Nature blogging is supposed to be some fun, easygoing activity sandwiched between long hikes and long naps, right? Sure it is, or at least that’s what they tell you as you’re signing up for that free Blogger account. But if everything is so lovey-dovey, loosey-goosey out here, why is everyone else so committed to taking away the attention that is rightfully yours?!?
Blogging is a battle, or so Jonathan Morrow at Copyblogger tells us…
- You’re in a battle for visitors. The blogosphere is full of people who have put out their welcome mats and are hoping for somebody, anybody, to stop by and take a look around. Lots of passersby think about it, but very few of them decide to come inside. They’re busy, my friend. Places to go, people to see.
- You’re in a battle for subscribers. Just because somebody happens to click through to your blog doesn’t mean they’re going to think you’re worthy of their subscription. That’s like working your way onto somebody’s speed dial list. Many contend for the honor but only a select few make it.
- You’re in a battle against everybody else in the feed reader and inbox. Just because they subscribed to your blog doesn’t mean they’re actually going to read it. Oh, if only it were so easy! Your average reader doesn’t have enough mental bandwidth to read all of the blogs they’ve subscribed to, so what they do is scan the latest headlines and click the ones that look the most interesting.
- And finally, you’re in a battle against anything that distracts your reader from making it all the way through your content. This is a big one. Here, you’re at war against the world. You’re up against the child that knocked over her apple juice onto the rug, the dog barking to go outside, the phone ringing at work, and the e-mail that just arrived in their inbox.
There is much more to this extremely insightful article. Please take a look and let us know in the comments how you think this message pertains to your own efforts in the War for Attention.
5 Comments
What a great article! I hadn’t thought of gaining readers as a battle, but after you’ve been on the Nature Blog Network for a while and seen the stats, you can’t help but learn from what others are doing. Of course we want our posts to catch the eyes and interest of others. That’s why we create them.
Thanks for highlighting and linking to this article. An insightful and helpful read with its many indepth links.
What a load of horsesh*t. The only attention I’m interested in is the attention I’m paying to language and to the world around me. Not only do i not think bloggers should be in competition with each other, I think we should read, link to, and otherwise promote each other to the fullest extent possible. Since there’s no real money to be made in blogging in any case, I’m not sure why it even makes sense to think of this in competitive terms.
I must be in the minority. I write for myself! I realize I’m not a big audience, and I do get chastised for my attitude by my techie son, but if I don’t like what I write, I don’t put it out there for others to read. Sometimes I write for an audience of TWO: me and my Maker. If page rank, Alexa numbers, and money come, that’s cool, too!
I thought this point worth raising, Dave, because each of our target readers has a finite amount of time to devote to any given author/artist/blogger despite an ever-increasing number of compelling voices. Honestly, every blog is not only in competition with other blogs, but other media channels as well.
Competition does not preclude cooperation. Far from it. Often, the most widely-read bloggers are most active and helpful in their respective communities.
I don’t define blogging success in monetary terms. For the most part, people blog to have others read their blogs.
Hi Mike, I retweeted this article on Tuesday. Nice to see someone picked it up to a discussion relating to nature blogging.
The metaphore of war is maybe a bit strong. But the fact that there is so much out there, and that most of us would like to get more readers, means that the strategies that copyblogger sets up for us - are really good tips.
So let us see this as not an indvidual war, but rather a communal effort in the total noice of internet blogging.
After all we don’t need more stupid videos making fun of birdwatching.
We need to make our voices heard by writing posts that can also interest a wider public. How to let people know about these broader articles if we only have 20 subscribers?
I seriously think we should use Twitter as a bridge to get to the natureblog virgins. Use #ecomonday and #birdsaturday on Twitter to promote specific blogposts to a wider audience, maybe is a good idea for starters.