticed. It's like you have to be a spammer of sorts, writing these comment, if you want to get anywhere.

Which brings up the question of why I'm doing this. Is it just for the attention? Well, I write this blog to practice my writing. People kept telling me I was a good writer and without this blog I tended to not use my writing skill. So, I started this blog to better myself and have fun while doing it. However, I can only do this for so long before I feel like I'm shouting off into empty space and start to get discouraged with that running on a treadmill feeling. So, I need readers to help encourage me, even if it is just a small group.

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Well, this turned into a rant. I didn't mean it to, but it is what it is. So, if you made it this far I have a proposal for you for some Blog Networking.

I've been meaning to ask about good blogs that are out there. I want to start reading other blogs and have no idea how to find one's I'm interested in. If you have some suggestions, be it your own blog or someone else's, I'd love to know about them. Just leave any suggestions in the comments and I'll take a look.

Just a Thought: Filling A Post

I just answered some Open Saturday questions in a batch, saying it would be to much work to put them in separate posts. While this seems odd, in that I should write the same amount no matter how or where I answer the questions, this isn't the case.

You see, when I write a blog post there's this feeling that it can't be to short. I end up writing filler and while I try to go into more detail with the filler, it was not content I'd planned on writing when I started the post. This filler does, usually, makes the post better, but, in a trade off, it makes me take longer writing it.

So, combining posts can save me some time.

Just a Thought: Defenestrate

I get a word of the day from dictionary.com and usually I kinda know the word. Today, however, I did not at all.

defenestrate
To throw out of a window.

That's a complicated and very situational words right there. Now, get out of here, before I defenestrate you.

Just a Thought: Texting Awake

Quite often I'll text my brother the one word question, "Awake?" It's an odd question. It's a question that you can't answer no too, because you have to be awake to answer it. So, really, in truth, the answer is perpetually no until you get a response, at which point, the response is always yes.