Tips for a Successful (Movie) Blog II
Given the wide popularity of my earlier article Keys to a Successful (Movie) Blog and seeing that many fellow blog owners still struggle with various aspects related to the topic, I thought I would come up with another more in-depth post about the subject addressing the specific problems that plague most blogs. One important thing is that a blog owner should be continuously asking himself what needs to be done to be a more successful blogger. What can I write today that readers could find interesting? How can I improve the look of the site? How can I make my blog a more pleasant and interactive experience? Looking for solutions to improve traffic and grow your community is another step in the right direction.
Last time, I mentioned five main areas where blog owners should look to improve to increase and retain traffic. Those were appearance of the site, content, comments and community, commitment and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). As you can see, those five aspects all fall into the three keys to a successful blog which are:
- Content
- Connection
- Commitment
Most blog owners focus solely on the content aspect of the equation and this is why the world wide web has thousands of potentially interesting websites with little or no apparent traffic. It can be deflating to spend extensive effort and time on a post and not see any kind of traffic hitting your site. This is why equal attention and time must be paid to the other two aspects.
I would like to address some of the most common problems that contribute to a blog not getting the kind of result the blog owner expects, may it be in terms of gross traffic, numbers of comments, or ad revenue. Please do not feel offended if you somehow feel targeted here. It is only meant to help.
Content
- Unfocused Blog: If you are going to have a movie blog, make it about movies! Keep the discussion about politics, sports or unrelated news away! The occasional rant is fine, of course.
No Variety: A fairly common issue is that some blogs focus only on one or two types of post. For example, some sites review almost exclusively new movie releases. It’s not difficult to understand that these post usually do not get many comments: Few people actually see brand new movie releases within the first few days unless it’s a very highly anticipated film. Hence, there is no reason for most people to comment or even read the post. Mixing in reviews of older movies, discussions about various movie topics can add variety and engage readers more effectively.- Uninteresting Content: Not every post is going to be interesting to everyone. This is where variety comes into play. What is unforgivable is consistently posting uninteresting content. You should ask yourself: “Are my post unique?”, “Is my site unique?” or “Can my blog be taken seriously?” Let’s face it, hundreds of people probably have posted a review about the latest movie that came out at the theater. What makes your post more interesting or relevant? Is there more pictures? Do you have an unconventional opinion? Can you write with humor? There isn’t much anyone can do about this but yourself. Some blogs just don’t cut it.
- Don’t make your blog all about you: I know this might hurt some feelings but to be honest, most people have no interest whatsoever in reading personal journals unless that person is doing something unique and noteworthy that readers can relate to. Your blog is your blog so speak your mind but know where to draw the line because this absolutely kills traffic.
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Block of text syndrome: Could be interesting, I will never know...
Stock template, bland appearance, no pictures: Look at the blogs and sites that you regularly visit. Do they look completely stock to you? Do you see big endless block of text? Black on white on the entire screen? Most people are shallow in terms of web-browsing! If a blog looks bland and boring, it probably is bland and boring! People like pictures, colorful charts, nice color schemes, unique theme designs… Give it to them to the limit of your possibilities! The vast majority of popular blogs and websites are visually rich. To be honest, I rarely read posts with big blocks of text that look like they came out of a novel. Blogging is about relatively short posts of a few paragraphs at the most. If you write long post (like this one), use sub-heading and plenty of pictures. On the right, an example of what I’m referring to when I talk about giant blocks of text. I zoomed out so I could take a screenshot of (gasp) most of the review and keep the source somewhat anonymous.
- Blog is difficult to navigate: Some blogs out there are quite difficult to navigate. For some reason, some blog owners think that having 100 posts on their homepage is a good thing! Well, guess what? It’s not! It makes loading much longer than it should be. It can also slow down the viewer’s computer significantly. Believe it or not, some people use older computers and 56K internet. I really would not go past a dozen posts since the vast majority of people don’t scroll down past the third or fourth post anyway. Also don’t assume that everyone has as big a screen as yours. Check how your blog looks in lower resolutions. Make good use of categories, tags and pages. Provide an index. Make it easy for your reader to find what they want and go deeper into your blog.
