Eugene Volokh dispenses some advice, worth, as he says, at least what you paid for it, on how to promote one’s blog. It’s sound and well-considered, like nearly everything he writes, but to my mind (and God knows I’m not exactly an authority on this topic) he omits one important thing, maybe the most important thing. Comment on other people’s blogs. Leave comments on their blogs and write responses on your own. Some say you ought to notify bloggers when you reply to them, but I don’t think that’s necessary. Like every other blogger I comb through my reefer logs, and if you write something about me rest assured that I will find it. This is Dale Carnegie 101. People will show interest in what you say if you show interest in what they say.
When the chips are really down, do what I do: comment on Steven Den Beste. He is immensely fair-minded, everybody reads him, and if you say something reasonably intelligent about one of his posts he will find it and link it. It’s the one sure solution when you’re hurting for traffic.
(Update: Floyd McWilliams says pretty much the same thing, but nearly an hour later. You gotta get up pretty early in the morning to stay ahead of me, like before noon.)
(Another: Marduk comments. So does Dr. Weevil. And brmic too. Clearly I left out the best advice of all: write posts about getting linked.)
Weird — I saw Volokh’s post an hour ago and blogged exactly the same thing! Great minds think alike. And then there’s me and Aaron. 🙂
Hello, Aaron. I probably should comment more when visiting sites. Alas, I usually agree with what I see, in which case I have nothing to add, or I disagree, but deem argument with a bonehead unworthy of effort. (That never happens here!)
I mention den Beste pretty often on my own site, but I don’t dispute him, so he doesn’t seem to notice.
Off to read Volokh now…
Alan,
If you comment on one of Den Beste’s posts and you are fairly satisfied with it, e-mail him and let him know. I’ve done that twice and have been linked to both times. It was a nice rush of traffic, although I must say that I don’t think much of it stuck, which is my fault alone.
Den Beste fair-minded, that’s a laugh! He is a verbose blowhard who thinks he knows about everything. He posts about Macs are as idiotic as they are pathetic.
He is sometimes a blowhard, but one can be a fair-minded blowhard. He takes criticism far better than most bloggers. Mac/PC is a religious war in which I no longer have a personal stake. I grew up on Macs and still retain a vestigial fondness for them, despite now running Windows on my desktop and Linux on my server.
Hey, maybe Bush & Powell should devise a road map for peace between Mac & PC sects, instead of wasting their time on the Middle East.
No way, Alan. Too tough.