

How To Build A Blog Readership - dshipper
http://danshipper.com/how-to-build-a-blog-readership#

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Jun8
"Some people are genuinely uninterested in writing things that people want to
read – as an example try reading some Hegel."

I squirted my coffee on this one. He _does_ practice what he preaches, i.e.
has a unique and memorable voice.

My take is: good writing and unique voice is a necessary but not sufficient
condition for a successful blog. Without these, you won't get much readership
other than Google directs (maybe). But no amount of cool writing will get your
Advanced Algorithms blog read if it doesn't have useful and interesting
informational nuggets.

The problem, as I see it, that a lot of people face trying to write a
technical blog is how to divide up what they're explaining into digestible
chunks (size dependent on audience, Terence Tao's blog chunk size will be
different than your high school math blog's) and present them intermingled
with good language. In effect, the language (unique voice, anecdotes, etc.) is
the carrier and the chunks is the information and the audience dictates the
channel capacity.

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kiba
Blogging isn't the only way to write and publish the content.

The way I do it is to write 500 words a day on some random subjects for no
reason other than it's "interesting" on published it on a single page called
Notes and Thought. Then I continuously work the various areas of that pages,
adding new paragraph, fixing grammar mistakes, and so on. Eventually, one of
the section in my page will grow into a essay. When an essay is spun off, I
also work on the essay to make sure it's complete-sounding and all polished
up. However, they are never actually finished or frozen in time, and they will
be continuously updated for the rest of their lifespan. Notes and Thoughts
also linked any spun off essay with the original section and an abstract
describing the content of the new essay.

Blog posts are temporal in nature, and they never get updated continuously. So
a hundred year from now, the blog post will say the same thing, still feel
amateurish, and also horrifically outdated.

If you want to know what I am working on: <http://kibabase.com/articles/notes-
and-thoughts>

Blogging is more like a conversation that's very time specific. While mine is
more like a book or an encyclopedia of my mind.

~~~
dshipper
Interesting idea. I think writing 500 words a day is great. To me this looks
like something that is more meant for you, than for your readers. If that's
the case that's completely fine - at least for me part of the nice thing about
blogging is it helps me to refine my thoughts. This also looks like a great
way to just get better at the craft of writing. But if you really want to be
read, you'll probably at least need a slightly different format than this one.

If that's not the goal though, then I really like your idea in making this.

~~~
kiba
_If that's the case that's completely fine - at least for me part of the nice
thing about blogging is it helps me to refine my thoughts._

Only to a point. People don't edit their blog post a year after they posted.
They are mostly meant to be read today.

 _This also looks like a great way to just get better at the craft of writing.
But if you really want to be read, you'll probably at least need a slightly
different format than this one._

Notes and Thoughts aren't meant to be read, but it's meant to turn out essays
that will be read. Those essays are linked from Notes and Thought and the
front page.

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DanLivesHere
Blogging + RSS is interesting. Blogging - RSS isn't as much, because you need
to get people to come back over and over again. And there isn't a lot of
consumer adoption for RSS. "Publishing" isn't enough any more because it
assumes that distribution is built in, when it just isn't.

I made my blog -- <http://nowiknow.com> \-- into an email newsletter for this
very reason. Two+ years in I'm at 80,000 subscribers. It's doable.

~~~
dshipper
I'm actually a subscriber! How did you get readers? Just by word of mouth?

And do you think it can be as successful if you only send the email once every
two weeks or so? Or does it have to be an every day thing?

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DanLivesHere
Has to be an every day thing.

New readers.. it's a mixed bag. Word of mouth, content shares, cross-promos,
etc.

(And thanks for reading!)

~~~
dshipper
Thanks for writing! Sorry to keep asking questions, but why does it have to be
any every day thing?

At least for me, the quality of the content goes down significantly if I have
to do it any more than once every couple of weeks. Really impressed that
you're able to keep it up :)

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rglover
I had a thought related to this earlier today. What if I wrote for myself one
year ago? Meaning, what if I considered the questions I had a year ago and
articulated the answer back to myself at that point in time?

