The analytic side of my brain craves tangible explanations. It wants to understand everything in the most empirical sense, with graphs and charts and logical conclusions. When a concept can’t be quantified, or remains elusive and stays just on the periphery of what I can comprehend, it vexes me. It gets forced into the other part of my brain; the part that houses superstition and mystery, where I dance around, hitting ideas with sticks and yelling at them, trying to wrap my caveman brain around all that non-scientific spiritual voodoo.
Blogging, in the abstract, lives in this part of my brain. I get the whole, “write good posts about interesting stuff” part, but all of the other magic – SEO, trends, virality – might as well be written in a dead language. And locked inside an ancient, skin-bound tome. That only opens once every 7 years.
Sure, I can study it, even understand the principles in a rudimentary kind of way, but I never seem to be able to put them into practice. Every time I think I’ve unlocked some secret, found a key to the many-locked door of successful blogging, it slides into the tumbler but refuses to turn. The few times I’ve tried to force it, the key has snapped off in the lock.
The posts I think are going to be great, that are going to get tons of attention and catapult me into guest posts and interviews and all that fun stuff, sputter out like fireworks that got damp from sitting in the basement for a year. The posts I pay little attention to, that flow from brain to arms to fingers to keyboard almost automatically, bring tons of hits and lively comments sections. And sometimes, for no reason, the complete opposite is true.
I truly do not understand how any of this works. I am convinced it is a kind of sorcery that I have not yet mastered and fear I never will.
No one can expect the unexpected, so stop trying to tell me to
I’m not sure who read my post, “The 10 Types of Craft Beer Drinkers,” but I’d like to thank everyone who did. All 31,441 of you. Yea, that’s not a typo. One post accounts for one third of all my traffic over the past three years.
I jokingly called this a “fluff” post, as it was something that came up in a Gmail conversation and was written and published in probably an hour. I full well expected this list to get a comment or two and then just die a quiet death in the back of the digital library stacks like a good blog post.
I did not expect it to explode.
And I freaked out when it did.
I think a lot of bloggers secretly hope they’ll wake up one day to find a piece of their writing has gained internet sentience. We’re all writing to the general public. Such a desire is natural. If you didn’t want to be noticed, didn’t want more and more readers, you’d be scribbling in a journal, not on a website.
Those wishes, be careful of them
But when it actually happens, and it’s no longer a day-dreamed “what-if” that keeps you sane during your workday, it’s a bit overwhelming. The glowing pride of climbing hit counters dissipates quickly as you realize you did not edit the post very well and it is riddled with silly proofreading errors, clumsy grammar, and sweeping generalizations. It’s mortifying to have new, smart readers point out glaring misspellings or malapropisms – things you know but didn’t catch in your half-assed self-edit – on their very first trip to your blog. And then you start reading comments from other people in other places where your post has found a home. Any pride you had becomes a deep, profound sadness because everyone hates you and your writing and you might as well give up now.
As excited as you are to have so many visitors, a part of you is paralyzed by the unprepared for popularity. You suddenly feel like the bar has been raised to a height you cannot possibly reach, and every post you write from now on that falls short of clearing the bar is not worthy.
Going viral totally messes with your brain.
So what did we learn?
1. You can’t decide what goes viral – It may sound obvious (as “viral” implies “virus” which by definition is random and propagates as it will) but you cannot intentionally make something go viral. You can try to write to trends or do things people seem to like, but there are no guarantees. You can study what headlines get the most reads, or how to structure a post, but really, unless you get lucky and hit a trifecta of good timing, good content, and an untapped niche, it won’t really matter.
2. Always do your best to proofread and edit your work – I am guilty of throwing my word-babies out into the harsh world before they are ready, but this experience taught me that I need to be more careful, because I never know how many people (and possibly important people) are going to read it. Always take time to fully review what you’ve written. A single rookie mistake can make your look like…well…a rookie.
