Wednesday, October 28, 2009

How to Get Noticed in K-Blogland

Update: this post is long. It deserves a soundtrack.

Everclear: AM Radio. One of my happy place songs.

So, this one blogger has lately been leaving comment spam and links to his/her site all over the k-blogs. Seems like everywhere I go this person is linking "for hard-hitting" news and some other stuff.

Problem is, as Brian Deutsch told him/her right before deleting his/her comment, "There are proper ways to promote your site. Like I told you the first time, pretty much the best way to ensure I'll never visit your site is to spam it on unrelated posts."

Ask the Expat talked briefly about this, and sent people to ROK Drop's "How to get a good blog" and Acorn in the Dog's food referred to Skelliewag.org's advice, as did James Turnbull in this comment at hub of sparkle, talking about the Golden Klog awards. A lot of what I'm saying here is gleaned from these pages. Especially ROK Drop's.

So here's my take on how to get a popular K-blog. Some of this probably works for others too.

There's a bunch of stuff that's really well-known, and obvious, so I'll brush over that. Read ROK Drop's post for further explanation ... (of stuff that ought to be obvious). Other tips are a simple matter of blogger courtesy. Here they are:

Start in 2002. Seriously, this is the best thing you can do. The K-blogs that are still around, that started a way long time ago are generally some of the most linked, read, and referenced blogs out there. I also tell my students that if they want to speak English perfectly, like natives, they need to start when they're six. I teach adults.

Yeah, that's a funny one, haw haw, but here's the truth behind it:

Be patient. It takes time for a blog, even a good one, to find its readers. And be aware that different topics have different popularity ceilings.

Post regularly, and consistently. Long breaks or infrequent posts, or a blank week and then five posts in a day won't give you as much bang for your buck.

I'm going to add... there's also a maximum number of posts a day people will read before they stop trusting you to produce quality content, or get blinded by all the noise. Nobody can write five posts a day without recycling a lot of their own thoughts and ideas, and running the risk of losing some of the nuances in their thinking, as a sheer function of time spent per post, so unless you're fashioning yourself as a headlines blog, don't do it. Also, if you produce THAT much content, it gets harder to look through your archives to find something, so old posts won't get many link-backs.

Maintain a standard of quality. durr.

Add your own thoughts. Don't JUST do a link (ahem irony alert ahem), or you're nothing better than a newsfeed, and people won't see the point in reading your blog rather than just checking K-news feeds.

Acknowledge what you don't know, and own up, either in comments, or with post updates, when someone points out an important error. I'd add "don't talk about things you don't know about"... but your readers will figure that out pretty quickly regardless.

Get on the Korean Blog List. This should be your first step. When I was getting started, a third of my new hits (that is, not family) came from there. People DO go there and browse, just to see what's up.

Don't intimidate readers with walls of pure text. If I'm studying for a masters, I'll read journals. Blogs that are screens full of letters (especially if it's in small or difficult to read font) get skimmed, or skipped entirely. Break up paragraphs, add pictures, embed youtube videos, make sure there's empty space on your screen somewhere.

Have a commenting policy. This equals credibility.

At the very least, respond to comments on your own site. Maybe you don't have time for all of them, but take part in the comment board discussions, and acknowledge your commenters. They're important to the success of your blog, and if you're asked a direct question in the comments, and fail to answer, you may have lost the respect of a reader and in some cases, a potential friend/ally. This is especially important when you're starting out.

Link to other bloggers. Most bloggers have measures and metrics that tell them when they get linked. I'm more likely to visit and read a blog that's linked me, than to read a blog that puts a comment saying "Read my site" on an unrelated post.... but when you link them...

Make sure there's enough at your blog to intrigue them. Frankly, one of the first things I do when I visit a new blog is check their archives. If a blogger has e-mailed me or linked to me, or asked me to visit or link their site somehow, the first thing I do is check how many months of material they've already written, and how consistently they produce content. Were there ten posts in the first month and two per month in the next five? I'll lose interest fast. Has the blog been in existence for a single month? I'll come back later, and see if they've stuck around, before I start sending much link-love that way. I'll also sometimes skim the topics in the post headlines of the archives, to see how well the blogger stays on topic, or whether it's just a random, unfocused modge-podge (modge-podges are fine for your friends to read, but won't get linked at The Marmot's Hole. That guy's busy.)

