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Saturday, May 9, 2009

I Am Getting A Bit Discouraged Lately

Ok people I'm gonna lay it on the line. I am quite puzzled as to the visits that I have been getting to my blog recently. I have been doing this for about a year and a half now and granted this a genre of music for whatever reason is not more widely recognized, but I thought that as time goes by readership would increase. This is what I believe discourages many bloggers out there like myself. When I first started out, I was getting about 50-100 new visits per day and was thrilled at that amount. Last month I was getting 400-600 new visits per day and was ecstatic. So far this month I am only getting 100-200 new visits per day and am starting to get discouraged. One thing that I started to do in the beginning was to offer free album downloads and MP3s from sources found on the internet: from other blogs, file sharing sites, etc. but kept on getting e-mails from bands, labels, etc. to take them down or get sued. How all of these popular sites do this I still do not understand and there are so many of them. I don't want to sound like I am complaining, all that I would like is a little input as what I can do to keep these new visitors coming back. If anyone has any suggestions let me know. I would love to hear from you. Alright enough already, on with the posting...

6 comments:

  1. In regard to your drop in hits:

    People seem to be taking to RSS feeds a lot more, which generally doesn't show up as a hit to the site (though it depends on how that's all set up). I feed you through blogger's homepage, so I don't actually visit the site most of the time and know you don't get hit counts from me reading from there.

    The huge drop seems a little odd, though. Have you checked the stats to see if it was a particular band or post(s) that drew in the visitors? And if you have a large portion of search engine hits, sometimes they drop you from the top of their lists for no apparent reason.

    And, how are you putting yourself out there? Do you participate in any forums or comment in others' sites (link intact)? It generally works better on smaller blogs or "live" sites/widgets because you can get drowned out on larger sites - link exchanges on big sites work mainly just to have your name out there. A few sites seem to get away with just being annoying and repetitive, posting ten bulletins a day on myspace or posting all of their links on twitter. In your case, you might consider commenting in related recent blabbermouth/[enter favorite popular site here] news.

    I've been considering getting a business card or flyers for when I go to shows. I'm sure the ten whole cents you're getting from amazon can afford you some printer ink, right?

    ReplyDelete
  2. True about rss feed, im using that as well...anyway, have you considered posting album
    downloads again, that will always bring people.
    Maybe they wont pick on you much this time, and
    also you can chose bands that actually WANT to be on your blog, for a start, that would be much easier and less worrying. Then, the band can advertise themselves and your blog on myspace, facebook etc and there will be more visits for shure. We posted our album voluntaraly on Sludge swamp and got lot of dloads and feedback and now
    i see whole LOT of bands wanting to get their album posted. And im not talkin about just some demo bands but serious, signed bands as well.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very true guys.

    Reg, I also read your blog through my RSS reader which probably won't register hits. I felt the same frustration when I thought readership of StonerRockOhio dried up. I pulled back a little bit on content and now we're ramping up for our second showcase in June.

    It seems weird, but maybe if you posted LESS it might draw more readership. People always want what they can't have or might treasure it more if it happens less often. Just like sex ;)

    Tim @ StonerRockOhio.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yep I get mine through my feed reader too so I guess if what everyone says is true it wont register my hits either.

    Unfortunatly there are a lot of bands, fans and labels that are still stuck in the past and don't see the benefit of sharing (streaming or downloading) their music for free for those that don't want to buy physical CDs. Just like TONA I put my band's stuff on Sludge Swamp and now a few more people know about my music. You can't argue with that.

    I don't know what you need to do to keep people coming back though. I get the impression there is a general stagnation in the genre across the board (gig attendence, blogs etc) judging from my observations and forum conversations I've been in.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love your blog, but I've noticed a lot more news items lately. Skateboard decks? I would rather see more reviews, discussions, features and interviews. I love your "New Band to Burn One To" features. I come hoping to discover new bands and learn something. I can get news anywhere. Try writing more of your own content. Don't give up.

    ReplyDelete

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