At the workshop in Southeast Texas this week, the question came up several times about how to get readership on your blog? How do you get your blog out there? How do you become a part of the conversation that I keep talking about? I talked through a number of strategies with the group, but realized that I have probably never written this down. So here goes, some tips on getting your voice out there.
- Write and write and write. This was the advice that I received, and it worked. Even though people aren’t reading initially, just keep writing — and they will come.
- Read and comment. Find bloggers who are talking about the same issues you are, and comment on their ideas. In most blogs, you are asked to type your URL when you post a comment, and that URL is linked to your name. Use your blog address for the URL, and it provides a link to your blog.
- Read and blog. If what you have to say about another blogger’s ideas is more involved or dramatic, then write it in your blog. Be sure to link to the entry you are commenting on. Then post a comment on the entry you read with an introduction, and point (link) readers back to your blog for the complete story.
- Register your blog on Technorati. It is a bit of a technical endeavor, but probably worth an afternoon of self-teaching.
- Put your blog address on your business card, and hand it out. Add your blog address on your e-mail signature file.
- Attend blogger meetups. Chances are there is a group of area bloggers in your local who meet monthly. Attend some of the meetings. They probably do not blog the same issues that you do, but there is much to learn from people who are looking in other directions.
- Think of your blog as your magazine, your company, publishing house. When you talk with people you do not know, introduce yourself as Bob Snodgrasse of Snodgrasse News. Or, I’m Bob Snodgrasse, and I publish a blog called Snodgrasse News.
Other tips?
Image Citation
~C4Chaos, “Blogging Station From Hell.” !C4Chaos’ Photostream. 7 Aug 2004. 4 Aug 2006 <http://flickr.com/photos/coolmel/160730/>.
I have written an article on this, ‘How to be heard’, which covers the topic comprehensively.
http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=2
Enjoy.
Would you mind if I using a one minute extract of your Flat Classrooms reading in podcast 62(with relevant links back) in my Podcasting for LTA programme ( http://lta-show-notes.blogspot.com/)? Our university has a Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (a UK higher education initiative) with a focus on Learner Autonomy, and your ideas are relevant to staff here.
David:
Thanks for the advice to all of us… And I can echo all of the sentiments that you published… Another may be a tactic I am using, with some good results. Being the Technology Coordinator for our district, I have created a list serve that sends to every teacher and administrator in our district… all 400 of them. So, if they are a teacher in our district, they get an html version of each blog post I write. Automatically, I have over 400 subscribers.
Also, David thanks for your personal e-mail response to the comments I left on another one of your blog posts. Your blog is typically one of the first I point people to when they want to find out about what’s going on in Educational Technology. I am going to highly encourage (read: force) our new librarian to subscribe to your blog and to start writing her own.
Thanks again!
David, if the gaol of the blog is to attract readers, how do you think about the difference between thinking and linking, to borrow Ryan Boot’s (Edspresso) terms.
Andrew Pass
http://www.Pass-Ed.com/blogger.html
David, great advice. Here are the suggestions I recently gave someone on a local list I run:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tictech/message/701
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