People like lists, top-tens, and other countdowns. It's the fastest way to get linked. The internet attention span fritzes out at about 500 words, but each new point on a top-ten list or an itemized list is a mini-reboot of that attention span. Use headings and lists and countdowns to stretch out the amount of time people are willing to read your post. Or write posts that are generally less than 500 words, or find other ways to break things up -- change of topic, photos, video clips, jokes. Or say "to hell with attention spans: I'm writing good stuff!" and just write an excellent post that will attract attention for its excellence (cf: Popular Gusts and The Grand Narrative).

Pick a format, and a focus, and stick with it. This is why Roboseyo will never be more popular than it is right now: not enough focus. Ask A Korean and Ask The Expat got popular, really fast, because their format was really accessible and interactive. The Grand Narrative is popular because it has a very specific focus, and that means people interested in that will visit. But if one post is weekend trip pictures, the next one is a restaurant review, the next is an academic discussion of English teaching styles, the next one is about Obamacare, and the next one is a confessional about one's best friend back home, don't expect readers to follow the jumps all over the map, and don't expect K-blogs with a specific focus to link you too often. I've seen a lot of bloggers put a ceiling on their own popularity by failing to choose a clear focus. Keep in mind also that if you get known best for an emotional tone, rather than a topic, it can be hard to break out of that pigeon-hole. (Says "The happy one")

To get noticed, and promote yourself:

Follow the Kushibo Model, or the Popular Gusts Model: The two main models for blog popularity can be explained by contrasting Kushibo and Gusts of Popular Feeling.

Popular Gusts and The Grand Narrative just wrote excellent blogs, and waited. Particlarly Popular Gusts -- TGN had an early phase where he put pictures of hot Korean stars up on his blog a lot, to get hits from "Lee Hyori sexy" searches and such. Planting common search keywords in posts and titles isn't something I ever got into too much, though I'm sure it works. Even though PG's Matt rarely commented on other blogs, eventually, other K-bloggers noticed, and started linking, and he, like TGN, built his credibility from the ground up. This version is credibility-intensive -- you can't afford to toss off a few cat videos in this model. It takes time, so be patient. Both are active on their own blogs' comment boards, taking part in discussions of their ideas, even though they aren't often on other blogs comment boards. Remember to link other bloggers if you're doing this. (This model doesn't only work on "smart" blogs. Humor blog Dokdo Is Ours also rarely comments on other blogs, but it has a clear focus and a quality standard as consistent as can be expected in a humor blog.)

The Kushibo model is much more extroverted: Kushibo is all over comment boards at other blogs, getting involved in discussions. Now, you don't necessarily have to take a different stance from other commenters on issues the way Kushibo does, and I don't actually recommend putting [update: TOO MANY] links to your own site in your comments, as that form of self-promotion is pretty naked, and can be off-putting, but I'll tell you what: one of the best ways to get me to visit your blog, and read it more carefully, is if I think "Hey, I've seen that username on other comment boards. He/she's generally smart/funny/knowledgeable/concise and witty." This was how I got started, by contributing a lot to commentary at The Marmot's Hole. There are a few other blogs that are popular and well-read, where you can do the same. This advice comes with the warning that if your comments are repetitive, ignorant, half-baked, poorly thought-out, or offensive... well, your comments are representing yourself, like the cover letter you send with your resume. Let your comments be a fair representation of what people will see at your blog, if you're taking this tack. And if you're ONLY commenting to get hits on your own site... people can tell. We netizens get things wrong sometimes, but we're pretty good at sniffing out a fake. Also, make sure there's stuff to see at your blog. I can't tell you how often I've been disappointed to click on a really interesting commenter's profile, to find a blog that updates twice a year.

Remember to do courtesy link-backs. A little thing like this (see the bottom of the post) goes a long way. When I started out, I'd even personally e-mail bloggers to thank them for linking me.

Have a unique handle that shows up on comment boards. There's only one Roboseyo on the internet, so when I put a comment somewhere, everybody knows it's me (for better AND for worse). There are about five Melissas (some are friends from back home), who comment on my blog, and four Matts who comment on K-blogs. If you want to build your brand on the comment boards, make sure your handle is unique, so that I'm not clicking on your ID and wondering "Is this the Baseball Matt or Popular Gusts Matt or On My Way To Korea Matt?" On the other hand, off the top of my head, there's only one Sonagi, only one Korean Rum Diary, only one Gomushin Girl, only one Kushibo, only one 1994, and only one MKM on the K-blog comment boards, so I remember them.

