I know this sounds weird, me giving advice. I am not successful in the traditional since, I mean for me its great getting someone to look at my crap. But for the most part my page views are low and I feel most bloggers would have stopped long ago. That said I really did start putting any serious work into this until a year ago. I have hear a year to a year and a half of concentrated effort is pretty minimum for getting a blog going. In any event I wanted to look over a couple of minor successes I have had, perhaps you can benefit from them.
Tip 1: Write more posts like those of your already successful posts
This one is a weird mix of obvious and hard to swallow. Your views are going to tell you what sorts of posts will make you successful. If you are getting loads and loads of views on a post, that's the sort of post you should write more of. The hard to swallow bit is when you hit a home run with something you don't care so much about. Here at Crescent Star my two most viewed posts are about the Richard Scarry Puzzletown and Hicks Road. I wrote about Hicks because it is a legitimate interest and I would be more than happy to write about Weird San Jose and Bay Area stories. Puzzletown I wrote out of frustration that their was so little information on the web. I really had not thought about doing Toy related posts when I first started the blog. I have experimented with writing more and they often out perform other topics.
I would suggest you really look at what is working for you with at Statistic view and then using that as your compass. If something is steering you outside of your area of comfort you have a few options. Either stick to your guns and Ignore your viewership or fire up a side blog on that topic.
Tip 2: Write on topics that don't already have a lot of info
Everyone blogs or at least the people who read blogs seem to also write them. You can probably find four awesome blogs dedicated to your obscure interest. My successes often have come when I write about things others have not. Again take that with a grain of salt "Success". The point is why write to add your voice to the crowd. Writing on a topic that doesn't have attention is better as you are a needle in a smaller hay stack.
There are a bunch of tools for key word searches that allow you to hunt down phrases that don't have a lot of pages associated with them. I personally just search and try to write on topics that I don't find information on.
Tip 3: Attach your own photographs to posts
Upload your own photos rather than using everyone Else's if you can. This is going to add another path for people go get to your blog. You are going to need to tag them in the HTML and give comments but after you do that image searches may find them and start routing traffic to your blog. People click on the image and see your blog underneath and may move on to read your information.
Tip 4: Use related forums to post links to your blog.
You should probably get involved in a forum related to the topic of your blog. Post your thoughts on stuff like a normal forum member but also do your best to take on links to related posts on your blog. It will also give you ideas of what to blog on. Forum communities talk mostly in little bits, summarizing and documenting information can be a good post for your blog.
Tip 5: Write stories not Poetry
Writing poetry is like being a in a prog metal band. Anyone who likes prog metal seems to play in a prog metal band. People like funny concise tales that are light to read. Poetry is sort of like that to write but not to read. The reader has to become something or feel something in a matter of lines. Most people don't have time for that on their lunch break. Poetry is a hard sell for most folks, I may love it but it doesn't generate blog traffic.
Tip 6: SEO matters somehow
SEO is wrong. If its working as intended you intention was wrong, like in an unjust doing ill to mankind sort of wrong. I am pretty sure the Google coders working on this thing are fucking Chaotic Evil bastards you never see except from behind where you just see their gauntleted hand stroking a cat. I just want something that is easy to use and accepts something like a string of keywords for each image and post. What I have is HTML. I am trying to shit out bad poetry here not learn a useful skill. But you want to be successful so I suggest learning this stuff. I am thinking of going to their campus with a sign and protesting until someone comes and sets up my blogger account correctly.
Tip 1: Write more posts like those of your already successful posts
This one is a weird mix of obvious and hard to swallow. Your views are going to tell you what sorts of posts will make you successful. If you are getting loads and loads of views on a post, that's the sort of post you should write more of. The hard to swallow bit is when you hit a home run with something you don't care so much about. Here at Crescent Star my two most viewed posts are about the Richard Scarry Puzzletown and Hicks Road. I wrote about Hicks because it is a legitimate interest and I would be more than happy to write about Weird San Jose and Bay Area stories. Puzzletown I wrote out of frustration that their was so little information on the web. I really had not thought about doing Toy related posts when I first started the blog. I have experimented with writing more and they often out perform other topics.
I would suggest you really look at what is working for you with at Statistic view and then using that as your compass. If something is steering you outside of your area of comfort you have a few options. Either stick to your guns and Ignore your viewership or fire up a side blog on that topic.
Tip 2: Write on topics that don't already have a lot of info
Everyone blogs or at least the people who read blogs seem to also write them. You can probably find four awesome blogs dedicated to your obscure interest. My successes often have come when I write about things others have not. Again take that with a grain of salt "Success". The point is why write to add your voice to the crowd. Writing on a topic that doesn't have attention is better as you are a needle in a smaller hay stack.
There are a bunch of tools for key word searches that allow you to hunt down phrases that don't have a lot of pages associated with them. I personally just search and try to write on topics that I don't find information on.
Tip 3: Attach your own photographs to posts
Upload your own photos rather than using everyone Else's if you can. This is going to add another path for people go get to your blog. You are going to need to tag them in the HTML and give comments but after you do that image searches may find them and start routing traffic to your blog. People click on the image and see your blog underneath and may move on to read your information.
Tip 4: Use related forums to post links to your blog.
You should probably get involved in a forum related to the topic of your blog. Post your thoughts on stuff like a normal forum member but also do your best to take on links to related posts on your blog. It will also give you ideas of what to blog on. Forum communities talk mostly in little bits, summarizing and documenting information can be a good post for your blog.
Tip 5: Write stories not Poetry
Writing poetry is like being a in a prog metal band. Anyone who likes prog metal seems to play in a prog metal band. People like funny concise tales that are light to read. Poetry is sort of like that to write but not to read. The reader has to become something or feel something in a matter of lines. Most people don't have time for that on their lunch break. Poetry is a hard sell for most folks, I may love it but it doesn't generate blog traffic.
Tip 6: SEO matters somehow
SEO is wrong. If its working as intended you intention was wrong, like in an unjust doing ill to mankind sort of wrong. I am pretty sure the Google coders working on this thing are fucking Chaotic Evil bastards you never see except from behind where you just see their gauntleted hand stroking a cat. I just want something that is easy to use and accepts something like a string of keywords for each image and post. What I have is HTML. I am trying to shit out bad poetry here not learn a useful skill. But you want to be successful so I suggest learning this stuff. I am thinking of going to their campus with a sign and protesting until someone comes and sets up my blogger account correctly.
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