Comments on: Battle of the Blogs

By: Gunnar Engblom

Gunnar Engblom — Thu, 14 May 2009 22:18:45 +0000

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.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 14 May 2009 02:13:22 +0000

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.

By: April Lorier

April Lorier — Thu, 14 May 2009 02:11:59 +0000

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!

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 13 May 2009 23:28:55 +0000

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.

By: Vickie

Vickie — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:56:03 +0000

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.