[Update - January 2010] By the same token:
Don't use Kimchi in your blog title, and don't make your blog title a pun on Seoul. Not to crap on the bloggers who have done exactly that (especially ones that have been around for awhile), but buddy, there are already so many blogs that pun on Seoul in their name, and so many more that use kimchi in their name, that it's getting harder and harder to tell one from the other. It's like that cruel prank of female names where there are so many women named Kristen, Kiersten, Kristen, Christa, Crystal, Kiersta, Christine, Christina, Christianna, and all of them get upset if you call them the wrong name. So yeah. If you're thinking of naming your blog "Seoul of Kimchi" or "Kimchi is my Seoulfood" or "Say Kimchi with your Seoul" - save yourself getting confused with a dozen other blogs, and don't.

If hits are all you care about, write about K-pop. The K-pop blogs get more readers and commenters than anybody else in Kblogland.

Don't Spam. Every once in a while, somebody goes through the entire Korean Blog List and leaves a comment on each one "Hey great blog. You should check out my blog, too." with a link. Or somesuch. Don't do that. Especially if the only post on your blog is "This is your new blog from Wordpress." I had about a year's worth of content before I started actively promoting Roboseyo, never asked people to visit my site -- just made what I thought were worthwhile comments, and because of that, Brian (one of my early boosters) has something to read when he DID come by, and later he listed me as a significant up-and-comer. Write a polite personal e-mail instead, saying something like "I just wrote about this topic... maybe you'd be interested in checking it out."

If you're not getting acknowledged by "the big bloggers," aim lower. Sending e-mails to The Marmot or Brian in Jeollanamdo about "Hey, I just wrote about this topic, maybe you could link me" might not have results, because they might get five e-mails like that a day (I sure don't)... so go to one of the several dozen "second-tier" bloggers around the K-blogs, the less popular ones that DO get read regularly, that post consistently, that are creating original and/or quality content, and get active on their comment boards. They're more likely to become blog pals anyway, and I've even seen some sweet friendships develop through bloggers starting to comment on each others' sites. There's a lot of good content there, and many of the "big" bloggers read a lot of them for leads, or for links. This is also a nice way to learn more about blogging during the first few months, to get excited about it, and to generate enough content on your site that "the big bloggers" will actually pay attention when you try to join the discussion there.

What else?
respect other bloggers starting a feud with Eminem helped Insane Clown Posse, but it won't help you if other bloggers won't link you because "that writer pisses me off"... instead, get in touch with other bloggers. Meet face to face, hang out, write e-mails. People visit the sites of people they feel like they know personally, more often. Friend them on facebook...but be friendly, not stalkerish, especially if they don't know you from Adam.

answer your e-mails... and read the FAQ's on a blog before sending an E-mail.

get into other media (Newspapers and magazines, also facebook and twitter)

be funny, or be smart, or be both, but be readable: academic writing is satisfying to accomplish, but hard to read. I'm more likely to revisit the site of someone with an engaging writing style than someone who doesn't, whatever the other merits of the site. Even a few sites angry enough that I'd never read them otherwise, get the occasional "train-wreck" hit from me, if they have an entertaining writing style.

edit your work: sloppy writing, obvious "I posted this without proofreading it" errors are a huge turnoff. The occasional typo is forgivable -- it's not a peer-reviewed paper -- but I've seen the ugliness when a mean commenter and a careless writer meet, and it ain't pleasant.

start a separate blog for your family and friends, or e-mail them. Mixing personal posts in when you want to "make it" as a k-blogger puts a ceiling on your blog's popularity, because of the lack of focus. You need to choose your audience -- that's one of the most important rules to good writing out there.

recognize that this is a pretty small niche. You'll never be as popular as if you write a "celebrity gossip photoshopped into cat photos" blog. There just aren't THAT many English Korea blog readers to go around, so don't expect twenty thousand hits a day. Seriously. Don't expect to quit your job, thanks to your google ads income.

K-blogging is not an exclusive club, as far as I can tell. New K-bloggers are constantly getting in "the club" and making their mark, and no matter how big you were a year ago, people drop off the map pretty quickly too, if they stop caring about what they write. However, it takes some time to become part of the club, not because we're snobs, but because so many other blogs have come in, made a splash, and then disappeared. But seriously, if you demonstrate that you've got some staying power, and you return the courtesy of links and such for most of us, that's all we ask. And if you don't feel like "part of the club"... then I guess I'd ask, are you blogging to get recognition, or are you blogging because you love sharing your ideas? Because the ones who are only in it for the recognition... usually don't stick around. If you want recognition, get your friends together, drink four beers, and get into that "you're my best friend" stage of happy drunkenness instead. It feels better, it's more reliable, and the high lasts longer than the high of getting linked by Roboseyo.

