Blog Symbiosis

A few days back, a friend of mine bluntly asked me, "I don't think many people read your blog, do they ?" While I grappled to find a nice defensive answer, he added, "I mean - I don't see many comments." I was perplexed, slightly dented and wondered if the shift from mailing to blogging was actually a good idea.

A blog is similar to shouting out to the world - your views, stories, pictures..anything. A better analogy would be that every day 15,000 individuals are getting their own TV channel. But what good is a TV channel if nobody watches it ?

Hence it becomes important in the blog world (and possibly the real world too) to develop a mechanism of - "I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine."

There are 2 reasons why traffic may be low in a blog :

1) It stinks - bad content (although the reverse may not be true)
AND/OR
2) The owner has not developed an active BC (blog circle)

Assume that a person P is a fortnight old in the blogging world and wants to create his/her circle of blog-readers. Exhortation and direct advertising never works well (ask me!). Assuming that the content is decent and interesting enough, how can a blog turn into a hit ?

The back-scratching mechanism demands that you read other people's blog if you want them to read yours. Secondly, an active blog with comments sprinkled from various sources looks much more appealing than an ominous 0 comments.
Here is the 3 step method to become a hit @blogspot :

1) Comment like hell! Standard responses being nice; cool!; I agree with you; A pertinent comment will always be preferred. But hey! Don't waste time reading all the junk out there.
2) Using step one, develop a BC (blog circle) that does back-scratching. An existing circle like a wing or a dept group would make things easier.
3)Of course, you better write well if you want the hoopla to sustain!

The truth is that there isn't an easy way to keep track of blogs right now. It takes a ton of effort to go to all the blogs that you want to read. I am still grappling with this RSS thing. Once I am done exploring, I promise a post that'll make your life much easier....

Comments

  1. nice points from a 'non-hit' blog (?) ...dont listen to jha...hislife is to show things in bad light...the only good thing to him is china...your blogs are read and appreciated...keep up the good work...BOL for RSS...one advice to get more comments -> remove the word check

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  2. haha ... btw, a lack of comments does not necessarily indicate low readership ... set up a page counting software and you would know how exactly your blog is doing!

    n for the RSS, try bloglines.com or netvibes.com ... both completely different concepts but useful in their own ways!

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  3. hi..
    i had been seeing u for quite some days in the hall, but never knew who u were..
    and i had also heard ur name but never knew the face behind it...
    now i know its u..
    nice to meet u..
    me in second yr and i blog too... and i hav started getting some comments on my blog of late.. and the most imp point thr is to make a blog circle, or get some ppl see ur blog regularly

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