Making your own content
June 20th 2006 02:07
What you want, really, is for readers to come to your blog, read your post and enjoy it so much that they tell their friends to come read it. Then, like bacteria multiplying, your traffic grows and grows, spiralling out of control.
The way to do this is to have good content on your site.
Of course, the easiest way to do this is to write brilliantly, like wafts of mesquite smoke climbing the thick summer air to float serenely on the crosswinds. Then people would come to read your prose, they'd adore you and send you suggestive emails declaring their love for your stockings. Or something like that.
Truth is, even if you write really really really, uh, good, people aren't going to make the effort to find you. The web is filled with great writers, and the spaces between them are packed with mediocre and terrible writers pretending to be great writers.
I should mention that, as I'm writing this, my hometown ice hockey team, the Edmonton Oilers, is in the grand final of the NHL Stanley cup. They're down 2-1 against the evil Carolina Hurricanes, and I'm a little tense.
OK, so your writing isn't going to bring traffic. Not really. Not unless you become a celebrated author or journalist...
Really, then, the best way to bring people to your site is to offer content in the form of video and photography. Several of the bloggers on the network have done things like that, and it has gone over like a helium Zeppelin.
The biggest example of this is Trina's Hiphop post on Jay-Z meeting Bill Gates. Though they weren't her pictures, people came in droves to see the pictures, and linked to her on other sites.
Trina, since then, has done some great work bringing her own content to her blog, with YouTube inserted Rove videos.
Even better, she posted a link to a Sydney rapper and gave a link to an exclusive mixtape. She's forced people who want to find that media to come to her site.
St. Barnabas
Even better, I posted a picture of the revolting Asparagus Juice I found in Chinatown. Luckily, people thought it was interesting, and it got picked up by J-Walk blog and Grow-a-Brain, which sent a rush of visitors to the site.
Another blogger that's making her own content is Sisi, with her vampire-like guerilla photography of funky fashions on the street. While internet surfers might not seek those photos out, you never know what she'll post next. At least she's always got her camera with her!
Laura posts recipes on her site, and man, do they look good... I assume those are her photos that she's posted, but they look great and smell even better. Laura's trick is a winner, because people will come looking for recipes, or they'll find her pictures on Google Image Search. It's win-win, really.
It's not win-win for the Oilers, though... they lost the final, 3-1. I am sadness made liquid, spilling over crumpets and scones. Bah!
The bloggers that I mentioned all post often, post quality content and are active on the network... this has made them pretty successful in terms of traffic, and they usually top the list of most traffic blogs on the network. If you want to push your traffic up, posting original content may be the way to do this, though I suggest you read my other posts on improving your blog traffic, Part 1 and Part 2.
And sadly, the Oilers retreat into the company of other ice hockey teams to have lost the Stanley Cup.
Next, we'll have to put our golden coins on the Socceroos. Defeated at the hands of Brazil? No big deal.
* all pictures on this post are (c) Cibby Pulikkaseril 2006.
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