- Showcase your best posts: Related to the previous issue, every blog should have a “Most viewed” or “Most popular” section that showcase your best posts.
Showcase your most popular articles
- Non-descriptive titles: Not only do readers want to know what they are about to read but a non-descriptive title also kills your search engine optimization since Google bot has no idea what your post is about.
Connection
Nonexistent or small blogroll: Having a blogroll increase your visibility for people and search engines. Exchanging links with other bloggers is an easy way to start connecting with the “outside world” when you are starting a blog. Think of it this way: You can be the isolated house in the middle of the forest at the end of the unpaved road or you can be the house to which every road in town leads to. Every single road being another potential source of traffic.- No participation in the blogging community: This is BY FAR the biggest and most common issue. Most novice blog owner assume that if they publish some interesting content, traffic will ultimately come their way. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy as you have probably noticed. First of all, there is plenty of interesting content out there. Much more than one can read in a lifetime. Secondly, well most people overestimate how interesting their own content is lol. Many bloggers also assume they can take the easy way out and drop a couple low value comments on an irregular basis and think those will return traffic. This is not how it works. The internet is made up of a number of tightly knit communities and to be part of one, you need to make a name for yourself. This means actively participating on related blogs, sites and forums practically daily. This means networking with fellow bloggers, doing guest posting, visiting and commenting on other people’s site constantly! If you are not doing this, don’t be surprised that you are not seeing traffic, ad revenue or comments…
- Where are my comments??! Read previous paragraph… Done? Read it again! There is no quick fix people.
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Not Responding to Comments: One of my ultimate pet peeves is leaving several comments on a blog that go unanswered. Obviously, those sites are quickly removed from my bookmarks. Another pet peeve is bloggers who don’t comment on my site after I have actively participated on their sites for some time. They also don’t get my visits as often. There is only so much time in the day one can dedicate to this and I just don’t have time for low (no) return blogs. Sorry! Make sure to reward people who comment on your site or you will soon be the only one leaving comments on your own site.
Foster community by showing top contributors. Guess who gets most of my visits?
- Poor Search Engine Optimization: Basically, no one knows your site exist. This is akin to having the isolated house in the middle of the forest at the end of the unpaved road. Make sure to submit your blog to blog directories. Exchange links with fellow bloggers, put a link to your blog in your signature if you are participating in any forum. The more incoming links, the more visible your site becomes.
- No visible RSS Feed subscription box: How many subscribers do you have? The RSS Feed is one of the easiest way to reach your readers and distribute your content. Make sure to have the email subscription enabled (you will need Feedburner) so you can reach your readers directly in their email inbox. More importantly, make it easy to subscribe!
- No trackbacks: One of the easiest way to get noticed by fellow bloggers is to reference their work in your post. If your post contains a link to someone’s article. They will most likely notice it via trackback. You may have noticed those on WordPress. Well, that’s what it is for. Link profusely! If you are using Blogger, well you can still see referrals in your traffic stats. Make sure to check those out.
Trackbacks are cool! Thanks Darren!
- No social bookmarking: With the advent of Digg, Reddit, Delicious, Facebook, Twitter etc… A whole new way to reach new readers has been made available to bloggers. Unfortunately, the very vast majority of blog owners are not taking advantage of these new opportunities. If you have a Facebook account, you can easily reach dozens or hundred of people all in one click. Making the options available on your site is usually a very simple process. Check out at the end of this post as well as at the top of this page!
- Hard to comment on your blog: The vast majority of visitors do not leave comments. Do not make it unnecessarily more difficult for the remaining others to leave a comment. Blogger especially is behind the curve in terms of comment system with readers having to type annoying verification code, log into a Google account, or even witness severe lag after submitting a comment. Once in a while, you land on a blog, type up a comment and then you see this:
- Not Engaging the Readers: It seems most blog owners desire an interactive blog with free-flowing discussion and yet they address the readers in a teacher-student kind of way. Engage readers in a conversation, ask questions and opinions, choose topics that are conducive to discussion.
Commitment
- Irregular posting: This is a fairly common issue and it obviously wrecks everything you might have worked for weeks or months in terms of traffic. These days, it is now quite easy to schedule post ahead of time so use it to your advantage if you know you are going to be away. For example, on this blog, it’s common to have one week worth of post written and scheduled ahead of time. A stale blog is a dead blog!
