The Finch Formerly Known As Gold

11 March 2008

Great heaping googobs of fail

John Hawkins of Right Wing News dished up a list of the Top 10 reasons bloggers don't succeed. It might have carried more weight if he'd come up with a concrete, or at least non-aerosol, definition of "success," but right now, let's see how we're doing:

  1. They're just not very good.
  2. They don't cover interesting material.
  3. They're not unique enough.
  4. They don't network.
  5. They don't promote their work.
  6. They're not consistent enough. They take days off.
  7. Doing their initial promos too early.
  8. They don't link out enough.
  9. They don't post enough each day.
  10. They don't hang around long enough.

Certainly I've hung around long enough, and I suspect I probably post enough. My last day off was some time in the summer of 2000, so that's not an issue. On the other hand, I really don't promote this stuff, mostly because I can't think of any reason why I should: if it's any good, and once in a blue moon it is, word will get around, and if it's not any good, word will get around just as fast. Maybe faster.

Then again, unlike Mr Hawkins, I'm not trying to make a living off Web writing. I think it's marvelous that some people can; but I have no illusions that I can be one of them. Perhaps I'm just not "unique enough," whatever that's supposed to mean.

Posted at 6:59 AM to Blogorrhea


TrackBack: 12:21 AM, 12 March 2008
» Here's That Link Right Back At Ya Part 2 from Right Wing News
The day before yesterday, more than a few blogs linked to my Top 10 reasons bloggers don't succeed post. Since I encouraged bloggers to link out to other blogs in the article, I thought I should prove that piece of......[read more]

I'm not unique enough because like everybody else on the web I'm one of those dime-a-dozen anti-social individualists.

Posted by: McGehee at 10:54 AM on 11 March 2008

Anti-social individualists are now up to $0.0083 each? Cool.

Posted by: CGHill at 8:30 PM on 11 March 2008

I've figured it out. I get all my traffic spikes (as in jumps from ~200 visits a day to 10,000 plus) whenever I carry a picture of Mythbuster Kari Byron.

Go figure.

M

P.S. Now, you'll get a Googlelanche. Just watch.

Posted by: Mark Alger at 8:36 AM on 12 March 2008

Kari, huh? She's hot enough, but me, I was always drawn to Scottie.

Posted by: McGehee at 3:18 PM on 12 March 2008