Ok - Traffic is upsetting.

[KevinG]

Traffic is really upsetting me. I'm doing everything I can to drive traffic to this site and it's just flat.

I have zero comments on the last 4 articles.

I'm submitting to 4 social networking sites, I've submitted to some blog carnivals (though i don't see the effects), I've got syndication going, I email my articles to people I know with a permalink, I've done some SEO and submitted to search engines.

I'm feeling like I'm doing all this work for nothing. Yahoo says I got 125 visitors yesterday - but how many of that is me checking my site and updating it? Driving traffic is turning out to be a nightmare!

[Phil Newton]

If there's one thing I've learnt about getting traffic to blogs, it's that it takes consistent persistance. Yes, there are blogs that do well from the start, but the rest have to take the long way. It's a very tough time for most people, and I'm guessing it's why a lot of blogs fold early.

p.s. Make that 5 networks now - I just added you to StumbleUpon

[Steve Pavlina]

Some questions to ask yourself:

Is there a strong demand for the content you're producing? Is your website actually needed? What would be lost if you never created it? If people don't need your website, they won't likely visit it much, and they won't refer their friends and family to it.

Why do you want more traffic? What's your motivation? Is your primary motivation to help yourself or to help others? Ideally it should be a synergistic blend of both, but helping others should be the stronger of the two.

If helping 125 people (or thereabouts) is nothing to you, it's no wonder you're struggling to build traffic. Having a positive impact on even one person via your website is a significant accomplishment -- something to be celebrated and respected. If you tell the universe, "This is nothing," or "This is a nightmare," why on earth would it send you more of that? What blogger would want to refer traffic to a "nightmare"?

When you can fall in love with helping a handful of people and feel grateful for the impact you're having, that will be the turning point which will open you to attracting all the traffic you could ever want. But if your website doesn't provide a service you're really passionate about and which you believe will benefit others, you'll silently sabotage yourself from going too far with it, since deep down you'll feel you don't deserve the traffic and that your visitors would be better served elsewhere.

Understand that a website that helps even one person is a success, not a failure. Create a website that will be of value to one, and you'll be able to attract a whole lot more ones.

Measure not your success by numbers and statistics but rather by knowing that you're serving others to the best of your ability.

[KevinG]

I'll give all that a try.

My blog is in politics - so it's tough really looking for a niche. I'm starting to gear a lot of my writing to education instead of commentary on current events.

To tell you the truth, I feel like my site is valuable, but lost in a sea of invaluable blogs and I get skipped over because I'm grouped with them. That's exactly how I feel.

[DmitryDavydov]

Originally Posted by KevinG

Traffic is really upsetting me. I'm doing everything I can to drive traffic to this site and it's just flat.

I have zero comments on the last 4 articles.

I'm submitting to 4 social networking sites, I've submitted to some blog carnivals (though i don't see the effects), I've got syndication going, I email my articles to people I know with a permalink, I've done some SEO and submitted to search engines.

I'm feeling like I'm doing all this work for nothing. Yahoo says I got 125 visitors yesterday - but how many of that is me checking my site and updating it? Driving traffic is turning out to be a nightmare!

Kev, first, you have to be patient. And second, your content has to be sticky and emoprovoking. Look at Steve. Some say - What A Genius. Others - What A BS Artist. Either way, Steve Pavlina is worth talking about. As soon as you start cranking out stories that are worth talking about and linking to, you'll be all set.

[KevinG]

I have one up right now - but it doesn't seem to be getting anywhere.

[ludlow]

Here's just a bit of feedback after visiting your blog. I'm a euro-liberal, so I'm confident that everything on your blog is completely wrong...

However, being open-minded and tolerant like all good liberals, I actually *would* read a positive, informed blog from a right-wing perspective.

As you rightly imply above, in setting up a right-wing blog you're joining an extraordinary madhouse of ranting fools, and if you are secure in the belief that this doesn't describe you, I think you should emphasize that. A lot. At the moment I would say your posts so far have the unconstructive negative TONE of some of those ranting fools, even though your CONTENT is much more substantive.

Just my one cent (the other one went in tax to fund a strong welfare state)

[KevinG]

Ludlow:

It isn't a conservative blog, first of all. I'm a libertarian.

Second, saying that conservative blogs are "madhouses of ranting fools" is an opinion that will probably cause you to lose all credibility.

It's tough dealing with Europe because they are biased against the U.S. in the fact that they want the U.S. less powerful. So anything that happens that is bad for the U.S. is usually good for Europe. That is why you align yourself with liberals because they are bad for the U.S. Though you probably deny this entirely, which is expected.

In fact, your strong support of welfare is fundamentally anti-American, just as is the views of the liberals here who support it. The problem is that with all the government education in the United States, very few people have even a basic understanding of our constitution and the role of government.

Anyway, we're wasting our time here.

