Yearning For Traffic

Jeff, Julia, and I were talking about art and what makes it desirable. Julia said something to the effect, “some art just speaks to me and I have to have it.” Then I started thinking to myself what is an item that I would want with strong emotion. I couldn’t think of one.

So today rolls around and my brain was wandering and I knew the answer to the question was nothing tangible. Fancy cars, mansions, or exquisite watches weren’t it. These are items I would have if I could but aren’t what I truly want.  Although I’d list making money as high but it’s not the money as much as it’s the accomplishment.

The best answer I could think of was blog traffic. People who don’t have a blog don’t understand what it takes to gain people reading what you write. When people come to read your blog you have a chance to gain their respect and approval. The more people who get behind you, the more power you wield. If I was in charge of a website that directed popular opinion, I would be satisfied. It’s saying what you’ve done means something.

I try a lot of various techniques to gain traffic and almost all of them miss the mark. Today I stepped over the line commenting on Sam’s blog giving Gourlay praise by making a comment about them sauntering over one another. My goal was to point out that the title wasn’t very good and instead of being constructive I was assholish. It’s all done to be witty and bring content to the these blogs. It missed.

I see “blogs” all the time pop up in my newsfeed and I’ll read them to see what inexperienced people are capable of blogging. Most of the time I think they aren’t bad but 9 out of 10 have a few entries and then quit. It may even be 10 out of 10. People think that blogging is fun but I certainly wouldn’t describe it as that. It’s work.

You have to know why you’re doing it. I mentioned why I do above. To have people understand how I think, compare it to their own, and then hopefully (never) comment. I wouldn’t be doing this for 5 years if I didn’t like it but I also have reasons for doing it.

The main reason is to conquer Google. It’s to have Google send people to the website because it’s respected. My goal is to have it give rnningfool.com a higher page rank and then have people flood in to read what I’ve written. Obviously what I’m doing hasn’t quite gotten there but I try to improve every single post I do. The last 4 posts I’ve done aren’t throwing shit against a wall. They are written specifically to interest people and try to gain traffic.

I’ve spent long enough on this post but I had to make amends with Sam and give reason for why I do what I do.