It’s a no-win situation, every blog in its childhood has as major viewers spiders and bots from search engines and -oh boy- spammers. Some bloggers get frustrated because nobody answers or comments their witty posts. Face it, folks, nobody answers because nobody is reading.
What can we do about it?
Well, basically nothing. You can spam around, and get banished from every meaningful blog in the Universe, you can preach your friends but they’ll visit your blog once or twice, as a courtesy and then forget it, or you can post lots of meaningless content.
The last alternative is worse than spamming, because it fills up the net with trash and does nothing to increase your blog’s awareness. If you don’t have meaningful content you will not be indexed. Live with that.
But don’t kill yourself just yet. The best way of being indexed is to create new and meaningful content, make use of trackback and post meaningful comments on meaningful blogs.
Doesn’t matter if nobody’s reading your blogs now. Take it as a freebie; you can post whatever you want, with no consequences. I can even say that I’d love to do Bruna’s sister and nothing happens, but make no mistake, it will matter, soon.
Make your first posts as timeless as possible, because sooner or later, when the Googlebot finds you, they’ll be indexed, and found by willing visitors. One of my first real posts, teaching about Bit Torrent is still a daily champion on my visit stats.
Write once, profit forever. See? Is not that you’re writing for spiders and bots, you’re writing for humans, in the future. It’s just a matter of temporal perspective.
One can’t think of everything, and the creator of the pingback thing certainly didn’t. I noticed it first with this Lorelle’s post. Then, a few days ago, I received a pingback from another blog, with the same unusual set of characteristics.
It’s a valid pingback but the post is in the future. The Undiscovered Country. What makes?
Well, it’s simple, mcFly: The pingback thing sends a ping when the post is published, if the release date is set into the future, doesn’t matter, the ping will be sent during the publishing process, not during the first public release.
It explains a few well-crafted answers I’ve seen around, based on the excerpt and the title the author writes a counter-post and publishes it as soon as the original post is published. It’s a wild guess, but works most of the time. I did it myself once or twice.
The problem is: It’s Inside Information. You’re reading things you’re not supposed to read for a few hours, even days.
An evil blogger can tip some evil friend or use an evil nom-de-blog and write a post about the same subject, publish it before the original blog and claim plagiarism.
Well, most likely they’ll get you dead. Point is: A while ago people discovered That some keyword led to VERY healthy Ad Sense clicks, and by healthy I mean around $160, on publishers like Overture. Mesothelioma was one of those words.
Today the party is over. Google does not pay that much. Why? Abuse. People started to create websites around mesothelioma and other high-paying words, trying to milk them to the last cent. Well, they succeeded. Now those words still pay big cash, but only when found via web searches, NOT from plain ads.
What are the websites that still make money with high-paying keywords? Simple answer: The websites with high-paying content, quality information and original material. You can write anything you want about Mesothelioma, but a phony website acting as a disguise for a money-making Ad Sense trap will make your visitors click “BACK” in a second.
Build a good and informative site, even about Mesothelioma, and they´ll stay. The longer they stay, bigger the chances of a click. It´s a good advice for websites about anything, actually. Think about your content. period. DO NOT think about keywords. Respect your visitors, they are real people (well, some are spiders and bots) and want real information. If you want a bunch of brainless monkeys clicking your banners for peanuts (or bananas) hire ClickMonkeys.
Problem is, I don’t plan very often. I too look and feel human, and like the Cylons I do have a plan, but mine is a recent one.
I’ve been writing personal sites since 1996 or something, but I never imagined a website as my main source of income. Big mistake. Should’ve done it a long time ago.
My personal site turned Generic-blog, www.carloscardoso.com, exists since 1996, but it never took off, even during a time when it was running PHPNuke and franticly updated many times a day.
Why? Because it was closed in itself. No community sense, I never visited other sites and never left comments on other blogs, either.
When I started my World Conquer Plan, it was imperative to be aware of my past failures. I understood that good content is not enough, one needs networking. Not in a bad sense, but real networking, making others aware of your existence. Don’t need to beg for links, they’ll happen.
My plan involved commenting on lots of blogs, always posting wise and reasonable comments. It worked.
Of course that was only the beginning. There’s more, much more.
For now Bluehost is great and fulfills all my hosting needs, but I’ll sooner or later need a dedicated server. As a good planner I already know a few places to order one and how much it’ll cost.
I do plan for future growth too. I know I’ll reach a point where updated will be mandatory, and I can’t take care of a website with a few dozen thousand users / day AND provide content at the same time.
It’s simply not possible; the user-related work will overgrow the content-creation work.
