What do people look for in blogs? Topics that interest them, naturally. But that’s a lesson on its own.
I did an interesting blogging experiment over the last few days. I ran a blog on the artwork created by Jonathan Harris, who took the most common 86,800 words in the English language, and put them in order, by amount of use. You can search by number or by word, and you can get caught up in looking at the word for your birthday, and play numerology games.
I also ran a story about Sophie Calle, a French artist whose boyfriend dumped her via email; she subsequently turned the email and the dumping into an artwork.
And, because it is the topic of the workbook I’m writing, I included an article on another creativity lesson my bike taught me.
I began to watch which blog got the most views–words, getting dumped, or the creativity story. Of the two word-as-art posts, Calle’s getting dumped got more views. That was understandable. When the creativity story shot to popularity, I first felt vindicated and *knew* my book would be a hit. . .until I check which words people searched for to get to the story.
Ah, the disillusionment! The agony! The incident in the story was a rainstorm, and I pointed out that with a teardrop-shaped gas tank and a round helmet that drips down on the gas tank, you get wet. The specific phrase I used caused the post’s popularity-”wet crotch.” It was a good comeuppance, but that makes me wonder if popularity is the only measure that should be considered when talking about blogging.
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June 17, 2007 at 12:17 am
lorigloyd
Great, Quinn! Now the Taverna going to get a zillion hits because of this phrase. Thanks…. I think.
June 17, 2007 at 1:11 am
quinncreative
Lori–You’d think I would have learned the lesson from the “Naked Man” episode, but nooooooo. . .
June 17, 2007 at 4:16 am
shewolfy728
Snicker, snicker - it really is amazing what people search for on line!
June 17, 2007 at 9:08 pm
cheshire7
Who said popularity was the only measure for blogging? It’s too bad that people in general and wordpress in particular support that idea. If you want to play that game, I suppose you can. To me it’s no fun. I have better things to do with my time than to worry about how many people are or are not reading my blog. I left popularity contests behind when I left high school.
June 17, 2007 at 9:57 pm
cheshire7
P.S. I guess what I am trying to say is that I have no desire to become a “blog celebrity” and to have the attention of thousands of people. I care more about the quality of my writing than its quantity. I always have. I want what I share/post to be good, as good as I can make it. Whether one hundred people, one thousand people, or one million people read it is less important to me. Fame is so fickle and rarely worth the cost. Just ask Marilyn Monroe, Anna Nicole Smith or John Belushi.
June 18, 2007 at 12:39 pm
quinncreative
It’s certainly not the only reason to blog–but for most businesses it is a way to explain themselves to their clients and create another window into the business for the community. I would guess most people on Facebook and MySpace blog to have other read their posts. So do the news bloggers.
To write for yourself and to share your work has always been possible on listservs and shared groups like Yahoo. I think sponsored blogs gave people the ability to see what search words were used and how many people read their blog. That made me curious as to how that information can be used. Because I search blogs to understand people, the element of popular words and searches is a real interest of mine.
I’m the wrong demographic for popularity contests, but I find the information fascinating and informative. I’m sorry WordPress dumped Blog Feed Stats.
But writing and creating work for excellence instead of popularity gives you meaning, if not sales. And meaning is the point of most of our work.
June 18, 2007 at 12:56 pm
lorigloyd
I go to the effort to create and write, etc., for an audience. I find it very difficult to do so without an audience. In fact, sometimes it defines how a work will turn out.
I guess I must be pretty shallow.
June 18, 2007 at 2:51 pm
shewolfy728
I, too, like to know people read and enjoy what I write. I don’t think it makes us shallow. I think it is a part of those of us who consider ourselves (or want to consider ourselves) story tellers. The desire to entertain is part of us. There is writing I do that is not in that category, like my journaling and some of my poetry, and I don’t put that out there for all the world to read. But the stuff I create for the blog and for others to read, well, I want them to enjoy it, and I like to know if they do. Meaning is important, yes, for without it our work is not what it could be. Writing for excellence does give personal satisfaction. It also makes something that other people can enjoy more. I don’t think one purpose - personal excellence or writing to entertain - is higher than the other. I think both purposes (at least should) work hand in hand for the betterment of both ideals.
June 18, 2007 at 2:53 pm
quinncreative
I think this answer is longer than the original point, but I’m loving the discussion:
I don’t think it’s an either- /or- proposition. It is exactly the point I face as an artist. There are bowls I make to sell at shows–they are sized to fit on standard shelves, in colors that go with the couch, etc. Then there are art bowls. They are often unsymmetrical, in colors that do not appear in nature, or so shaped that they need a special base to sit on.
When I teach writing, I start with, “who is your audience?” And indeed, the audience question SHOULD shape the writing. If you are writing for your own pleasure, you can make it so personal no one else will get it.
The real question is “what’s your goal?” Marketing a business or person? Pushing the boundaries? Self-revelation? Changing minds? Exploring your interior?
My original use of the word “popularity” actually was an intellectual question–what topic would people be more interested in:
Words As Art in the getting-dumped sense or Words As Art in the “how often is a certain word used in the English language.”
Incidentally, so far, getting dumped gets more views.
The unfortunate phrase that made the third post so popular had nothing to do with the content–which was the second point. Blog stats taken out of context can give you a bizarre result.
June 18, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Lori
This is a good turn in the discussion (which is the nature of good discussion).
The bottom line is that we all write/create for a variety of reasons and sometimes multiple reasons.
It’s all good.
June 18, 2007 at 4:12 pm
shewolfy728
And, hey, while I have no desire to put a phrase into my work just so what I wrote will show up in someone’s random search, I hope that those who stumble across my work accidently will read it and enjoy it even though it isn’t what they were looking for in the first place.
June 18, 2007 at 5:10 pm
cheshire7
Hello! Nice discussion here. I’m sorry if people thought I didn’t care about readers. Of course I do! Like shewolfy, I write things that I want people to read and things I don’t want people to read. And when I decide to make something public I always think of my “audience” and try to make it the best writing I can possibly do. My beef with the “popularity” issue is that I don’t think that popularity is a valid indicator of quality or value. Popularity (in terms of how many blog hits) is merely an easy way to measure something. Now what exactly is being “measured” I don’t know. I doubt it’s quality or value. It could be a measure of how many people have time to surf the web. It could be a measure of how many people are interested in the words “sex” or “Paris Hilton”. I don’t know. But I do believe that “popularity” is not the way to measure the quality, value, or meaning of a blog, a piece of writing or a piece of art. The blogger who has 5,000 readers a month is somehow less of writer (not as good as, etc) than the blogger with 15,000 readers? Please!! Are we lemmings or human beings? I would hope we’re all human beings.
Oh, Quinn, business blogs are great–I’m planning one for myself.
June 18, 2007 at 8:04 pm
lorigloyd
Actually, I noticed today when I signed on to WordPress that one of the Hot Blogs is “I Can Has Cheezburger”. This blog as been on this list for weeks, so in light of our discussion, I checked it out.
This site is devoted to funny photos of cats! That’s it! That’s all. And it gets listed as a Hot Blog!
Go figure.
Good discussion, everyone.