Saturday, September 8, 2007
Readership
My readership varies enormously from day to day, which is kind of intriguing. I've been trying to identify the factors that lure or repel more or fewer readers but it's not immediately obvious. It seems as if readership nearly doubles when I write about political topics, even tangentially political things. Is that true? Is it true of all blogs?
Labels: blogs (mine), blogs (others'), writing
Permalink | 
| posted by jau at 8:54 AM
— at 12:43 PM, September 08, 2007:
Laura — at 4:00 PM, September 08, 2007:
jau — at 5:04 PM, September 08, 2007:
| posted by jau at 8:54 AM
4 more:
— at 12:43 PM, September 08, 2007:
My numbers, while down a tad from their 2005 peak, don't really vary that much with the subject matter. I figure I'm probably doing the right amount of political stuff: too little and I lose the occasional policy wonk, too much and I lose the other readers.
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Laura — at 4:00 PM, September 08, 2007:
I don't see consistent patterns to my traffic. My all-time heavy traffic posts have been for something entirely unexpected: local TV's Rose Parade coverage. One of those posts drew something like 800 readers, which is a large number for me! Go figure.
Sometimes the political topics draw big numbers, particularly if I'm fortunate enough to have someone "bigger" link to me, but it's the movie review posts that steadily draw traffic again and again, since they don't "date" and people seem to search for info on titles as they see them or as they re-air on TCM, etc. Since a "library" of movie reviews has built up in my archives my daily traffic has been more consistent.
Some people suggest that a blog should fill a certain "niche" and focus on one thing (i.e., politics) in order to draw a consistent audience. But I decided I'd rather be "miscellaneous" (grin) and write my blog in my own style than try to do something calculated to draw traffic. (Although traffic is sure nice since it's great to have readers!!) Sometimes I've thought about splitting my blog in two (separating politics/education from movies/Disney/pop culture), but producing enough posts for one blog is really all I have time for, LOL.
Best wishes,
Laura
Sometimes the political topics draw big numbers, particularly if I'm fortunate enough to have someone "bigger" link to me, but it's the movie review posts that steadily draw traffic again and again, since they don't "date" and people seem to search for info on titles as they see them or as they re-air on TCM, etc. Since a "library" of movie reviews has built up in my archives my daily traffic has been more consistent.
Some people suggest that a blog should fill a certain "niche" and focus on one thing (i.e., politics) in order to draw a consistent audience. But I decided I'd rather be "miscellaneous" (grin) and write my blog in my own style than try to do something calculated to draw traffic. (Although traffic is sure nice since it's great to have readers!!) Sometimes I've thought about splitting my blog in two (separating politics/education from movies/Disney/pop culture), but producing enough posts for one blog is really all I have time for, LOL.
Best wishes,
Laura
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jau — at 5:04 PM, September 08, 2007:
Interesting comments from you all. I love that you've all decided to stay in your own niche despite the common wisdom that one should pick one and stay with it - and I agree! Now I have to stop writing and go read . . . !
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