I have a healthy blog readership-- the numbers are solid day to day and building-- and that's pretty good for a blog that's about nothing in particular and mostly all nonsense.
In the past, I've taught classes on blogging-- and I've got some students who have gone on to build extremely successful blogs, and they follow the pattern that works.
1. Focus your blog on something. Okay, mine is about nothing, so don't listen to me there, but if you REALLY want to build your audience give it a focus and you'll attract the readers. Every year I vow it will be more focused, but it'll never happen. I do commit to Mondays being about what's on TCM that week-- that's more for me than it is for you but I've gotten some emails saying thanks from people who want to dabble in "classic" film but don't know where to start.
2. Frequent updates. There is nothing worse than a blog that hasn't been updated for months or (yikes) years. There's no good reason for it-- would you buy a dog and then never feed it? Never play with it? Never pay attention to it? A blog is a living thing-- update it. With blogger you can schedule blogs well in advance so pick a day of the week and just start writing-- somedays you'll have and endless ideas and write 15 blog posts, others you'll write one. But the important thing is to build up some space between what you are writing and the day it's posting. That way when life gets in the way your blog doesn't suffer.
Seriously think about it-- instead of sitting in front of the tube watching America's Top Dancing Idol, put the effort into your blog.
3. But What to Write about? Well, birthdays are a good filler. Both family and friends as well as famous people, when in doubt go to this day in history and look up what is important about this day you're scheduling.
4. Link to other blogs-- linking helps grow your traffic. Someone reading my blog might be interested in your blog-- which is another reason why the title is important. And the title wrecks more people than anything else. When in doubt, write the blog post first and then pull a title out of it-- that's how newspapers do it for headlines.
5. Include a picture! A blog post without a picture is like a newspaper article without a photo-- nobody reads it.
6. Keep it short! If you're long winded, break your post down into multiple posts, rather than giving the whole thing up in one blog post (you get more for your money that way).
Like this: More tomorrow!
And Happy Birthday Alexa! My little sister!
