This blog is fairly haphazard. I find Youtube videos I like, I put 'em on the blog. I like a guitar or don't like a string, I put 'em on the blog. I find great pictures of pretty Telecaster-style guitars, I put 'em on. I play out or practice, I put 'em on the blog.
I'm opinionated and an introverted extrovert. That's why I do it. Why do you come and read? Do you like my "How To Not Suck" series? Do you, like me, enjoy looking at well-made and interesting guitars? Tell me what you like. Tell me what you don't. I'm at a teachable point right now.
8 comments:
Dave,
Blogging is not about a love me, define me attitude.
The appeal of a blog is the randomnessness of the whole thing. The motivation should come from within and not from without. Don't force it...Everyone wants to be liked, but “don’t go chaingin’ to try to please me”
I think I missed the “Try not to suck” series. Send me the link
"How To Not Suck".
Here, or in a tag link to the left.
Sorry about your foot, by the way. Get better soon.
Dave, I dunno if you know how many RSS subscribers you have, your traffic stats in general or which of your posts are most popular.
I know there's a small circle of guitar bloggers who check on each other.
My blog gets 600-800 daily page views, but most of my visitors are spread across older posts which Google has indexed at a decent enough page rank for random curious folks to occasionally stumble upon. Right now, I have about 950 posts, so as you can see it's a real numbers game. Pretty hit and miss. My best & craziest posts usually get little or no indexing, traffic or comments.
What few RSS subscribers I have, plus a some of the guitar blog circle are actually the only ones who might regularly keep up with my latest & current posting.
The recent Etavonni excitement occurred because the original post indexed right on their Google front porch. Why? Because they have no dealers, distributors or reviews except for PG's. Not a lot goin on for those guys besides my expensive ugliness. PG jumped into the blogosphere with some patronizing damage control & backhanded invalidations. It wasn't until GL at Guitarz posted about it that anything occurred. PG commented at his blog first. Why? Because Guitarz ranks higher overall throughout Google as a 6 year old blog with TONS of post content.
My follow-up "solution" post hasn't indexed-- and thus attracts little traffic or response, and warrants no further DC.
I'm not still ranting about that, but using it as an example to help illustrate where, why & how blog posts show up on the food chain.
If you register with StatCounter or someone similar (it's free), and put their code in your footer, you'll be able to monitor all sorts of stats about your blog i.e., most popular posts, search terms, regions, referred from links, etc.
You, IG & I tend to be pretty free form as opposed to say, Cary at EGR, who sticks pretty much to gear reviews. This makes our indexing much more random and inconsistent. It can make us potentially more entertaining to some folks-- if we really are. IG can really pull in the participation, but he seems to be having a posting dry spell. If I could draw like him, every day would be a party.
My also being a gear pimp probably turns off some potential regulars who shun capitalist blogging practices. Just about pays for my gasoline.
Anyway, this long winded comment is actually a response to your post, based upon my observations of how the web seems to function for bloggers.
Having traffic stats data would help you if you wanted to know more about what Google and your visitors "like" about Sans Direction, then you can focus your posting on those topics to boost indexing, traffic and comments.
I kinda do that, but also tend not to give a sh@*, although I'd sure like to pimp more gear! But that's just me.
Whew! Now what should I blog about today?
jp
I answered earlier, "Contractual obligation," and I stand by it.
Mostly I subscribe for the pictures...
...plus what every one else says.
I am at ease with the pace here. Thanks for asking.
pd
Guitars... any guitars... feed addiction. I like the fact that I have very similar musical tastes to you in some ways and very different in others, which spurs me on to explore a little more.
Plus you do manage to find some pretty axes out there :-)
Originally? Because Ig was MIA. You said sensible things over there, and on further inspection you're on target nearly every time you put finger to key, and I'm far too lazy/distracted to feed my own blog, so I just read yours and say "damn right." Also, your page doesn't bog down my Flintstones-era computer (lookin' at you, JP). I'm not so much into the gear pics -- my budget barely keeps me in strings, and guitar porn just makes me frustrated and sad. Otherwise, I'm happy if you just keep on keepin' on.
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