- Knowing what you have to do and not doing it: We have all been there. For a time, I knew I had to network to try to slowly increase traffic to my site but I didn’t really do it on a consistent basis. I would visit some sites, maybe even leave some low-value comment but that would be it. There was no consistent or regular basis to it and so my first blog was without traffic for months. Only when you commit yourself to making it happen will it happen.
A Few Questions to Ponder
- Does my blog offer any value? Does it address a problem, desire or need that readers have?
- Is my blog unique? Can I find the same information elsewhere?
- Do people learn anything from reading my blog?
- Am I actively answering my comments and commenting on my visitors’ blogs?
- Am I constantly reaching out to the (movie) blog community as a whole?
- Do I continuously seek to improve my blog?
- Did I bookmark Anomalous Material and subscribe to its RSS Feed? (Most important questions of them all, isn’t it?)
Conclusion
It takes a lot of time and energy to get a blog rolling. I hope that you will find some of these tips useful but now, it is up to you! Lastly, please take a moment and vote on what you want me to address in the upcoming Tips for a Successful (Movie) Blog III:
What Should Castor talk about on the next "Tips for a Successful Blog"?
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) (36%, 12 Votes)
- Movie Blog Specific Issues (27%, 9 Votes)
- Blogger vs Wordpress vs Self-Hosted (36%, 12 Votes)
- Other (Leave Comment) (1%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 33
Do you have any questions or comments? Please leave them below and I will be more than happy to address each of them. If you found this article useful, please go ahead and share it on Digg, Delicious, Reddit etc… by clicking on the icons below. It is much appreciated. Good luck to every blogger out there!
![Watch: Creepy Trailer for Slasher Pic ‘Maniac’ [NSFW]](http://www.anomalousmaterial.com/movies/wp-content/themes/yamidoo_pro/scripts/timthumb.php?src=http://www.anomalousmaterial.com/movies/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/elijah-wood-maniac-tb.jpg&w=50&h=50&zc=1)
73 Comments
Great post, Castor! I see so many of these mistakes on a daily basis (myself included, I’m sure). You can tell who really wants to succeed and those who just thought it’d be fun to start a blog, but didn’t realize the amount of work it takes.
Thanks Rachel! You are absolutely right that you can tell very quickly who is serious about this and who isn’t. Like everything in life, good things never come easy
Ooo… You’ve already got me rethinking some things with that Content section. Alas, I tend to rely on organization and repetition. Further originality, here I come!
I love your blog and visit it daily. Aside from content, don’t neglect the other two aspects either. You are on the right track building repeat visitors by progressively releasing your top 100 actors list for example.
Another great post Castor!
I’m guilty of a few of these, but I still consider my blog at least semi-successful. Another thing some bloggers have to learn is that no comments, doesn’t mean nobody is reading. Some posts inspire more input from readers than others. Using tracking states (like google analytics among others) is a good way to gauge whether or not what you post is attracting attention. Some of my most visited, and linked too, posts only have a couple of comments, if any.
You are absolutely right that no or few comments doesn’t mean nobody is reading. The conversion rate (visits to comments) can actually be extremely low. One of my most popular post, The Top 100 movies of the Decade received about 2000 hits when it came out and there was a total of only 110 comments (30 here and 80 on Reddit). Most people don’t usually comment on blogs and websites but that doesn’t mean they are not reading.
Thanks Univarn.
Hey, great post. There are some very good things for me to think about in here. Keep up being awesome haha.
Thanks Luke. Hope you find it useful
Another great round of tips for novices and pros alike.
There’s a new LAMB named ProMovieBlogger (started by the guy that does Film-Book.com) that you ought to get in touch with/perhaps collaborate with. At the very least, perhaps he’ll reference these posts of yours.
Thank you Fletch. I will do this today.
Great piece! I now need to apply some of the advice you gave. One of the problems I feel like I have is coming up with a active flow of blog entries. Right now, I’m posting entries when I have time and I’ll admit it’s very irregular at the moment. Would it be more effective to write and put it “in the bank” and post it on a certain day every week (Tuesday and Thursday)? Thoughts(any advice is great)? Does it really matter when you post (in terms of traffic)?