A friend shared a great bit wisdom a few months back: _there will always be
someone who is one step in front of you and one step behind you._

Since I look to writing to help others, what if I write for that person who is
one step behind (i.e. myself one year ago)?

~~~
dshipper
A lot of my most popular blog posts are ones that I've written to address
questions that I had as a younger version of myself but that I've since
answered with experience/introdpection. This is definitely a viable technique.

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beambot
Great advice. I think your first point is spot-on: _Don't Blog... It’s really,
really hard to do well in a consistent fashion._

But that should be followed by: "Guest Blog" (or something similar). Your
energy and creativity can still be appreciated by a captive audience in
someone else's venue. You can get many of the benefits of blogging without the
need for (daily / weekly / whatever) commitments... and make friends or build
reputation in the process.

As an example, I run a popular robotics blog myself [1]. Yet, I've also
contributed guest articles for IEEE Spectrum [2], which can have some cool
side benefits... like op-ed style pieces in academic publications [3].

[1] <http://www.hizook.com/>

[2] [http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-
hardwar...](http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-
hardware/robotics-trends-for-2012)

[3]
[http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=6...](http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=6174340)

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piotr_krzyzek
One of the best points in the whole post, I think this point should have been
front-and-center: blogging isn't for everyone. Well that, and 'why are you
writing'? My wife writes and publishes content, for example, because she loves
designs and sharing it with the world though it's mostly all written from her
perspective. I write because I don't want to forget something; one of the best
ways to learn/remember is to teach ... thus I (attempt to) teach.

I believe there is something missing from the post though, maybe I missed it
though: people shouldn't expect to become instant blog millionaires by writing
a few posts here and there about just anything. Consistency (in voice and
sometimes in topic) plus a schedule really do make this all work. Except just
like the rabbit and the turtle: this is a race best won slowly.

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bmac27
I've started blogging about the mobile startup space with the idea of
hopefully developing a legitimate news resource. Feature stories of my own
volition are one thing but "What to write about on a daily basis that hasn't
already been covered exhaustively in TC, Mashable etc?" is the question that
pops up in my mind most often. I'm still working on the editorial balance
between the two. The last thing I want to do is piggyback off of other, more
successful blogs.

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francov88
Great post Dan. Wonderful to see the evolution of you, your writing and the
blog.

Keep it up!

~~~
dshipper
Thanks! Really happy you've enjoyed it :)

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jere
I think I will be taking your advice to heart, Dan.

>Don’t blog.

Every time I see a post like this I feel horrible about not blogging, but it's
nice to hear that... I really don't think I'm cut out for it.

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danso
Just wondering, but how do you like being on Posterous, as opposed to any
other platforms you may have used?

I started with Wordpress and plan on sticking with it. But I've since made a
tumblr for my photos and NYC-related tidbits...and find it much easier to blog
on a whim on Tumblr than on Wordpress, despite the excellence of the latter
platform. It's kind of amazing to me how the simplicity and constrictiveness
of a platform, such as Tumblr (and Twitter, for that matter), makes it more
inviting to consistently participate in. And I'd say consistent publishing --
especially in the face of apathy or silence -- is a huge part of building
readership.

~~~
dshipper
Honestly, it's awful. I used to really like it back in the early days. But
since they got acquired (and even before when they started to concentrate on
Spaces) it really started to go down hill. I need to switch to Wordpress soon,
but I honestly just haven't had the time.

"And I'd say consistent publishing -- especially in the face of apathy or
silence -- is a huge part of building readership." That's absolutely right in
my experience.

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danyork
Definite "+1" ... or maybe "+100"... to _consistency_. That is the key. Look
at anyone who you consider a "successful" blogger and I think what you will
find is that the key point is that they keep showing up with new posts. And
doing so on a regular basis (which for some is daily, some weekly, but most at
least a couple of times a week).

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wallflower
> And doing so on a regular basis

Ever wonder why some blogs post n times a day?

"My job was to write twelve posts a day about 'media gossip,' which meant
anything unpleasant or otherwise intriguing about anyone who had power in any
Manhattan culture industry. There had to be enough posts so that whoever was
sitting at my old desk at the publishing house, and everyone in Manhattan like
her, could read something new when boredom struck."

Excerpt from book by Emily Gould, ex-Gawker, infamous blogger

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mksteele
Dear Dan Shipper, I despise your blog.

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dshipper
Honestly sorry you feel that way. But I guess it's not for everyone. Thanks
for the feedback!