So, in a foreseeable future I’ll hire a Sysadmin. On a perfect world I would hire Simon, the Bastard Operator from Hell.
Part of the BOFH’s functions will be:
Keep all the softwares updated
Check and update all Wordpress’ plugins
Perform and download daily backups
Find and technically evaluate new plugins
Update the templates to reflect new plugins and/or solicited canges.
Test the blog on 5 or 6 browsers and resolutions, identify problems and.. Solve them.
If I don’t plan ahead, I’ll find myself buried in paperwork, and that’s exactly what I don’t want to. If you think your blog is too small for planning that far, and that you’ll never have such expenses as Sysadmins or dedicated servers, you’re probably right. Small thinking always lead to small achievements.
Just like the War on Drugs is a miserable failure, the same will happen with the War on Terror, if people think they can sensitise the wanna-be terrorists with Hollywood-Style special FX and 30″ ads. Sorry, Virginia, it does not work.
Didn´t work for drugs, didn´t work for fat foods, didn´t work for smoking. In reality I don´t think a single smoker is not aware smoke kills. They don´t like to cough. they don´t like being unable to run longer than 8 seconds or 15feet. They don´t need a picture of a black lung to remind them, because they feel the effects of the cigarettes, and the still keep smoking.
What most anti drug campaings do is glamourize the whole thing. “Don´t do drugs, kids, or you´ll find yourself on a neverending spiral of cheap and easy sex, mind-expanding experiences, cool parties with trendy music and girls willing to go down on you for a little dope. OR if you are a girl, all you need to get some stuff is go down on guys that you´d do for free anyway”
Guess what? THAT´S ALL A KID ALWAYS WANTED.
And no, don´t bother to show detox clinics, feces-covered rags of a man in the middle of a drug-induced schizophrenic attack. Those are losers and no respectable junkie thinks he can become like that. Oh, BTW: Most don´t.
Some people even think Prodigy´s video, Smack my Bitch Up is a good anti drug tool, because it shows the shallow and meaningless life of a partygoer/drug users. Guess what, that person has more fun than me.
The above video does the same. It´s being aired on Iraq TV, and I think it will help to increase the number of terror attacks. Why? Because it shows what the terrorists never see, what happens after they press the button, not the way it really does, but the way they want to. People crying, lots of destruction and a big Hollywood matrix-like blast, with traitors (worse than infidels) thrown away, their cars thorn apart… Allah Akbar!! Where do I sign, Samir?
Bad, bad dog, Hollywood. You don´t stop terrorists with movies. You stop terrorists with hot lead, free market and education.
It’s a fact of life. You WILL deal with fanboys, sooner or later. A really interesting article WILL attract fanboys, because they can’t watch their beloved whatever disassembled or criticised in any way.
If you’re new to blogging, you’ll not see the first attacks, they’ll strike you like eagles, like Luftwaffe Stukas. An innocent post, a minor observation will summon the fanboys like an ancient devil.
I’ve seen bloggers actually apologising for being right, changing their conclusions or simply raising a boycott on “delicate” subjects.
LOTS of Harry Potter fans reach my post and leave their hate. Some ask for bans, some make threats to my health…
What can you do? Well, if you’re wrong, apologise and research better next time. If you’re right, stay true to your ideas. Don’t let those fracking bastards bully you. Show your arguments, use plenty of examples and don’t let the fanboys take control of your blog.
If you know your post will attract enemy fire, get ready for it. Learn to sing Men of Harlech, divert all energy to deflector shields, keep them raised and don’t stick your head out of the foxhole.
Sustain your arguments with FACTS, unless it’s a personal opinion. Those you argue if you want to, or simply answer with a STFU, DIAF or another cute acronym.
If someone trackbacks your post complaining, follow the link and post ONE polite answer. Don’t you ever dare to lower your standards and start swearing like the fanboys.
You’re better than they, because you can argue using facts, not propaganda. Stick to it as a fundie sticks to his bible.
Just remember, unlike the bible, facts can evolve, so get ready to be proved wrong once or twice. I did a post a while ago about Iran’s Presidential blog, the folks at BoingBoing started a nice lead showing it could be a fake. While I was posting the story, an update showed the blog was, in fact, true.
How COME are you not using Zoundry? Shame on you, shame on you!
We’re talking about the Best, period. No more dealing with web interfaces, FTPs, server timeouts or browser hiccups. True WYSIWYG, tag-friendly, easy access to XHTML edit, supports plenty of blog platforms and call you tiger Friday nights. OK, I made up the last one, but Zoundry is capable of a lot more. Follow me…
“What are you doing?” “I’m taking a picture with my phone and posting it to my Flickr.” “No way!” “Way!”
