Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Q. No one's discovered my blog. Will you link to it?

Generally, if I check out your blog and I think there's something there for this blog's readers, I'll link.

But here's my advice, too: a blog is like a TV show. It needs a hook to get people to read it. It needs to create a compelling, attractive world (in TV terms, an "attractive fantasy"). And it needs consistency.

My hook is something like "screenwriting thoughts from a guy who makes a living at it."

You don't have to be a pro to get an audience, though. You just have to find your groove. If you focus on one thing, the Net will probably funnel readers your way who are looking for what you're selling. The key is consistency. This blog is about watching and writing TV and movies; subgenre, craft and career issues. I used to rant about politics on it from time to time, but I stopped because I didn't want to chase off readers on the right, and the politics had nothing to do with the craft. I also don't talk about my personal life much, because that's not what the blog is for.

If you're not attracting an audience, ask yourself if your blog has found a groove. Or in marketing terms, does it have a Unique Selling Proposition? Or in story terms: what's it about?

So, if you can tell me what your blog is about, and that has something to do with screenwriting, I'll probably link. I'm even more inclined to link if you point me to one or two really good posts you're proud of. (= your sample scripts!) If your blog is just your daily life and thoughts and wit, then I probably won't link. Not because there's anything wrong with diary blogs, but for consistency's sake.

Labels: blogs

8:41 AM

2 Comments:

In my observations, there are two things you need to do to gain readership with a blog. You've covered #1: Pick a theme and stick with it. #2 is to post regularly (if not frequently.)

I do a great job of ignoring both.

By  Arlo, at 1:08 PM  

My day job is a copywriter in the search engine optimization industry - which is part of online marketing.

There are many things people can do to attract traffic to their blog.

1. Use technorati tags. (www.technorati.com)
2. Link to other blogs in your posts.
3. Comment on other blogs that share similar themes as your blog. Participate in the online community and people will visit your site.
4. Request links, but do it right. Don't say "no one visits my site." It sounds like a sob story, and no one wants to link to a sob story. You will get some yes-es and some no-s. Don't be deterred by the no's.

If you want to rank well in Google or other search engines, it will take alot of time. But start now using the following steps.

1. Use wordpress. And use the SEO title Tag plugin.
2. Use Keyword Discovery free tool to find keywords to place in your content and title tags. (Pepper, don't spam!)
3. You'll want to use as many different keywords as possible. If your blog is about screenwriting, then write posts about specs, features, shorts, etc. This is called using "long tail" keywords. But use the keyword discovery tool to find the exact phrase match.

I could go on and on and on. If you're serious about blogging - read problogger.net, dailyblogtips.com, and chrisg.com.

Email me at nathania dot johnson at gmail dot com, if you want me to review your site or for more tips about blogging. (no charge) :)

By  Nathania Johnson, at 5:19 PM  

Post a Comment

Back to Complications Ensue main blog page.