Are there any other tips I'm missing?

29 comments:

helikoppter said...

Thanks for the tip about The Korean Blog List! Have a vague memory of visiting long time ago, but I obviously never registered myself.

And now that you've reminded me: thank you so much for the link in the sidebar! Personal thank you emails was another good idea I'll have to consider :)

Chris in South Korea said...

Pick a niche. The bloggers most well-known / well-read are that way because they focus on something specific. Be it news, opinion, travel, food, life in Korea, life in Your Town Here, music, dance, theater, or some chosen combination, make the niche the topic of most of your posts.

Consider your blog a service to readers - it's not about you, it's about the information you provide that they can use.

Seconding the rest of Rob's ideas - especially the idea of giving it time. No one writes one post and gets it noticed by the world. That it's such a small audience means you have to stay laser focused on what those readers are interested in as well.

Anonymous said...

Really good post and advice, Roboseyo.

Unknown said...

Are there any other tips I'm missing?

Just write. All else is secondary.

Unknown said...

1. Join an already viable blog, or start a group blog with people who already have a brand.

2. Don't write for others. Write about what makes YOU excited, puzzled, or angry.

3. Get lucky!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

I agree with you. One of the best friends a blogger can have is a good copy editor. (Marrying a journalist can't hurt in that department. LOL!)
I would advise bloggers to develop an editorial calendar to help keep you focused as well. It will keep the ADHD under control.

Unknown said...

What Tamar1973 is saying is a bit too much. Now that the corporations have co-opted the blogosphere, success is the metric of blogging. It was always about self-actualization, about transforming discourse. Blogging now has become a middle-aged medium, and the future of journalism is uncertain. It's clear, though, that the blogosphere is not driving it any longer. Those blogs that were early starters are successful blogs. All that come later are competing for less hits and against obsolescence. Use blogs for to push what blogs can still push, do it for personal gain and actualization. But, the 90s are dead. The revolution will not be blogged!

DSW said...

That's a great list...

I've found the best blogs by word-of-mouth. Drinking with people whose opinions I respect helped me find some awesome, but under-appreciated, K-blogs.

(I take about 1,000 hits a month from Japanese anti-Korean websites, and an equal number from Korean anti-foreigner websites - maybe being hated is a good way to get hits...)

Brian said...

Rob, this is a good list, and expresses a lot of what I've been thinking for a while.

I'll just touch on a couple points I especially like.

* The best way to get noticed is to do good work, not tell everyone you do good work.

* If you want to write for a larger audience of people already in Korea---that's opposed to writing for people back home---be original. Do more than copy newspaper articles or summarize other writers' points. Understand that people read many other blogs and news sites, so don't really need your summaries, especially if they're old. One way to be original is to . . .

* Teach. Tell people about your neighborhood, take pictures, tell people what's around and how to get there. This is especially great for people in less-travelled areas. If you're in, say, Haenam county, there's a good chance that you know the area better than any other English-speaker that's ever been there.

* Inform and be informed. I'm a big fan of information. Link to the articles you cite, link to people who influence what you're saying, link to all the relevant information, provide a way for readers to follow what you're saying. Have an opinion and a perspective, but ground it somewhere.

* Contribute to discussions on other sites.

* Please don't ask for link exchanges when your blog hasn't been around very long.

* Please don't expect to grow your blog overnight, as you said.

For the record, I don't really consider myself big. I still do a lot of what I've always done, and I think I'm as responsive as ever. That I get some hits these days is largely because: (1) other bloggers have been less active, (2) I live in an area about which there's little written in English, (3) I pay attention to what's going on in the world of English-education, and (4) the accumulation of old readers and new, since there are loads more people following Korea than back in 2007, and (5) the kindness of readers who link back and who share good comments. Those things all work together to allow me a larger audience and, in turn, to reach more people, who feed the cycle and help me get better. I don't like to think of myself as "big" because I still remember vividly all the hate I was getting last year, and all the people in the quote-unquote community who despise what I do.