All that about my humble Nokia 6600. When I draw my infrared Keyboard and start to type something using my Dell Axim X51v, the reactions are even stranger. Usually waiters ask, and because they see the keyboard, it’s always the same first question:
“Cool. It’s a computer, right?” “More or less.” “It’s so tiny, it’s American?”
Next they ask now much it costs, because in their minds if it’s small, it’s cheaper. They usually don’t like the answer.
Strangers looking fascinated don’t bother me; the worst of all are the children. In Brazil there’s an unwritten rule that demands all children in restaurants to behave as obnoxiously as they can, and some.
Parents believe it’s their God given right to let their children run among tables AND talk to strangers. With or without candy. Some even steal French, Liberty Fries from your plate. And no, don’t complain to their parents, they’ll blame YOU for not realizing how cool, cute and lovable their kids are.
One little hell spawn went too far, once. I was quiet, sipping my ale at my usual table, when an entire family occupied the next 2 or 3 tables. Immediately the kids noticed my PDA/keyboard kit and asked the parents if they could go and watch (how nice of them). Of course the answer was yes, and suddenly there were TWO kids behind me. I don’t like pirate parrots, don’t matter if they’re grown ups or not. I asked the kids to buzz off. The resulting movement took my by surprise.
The small one, a clear case of a spoiled-to-death hell spawn tried to GRAB MY PDA saying “I want to play”.
Let’s make one thing clear: Take my wife, my life, my virtue or my honour, but don’t take my toys tools. I don’t think it’s cool to watch those little greasy fingers spreading chicken fat on my lovely Dell.
I grabbed the kid by the arm, removed the PDA from its grasp and yelled, to both of them AND their parents:
“Don’t touch my stuff. FUCK THE HELL OF HERE!”
My pet waiter, Ronaldinho (not the soccer player) asked the family to control their kids. Enraged they changed tables to far away from me (big deal) and the kids never dared to get close the rest of the night.
Some are not luckier as I am. A friend of mine had a brand new Sony Cybershot screwed because he thinks it’s cool to let his 4 years-old kid play with anything he wants.
The boy loved to watch the lens assembly go in and out the camera body, but since he didn’t know how to shutdown the camera and retreat the lens, he simply PUSHED in into place.
For a while I tried to use the many lists I subscribed to increase my visitor counter. Guess what: Does not worth it.
Mailing lists are fun, here and there, but most of them are too small or too crowded. The signal/noise ratio is usually bad and with luck 5% of the visitors will click your link.
15% will complain about your “spam”, even if it’s something deeply related to the list’s subject.
2% will actually copy your content and post it to the list, without your permission (of course).
In a list with +4000 users my record was 120 clicks in a 24 Hours period. And I was a member for 5 years.
Some lists offer a better ratio, but usually they’re very small, and most of the members already sign to your feeds anyway.
I used to subscribe to dozens of lists, but now I don’t read more than 4 or 5. Blogs are funnier, and my visits increased, after I stop losing my time writing to lists and started to write posts in my blogs.
Nothing says “go to hell” like a message “Pleaseplease visit my blog”. ProBloggers don’t have time to waste; most of them simply delete such messages.
There are two things that ProBloggers read for sure:
1 - The blogs they like 2 - Their comments.
If you’re #1 stop reading here. If you’re not, use #2 to reach your blog-heroes:
The best (and only 100% guaranteed) way of making a ProBlogger to click your link and read your writing is prove your text is worth of his/her time.
Start to COMMENT on your favorite blogs. Sign your real name, fill the blanks. Nobody likes Anonymous Cowards. Make yourself a smart presence on someone’s comments, sooner or later curiosity will prevail and he’ll click to find out what else such smart commenter writes about.
No AdWords campaign, no “read my blog or the dog dies” blackmail, no magic tricks.
Of course, the strategy above only works if you’re smart, know how to write a good comment and your blog doesn’t suck.
If you know of a trick to make ProBloggers read crappy blogs please mail me at once.
It’s a no-win situation, every blog in its childhood has as major viewers spiders and bots from search engines and -oh boy- spammers. Some bloggers get frustrated because nobody answers or comments their witty posts. Face it, folks, nobody answers because nobody is reading.
One can’t think of everything, and the creator of the pingback thing certainly didn’t. 
It’s a fact of life. You WILL deal with fanboys, sooner or later. A really interesting article WILL attract fanboys, because they can’t watch their beloved whatever disassembled or criticised in any way.
