SALON BLOGGERS SPEAK OUT: USER SURVEY RESULTS

Posted on April 11, 2003 by Dave Pollard
salon blogs A couple of weeks ago, I posted, and e-mailed to about fifty Salon bloggers, a six-question survey asking Salon/Radio users for their opinions on the product, and on the business of blogging in general. I received a dozen responses. That’s probably not enough to be representative, but the responses were full of wonderful advice for newbie and sophomore bloggers. They also contained some strong messages and creative ideas for both Salon and Radio Userland. A heartfelt ‘thank you’ to those who responded. Here is what you said (I’ve posted this in 6 pieces to allow readers to post individual Comments on each of the 6 questions):

Q1 How do you publicize your blog?

  1. Most respondents do little or nothing, but are hungry for ideas on this subject.
  2. Most common method is to cruise Recently Updated Salon blogs and post comments to updated blogs, with your blog’s URL at the bottom, and sometimes with a link to one of your recent posts.
  3. Several of you have other websites and link to your blog from them.
  4. Several of you send e-mails, with your blog’s URL, to blog authors you like, with compliments about their blogs and/or questions about your own blog.
  5. Several of you include your blog URL in your signature on every e-mail you send.
  6. Several of you update your blog as often as possible, especially during prime early-morning and late-afternoon hours, to get to the top of the Recently Updated lists.
  7. Several of you talk about, or blogroll, others’ blogs on your own, to get on their Referrer’s list and hence seduce them to visit your site.
  8. A few of you synthesize other bloggers’ work by either summarizing or anthologizing (with attribution of course) what others have been saying (e.g. critiques, distillations, ‘best posts of the week’ lists).
  9. A few of you have joined webrings and other blogger affinity groups.
  10. A few of you buy ads on sites like Daypop and Metafilter.
  11. A few of you post occasionally on hot topics with keywords that will either get you traffic from Google or pique readers’ intellectual or prurient interest.
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4 Responses to SALON BLOGGERS SPEAK OUT: USER SURVEY RESULTS

  1. Leigh Hanlon says:
    April 21, 2003 at 21:45

    Salon Blogs are inadequately promoted on the Salon home page, and are difficult to locate or scan even once visitors reach the Salon Blogs page. Clicking on “Recently Updated Blogs” isn’t much help, either.

  2. Justene says:
    April 21, 2003 at 23:24

    I’m surprised that people purposely post on hot topics. My best traffic has always come accidentally via search words I never thought would bring people in.

  3. Dave Pollard says:
    April 23, 2003 at 09:19

    Leigh, you’re right, and Scott Rosenberg has promised to try to raise our visibility. Justine, I’m with you. There a debate among ‘sloggers’ on the ethics of posting on hot topics (some think it’s unprofessional, some do so regularly and deliberately, and get results). The words that bring people to my blog are usually people’s names.

  4. Charly Z says:
    April 24, 2003 at 11:43

    Maybe we could use some more exposure from Salon‘s home page (though we must be prepared for very few webloggers, and probably always the same ones, getting that same exposure), but I don’t get why Leigh complains about the “Recently Updated Blogs” page. Weblogs are time-oriented; what counts is the latest post, not the archive of old entries (or not that much, really). If a weblog hasn’t been updated for the last week, what good does it do you to be able to find it and read the same seven posts again?

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