Old:
New: (maybe I should have sacrificed color for flash, sorry it's so dark...)
Overall:
And before you mention it, yes, I know I messed up with the upper right cable -- I'm figuring it will give me a perfect chance to try out Cara's January One in-depth -- so it must have been intentional, yes, that's it, I botched it simply to have the chance to try out fixing it...
And now, We Interrupt This Message...
I'm trying to figure the whole blog philosophy thing (okay, so I admit that many people would have figured out what they intended their blog to be/stand for/focus around before they actually got the whole blog thing up and rolling, but...). So I mentioned to himself that I wasn't quite sure how to attract folks to the blog, and that there didn't seem to be much commenting going on, and I wonder, kinda, whether it's a matter of how long before one develops a readership or a matter of if... Anyway, his reply was something along the lines of "maybe folks got bored and stopped reading..." and that he personally thinks knitters find stories about their foibles and how such foibles affect their family members most amusing. Not to burst bubbles or anything, and I could be wrong, but I tend to suspect I'd get bored with a blog that focused on funnies at the strict expense of knitters somewhat quickly.
So the big question, I guess, is whether I'm willing to blog for the sake of me and hope that someday it might just be interesting to someone else too or whether I need to attempt to write particularly to entertain an audience that may or may not ever show up. I'm guessing that the second choice would, for me, get old mighty fast. Assuming that there's anyone reading this at all, what do you do? Is it okay to write into a black hole? Is it boring to read a blog that someone writes mainly for themself? And how does one attract readers that might not be bored? And, yes, at the end of this all I realize that I've a rather new blog, and it takes a while, and patience, wait and see and all that, but I have to admit there's a bit of thrill when I read that I've actually got a new comment...
I find one way to attract people to your blog is to go around and leave comments on other blogs. Generally if you are a new commenter to their blog, they will go and check yours and leave a comment. Sometimes people just read the blog and don't comment though...but I think that has been the way that I get people to my blog...not that I get a lot of comments.
ReplyDeleteOther people get commenters by holding contests, posting lots of pictures and just referring other people to someone's blog.
Thanks, Shelley, that makes good sense... I've been, and actually the few comments I've received have basically started off with visits/comments to others' blogs or knit-alongs, so that makes even better sense yet. And the goal isn't to collect tons of comments, I know that... Thank you for commenting, thanks so much for letting me know you're out there!
ReplyDeleteFirst, I suspect that the blogosphere is pretty saturated, and it may simply not be possible to draw the readership that the heavyweight bloggers currently enjoy. Second, an audience may rise as you hone your blogging philosophy. Third, I do believe people like to see pictures, and I personally enjoy pithy text to go with. I would have enjoyed seeing pictures of your spinning wheels, for example. That said, many of the very popular bloggers go on forever. Fourth, you might consider the point of the blogroll. Some people will visit because you link them, some won't, and some will be discouraged if you remove them from your blogroll (case in point, I believe). Fifth, Shelley's suggestions are good. It is worth thinking about how much effort you are willing to go to to gather an audience. Sixth, do you know many people in real life who read blogs? Gotta run - still sick and bath time for PeachPit.
ReplyDeleteNodnod, many of which I've thought/wondered about myself... Point taken, pix of wheels forthcoming, including my new baby (photos are a habit I'll need to cultivate, I admit). And, umm, case in point, I can see, but not quite, not really -- I have a listing of blogs I read (more extensive than I care to admit) that's being mixed up randomly; I haven't removed yours, not at all. Maybe I'll have to rethink the randomness and figure a different way as it hadn't occurred to me it would seem like I was dissing folks, and it truly wasn't intended... Good points all, thank you, and, again, perhaps I need to start by figuing out what I'm actually hoping for from the blog before I try to figure out how to get there...
ReplyDeleteOh the random thing is great. At some point I thought about rounding up ALL of the knitting blogs, not just the ones I read, and putting them in a random link generator. Indicating that the list is random is a nice touch, and lets people know that if they follow something they like, they better bookmark it 'cause it might be gone tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad the fix worked for you! Isn't it ridculously easy? No one will believe you, I swear.
ReplyDeleteYAY! Thanks for stopping by to comment. I appreciate it!
Sean, Cara, thanks for your comments (wow, 8 comments on one post, that's a record even if some of them are replies from me!) I've some definite thoughts on "blog philosophy" and some definite pix on the cable fix technique, so I'll plan on revisiting things in a bit...
ReplyDelete