[DmitryDavydov]

Originally Posted by ludlow

Here's just a bit of feedback after visiting your blog. I'm a euro-liberal, so I'm confident that everything on your blog is completely wrong...

However, being open-minded and tolerant like all good liberals, I actually *would* read a positive, informed blog from a right-wing perspective.

I did not have a chance to look at the blog, but I hope Kevin isn't yet another rightwing nut job. Rush Limbaugh has the gig for all the right wing wackos, he is pretty hard to compete with.

[Scott Bird]

Quick suggestion - cross-promote your sites. If one gets traffic, they'll all benefit. I'd say the photography one has a much greater international appeal that the political site.

[ludlow]

Oh well, so much for trying to reach across the divide and give some feedback!

I guess the majority of Americans must be anti-American, judging by last week's election results. Time to head on over to the subjective reality section and manifest a reality in which libertarians have a chance of governing...

[TheBull]

Don't worry too much about it Kevin, just keep up the good writing. I didn't notice a link, but you might want to consider a technorati account as well. There is a lot of political blogging going on these days. The nice thing about techno is that you can see the number of posts on a given topic.

Another suggestion which I've recently come to enjoy is a blog carnival. Doing this for my financial blog has really helped out.

Also, especially with politics, consider some good link baiting. If you haven't seen it already, go to copyblogger.com. He has great stuff for headlines and general copywriting.

[ahimel]

Originally Posted by KevinG

It isn't a conservative blog, first of all. I'm a libertarian.

Then let me start this post by saying that I'm a libertarian who frequently ends up voting conservatively because it's the most liberterian option. See my post on Massacusetts law in the Real Estate thread, and my Vote No post in the 'do you vote' thread for my political views.

Originally Posted by Ludlow

Here's just a bit of feedback after visiting your blog. I'm a euro-liberal, so I'm confident that everything on your blog is completely wrong...

However, being open-minded and tolerant like all good liberals, I actually *would* read a positive, informed blog from a right-wing perspective.

As you rightly imply above, in setting up a right-wing blog you're joining an extraordinary madhouse of ranting fools, and if you are secure in the belief that this doesn't describe you, I think you should emphasize that. A lot. At the moment I would say your posts so far have the unconstructive negative TONE of some of those ranting fools, even though your CONTENT is much more substantive.

Originally Posted by KevinG

Second, saying that conservative blogs are "madhouses of ranting fools" is an opinion that will probably cause you to lose all credibility.

It's tough dealing with Europe because they are biased against the U.S. in the fact that they want the U.S. less powerful. So anything that happens that is bad for the U.S. is usually good for Europe. That is why you align yourself with liberals because they are bad for the U.S. Though you probably deny this entirely, which is expected.

That being said, for some reason, your post sounded significantly more rant-y than Ludlow's did. That may be simply that Ludlow's emoticon led me to believe that he was trying to be friendly and cheerful - that he does believe that everything you believe is wrong, but he's willing to to acknowledge that people have varying opinions, especially in the US and Europe right now, and that doesn't mean that his opinion is necessarily more valid than yours, just that it's different. I may be completely off in interpreting what his smile meant, and in fact he's a raving lunatic, smiling to throw me off the scent of his plot to bring down the US government and erase its existance from the memory of all humanity.

Likewise, it may be that lack of emoticons in your post caused me to utterly misinterpret your tone. That you didn't actually mean to imply that every single European is so scarcity-minded and jealous that they want to see the US come down. (Having been in Ukraine last summer, I can tell you it isn't so.) Nor did you mean to imply that it is impossible to be a US voting liberal unless you are (a) an idiot or (b) a traitor. The tone I somehow picked up that 'everything you believe is unquestionably correct, and anyone who disagrees with you must be a moron' bears no resemblance to what you wanted to say, and is a totally unfair portrayal of your feelings and opinions.

Unfortunately, I'm not able to identify what made me pick up that tone. That's why I'm such a horrible writer - I never managed to learn how to combine words to make them actually say what I meant. So I can't give any actual advice, except to say that it sounded unconstructive and negative to me also.

[Bruce Achterberg]

Kevin, I'm busy writing a post to make in this thread (I usually write my posts offline in Microsoft Word and work on them when I have time). While it’s a tall order contributing beyond what Steve has said in this thread already, I’m up for the challenge and hope to give you some suggestions and advice that will prove useful to you. Before I post it, however, I'd like to ask you a question:

Have you defined a purpose for your life, and if so, what is it?

I ask because knowing such information will help me provide better feed back for you. If you aren’t keen on posting your purpose publicly, if you don’t mind sharing it with me, send me a PM – you have my word that any thing you tell me will stay between the two of us.

If you haven’t yet defined a purpose for your life (or are in the progress of doing so), it would be helpful if you could share your intentions for your blog/website, much like Steve did in his blog post, My Intentions for This Site. Again, if you don’t wish to make that information public, send me a PM.

With such information I can give much more targeted suggestions and advice and I’ll have a better chance of giving you information that you can actually use. Thanks.