DB, to be honest, the most successful blogs in terms of traffic are the ones that post the most often. I don’t really adhere to this philosophy of posting 4, 5 or more post a day since it can drive out your most loyal readers (you!) but that’s a fact.
As I referred to in the article, I often write a few posts and schedule them one week ahead. This allows me to take a break if I choose to or if I foresee being busy later down the road. I wouldn’t post on a fixed schedule like Tuesday and Thursday because if I know that, I will drop by your site only on Tuesday and Thursday
When you have free time, try to type up some material you can post later, put those “in the bank” as you stated 
“Some blogs out there are quite difficult to navigate” – yep, I totally agree with you Castor on this, I also never read huge chunks of text. I also agree with Uni, who says that not having comments doesn’t mean people don’t read the story. I think that on 1000 readers you get maybe 100 comments, if not less. Not many people have the habit of leaving comments. You’ve noticed that most of our comments are from fellow bloggers.
PP
And it’s nice being on your magnificent ten list
@Dreher Bear
I’ve personally noticed, that I get the biggest number of readers on Mondays and Saturdays, especially from the USA. Don’t know why, but it’s a fact.
@Dezmond and Castor
I appreciate the advice, thanks!
Odd. I find that traffic is higher during the week and declines during the weekend.
Yeah… I post on Saturdays but typically don’t get my best traffic until Monday and on. It’s like people wait until they get to work!
Saturdays have always been my worst.
Mondays and Thursday are always sexy for me.
I can’t talk about myself??? That’s my favorite subject, Castor!
If you’re going to do this again, please focus on the SEO… I’m a novice with that stuff.
Overall, my site has grown by leaps and bounds. I’d like to back you up on the blogroll and blogging community thing…. this is the only way to get your name out there and established sites can help send movie fans your way.
Great post as usual!!!
Thanks Kai. I will eventually address SEO, next post or a later one
There is nothing wrong about talking about oneself as long as people can relate. Just don’t make it too heavy handed and make it a personal diary lol 
When discussing SEO don’t forget to advocate writing about or tagging big phrases / brands / names or characters in a film. A LOT of my hits are things like
“Rotten in Denmark True Romance”
“i hope you leave enough room for my fist” (Running Man)
“Ferrarri” (racing movies)
I also get way more hits in TV-based posts than most movie reviews.
Unfortunately, the internet being what it is “Upskirt” probably pulls the most random searchers into my blog. Hot on it’s heels are “revolutionary road tits”, “bart simpsons willy”, “paragraph on rape” and other bizarre stuff… FAIL!
Interesting and funny tidbit! I can see why TV-based posts can be more popular than movie reviews though. There is just so many of them!
Speaking of which, today I celebrated placing in the first page of google hits for the search term “extremely rough humping”. And while it’s not exactly the right material for that audience more Porn = More hits.
Debbie Does Dallas review next week? :-p
Good article, however you forgot to mention one important thing when talking about blogs about specific subjects like movies, music etc., and that’s how mainstream the content is. The more mainstream it is, the more traffic you get, simple as that. For example, Shaft and I over at CAM review mostly underground movies no one’s ever heard about, and since people rarely venture outside their already shaped “reality tunnels” we don’t get the half of traffic which we could if we reviewed movies like Twilight or any other popular movies like you do here (or like the most bloggers do).
It’s a reality we realized some time ago – no good how our blog may be (and I’m not saying it’s the best movie blog ever, but it’s certainly better than average blogs), we’ll never get any real traffic because people are generally not interested in the material. So if anyone else out there reviews “Teenage hooker who became a killing machine in Daehakno” and doesn’t get much traffic, even when he/she has a good blog, know that it very well may be because of the reasons mentioned before – lack of interest.
Magnum, you are absolutely right that some topic attract more traffic than others. This is why I speak of having some variety. Maybe, in your case, review more “mainstream” movies that still fit your criteria (Die Hard for example) or make a marathon of movie reviews about Jason Statham. Reaching out to the greater movie community also can increase your readership. Who knows, maybe a handful of people who might be interested are lurking on more mainstream movie blogs
Good advice, I think. And to Magnum, a teenage hooker becoming a killing machine in Daehakno has it’s very own fanbase. I’d watch that, actually.
