I've had a few conversations with bloggers over the nature of hits on their blog sites. It's always disappointing for me to find that some toss-off comment about some innocuous pop culture tidbit gets more traffic to the blog than anything else, especially in light of the fact that my blog is primarily about libertarian politics, which is my passion. My fellow political bloggers have shared my dismay. Even through a breathless political season, the nonsense usually draws a bigger crowd than the substance.
I'm realistic enough to know that not even 1% of Americans share my passion, but still, I would have expected that of all the key words that might have led people to my blog, "libertarian" should rank way up there. It doesn't. Way up at the top is "Victoria Snelgrove". She wasn't a candidate for office. She was the unfortunate college student killed by police in an attempt at crowd control after the Boston Red Sox eliminated the New York Yankees from the playoffs about a month ago.
I'm not one to get too hung up on this. Sure, it's dismaying that more people were interested in some tidbit about an innocent bystander than, say, insider insights on a candidate for governor, but that's our culture. Most bloggers who've been around long enough have as their number one draw the Janet Jackson Super Bowl incident. They may have said as little as, 'gosh, I don't know what all the fuss is about Janet Jackson's exposure on the Super Bowl'. The right words on a google search, and enough links to other websites, and voila! Your blog is at the top of the google search results!
Very well. Let me say the following with nothing more than an eye towards google traffic:
I don't give a rip about the Laci Peterson case. I don't care that Scott Peterson was found guilty yesterday. Don't get me wrong- if a man is guilty of killing his pregnant wife, I have a tiny feeling of satisfaction that the criminal justice system works. It's just that I find it incredibly dismaying that as many people were hanging on to the outcome of this trial as to the outcome of the Presidential election. I loathe the fact that so many people remained glued to the sets sufficient that CNN, Fox News, and CNBC have shown wire-to-wire coverage and analysis of these high-profile idiot cases, from OJ Simpson on to this wretched Peterson case.
Article comments
1 - Tim Hall
If you really want traffic, you have to keep saying "Britney Spears Naked".
Or perhaps if you want to attract right-wing types, "Ann Coulter Naked".
I'd advise against "Michael Moore naked", though....
2 - Eric Olsen
I understand and share your frustration Mike, but I disagree about political sites: who do you think has been racking up the monstrous numbers over the last several months (since the conventions)? The high-profile political sites. Please allow me to add: fuck them.
3 - sadi
likewise, share the frustration, but i tell you. i get thousands of hits from the WEIRDEST things that i never intended. i've written several articles about Nabokov and also about Lewis Carroll's photography of young girls (read: nymphets). This has driven every freakin' pervert to my site. Other searches that show up a lot from articles i've written - the keywords were, and read these and laugh "bleach, history of, nymphet, november poems, poems about fucking (?@@??!!!), assia weevill, sylvia plath, hair bleach, nymphet hot girl"
Now, these are NOT what the articles i wrote were actually about, but because they had some of these words in there, they seemn to be used by most search engines. Go to google and type in "bisou + definition" and my site will be the first or second site to come up. (bisou, as you may know, is french for little kiss).
So it's totally weird and arbitrary.
That said, maybe i should start blogging about that jerkoff Scott Peterson to drive traffic, though frankly, i have enough weirdos visiting these days, including my stalker who has a fascination with girls with epilepsy and finds every perverse way to find my site (read; sends messages through his meta tags in google, knowing they'll be logged.) I wrote a blog on this not too long ago; you can find it here on blogcritics or on my own site.
nuts nuts nuts. but food for thought and a cheap way to drive traffic, but you make your point well and good for you! it's pretty sad that people too often don't care about substance and just go for what is popular or the trend / perversion of the moment.
amen. and rock on.
sadi
4 - Mac Diva
Not quite there yet, Mike Kole. To break your record for traffic to your blog, you need to mention Britney or Paris. Preferably including the words 'boobs' or 'nude.' This week, it would be a good idea to say something about Coco Johnsen, Bill Maher's former gal pal who is suing him for palimony. She is all over the Internet semi-nude, with her boobs showing. Go for it. Put together a libertarian argument for gawking at those pictures of Coco.
Actually, political blogs did poorly in regard to traffic Election Day and seem to have had no effect on turnout. I'll be moving an entry about that from Mac-a-ro-nies to Blogcritics today.
5 - Mike Kole
Let's see... Bill Maher used to refer to his views as semi-libertarian...
I'm so out of that world. I had no idea who Coco Johnsen is.
6 - Mac Diva
She's a former Playboy playmate, with, needless to say, knockers. Maher likes to hang out at the Playboy Mansion. A match made in . . . . Surely there is a libertarian argument for banging bunnies, Mike.
7 - Mike Kole
Darn it. That's what I get for allowing my subscription to lapse back in 1987. I knew it would come back to haunt me...
8 - Jamie Foxer
I'm sorry, but I think Coco Johnsen (Maher's ex) looks like a she-male...yes, I've seen her pictures and she's obviously female...but she's quite UNATTRACTIVE...she looks like a horse...i'm sorry...she does. Can't they find better for Playmates?
9 - Katlin
"Jamie Foxer" said: I'm sorry, but I think Coco Johnsen (Maher's ex) looks like a she-male...yes, I've seen her pictures and she's obviously female...but she's quite UNATTRACTIVE...she looks like a horse...i'm sorry...she does. Can't they find better for Playmates?"
No one replied to these ugly remarks. I think that I have at least one theory as to why.
This individual strikes me as the type that thinks every black female (who is not almost white like Halle Berry) looks "like a horse" and is "quite unattractive". To the gentlemen reading this; you and I live in the real world and know that there is NO WAY in heaven Coco Johnsen or ANY woman would be selected as a Playboy Centerfold if she was IN ANY WAY even remotely as hideous as this person is claiming! His protests of her looks are so...out their that they literally make me giggle, because it's so obvious to me that they are coming from yet another small mind who will never accept black women as being nearly as beautiful as anything lily white.
Oh and while I'm on the topic, you ("Jamie Foxer") made me chuckle again in that you seem to have deluded yourself into thinking that women like Coco give a flying flip what some loser like you thinks about them. She is paid by, parties with and dates men like Hef and Mahr.
I seriously doubt that you would be even remotely noticed by such a woman, perhaps a memeber of Hef's housekeeping staff but never one of his centerfolds--TYVM.