[KevinG]

Originally Posted by ludlow

Oh well, so much for trying to reach across the divide and give some feedback!

Lol. Please... You can't seriously write a response that discreetly attacks someone and expect not to get a little bit in return can you?

I guess the majority of Americans must be anti-American, judging by last week's election results. Time to head on over to the subjective reality section and manifest a reality in which libertarians have a chance of governing...

The majority of Americans were educated (barely) by the government and aren't smart enough to form a respectful opinion on anything relating to politics.

[KevinG]

Originally Posted by TheBull

Don't worry too much about it Kevin, just keep up the good writing. I didn't notice a link, but you might want to consider a technorati account as well. There is a lot of political blogging going on these days. The nice thing about techno is that you can see the number of posts on a given topic.

Another suggestion which I've recently come to enjoy is a blog carnival. Doing this for my financial blog has really helped out.

Also, especially with politics, consider some good link baiting. If you haven't seen it already, go to copyblogger.com. He has great stuff for headlines and general copywriting.

Great suggestions Bruce. I'm heading over to copyblogger right now to check that out. I'm doing blog carnivals also I just haven't seen much in the way of results out of them yet.

[KevinG]

Originally Posted by DmitryDavydov

I did not have a chance to look at the blog, but I hope Kevin isn't yet another rightwing nut job. Rush Limbaugh has the gig for all the right wing wackos, he is pretty hard to compete with.

If I asked you to give me an example of why Rush Limbaugh is a right-wing wack job I bet you couldn't give me a reasonable one.

[mhdoc]

Originally Posted by KevinG

The majority of Americans were educated (barely) by the government and aren't smart enough to form a respectful opinion on anything relating to politics.

I seem to remember reading some old document that talked about "of the people, by the people..." I don't remember it saying "of the educated, gifted people, by the educated, gifted people"

[FearlessGhost]

Hey Kevin

I went to you website and checked out your latest post. You said you were a libertarian and frankly I was a little dismayed by what you had to say. Fist of all, a libertarian does not agree with using force as a means to solve a problem because force is a tool of the government. A Libertarian believes that the government needs to be extremely small in order to serve the people (because history has shown that once the government gets too big, then the people serve it). A Libertarian believes in capitalism, free trade, and free markets.

My point being that if you say you are a libertarian, yet your writing clearly states otherwise, then how ore your readers supposed to get past the confusion? This could be the problem you are having with traffic.

If you decide you truly are Libertarian I would highly recommend studying the great Libertarian, Harry Browne. In fact you can listen to his archived radio show at his website Harry Browne: libertarian politics, articles, books, & speeches, and investments. I would also suggest studying Austrian Economics which you can read the great Murray Rothbard's works for free at The Mises Institute

If you decide you are not Libertarian, then I wish you the best of luck in searching for your truth. I think it is important to remain consistent no matter what you do and who you choose to be; they go hand-in-hand.

[KevinG]

Originally Posted by FearlessGhost

Hey Kevin

I went to you website and checked out your latest post. You said you were a libertarian and frankly I was a little dismayed by what you had to say. Fist of all, a libertarian does not agree with using force as a means to solve a problem because force is a tool of the government.

And frankly sir, you have just mis characterized what a Libertarian actually is.

A Libertarian believes that the government needs to be extremely small in order to serve the people (because history has shown that once the government gets too big, then the people serve it). A Libertarian believes in capitalism, free trade, and free markets.

This is correct. And they also believe that the government should be used for fundamental reasons, one of those being security of the United States.

My point being that if you say you are a libertarian, yet your writing clearly states otherwise, then how ore your readers supposed to get past the confusion? This could be the problem you are having with traffic.

Actually sir, my traffic probably hasn't thought twice about it; you are simply pointing it out because you most likely disagree with what I wrote, which is a rather childish personal attack.

If you make up your own fairy tale about what the term Libertarian means then yes, I don't fit the profile.

If you decide you truly are Libertarian I would highly recommend studying the great Libertarian, Harry Browne. In fact you can listen to his archived radio show at his website Harry Browne: libertarian politics, articles, books, & speeches, and investments. I would also suggest studying Austrian Economics which you can read the great Murray Rothbard's works for free at The Mises Institute

You can be a member of a political party without agreeing with everything they believe in. Do we agree?

If you decide you are not Libertarian, then I wish you the best of luck in searching for your truth. I think it is important to remain consistent no matter what you do and who you choose to be; they go hand-in-hand.

Thank you for your comments.

[KevinG]

Originally Posted by mhdoc

I seem to remember reading some old document that talked about "of the people, by the people..." I don't remember it saying "of the educated, gifted people, by the educated, gifted people"

Not some old document - as you seem to suggest this quote is somewhere in the constitution. It isn't.

This was a quote from the Gettysburg Address given by Abraham Lincoln.

Oh, and it doesn't have anything to do with what we are talking about.