Thanks Ripley
I think this is a brilliant post that sums up every book on Blogging I’ve ever read, (retweeted!)
I know I suffer from a few of these things, but I’m fully aware of them and am trying to take the appropriate steps. Sundays are now the one day in my busy schedule to check out everyone’s sites and comment on their posts.
There are some great new insights and some wonderful reminders here, (I gotttttttttttta get on the RSS wagon for goodness sake!)
Top notch post.
Thanks for the retweet and kind words!
I’m glad you mentioned Digg and reddit. How exactly does that crap work? We’ve decided to give it a go to shamelessly promote some of our material, and the result was: NOTHING!
I mean, what? I sign up, I submit, and…? The link I submitted goes nowhere, while another link named “Awwwwwww yeeeeeeee muffin” has 257 comments. The same thing happened on reddit and Digg. Maybe I should rename my submissions into “W00t yeah p4ris hilt0n tits ahahahaha” or something?
Yes, those are really hit or miss. Digg is really oriented toward high traffic websites and blogs so it’s not as effective with blogs with smaller readership. If you want to make it work, you basically need to have a few people you know “gang up” on it and digg it at the same time (just let me know lol). Reddit is probably more effective since it can still send you some decent traffic because it’s less popular than Digg. I think they are having some issues right now with their spam filter though.
Hi Castor, I’m going to take this opportunity to thank you again for submitting one of my posts on Reddit. I’m going to register an account just so I can do the same to fellow bloggers as well. Now, do you submit your own posts on Reddit??
Ruth, you are welcome! It was a great post and obviously, people really liked it
I submit a post every now and then on Reddit, posts that are more likely to pickup like “Most Anticipated Movies of 2010″ or Heather submitted my “Top 100 movies of the Decade” which stayed up on the first page for a couple day. Standard movie reviews usually have low interest, I would think so pick your best post only 
Thanks for your insightful tips Castor, as always I look up to you as a fellow movie blogger. It’s amazing how prolific you are, yet you’ve always got quality content week after week! I’m going to read this post more thoroughly, but just by glancing at it, I know I’m already guilty of a few of ‘em. I do agree about regular posting (I try to do mine daily with a weekend break), so I’ll strive to be more consistent even if the post is shorter. I’ll be better about answering comments also, I think that’s just common courtesy to appreciate people who take their time to leave comments on your blog.
Dezmond, I hope you’re not turned off by some of my longer posts. Sometimes I just have a lot to say, y’know, but I try to break the chunk of text with images so people don’t get tired reading ‘em.
Thanks Ruth, I appreciate it! We are all guilty of a few of those but seeking to improve is always a good thing. And your post length are fine
good stuff Castor as usual. our site is far from perfect but one thing I find frustrating is commenting on the Blogger sites. it takes so fecking long if youre not registered. am sure theres a way to speed it up for me if someone on Blogger can fill me in. a lot of the great sites on our blogroll are Blogger sites and I always visit them, but sometimes im put off commenting cos of the long process – and other times ill write a whole chunk, click ‘submit’ and it wont appear. WordPress definitely has an edge when it comes to commenting
would be interested in hearing your SEO tips and the WordPress v Blogger v Self-Hosted. looks like you have a few good posts on this topic in you yet
I absolutely agree about Blogger. It takes really long even if you are registered
and sometimes you don’t even have the option of leaving a comment if you don’t have a blogger account (what the hell is OpenID???). Thanks for dropping by Ross!
I love these posts.
I also had no idea I commented so much on your blog, but it is one of the few that I make sure I visit every single day, I just don’t always comment as much on other peoples. Hahaha!
I think a lot of people miss out on the social networking of this community. Just finding you guys on facebook lately has been awesome. It’s really not that different from an online gaming community.
and btw…………I agree, as much as I like naked……..I hate naked posts. I need pictures and constant stimulation or I’d even bore myself.
My best advice has always been:
Build the site you’d want to visit yourself.
