Wednesday, March 19, 2014

I'm so confused...

Den of the Beastly Bear

Hi Folks!

I admit to being a little confused....

I've been churning out a daily blog since January first...this makes me a newby at this blogging game, so any help from the veterans is appreciated.

What confuses me is what people like and what they don't...

There are blogs I've slapped together on a wing and a prayer...high readership.

Then there are blogs that I have carefully crafted, rewritten, reworded, honed to tell the story just the way I want to express it...barely gets read.

Perhaps my fault is in the blog titles...

Sometimes maybe I try to be too witty by giving a title you won't fully understand until you read the piece, sometimes I try a little misdirection...so you think it's about one thing when in fact it's about another.

Am I shooting myself in the foot here? Trying to be too clever???

Each one of these little creations I send out into the world with high hopes...and by and large I am thrilled that so many actually take the time to read my ramblings.

But why one blog gets 2-3X the traffic of another befuddles me!
Sometimes I'm surprised by what "catches fire" and what does not...

Perhaps it's the rotating pictures I use as headers to my blog, I try to match the pic to the feel of the blog...angry, melancholy, cheeky, playful or reposed. Could it really be THAT simple?

In truth it's likely that I'm not a "topic specific" blog, I tend to wander where my twisted mind and conversations with friends take me...I hit upon an idea and run with it!

So any help folks? Ideas? Suggestions? Complaint's?

I also must budget my time better, ran out of time again today so I'm slapping this out on my lunch break at work...sloppy I know!

But whatcha gonna do?

Be Well Folks!

Beastly Bear





8 comments:

  1. I read all your blogs and my parents wait for them anxiously everyday! Some just hit home and others don't, that is just readers taste. Perhaps part of the problem is people accessing them via Facebook like I do. They can get buried in your newsfeed, and you have to really dig for them. I would suspect that is part of the problem. You are doing great Joe! Very proud of you, and your endeavor!

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    1. My Thanks to you, and your parents for your support! Facebook could certainly be part of the problem, if they don't get liked or shared they don't pop on the newsfeed to anyone else and if most people are like me and "like" quite a few pages thye can certainly get lost in the barrage of postings!

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  2. I've been blogging since 2006 and I have yet to figure this out too. A lot of it is that there are a lot of serious writers who are working on books and they've banded together pretty tightly so there are a lot of blogs that are followed and cross followed in order to support each other. I have the same issues with things I post. Stuff i think is funny or good gets only a couple comments, and others get tons of comments. I've also noticed a marked drop off in comments on the weekends. You just have to keep looking for blogs that interest you and follow them and comment in order to get reciprocal visits.

    I love your stories and I love reading each new entry!

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    1. Thanks JoJo!!! I guess I still feel a little semiconscious "Self promoting", and I'm not complaining by any stretch...I'm AMAZED anyone reads them! LOL
      Just an observation on the quirks of blogging....
      I appreciate more than I can say, those of you that do read and comment you brighten my day each time I see a comment!!! :-)

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  3. I think the big thing is to share the living hell out of it. Not everyone is online at the same time, all the time. It has always helped me to join blogging groups on Face Book and Google +. Then you share your post on their walls. You read some of their posts and comment, and hopefully they will return the favor. Writing is a small part of it. Sharing is everything and making the rounds to your favorites and answering your comments and visiting folks that take time out to read you helps build readerships. In the years I have been doing this, people don't read a lot on weekends. They are slow. You get more during the week. Also it drops over the holidays. Why because people are busy doing other things. Short and sweet titles work best. Always make sure you add keywords to your posts. They are called labels on blogger and help people find your posts when they are searching on google. So you say to yourself what am I talking about? On this post...blogging, writing, social media. Your title should be short and sweet. I don't think your titles are the problem. I love your stories, and really you need to keep in mind when your readers come read. Join a blogging group, get some regulars and answer your comments that folks leave. Consider it a conversation..keep that conversation going even if all you so is thanks for stopping by, glad you liked it. Engage them. Write from the heart, write what you want. Write what you like, then share the living hell out of it. You write it and they will come. Blogging is a give and take. You write, they hopefully comment, you respond, you return the favor, they will keep coming back for more. That is my system and although it is a lot of work sometimes, it seems to work. Just keep writing. You are amazing and your stories are great!

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    1. I do try to read other peoples Blogs...but sometimes I barely have time in the day to write my own! Lol
      I try my best to respond to EVERY comment left, after all if they took time out of their busy day to comment on my post, I owe them a response!
      Thank you so much Kathy for your advice...as I was telling JoJo I have a problem "Self promoting". I always feel there is such a fine line between acknowledging you are decent at something and bragging about it.
      That you feel I am amazing is just beyond words, thank you so much for your continued support. You have all been so great to me!!!

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  4. I love all of your posts but the blogging world really is a crap shoot. There's one blogger that I cannot for the life of me figure out why people read her and yet she claims to have thousands of followers. It's like your grandma blogging, trying to be funny, trying to be risque. I'm embarrassed for her every time I see her posts but people read her. Who knows what the formula is. I think you have more readers than commenters probably but I have to agree with Kathy, share the shit out of your posts. The more people see, the more people read and thank your lucky stars that you're not an outcast like me. :p

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    1. Since when are you an outcast?!? Nobody calls my online wife and outcast! NOBODY!
      I wasn't complaining, I was just making an observation about the quirkyness of what goes over big and what doesn't...what I experience on a small scale, imagine what authors of novels go through! I am newly surprised each time, when I get a comment from someone new that I had no idea read these!!! I appreciate them all!!!

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