I think I'll be referencing this later as I talk a little about blog issues on my own site, most specifically . . . link exchanges. A tough topic.

Charles Montgomery said...

"Hey great blog. You should check out my blog, too."

LOL...

Becky said...

Rob: I was really surprised when a picture I took of a spider guy we found in Seoul a year ago ended up talked about on many websites. I always call it my claim to fame.

Roboseyo said...

I remember that picture, Becky. It was scary as hell!

Becky said...

I wanted to add. Always carry a camera! You never know what you may encounter.

Remember my 76 year old Korean yoga buddy that decided he wanted to be my boyfriend? When he started showing up at my apartment to deliver his wife's homemade kimchi it became a little creepy.

paquebot said...

I agree with many of the points you made, Roboseyo, as well as those of others. My own relative obscurity among K-blogs probably makes me one of the last people who should be speaking on this subject, but some things that stand out to me:

1. Your blog is a brand. This should be reflected in how presentation and content is organized. This goes along with what Roboseyo, Chris, and Brian (among others) said about picking a topic or niche -- it helps create an association between a blog and its content. When you hear 'Porsche' you likely think of cars. When I think about 'The Grand Narrative' or 'Brian in Jeollanam-do' there are certain subjects I associate with them, because that's what they focus on in their blogging. (Samsung and Mitsubishi both come up as obvious counter-examples to the above, but let's ignore those for the moment.)

2. Continuing on from the notion of picking a niche subject -- make sure you blog's name and presentation do something to set it apart from everyone else. I know "Kiss My Kimchi" and "Eat Your Kimchi" are different blogs, but their names are close enough in similarity (and plenty of other blogs use the word 'kimchi') that I have a hard time remembering which is which. And this is ignoring the fact that there are at least two blogs out there called 'Kiss My Kimchi'.

Similarly, using a blogspot layout with a photo that looks similar to another K-blogger (either because of the color-scheme, photo, or some other aspect) makes it harder to establish a separate identity / brand within the K-blogging community.

3. I noticed that Chris mentions blogging should be a service to readers while Radical Contra advocates blogging for oneself. I'm torn between the two -- if you don't write about the topics you find interesting it'll be hard to maintain momentum in the long haul, but there's also something to be said for reaching out in such a way that the audience is able to take away something from each post they read. Some of this is no doubt affected by what subject (if any) one chooses as the focus of one's blog and how each post is worded.

paquebot said...

4. Make goals, but keep them realistic. As long as 'The Marmot's Hole' and 'Korea Beat' keep going I doubt anyone will overtake their popularity. Roboseyo also mentioned the fact that it's impossible to become popular overnight, and that's very true. Added to that is accepting that, based on the topic you pick, there is probably going to be a limit to how popular you'll become.

I think Charles has a great site with 'Morning Calm, Night Terrors', but not everyone in Korea is going to be interested in literature. (Sorry to be so pessimistic!) Similarly, my posts on Korean temples and traditional holidays are not going to appeal to a large chunk of the K-blogging scene. This is where Radical Contra's advice to blog about what makes YOU excited, puzzled, etc. comes into play. If you genuinely enjoy what you write about that helps make up for a lack of comments or hits. (And hey, it's what keeps me going!)

5. Roboseyo, I notice that in this post you wrote --

--- I don't actually recommend putting links to your own site in your comments, as that form of self-promotion is pretty naked, and can be off-putting ---

While last year you said --

--- I also wasn’t shy to pimp my own blog in comment boards of heavier-traffic blogs: “I wrote an article about this topic at my site . . . click here… ” ---

I'm curious if this suggests a change of opinion, or if I'm misreading one or the other. I agree that over-referencing one's own site is off-putting, but it can be helpful if done right. For example, a comment like "I disagree with what you've said for this reason [short description]. You can see my thoughts in my detail here [link to relevant blog post]." I think the key is to make it the (extremely) rare case when you do link back to your own entries, and making it relevant to the original post -- engaging the author and seeking a dialogue rather than just pointing out another source of information.

The Sanity Inspector said...

Good advice, and not just for K-bloggers. I do wish newbies would register with the Korean Blog List promptly. So many Korea blogs are by teachers coming to the end of their terms, by the time I discover them.

Brian said...

Regarding posting links to yourself in your comments, I don't have a huge problem with it provided you contribute to the discussion on the post on which you're commenting. The purpose of my site, or others, isn't to give somebody else a platform to reach a bunch of people without putting in work first. And, when people blatantly link spam, I delete their comments.

