Blogging 101: 5 Tips to Get Blog Readers

#1: GET RID OF CAPTCHA!

What is this strange word you speak of, sir? Well, it's sort of like an STD: it's going to scare off a lot of potential suitors–and in the case of blogging, commenters. Specifically, it's that jumbled mess of letters you have to squint at and retype, like you're a monkey in a lab experiment. I LOVE a blog when I go to post and I don't have to screw around with that, especially if I'm in a blogging mood and commenting on a lot of blogs. Seriously, unless you're getting 10,000 hits a post, and are a prime target for spammers, don't flatter yourself and fuhgettaboutit. Blogger's default has it set to "on." So do everyone a favor and turn that puppy off!

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#2: MAKE IT EASY TO FOLLOW YOU

This seems like a no-brainer. But I've seen a lot of blogs where I'm jumping around trying to find Google Friend Connect or the RSS feed. If I don't see it right away, I now assume there isn't one, and I don't follow. Simple as that. One less subscriber. Ideal spot for the RSS icon is at the top of the page near the header or top of the sidebar. Since you can't put GFC in the header, stick her at the top of the sidebar as well. Oh–and if you know a tiny bit about coding, edit your singlepost.php file so an RSS thinger shows up at the bottom of each post with something like what I have below: "Like the article? Subscribe to my feed!" Catch em when they're hungry, my grandpa used to say. Actually, he didn't. But it has a ring.

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#3: DON'T BE A STRANGER

So somebody comes by your blog, reads a post, and likes it enough to leave a comment. Brilliant. But you're too busy to comment on that comment. Understandable. They come back, read another post, comment again. You're still busy. Hmmm…this is getting a little insulting. So said commenter comes back and gives it a third try. Still no reply, which now is like giving the finger to your reader. Again, if you're getting 200 comments on every post, then no worries. Just like if you have two million followers on Twitter, you can't be expected to reply to everyone. But do you have 200 comments per post??? If no, it's probably a good idea to be a bit more hospitable.

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#4: TURN OFF THE DAMN MUSIC

If I get to a blog or website and there's music playing, I'm gone faster than a pizza in Jack Nicholson's refrigerator. Music is way too subjective to push it one someone. And who's to say I'm not nodding to my own tunes as I peruse the web. Definite failure.

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#5: PICTURES, PICTURES, AND MORE PICTURES

Blogs are all about content. But if you want to reel people in, you need the visuals. An analogy: imagine listening to The Godfather via a podcast or something. It's hardly the same as watching it on a big screen. That's a far out example, of course, but we live in a visual age, and pictures are, well, visual. As Ben Still was fond of saying in Starsky & Hutch: Do it!

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