3. Blogging (and writing) is a smoldering-burn, not a raging inferno – You may think you want to be a big-time blogger with tens of thousands of followers, or become an internet sensation overnight. But as Jeff Gibbard of True Voice Media points out, once you’ve gotten all that, you have to rise to the challenge. Deal with all the new email inquiries, create bigger and better content, maintain the loyalty of your readers by constantly producing. It is better to naturally grow – one reader at a time – slowly getting better and better. An artificial jump creates unrealistic expectations, and disappointment when you can’t meet them.
4. Don’t read comments – I repeat: don’t read comments. All comments do is introduce doubt about your ability where there need be none. Listen to feedback from the people you trust and respect; those opinions are the ones that matter. Some random internet troll who has lost the ability to be positive about anything has no credibility, doesn’t know you, and is judging you based on one ~500 word sample. Anonymity makes people mean, and the internet is a wretched hive of scum and villainy. One more time: don’t read comments. (An exception to this is comments on the original blog post, if the blog belongs to you. Don’t ignore your nice readers who stopped by to say hi.)
5. Because of #1, write whatever you want – You have so many choices of what to write about. Probably an infinite number if you tried to count them all. Choose whatever speaks to you. Write about something you know and love, even if it doesn’t seem popular. Write in a way that is comfortable to you, without worrying about how you sound to others. It’s your blog, so do what you want. As long as you’re not being wildly offensive for no reason, you pretty much can’t go wrong. Try new things. Write lists, or stories, or poems, or news articles, or reviews. If you’re doing what you love and not trying to follow some trend, chances are people will want to read it. You can’t choose what is going to be successful, but you can choose to write something fun and engaging.
Tagged: blogging, choices, going viral, hits, how to go viral (just kidding there are no rules), popularity, SEO, trends, viral, virality, writing
Hello Oliver. What a funny coincidence as CJ and I were just discussing analytics over lunch. We didn’t even know what they were, much less use them, until a couple of months ago. Actually, we still don’t really use them as it hinders the creative process trying to predict what will or will not resonate with fickle human minds. I cannot predict what even I will like on any given day and delete new posts from my Inbox for one of a million reasons – a tickle on my nose or an itch on my foot. I love what you say about writing what you love or know. When we free ourselves up in this way, who knows? You might just end up with 31,000 hits! Wow!
Thank you so much.
I honestly think analytics are like music; some people understand the theory and how the scales and notes interact to create melodies and harmonies, other people just go by ear, playing whatever sounds good.
I’m obviously the latter.
I don’t know how to put this, but you’re kind of a big deal.
We can only assume your apartment smells of rich mahogany.
I have many leather bound books.
I prefer to think of my posts as “Sex Panther.” 60% of the time they work every time.
That smells like pure gasoline
I love the word malapropism, but I think I make more solecisms than malapropisms. This is the kind of post to help me reread a bit more carefully however. It is hard to schluff off the feeling that I am doing something wrong by writing what and as I please, but then again, I find it impossible to write anything but what and as I want. Perhaps the best post I’ve read on the topic, Oliver! Standing O at Hoombah House!
Solecisms the best are. Proud, Yoda would be.
But thank you! I’m the same, I think. I’ve tried to force myself to write about things I had little interest in, and no manner of fancy grammar can make uninspired writing any less dull.
Holy c-c-cow! 31,441 visitors? Yup, rich mahogany. Or stale beer. Or both. Beer is required by the muse, right? On a serious note, Point #5 is perfect, because it speaks to the heart of writing in general: write what matters to you, whatever the subject, however you choose to present it. No matter who you are or what you write about, there will always be people who don’t like you or your writing–and you’re not writing for them anyway, so turn a blind eye to them and let your pen soar (or your fingers fly, whichever works for you). A very motivating post, Oliver!
Beer is either required by the muse, a byproduct of the muse, or contained within the muse. I’m still doing the research.
I think this whole post was a roundabout way to get to #5. I wrote a list about types of beer drinkers because I thought it was fun. I didn’t write it thinking it would be a huge thing.