Sometimes it goes overboard, and nearly every comment is an attempt to grab readers. This isn't a dig at kushibo, because he's gotten better about that.

But, people who have been writing for a couple of years---or at least who have been reading the newspapers for as long---will have seen many of the same stories come up again and again, or will to follow up on past projections and plans, so in that case it's useful to provide some context.

Roboseyo said...

Paul: Brian took the words out of my mouth. Like I said earlier, people can usually sniff out who's there to add to the discussion, and who's there just to pimp their blog. Stay on the right side of the pale, and I don't have a problem with linking -- especially if, as Brian said, you've written a lot about it on your own blog. A link is better than a really long comment, but I'd include a summary in the comment rather than JUST a link, as a courtesy to people who are only interested in reading that particular comment thread.

Roboseyo said...

@Sanity -- I know EXACTLY what you mean. That's another thing that'll put me off adding a blog to my feed -- showing up only to find the "countdown until I leave Korea" widget on the sidebar. Don't expect mega k-blog hits if you don't stick around....and honestly, if you stick around, eventually people will know who you are, even IF your blog isn't that great. No, I'm NOT naming an example of that.

조안나 said...

I've noticed that my blog got really popular. I realized that the reason was that I had one photo of Gu Jun Pyo on my site, and it got invaded by filipinos looking for the photo. I don't care about number of hits, I care about the number of quality visitors that come and spend some time. Nothing makes me happier than those days when I see someone spent an hour reading my blog. It makes me feel like I actually produced something someone out there cares about.

The Sanity Inspector said...

Oh, and linked. (Did I just break the rule about self-pimpage? ;) )

Roboseyo said...

I don't mind self-linkage; it just gets to be pretty brazenly self-promotion when there are multiple self-links in a single comment thread, or self-links in the comments on nearly every post. In moderation, it's fine, but people are smart enough to notice when somebody's less about contributing to a discussion and more about promoting their site.

Please, link away!

Anonymous said...

I'm not a k-blogger, but I found a lot of this pretty useful for my own goofy blog. Thanks for the good advice.

Anonymous said...

Post an easy cinnamon roll recipe, that's how it worked for me in J-Blogland. That and using bad phonetic Arabic.

I'm an American Mommy in Amman with kids who have a passable Korean phone greetings and bow to their buddies parents.

Ahlan was sahlan!

matt said...

A useful post, and thanks for the mention, Rob. To be sure, the more material you have, the more ways there are for people to find your blog via searches. It's one reason people who have had blogs for awhile get more hits, anyway. Finding a niche is always a good thing. There are still many aspects of 'Korea' which are relatively obscure, and if you write about things others haven't, it's not so difficult to get onto the first page of a Google search.

Unknown said...

Really interesting read. I just wish I could follow these rules, or even be able to apply to them. I don't even know if we're a K-blog as much as we're a blog of being silly while in Korea. We're inconsistent and don't write much anything at all, and since we don't write, we don't write about what others are writing about, so we can't link. What little we know about the news is from other people's blogs, so we let the pros handle that stuff (thanks guys for all the hard work).

The only rule we've learned is to stick to videos. People didn't like to read our stuff, so we keep the writing to a bare minimum and let the video do the rest.

Luck's a big issue, I think. Post a video and hope it goes viral and attracts a bunch more visitors. A thwack of traffic can come your way from intrigued or converted YouTube viewers. Or - if you're lucky - get the Golden Klogs to send a bunch of people over your way.

Careful post-titling is important, though you don't have to be sneaky with "Sexy Pixx here!". "How to Get Noticed in K-Blogland" will get more people reading - I think - than "A Bunch of Tips I've Learned About Making My Blog Successful." You're more likely to hook a stumbler and convert them into a follower.

I always thought blog design was important as well. The look of a site convinces me before its content, and ugly sites can turn me away before I even get a chance to read the material. I keep on trying to learn code to make the site look nicer, but - having no formal training in webdesign at all - makes prettying up the site pretty damned hard.

meimeijoyful said...

Thanks for the tips! It encourages me to write more consistently.

Dokdo Is Ours said...

"This model doesn't only work on "smart" blogs. Humor blog Dokdo Is Ours also rarely comments on other blogs, but it has a clear focus and a quality standard as consistent as can be expected in a humor blog."

and the golden klog for "most backhanded compliment" (or is that backhandedest?) goes to...