When I started mine it evolved into a site that I’d want to visit everyday.
It is much appreciated and I make sure to visit your blogs every single day as well
Great tips! If you find your site unappealing, there is probably something wrong ahaha.
LOL very true. Sometimes I’m a fan of redundancy.
You definitely take a lot of time and energy and enthusiasm in all of your posts and as you can see from your enormous following, it is well appreciated from your readers.
Yeah, Heather, stop sommenting or I’ll never catch you on the Magnificent 10 DAMNIT!!!
I meant “commenting”… ooh, getting closer!
I challenge you Kai! You whilst not beat me! Though you are a contender with Castor for commenting most at the Mob.
Ahaha Kai will never beat me! You should have a leaderboard on your blog! I use a plugin called NoFollow Free.
This comment is to keep pace!
I’ll look into that plug-in this weekend. That would be cool. You two would be up there… Good ol’ M. Carter as well!
Hey Kai, it seems the link to your blog (when you comment) is mistyped. I fixed some of those but you need to correct it if you want other readers to be able to click on your name and go to your site
You’re a good blogger buddy, Castor! All fixed… thanks!
Great tips here! I try to post at least 3 times a week. Unfortunately with my schedule, it’s about all I have time for. You’re right though about spacing your posts out evenly. What I should have done over the Easter weekend is auto-publish, as I knew that I would be too lazy to post over the couple of days.
Three times a week is regular enough. As I said to Dreher Bear, it’s always nice to type up a few extra posts when one has time so there is something in “the bank” in case you want to take a break or have an unexpected absence.
PS: Thanks for adding me to your blogroll, I will do the same myself.
Great post sir, very insightful as usual!
It’s also great to see you practicing what you preach with Content, Connections etc.
Going to play the Devil’s Advocate a little and say that you can probably have too much of a good thing though. While this site’s one of the most connected sites I regularly read (linking to everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink!) it takes around 15 seconds to load everything on my super-fast work connection and the features down the right and left columns go on for around 7 screens (on a high-res monitor).
Not a dig or anything but it’s a LOT of information to digest for non-bloggers or first time readers, but seeing as I like my sites clinical you can probably just ignore everything I’ve just said!!!
Looking forward to the next installment!
Thank you sir! I absolutely agree with you on having too much of a good thing. I’m looking to streamline my site as I have noticed it’s really getting cluttered. I will probably move the outbound links to their own page (like you did) in the future as well as get rid of some of the useless stuff
Also, the server had some issues a few hours ago and everything was slower than normal. Sorry about the inconvenience. Thank you for the comment!
No worries, and in saying all that, the new scrolling page heading is pretty sweet!
Thanks, Castor – and I do appreciate the fact you’re always popping over. And woot! I have a cameo!
Good lord, 47 comments and counting! Been thinking about branching out the site a bit in a couple ways as of late, this might be the catalyst to finally get me going. Good stuff man, looking forward to the eventual post on SEO since I really have no effing clue about that.
Thanks so much for the comments…they’re seriously SO HELPFUL!
To be honest, I’m glad I’ve picked some of these things up so early after creating my first blog page. I’m making a lot of mistakes that you’ve picked up.
Was forwarded this site to read by another movie blogger and I am glad he did. I just started my film blog a few months ago and I try to keep up with it regularly and gain a wider audience. This posting surely helped me. Some insightful, interesting tips here…thank you! Heather brings up a good point in her comment: Make the site you’d want to see/read yourself. This is great in theory — but what to do/wheer to go if you are tech-challenged and can’t seem to figure out the design aspect of yoru blog to make it much more reader-friendly, as you say? I can write content and do the basics, but is there a place to go, someone to hire to get your site LOOKING the way you want it?
Hello Peter,
First thing first, I see that you have a WordPress.com blog on your own domain, I would highly recommend self-hosting your site and running it under the WordPress.org platform instead. This will allow you exponentially more freedom to customize your own site. Sadly, the fact is there is little you can customize under your current WordPress.com blog. Once you decide you want to make that move, you may consider doing it yourself or depending on the complexity of the task at hand, hiring someone to do it for you. There is marketplaces where you can bid for people’s work.