If anything, my dumb luck is proof that persistence, blind-ego, and practice actually do pay off 🙂
Beer and writing. They’re two of my favorite things. But I’m not an expert on either. I just know what I like and not the science behind them. As a new blogger, the dreams of increased follower counts beckon day and night. But if I’m being honest, I don’t really have any goals for this exercise other than the desire to write about things that interest me and hopefully discuss them with others. This post was a nice reminder that I needn’t watch my post view count like a hawk.
Now, please excuse me while I jet off to determine which type of craft beer drinker I am…..and likely go check my post view count.
I wasn’t an expert (and am still really just a journeyman in the grand scheme) when I started, either. The great thing about writing is all of the side research and reading that comes with putting together a blog post. All that sundry experience adds up until one day you look back and say, “holy crap, I’m sort of an expert!”
So keep at it. Don’t obsess over the numbers, but don’t ignore them either. Just write what you love, when you want, rules be damned. If the passion is there, it will show, and people will read 🙂
🙂 thanks! Nearly 3 months in and becoming more and more excited. I shouldn’t have waited so long.
Great points! Motivating, well-written and true (which makes it funny).
Thanks!
Reblogged this on By the Mighty Mumford and commented:
I HEAR YA, BUDDY….THE ONES i THINK WILL HIT SOMEONE’S FANCY OFTEN GO BELLY UP….AND THE POEMS GROUND OUT ON SHORT NOTICE GET ALL KINDS OF ATTENTION! “HOW COME????”
THIS ONE STRUCK HOME WITH ME! 🙂
I’m very glad! Thank you for the reblog, too!
I don’t have nearly as many followers as you, but I’m getting up there. And the more I get the more I realize I’m writing for an audience. And that equals pressure, but a good kind. It pushes me to do better and not phone it in.
I think once you’re past just having your mom and immediately family as your only readers, the pressure is on!
Just kidding. I try to keep it as low pressure as I can, which means not overthinking how many people could in theory be reading each post.
There’s that quote, “dance like no one is watching.” Well maybe we should all write like no one is reading 😉
Wow! Your shear numbers continue to amaze me. But I have to agree with a basic premise, you never know what your readers are going to enjoy and share. I’ve written things that I thought were great, and they flounder numbers wise. And then I’ve written things I thought were fluff, only to watch them explode. The best example is the post I wrote that got Freshly Pressed. I worked on it, slaved on it, but at the end of the day I didn’t think it was anything that would get me the exposure it did. Write it and they will come? I guess sometimes you just have to leave it to that little voice that is coming out of the corn field. Because you never know.
If I listened to all the voices coming out of the corn fields, I would have been committed a loooonnnggg time ago. I blame Monsanto for all that genetically modified talking corn.
But yea. If this taught me anything, it’s to always bring your theoretical A-game. You just never know when it comes to the internet. It’s a magical land of unfathomable mystery.
So glad you wrote this cause to tell you the truth, even after 3+ years of doing this blogging silliness, I can’t figure out what will take off and what won’t. Like you said, the stuff you pour your heart and soul into sometimes goes nowhere while the silly stuff that requires no thought takes off like crazy. That being said, our blog will live and die by your #5!
Once again, well done Sir!
I’m just glad I’m not alone. Sometimes I think, “Does everyone else get this? Am I just being super dense?”
I say we all live and die by #5. What’s the point of life, if not #5? Let that be our battlecry, #5! #5! #5!
…I’ve had too much coffee.
I couldn’t agree more! #5! #5! #5!
Great and well thought out post! (As I think they all are.) I try not to think too much about the analytics side of blogging, but it’s can be really important, depending on the goals you have for your blog. It can be so frustrating when a what you think is a great post doesn’t “explode” on the internet. Then again, like you said, it’s completely unpredictable so you just have to keep writing to hit the sweet spot, I suppose.
And congrats on the 30,000+ views, that’s pretty incredible!
Thank you!
I think the analytics are important, but shouldn’t be the end-all-be-all. I think, if you focus on good content, the hits will come naturally 🙂
This post was actually very timely for me. I appreciate it but I fear now, as I write this, that you will not be reading my comment!
I’d never miss one of your comments 🙂