Two days ago Glynn Foster asked the question that is the subject of this thread. I'd like to respond in the first person singular, rather than attempting unsupported generalizations.
The main reason that I think about who reads my blog is that I'm interested in attracting readership from a wide variety of different groups. I find that this leads to opportunities for interesting and unexpected follow-on discussions, whether in blog comments or via email. It also gives me reasons to think about, and post about, a much wider range of subjects. Some topics may not interest you personally, but I hope that each one will amuse, or infuriate, or stimulate at least one of you.
Why? Well, I think about my own blog reading. I know the kind of blog that I tend to linger over, to bookmark, to return to, to link to from my blog. And I know the kind of blog that makes me shudder and hit BACK as quickly as possible. (Entries longer than a screenful tend to do it - sorry Manfreet.) I guess I'd like to make my blog a "go to" blog for others. It's a modest enough ambition. As long as I don't blow my bandwidth allocation, I'd like to increase my traffic - why not? I watch my site stats (my provider uses Webalizer) and trackbacks for any hotspots. But all of this requires that I think about who's reading my blog - not just my family, and a few friends from Sun who see it scroll by on the PlanetSun aggregator, but the rest of them, out there in the blogosphere. Cthulu help me if they find it boring and tune me out!
How do you plan to go about attracting "readership from a wide variety of different groups?"
Good question. Cross-posting interesting links, mainly. Writing material that various people will find interesting and adding comments to other blogs that are - hopefully - of high enough quality that readers will click back to the source. The holy grail is to be linked to from a high-profile source, as I was recently by Andy O in The Register.
Posted by: Geoff Arnold at May 9, 2004 08:30 PMI find blogs in a roundabout way - not necessarily by thier content, but by relationships. For instance, I found yours through my friend Jill, and followed because I also work for Sun.
I continue to read (or bookmark in my blog) if the person writes creatively, doesn't have politics that totally offend me, and we have something in common.
Posted by: Trish at May 15, 2004 02:52 AM