Sure, I increased my stats, but blogging became a chore to me and became stressful. It became so stressful that I stopped posting for a few weeks and even considered quitting altogether. What people kept telling me and what I eventually figured out was that I need to write for me and no one else. If people like it, they’ll come back to my blog. If not, then I really didn’t need them in the first place.

My stats are now more than 50% down from before, but I enjoy blogging again. And, I’ll keep going.

As far as a domain name, yeah, I have one. You can probably get one cheaper out there, but I pay $10 a year through yahoo. For now, I just forward it to my blogger URL. I don’t see myself moving from blogger anytime soon. But, if I do, then I’ll have that domain name - and it’s cheap!

Diesel - for the most part, this is what I have been doing. I don’t want bazillions of readers, I’m happy with what I have and picking up a new one here and there. This was mostly a commentary on all the “how to be a good blogger” articles there are out there.

Technorati, digg, etc. aren’t worth worrying about. Occasionally somebody will Stumble one of my posts and I’ll get 500 more hits. They stay for 30 seconds and then they’re gone. The only thing I use Technorati for is determining who links to me, so I can reciprocate and visit them.

Having your own domain won’t make much difference either. In short, there are no “tricks” to promoting your blog. Not that I’ve found, anyway.

My advice is:
1. Write interesting posts that aren’t too long.
2. Use a clean, easy-to read template. Doesn’t matter if it’s a standard Wordpress or Blogger template, as long as it’s easy to read.
3. Post regularly. Not necessarily every day, but on some kind of more-or-less regular schedule.
4. Comment on a lot of other blogs. Visit and comment on the blogs of every visitor to your site.
5. Blogroll everybody who blogrolls you. Also blogroll other blogs that you like and that are similar to yours. Don’t be shy about asking for reciprocal links.

Honestly, that’s about it. No tricks. Just providing good content and being a good blogger citizen.

-N

Am I A Good Blogger?

Hope you find it useful.

Re “niche” blogging. You know something? That’s just one of those catch phrases. Your niche is you. My niche is me. I don’t blog on any one particular topic. I blog on various topics and they can range wildly. When you see someone talking about being a niche blogger, that person is talking about the exact same thing you and I are already doing.

I don’t think they’re saying you are not a good blogger - I think they are saying you could be a more *successful* blogger. But their niche is solely blogging - and me personally I think they are limiting themselves in a major way, If I had to blog on the one topic all the time.. I’d be looking for a gun and a bullet, I think.

When you read those sites, take what you can use, take what you like, take what you want to try and see if it works for you. Discard the rest if it’s annoying or upsetting.

Blogs are like.. where poop comes out and opinions. Everyone can have one. Because they have limited themselves to a niche, they’re going to be recycling the same topics over and over - while we are free as birds to blog about whatever we like.

Is it good if you can write something useful to others? Of course. Should you feel like you have to? No way.

I hope that helps.

Snoskred
http://www.snoskred.org/