Maybe it's time to take another break, I don't know. Maybe it's time to admit I don't have anything to say. But lately, writing to Rooster Spice has been a chore, not a pleasure. (I can only imagine how awful reading it must be.) I wonder, am I worrying too much about readers, and that's why I don't enjoy it? Would I be more interested, and happier, if I were to eliminate the Site Meter entirely, and remove the comments boxes?
When I first added comments, I was fearful; I thought I'd get discouraged when I saw nothing but 0s all the way down the page. And that is, indeed, discouraging. What I should do, I suppose, is endeavor to write entries which demand comment, but I worry I'll lapse into demogoguery. ("Question: are all liberals traitors, or only 80% of them? Discuss.")
Meanwhile, I'm much more interested in podcasting than blogging and that's well and good, except when I don't make an effort to say anything interesting, it doesn't matter whether it's spoken or typed. And, of course, my podcast audience is even smaller than my blog audience. (Yesterday's RSS circulation, according to FeedBurner: 6. And two of those were me.)
Someone once told me to act as if I have as many readers as Atrios, and eventually I actually would. (Mind you, I've been blogging longer than Atrios, natch.) But that method never really clicked with me, since I would rather, like Achenbach, revel in the Select Audience of Fifteen (fifteen! wow! if only I had so many!). The problem being, of course, that I'm neither as good a writer as Achenbach, nor do I have his actual readership. You can afford to joke that only fifteen people read you when in fact it's actually at least a hundred and fifty.
But there's always Google if I want my hit counts to spike, I suppose. Recently people have found Rooster Spice looking for pictures of Lara Logan. So I guess that should be my slogan: "Rooster Spice: Come for the bikinis, stay for the prose!"
That there aren't any actual bikinis is a mere technicality.
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3 comments:
"Would I be more interested, and happier, if I were to eliminate the Site Meter entirely, and remove the comments boxes?"
Maybe you would... I can't really speak for other people's experience as a blogger, but I know that I like not knowing who or how many people are reading my blog. If I tried to write for an audience, I'd go crazy. I need to just write for me.
And as a blog reader... when I read blogs, I do it for entertainment and enjoyment, because it's interesting to see other people's lives and points of view. It's like watching TV or reading a book. But when you watch TV or read a book you don't want to have to do work (write comements)... you just want to enjoy it passively. I very very rarely write comments on people's blogs. Not because I don't enjoy their blogs, but because when I'm relaxing at the end or beginning of the day reading blogs, I don't want to have to do anything. I love your blog and I love your podcasts, but I don't always feel up to commenting on them. You certainly shouldn't take a lack of comments as a negative comment... people are just lazy and providing feedback takes effort and thought.
Yes, I think you're right... and I certainly don't want it to seem as though I'm trolling for comments--that's a bit much.
Still, I do write for an audience--maybe it's my theater background. I do it all for the applause, baby.
I stopped with the hit counting when I went to my *cough* temporary *cough* site and haven't missed it at all.
When I feel the need for applause or feedback, I just post whiny notes begging for email from SOMEBODY, ANYBODY...
It usually works... :-)
YMMV. ;-)
Medley
uncorked.org
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