Who's reading, and why?

My friends around BlogWorld talk about their concerns that blog readership seems to be a bit off. I have also had that concern. And recently I have attempted to post better material in a more timely manner. The result has been an increase in readers with unusual curiosities. Here are a few examples of searches (by non-regular readers): someone in India had "googled" this: "question about leadership quality." Someone in Austraila reached my blog by searching on "women traveling in the Middle East." A Californian "googled" for "political fact finders." A person in Indiana searched for "50 ways that the government affects my life." A United Kingdom reader was interested in finding our more about "female bloggers needed." Another Australian searched on "where is the hubble telescope right now 21/8/08." A Native American website in Washington went my post called, "Humor is hard to find these days." A Minnesota reader came to my blog via The Reaction, and spent 10 minutes reading three different posts. Another Californian searched and found a very old post of mine on "prof mary habeck yale." A Georgian (USA) searched on "jfk leadership qualities." And finally someone in Canada "googled," "should i work for nasa oig," and found this old post: Does the Inspector General System Work?"

Today I came across a great little reference for anyone wanting to improve there blogging and get more readers. It comes from a highly popular blog called 43 Folders. The author merlin Mann asks, "What makes for a Good Blog?" In a very helpful post (8/19/08) he lists these main idea headings. (Read the whole post; it is worth it.):

1. Good blogs have a voice


2. Good blogs reflect focused obsessions.


3. Good blogs are the product of "Attention times Interest."


4. Good blogs are made of paragraphs.


5. Good "non-post" blogs have style and curation.


6. Good blogs are weird.


7. Good blogs make you want to start your own blog.


8. Good blogs try.


9. Good blogs know when to break their own rules.

Technorati tags: blogs blogging bloggers internet [google search writing

My topical post today at South by Southwest and The Reaction is about politics.