Why Do I Bother?

After posting my story yesterday about utilizing Technorati tags in an attempt to increase traffic on my site I saw immediate results! According to awstats my average traffic on a friday for the month of January has been about 101 unique visitors. Yesterdays traffic was 186 unique visitors. You do the math.

I knew it would bring in more visitors, but I was surprised at how many and how quickly. The problem is that now I have to write more interesting posts. Hah. It also seems that I am slowly crossing into the “tech blog” arena which is not what I had in mind when I started this, and not what I am really qualified for. The more I work at this, the more qualified I become though.

Thanks for visiting and please keep coming back!

Technorati Tags: Technorati, tags, traffic, immediate results, awstats, unique visitors, visitors, tech, blog

Tags: Blog Help, Computers and The Internet by Jeffrey
1 Comment »

While searching for help on increasing my traffic on this site I came across this article at ProBlogger.net. He gave 3 suggestions and I have implimented 2 of them in this very post. Here’s what he says”

1. First, I made the most of Technorati tags. I tagged every key word in each of my posts. Initially I did this manually but them I discovered a WordPress plugin called SimpleTags that made the job a whole lot easier.

I found that by tagging my post effectively they were getting a lot more attention then their untagged counterparts, and as an added advantage I was getting focused, quality traffic to the site!

2. I leveraged my existing website. I’ve been running my business website for a few years and that was getting modest levels of traffic that was relevant to my blog - so why not try to drive some of that to my new blog! I placed a few FeedBurner headline animator blocks on some of my most popular pages and after a day or so I noticed a significant increase in traffic for 5 minutes worth of work on my part.

3. Finally, I made effective use of trackback links to popular sites. If I commented on a post on another site I would make sure that I set up the appropriate trackback for it. The results from this are varied depending on the site and post that you are linking to but since I liked to comment and interact with the wider blogosphere anyway, it was free traffic!

Pro Blogger is a great source of information. I encourage you to read it often and add it to your blogroll. While your at it … add me too!

Blogroll Me!

Technorati Tags: traffic, ProBlogger, Technorati, WordPress, tagging, blog, trackback

Tags: Blog Help, Computers and The Internet by Jeffrey
5 Comments »

Wordpress 2.0 is done! You can download it here: http://wordpress.org/development/2005/12/wp2/. I plan to upgrade in the next few days and I will be sure to tell you what I think, but I can already tell you that from the list of features it is going to be a good one.

I am especially looking forward to the new interface for creating posts. Included are features like WYSIWYG editing, inline uploading, and resizable text fields. I’m an upgrade junkie, so I can’t wait. If you already have 2.0 up and running, leave your comment here with a review or link to a review on your site.

Tags: Blog Help, Computers and The Internet by Jeffrey
2 Comments »

WhyDoIBother.com was reviewed recently by Bloggy Award and found lacking.

While I’m not broken up about the review, it is a little discouraging. Unlike The Cruel Offender, however, this review is constructive and helpful. There are specific points to work on, and some suggestions on how to improve the overall appeal of the site.

“This site is more or less what one would expect of a personal blog. Some talking about Bother’s career, a rant about another blogger, and then some other daily minutiae. He has a good style, but not a whole lot to say to a reader.

EXCEPT: he has a really good Moroccan recipe posted that I am going to have to try. If he’s going to do this sort of thing more often, there is potential for this blog to rise up out of the bland and into the spicy.”

On the good side, my recipe for Tagine was a hit apparently. The fact that this recipe was part of the review tells me that the reviewer took some time to look beyond the front page. That adds some validity to the critique for me.

I do think that they missed the point on my complaint about the Cruel Offender, but it seems that it wasn’t received well by everyone at the time I wrote that post either. Maybe it was me who didn’t explain my point well enough.

BloggyAward.com is well worth visiting. Submit your blog if you dare! If your blog has already been reviewed, leave a link to the review in the comments here if you like.

Tags: Blog Help, Reviews by Jeffrey
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Hey, you BlogExplosion visitors are going to want to get in on this! Join now and be ahead of those who wait.

Tags: Blog Help, Computers and The Internet by Jeffrey
1 Comment »

Good news for owners of WordPress Blogs! WordPress 2.o is in the final stages of testing. You can download the lates release candidate here. From all accounts it should be worth the upgrade. If you are already using the current release canditate, leave a comment here and let me know what you think.

Tags: Announcements, Blog Help by Jeffrey
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