10 things that you shouldn’t assume about your blog

Many a times, you stumble upon that one appealing blog - while you are surfing through the “virtual blog junk” so to say!

The copy seems to be very appealing ,the content - unique and brilliant! “How come i didn’t ever hear about such a guy?” - you think.

And then you look at the “stats” -

Feedburner stats - less than 60
Comments - Gloriously 0 on majority of the posts
Platform - blogger with a custom domain

OK - So that’s even worse ! It’s not just you, but there are even more people who haven’t discovered the blog yet.And now, you start to re-think about the - “content is king” strategy.Damn those blogging gurus - they’re all the same, polished lies!

You dive deep into the stats now.

Google pages indexed - less than 50
Incoming links - None
Alexa rank - A thick figure

OK! That makes some sense. So this guy has not been doing all that the gurus preached.Not completely their fault!

That was a typical and often repeated incident in my daily browsing experience.I always come across great blogs(in terms of content), which has been deprived of attention and glamor.At first it seems a bit unfair - when there are lots of junk blogs that are superstars(No - not John Chow you silly! He gave us the best traffic ever - remember?). Why did all these great blogs go un noticed?

Let me stop wondering and sketch up some details. At least, i can note down those common things i noticed in those great blogs.

1 - Many of these unnoticed blogs were written by an anonymous guy!
Yep - though it’s great content, nobody(all those who managed to find his site) knows who this guy is - where he is from and what he is. But yes, the articles are great. But without that transparency, it’s difficult for a visitor to associate/attach to a blog.
To anybody who asks me what’s the big deal in revealing who you are in blogging - i point to the masthead on the top of this beautiful blog. Kevin - you do it best man!

The point is - great,exclusive content is great - but unless you allow your visitors to connect to you visually, the chances are that a better blog will occupy that space in their mind and you are out!
So make sure you have a mascot that costs US $ 500 on top of your blog like Kevin. Nah! Am just kidding. Just try to make a personal identification badge on your blog - let it be your photo, a logo, your name, a company name, a cartoon character or something - it needn’t cost 500 bucks - after all - all are not rich as Kevin. Right?

2 - Nobody knew him - Bad networking
All those unnoticed blogs were poorly networked! That’s the simplest way to put it.
Guys, it’s not magic, it’s not the charisma it’s all about networking(and some money too!) that makes you and your blog popular. Had Darren Rowse not commented on other blogs, had he not replied to his emails, had he not thrown questions to his readers - he would not have enjoyed the same popularity as now.Guarantee.

Don’t worry if you are a loner in the real world. When you’re online, you don’t have to face audiences, you don’t have to socialize - all you have to do is ask and answer - wherever possible.

3 - The guy speaks like a robot
I’m sure all of us would’ve used the AI program Elisa - the bot that answers your questions. See, it was interesting to me the first time, but as time went by, i found that it was the most boring thing to do.Speaking to a bot!
It’s the same thing here - the author throws out words like a robot(though they are excellent articles). He never speaks in a human tone.There lies the problem!
Unless you relate to your audience in a pleasant manner - no matter what you say, even if it’s a breakthrough discovery, you’ll be ignored!

I could think of more points(just for the sake of bulleting it) but it all points to these top three points. Why does a blog go unnoticed.Yes - it’s not about the content - “Content is the king” but it’s not it alone. Many people misunderstand this. They write great,exclusive quality content and wait for the magic to happen - which never happens!

So guys, don’t assume things about your blog.

1. If i have good content(because someone said - Content is king) readers will naturally come.
2. If i offer a RSS feed button, visitors will be forced to subscribe.
3. If i use a beautiful template, people will stay on my blog for ever.(Damn - that’s just too much)
4. If i use a statistics plugin, referrers will automatically increase in number.
5. If i link to Darren Rowse, he’ll link back to me.
6. If i once comment on a blog, that guy would subscribe to my blog(you didn’t subscribe to his feed)
7. If i use a search engine friendly title, google will throw my page on the top results - every single time.
8. If i use 10 wordpress plugins, I’m gonna be a superstar.
9. If i put a inline comment box, people would be prompted to comment.
10. If i just provide my email id on the sidebar or contact page - people would be dying to ask me questions

I’m sure you can think of better assumptions! You know them better.

So stop assuming things and start acting. Let quality, consistency and networking be your mantra. You may not make big money online(atl least the starting months) - but your blog sure will be a hit.