4 ways to snag hits on your blog- the quest for extra credit

The point of blogging is to be heard. We spend our time researching, formulating an opinion, and tactfully responding in a mere 700 words. If you’re like me, you don’t do this as a remedy for boredom, but want the fruits of your labor to be noticed. In the case of blogging, being ‘noticed’ doesn’t necessarily mean good or bad. People will agree and disagree. (Who doesn’t love controversy?)

The point is, your blog must make an argument to give people a choice of how they will respond. The topic, which for this class is technology, has for the most part been up to you, so make it something you’re interested in. I personally don’t love technology, so I found my most compelling arguments to come from my distaste. If you find your blog interesting, most likely someone else out there will too. I used David’s advice of using numbers and lists in my title, giving people an idea of what my blog is about, but leaving enough ambiguity to perk their interest and continue reading.

However, to accumulate traffic, I don’t feel it is adequate to rely alone on your blog’s interest factor. To be honest, much of my motivation came from the fact that as a 23 year old super duper senior, I’m ready to take school seriously and get good grades. I’m competitive. When I get a challenge like creating the most traffic, the incentive for those 20 points along with a hopefully guaranteed A, is enough to keep me hustling.

So how exactly does one hustle blog hits? It’s all about networking, which to me depends on how much effort you’re willing to put in. For starters, I posted my blogs on my Facebook frequently. When you have completed a blog, click “View Blog” and on the top left corner is an option to “Share.” You have the choice of posting your blog on your Facebook, Twitter, Google Read, or Google Buzz accounts. Take advantage of this feature, it’s easy and takes 2 seconds! Don’t pretend you don’t read your News Feed. I know you do and so does everyone else- if your blog is seen there, don’t you think at least someone will click? I also tagged a note to my posts letting people know my mission and thanking them for cooperating, clicking, and supporting my quest for extra credit.

 I also used my boyfriend’s account to post my blog again, hitting a whole new demographic of friends. Use your friends and their networks to spread the word. My dad was President of the Kiwanis Club in Chatham, so I used their Facebook site as well to post an ad for my blog. I guilt tripped some members into clicking simply by writing notes like, “If you love Doug Bryant, help out his daughter!,” or “Support Doug, support his daughter, and support Drew!” Kiwanis is linked to Circle K at Drew, so the Drew factor is always a hit.

Facebook is a great network, but you have to exhaust all of your resources. Use your email! Along with my own contacts, I hit up a lot of parent’s friends who were willing to check out my blog. Create an address book and with each blog, send it out to all of your contacts. I have Gmail, which saves every address I’ve ever emailed. I literally sent my blog to everyone. Don’t worry about sending to people you haven’t contacted in while. Re-acquaint yourself. There’s no shame in networking. Solicit! Solicit! Solicit!

Last but not least, there’s always the desperation card. Before I created a fairly extensive address book, I can’t lie and say I didn’t click my own blog at least 50 times. Go to the Morris County Library. There is no annoying ID and Password sign in, so you can quickly and easily access your blog. There are 35 public computers, use them all.

So there it is… all my blogging secrets. Creating traffic is easy. It’s all about networking, effort, and how badly you want to win. All of the tactics above are quick and feasibly done by anyone. You all have various networks you’ve created through your lives- use them. Don’t be too cool for school and think that just because these blogs are for class doesn’t mean they aren’t important. You put in the effort to write them, now put in the effort to make people read them! I hope you found this somewhat helpful and good luck with the remainder of your semesters!

Mallory.