FIGHTING INVISIBILITY (UPDATED 12-8-05)

While perusing the Showcase, I saw a post by Phil of Shades of Gray wherein he muses a bit about the structure of the blogosphere. In the conclusion, this sentence caught my eye:

As the weblog arena becomes increasingly crowded, with countless voices all shouting to be heard, there is the danger that the droning sound of all the yells will drown out the interesting and truly stimulating bloggers that just can't get a break.

Hmmm... sounds like everyone except the Puppy Blender.

Well, if you're a breakless blogger here's some serious thoughts on how to become broken:

First, if you're dissatisfied with your traffic, ask yourself this: what are you doing to advertise your blog?

I don't mean buying blog ads on some big guy's sidebar. I mean the kind of friendly, word-of-mouth stuff that will actually get you traffic by getting your blog's name out there in a positive light.

Are you:

Entering link Carnivals regularly? - Carnival of the Vanities, Best of Me Symphony, Bonfire of the Vanities, etc. are all there for the entering, no charge, no quality check. Submit your link. People read these things. People click those links. Best of all, you can write your own glowing, curiosity-provoking description for your entry, and it'll probably get used. All they ask in return is a courtesy link to the round-up after it's been posted.

UPDATE 7-15-04: Since a lot of the link-fests are travelling shows now and are easy to lose track of, I post upcoming locations at the Alliance HQ site every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday night, usually between 7 & 9 pm.

UPDATE 5-20-05: The easiest way to both find and enter carnivals is to use Conservative Cat's All-Purpose Blogging Carnival Entry Form.

UPDATE 12-8-05: Blogcarnival.com is another source for finding carnivals to enter. Currently tracking 147 carnivals, and adding new ones all the time.

Commenting on other people's blogs? - Leaving a friendly, flattering, witty, or entertaining comment to other people's blog entries is a good way to get noticed.

Surfing off your blogroll? - Surfing off your blogroll instead of from your browser's bookmarks makes your blog URL show up in people's referer logs. EVERYBODY checks their referer logs from time to time, even the Higher Beings & Mortal Humans. Showing up every day piques curiosity & encourages visitation.

Linking with enthusiasm? - When you link someone's post, an intro like "XBlogger has an interesting post" is better than nothing, but if you want to win friends & influence linkees, try emoting a little and describing WHY you liked a post, e.g. "Being a guy, I like watching things blow up. That's why I really enjoyed XBlogger's post called "Fun Places to Put a Lit Firecracker". It brought back so many wonderful memories of things I've gone to jail for."

Using Trackbacks? - A trackback lets the person you're linking to know that you're saying those enthusiastic things about him. They're often automatically e-mailed, and I don't know a single blogger unnarcissitic enough to not investigate a ping. Even if you don't have a "send trackback" option on your blogging software, you can still send a trackback with this handy standalone trackback form, developed by the incomparable genius Kevin of Wizbang [see above section on "enthusiasm"]

UPDATE 7-17-04: The incomparable genius Kevin of Wizbang points out that sending trackbacks to some sites (including his) will get your blog name and post title listed visibly within the entry you send the trackback to. Be sure to check the comments on that post for other blogs that have this feature.

Participating in other blogger's projects? - This one might be too time consuming if you're on a tight time schedule, but throwing in with other bloggers wins you lots of goodwill points, and if the project takes off, it's going to take your name with it. Try taking a chance & getting in on the ground floor.

Dropping RELEVANT links in other bloggers' comments? - The key word is RELEVANT. If you're surfing around and you notice someone has posted on a topic that you've posted about, and you make a insightful point that doesn't appear in the other blogger's post, then go ahead & leave a link to your post. Some caveats: remember that you're a guest in someone else's virtual living room, so behave accordingly. Don't be rude. Don't make your host look foolish. Don't link your fisking of his post. It's ok to link a factual correction, but otherwise you should, as a courtesy, save this technique for linking posts that are supportive of the other blogger's main point.

Ok, those are the easy ones. Now for the netiquette of e-mailing links to your posts to THE BIG GUYS. This one is tricky, because it's even more intrusive than dropping links in people's comments. If commenting is standing in their living room, then e-mailing is sitting on the couch next to them. Only send a link if the post fits the blog's theme. For example, if you're going to bug Matty O'Blackfive, your post should probably be about the military, or drinking, or drinking in the military. Or possibly making fun of the brawling, besotted Irish.

Suggested format - Apologize for the unsolicited e-mail, acknowledge that you know [BIG BLOGGER] is very busy, briefly tell why you think this post might be of interest to him, give the URL, thank him for his time, sign your name. END

Keep it brief & to the point. DON'T specifically ask for a link to your post - it's pretty obvious that's why the e-mail was sent so it's not necessary. Also, not asking for the link takes some of the pressure off the recipient, making him feel less put upon, and, paradoxically, MORE likely to link the post (assuming that it's appropriate to his blog's theme).

Now, having said all that, I'll also say this: My credibility in the "getting lots of traffic" department is marginal, at best. I've never been above "Mammal" in the Ecosystem, and I've never cracked the "1000 hits in a day" barrier. Nevertheless, I've had some success with the above-listed techniques, and they've helped me progress from a 0-hit-per-day Blogspotling to the powerhouse of mediocrity that I am today.

However, if you think I'm full of crap on any of these points, feel free to tell me so in the comments.

UPDATE 6-24-05:

NOTE: [If you've found this post useful enough to blog about, send a trackback or e-mail the permalink to me at harvolson-at-gmail.com and I'll add you to my Bad Example Groupies blogroll. See this post for details]