The blogging world is a great place...

It is my belief that if your blog is good enough, eventually it will do its own advertising.

What I mean is that if you can get a few people to visit your site JUST ONCE, they'll like it enough to come back again. They may even like it enough to add a link to it on their site. Hell, they might even write a mini-review encouraging all their readers to check it out.

This is what I do here. I sift through my directory and find the great blogs, the ones that have a chance at being something big (or at least bigger). The ones that if I can just give them a little push, the rest should follow.

So, I encourage you, if you find a blog you like to PLEASE consider doing one of these things. And if you add a link to them, 99% of the time they'll add a link back to you if you ask nicely! This is the idea of reciprocal linking, another key idea to this blog.

Now, all I require here is this reciprocal link. I have never once asked anyone to write a review, and there is no pressure to come back and visit here every day. But people have written reviews, and hundreds of you are coming back and visiting every day. It's the snowball effect.

I was just having fun googling terms like "bestest blog" and "bestestblogofalltime" to see what comes up and I was pleasantly surprised. Blog posts, message boards, and comments on random blogs out there, all encouraging them to come check out my site.

Now, there are sites out there like BlogMad and BlogExplosion that offer traffic increases. First off, what business does a website have promoting blogs? If you want to promote blogs, you should be a blog yourself. Secondly, basically here's how these sites work:
(1) They choose a random blog
(2) The blog sits on your screen for 30 seconds (usually while you check email or work on your own blog)
(3) You press a button to go to the next random blog
(4) Repeat
And what this does is earns you a "credit" which you can exchange for traffic for your site. But the people that are viewing your site are doing the same thing. At best half-reading your page while they wait for the counter to run out.

Why these BlogExplosion type sites have succeeded though is because in terms of pure visitor statistics (the kind you view through StatCounter or Sitemeter) you will see an increase. But you won't have many comments left, you won't have many links to your site added, and you definitely won't have many reviews.

So, BlogExplosion has something like 100,000 blogs. Now, each blog is offered 25 free visitors just for signing up. So that's at least 2.5 million visitors that it has directed out there (though I'm sure the exact figure is much higher).

Now if these 2.5 million visitors were actually really interested in checking out these blogs (and not just interested in the incentive of earning traffic for themselves), you'd think there'd be a lot of reviews out there with phrases like "This is a great blog that I found through BlogExplosion." So, how many sites out there do you think contain a phrase like this? A million? 100,000? 25,000? Well, I did a Google search for the phrase "found through BlogExplosion" and got 22 matches. Granted, there are many similar ways to form an equivalent phrase, but didn't you think it would be higher than 22???

Now, joining up with my site here isn't an immediate key to success. To have a great blog with a lot of visitors, you first have to have a great blog, the visitors come later. But, you can expect about 2-5 visitors per day landing on your page from the "Random Blog" button. And since there's no incentive to click this button, other than the hopes of finding a great blog, they will actually be looking at the screen and not watching TV for 30 seconds till they click away. Plus, if you do land on a shitty blog, you don't have to sit around for 30 seconds and wait, you can get outta there immediately.

So, if you become a Premium Blog, a Guest Blogger, help maintain the site, or win Bestest Blog of the Day you can expect even more visitors to come and read your blog.

Anyway, sorry for the stream of consciousness here, but I hope I helped at least one person better understand how the blogging world works (and why it is great!).

Comments

... said…
nice concept... and i would be lying if i said i dont welcome comments on my blog...
but these site seem to be promoting just pure commenting..
however shouldnt the primary motive of having a blog be just that? having a web log - keeping your diary? what the world thinks and getting feedback is an added bonus, wonderfully nice one, not the reason for the existance?
Jules said…
I can see your point Mr. ... ... I thought the same thing when starting my blog. I was journaling my weight loss in an attempt to keep my thoughts recorded in a place where I could come back to them and analyze them later...but then I started longing for others to give me feedback on my thoughts. What's the point of putting it up on the internet for others to see, if not for feedback to help me learn and grow? I might as well just use Word to record my diary and never share it with the world if I didn't want to.

So now I believe that blogging is more than just a "diary"--- it's a way to receipt support from the community...a way to get your thoughts out there in the hopes that someone...ANYONE...will come back and say, "yeah, I get you. I feel the same way..." and then maybe you'll feel less isolated, less alone in your struggles.

But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong. :-)
Reeholio said…
This is true, but I do enjoy surfing the blogs at Blog Explosion, as they are generally alot better than just pressing the "next" button at the top of blogger. Occasionally I find a blog that interests me and I comment on it and perhaps end up exchanging links.

Blog Explosion and Bestest Blog are the two main sites I surf to try to find quality blogs. I must admit, the better quality blogs are generally those you list here.
AtriaBooks said…
Very well said. You've done all of us a great service!
Prometheus said…
BlogExplosion can shove BlogMad up its BlogHole. Crappy places these.

Prometheus stands by Sir Bobby's Bestest.
Blog Explosion drives me batty.
Bestest Blog delivers readers.

What I wanted, and have gained, from Bestest Blog was that -- readers (and people who comment on what they read!).
I have many faithful readers via Bestest Blog -- but like Bobby said, you have to have a good blog, too. That's what makes 'em come back for more!
Bestest Blog is the site to go for the quality (blogs & readers), not just sitemeter quantity.
Well with my stats box, I find about 1 person a day or less coming from blog explosion. Yep, thats all. Nothing great, I get more traffic simply by using words like Brittany spears in my posts.

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