I had no idea….I see those that have blogs under the Blogger domain have much more capabilities, but I didn’t want to change in midstream….I will look into the .org platform and what that entails. Thanks for the comment and he help!!!
This site runs under WordPress.org. You already have the domain so you should look into hosting. You can easily import your wordpress.com blog once you install WordPress on the new server.
Seeing as this post (along with it’s Part I counterpart) were both nominated for LAMMYs, it’s probably safe to say that it’s pretty good. The 400 comments helps too! This was a very informative read, I liked it a lot.
—
Thanks for participating in the My Best Post Blog-a-Thon. Your link (and some nice words from me) will be posted on Friday. Please take some time to comment on some other people’s posts who’s participated.
Thanks,
Gringo
He-Shot-Cyrus.blogspot.com
Well, interesting blog. Interesting thing about the “making it easy to comment”. I use a self-hosted WordPress blog, but I usually ran into a Blogger blogs… most of the times, I would guess. They usually ask for a Blogger or Gmail login…
so in the issue of Blogger vs. WordPress vs. Self-hosted, I would assume Blogger would place last. I personally find WP much easier to use than Blogger… in terms of coding, and personalization. There’s also the plugins, and all the other stuff WP seem to offer. Though, I’ve never used WP alone, I started out with a self-hosted from the go.
Can you tell I voted for this topic? xD
Absolutely, Blogger has an archaic comment system where you need to go through multiple hurdles to post a single comment. Self-hosted is definitely the way to go if you are willing to spend (a little bit of) money. It is so much fun to be in nearly complete control of your site and I see you used that to your advantage on your lovely site!
Thanks for dropping by Amy!
WP all the way ;P
and thank the Best Post Blog-a-Thon, otherwise I wouldn’t have ran into your post.
Wow great article for a newbie like me!
Thanks Joel! Welcome to AM
I’m enjoying your posts. Thank you very much.
Promoting your own blog has to be one of the most difficult challenges I have encountered online. It is hard to keep writing meaningful posts when you know no one is going to be reading them.
Just read both articles and can do nothing else but to agree. Feeling kind of guilty for going with the standard wp-theme, but it’s the only standard theme that attracts me. One day I will go wp.org..
Once again, great tips and a great site!
Found the link to this article from large ass movie blogs. Its a really informative article and especially very helpful for a newbie like me.
Thank you Anomalous M,
Prav.
Thanks for dropping by Prav!
Great article, Castor, with some excellent suggestions on how to improve a blog. I have to admit, I often don’t find the time to go visiting a hundred other film blogs on a daily basis, so I generally stick to my top five or six (one of which is Anomalous Materials!) and read/comment/link to those. I guess it’s difficult for those who are time poor to generate a really popular blog, since they may not have the spare hour or so in the day to not only contruct and keep their own blog going but also visit and read other folks’ work. I tell you what, if I won the lottery tomorrow I’d be able to spend a lot more time doing the networking I want to do (as opposed to what I CAN do!) to build my blog.
I just wanted to comment quickly on your point about the look of your blog (and i use the term “your” in the sense of the readers currently trawling this post, not you specifically, Castor) being inviting, not boring. I’ve tried to keep my own blog failry simple in it’s layout, not to garish or cluttered with various pictures and clickable menus and whatnot – at least, I hope it’s not to the detriment of my blog, but who knows. I think a blogs mainpage should be fairly simple to read first time out – rather than a hundred google ads and links hidden beneath layers of pictures and screaming headlines. One of the commenters above did mention the amount of sidebar activity on Anomalous Materials, and to a degree I’ll agree with him, but this is a highly popular blog with plenty of readers and a great sense of community, so extra content is perhaps permissible. Less visited blogs should (I think) avoid distracting banners, advertising and whatnot until they reach some sort of threshold viewing level.
Just my two cents.
Great article, and worth reading for all blog newbies.
(oh, and I may have to remove the reCAPTCHA from my own blog…)
Hey Rodney, thanks for the lengthy comment. Your blog looks great, I also think that a simpler layout is definitely more beneficial. The comment you refer to was made way back when we had another template and there was a lot more “stuff” in the sidebar. I like this template because most of the content of the sidebar is tabbed.
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