Comments on: how big is your audience? [revisited]

By: Florian Pihs

Florian Pihs — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 12:00:24 +0000

@hugh. Take a look at Avinash's post on measuring the success on a blog . He has some great point there.

By: marco cervantes

marco cervantes — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 01:53:50 +0000

hhaha funny i have my own blog to u know in mypace funny huh ?:)

By: KY

KY — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 10:45:35 +0000

a very insightful view and a slightly different perspective. I guess the explosion in the number of personal blog has really changed the connections between bloggers

By: T

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:00:13 +0000

This gives me some new perspective on how to evaluate the size of my audience. Good stuff. Thanks!

By: jswa

jswa — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 10:45:13 +0000

I’m curious, I remember seeing ads before on gapingvoid, but no longer. May I assume there is no significant money to be made running ads or using PPC, or is there another reason?
thanks

By: John

John — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 06:49:05 +0000

Hugh,
So, when you say you’re sending fake sincerity, does that mean you’re insincere or is that fake insincerity? No, wait…is it…shit, I can’t keep up. You’re too damn deep for me.

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 20:29:46 +0000

Au contraire, Seth. For it is true that, in fact, you, Seth, DO only matter to me to the extent that I can use you or sell you in some fashion. I am INDEED trying to send fake sincerity in your direction as well as I can.
Somebody got a problem with that?

By: thom singer

thom singer — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 19:54:12 +0000

Seth Finkelstein makes a valid point, and I am guilty as sin in my above comment. I do care about traffic and I do get excited when my traffic spikes. I should not have made it seem like I don’t care.
But I am not obsessed with it. There is a difference.
I still stand by the fact that an audience is larger than just your stat numbers…and that extended reach and impacting others is what matters. But size does matter and a big audience is flattering.

By: Jacqueline

Jacqueline — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 17:58:34 +0000

@Hugh and @all : Thanks for your valuable thoughts in and on this post. I just ‘twittered’ about them because I find them inspiring and I do hope others will read them too…

By: Seth Finkelstein

Seth Finkelstein — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 11:10:12 +0000

Bah, humbug. Some of these people oh-so-modestly proclaiming their disinterest are naked social climbers who calculate very well what - and who - matters to them. There's not going to say "I think of you as my chum, as in bait (for advertisers). You only matter to me to the extent that I can use you or sell you in some fashion. I'm trying to fake sincerity as well as I can". Yeah, there's a difference between cultivating a large number of low-margin sales and a smaller number of high-margin sales. That's not exactly a revelation. But denying that aspect of blogging is about as true as semeone running for office denying an interest in political power.

By: Scott Lawton (Blogcosm)

Scott Lawton (Blogcosm) — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 09:02:44 +0000

“It’s just a pity this metric isn’t one that advertisers find particularly useful, or else a lot more bloggers would be making money.“
Hmm; I think advertisers do use that metric: monthly uniques.

By: Jacqueline

Jacqueline — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 08:24:15 +0000

I completely agree — as a writer, I do keep a blog in order to stay on people’s radar (and to catch the eye of potential clients/editors), but I also do it to build relationships and to participate in the conversation in more meaningful way then by simply commmenting on other blogs.
And if my words happen to inspire or bring a smile to someone’s face, all the better.
*I too try to keep up with hundreds, if not thousands of blogs, but I don’t read them all on a regular basis. It is like having favorite bands or musicians, or favorite authors — you pull out the genre, album, or book you are in the mood for at the moment.

By: Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 05:11:38 +0000

Some irony is that I actually started blogging just to keep up with informing all of my friends of the things that I’ve discovered. Now I just have a lot more friends!

By: Nollind Whachell

Nollind Whachell — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 01:37:55 +0000

I'm the same way with regards to reading other people's blogs. I basically read them every so often (not daily). I think the primary reason for this is due to signal vs noise or the pareto principle (80/20). Eighty percent of their content is decent, good even, but it's the twenty percent that they write that really hits home with me. I'm no different with my blog though. I can blog about this and that for days and then one day I really seem to connect with people when I write about something that truly connects with me. I think a lot of the time that's the primary problem. People feel like they have to blog daily. I mean if you're trying to entertain people, ya blog daily. If you want to truly connect with people though and create relationships, it's more about what you write that matters (which is why I agree with Thom that connecting with just ONE person makes it all worthwhile). One of the reasons why I've never really been that satisfied with my blog though is because my content is all over the place. I do this purposely though because I like posting small pieces of my thoughts when I'm trying to figure out things but I'm sure I probably confuse people more than anything as it goes over their head. It's one reason why I'd like to figure out how to break my content down into separate streams so that people can subscribe to what interests them (and thus they decide what is a signal and what is noise). Therefore, someone might like my daily exploration in trying to put the small jigsaw puzzle pieces of life together, whereas someone else may only be interested in the final realization at the end of that exploration.

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 23:47:59 +0000

“Maybe being a “good” blogger is a good primer for how to create other relationships in other arenas.“
what a simply lovely thought. Thanks for that