Building Blog Traffic

I'm what I would call an "Occasional Blogger." I originally started blogging hoping that thousands upon thousands of people would start reading what I had to say and especially want hear about my compelling personal story on my Big Journey blog. I figured that all I had to do was write a few good posts and they would come.

Little did I realize how much time you have to put into deciding what to write about and actually typing it into coherant thought. But heck- I already had a built in, fascinating topic. I mean how many people discover that they are a prince at age 38? Who wouldn't want to read about that?

But then I discovered that I also was quite consumed by politics, (thanks to the 2004 elections, Glenn Reynolds, LaShawn Barber, Polipundit and many others on the blogroll) so I wrote a couple of political posts too. BUT figuring that I should keep my great personal story separate from my political thoughts and rantings, I started my second blog, You Know I'm Right.

Now I would be lying (as would every other blogger in the world) if I said that I write just for my own personal reasons and wouldn't care if nobody ever read either of my blogs. Of course, I want other people to read what I write. The back and forth of comments is what makes this fun. However, I haven't really mastered the art of using comments and trackbacks to get people to come to my two blogs. Also, I realize that I just plain don't write enough posts to get people to want to come back over and over to see what I have said lately.

Thus my term "Occasional Blogger." I blog once in a while when I'm not coaching my kids in sports, or working on a committee at their school, or volunteering as a community center, or helping a Realtor get a client pre-approved for financing at the last minute so they can make an offer on a house (I'm a mortgage banker in real life.)

Yeah- I get it. You have to make time to write often and write well, and even then, I may still never get a slew of regular readers.

But recently, I noticed a spike in traffic on the Big Journey blog. Now to me, this was quite odd because I haven't really written a lot of new posts, and frankly, I haven't even kept the story going in a single direction or up to date. And besides- I truly have been trying to hold off writing a lot about this until the GQ article about my story comes out. (Then I'll start blogging on that site in earnest.)

So how did this come about?


Marty's Big Journey- How did this happen?

Like I said- infrequent posts don't usually make for a huge jump in traffic. Nor did I get a world famous "Instalanch." So what caused this?

Google. Apparently there is a popular search out there that is finding one of my posts.

Back in September I made a post lamenting that fact that the GQ story was being pushed back for a while. The post included a certain photo and and key words that for some reason is sending me quite a few Google hits. (See below.)





(UPDATE (5/10/2005): I know many of you are getting to this post looking for the lovely young lady in the picture above, but while you are here, why not find out why I reference this magazine in the first place... )

Apparently the search for Lohan on Google Images search has been giving me quite a pop in traffic (I'm number two!).

I guess all of those interesting, insightful, entertaining, fascinating, and otherwise brilliant posts I have been writing just don't mean a thing. Just put a pop culture icon in the blog and you'll get plenty of traffic!

Too damn funny!

UPDATE:5/10/2005: Now this explains it. Maybe I just need to work on the other twenty four.

UPDATE 5/11/2005: Lori Byrd at Polipundit says that women like pretty pictures too.


(Cross-posted at my more political blog- You Know I'm Right.)