Anyone have a little time and patience?

[exbrit]

Here's the deal. I am an idiot! Actually I have a B.eng and 30 years experience as a pilot and 7 years as a technical writer but with blogging...I am an idiot. Is there any kind soul who could spend some time with me and point me in the right direction? You can contact me here or with a private message...thanks

[Brandon Sheley]

With a quick search, I found this video on blogger blogs.

YouTube - Blogger: How to start a blog

YouTube - Blogger: How to start a blog

[ianpeatey]

I could help point you in several directions but which direction do you want to be pointed in? A little more information might be useful about you want help with exactly. Blogging is a huge area!

A warm welcome to the forum btw!

[exbrit]

Thanks. Well I don't have a problem writing. I DO have a problem getting to know how to get people to read what I write. In other words how do I get people to find out the blog exists and to start conversing with me. That would be a good start. If you check the blog nobody is following me cos they have not been there for a start. Then there is the matter of my audience, so to speak. My blog is a niche site I guess, catering only to men and really only to those who are not very happy with the type of women that they have been meeting. This is what happened to me in the UK and why I am now here. There are social reasons too but the main thing is that the females here are totally different ...well not totally :-)

[ianpeatey]

Sounds like you're pretty clear about your target audience and you already have a blog - so you've got two important steps clear!

Getting people to know about your blog is quite an art. There's plenty of great advice on this forum about how to build traffic so I suggest you read as much as possible and try out those methods that appeal to you. The key is to find people already connected within the niche of your blog. Don't waste time (especially early on) trying to attract people to your niche, much more productive to find existing groups/networks in your niche and start participating in those.

My blog is in the self improvement area and the three main things I did (and it's an ongoing job) were:

1 Joined and use Stumbleupon, Facebook, MyBlogLog, BlogCatalog and more recently Twitter. They are all great for linking up with others in your niche.

2 Found other blogs in my niche that I like and started following them and commenting regularly. I've also met some really wonderful people that way.

3 Find discussion forums in your niche and participate! This forum is great too! The more people see your name and comments (provided it's adding value) the more they're likely to visit you.

There are many more things you could do but these are probably a good start if you don't want to spend any money. I set myself a target of 10% growth each month. So far I'm well ahead of that month by month.

Hope that helps! And good luck!

[exbrit]

Thanks Ian, I WILL have a go at what you suggest and see what I can come up with. What I DID do was to write articles and submit them to directories. There are about twenty of them so far who have accepted and posted them. With forums I have been a little disappointed. With dating forums they want you to join before you can take part but this means filling out all their rubbish like you are looking for a mate :-) Also I found that most forums I got involved with consisted of the same few, boring people who had nothing better to do with their lives. I did join twitter but it's the same problem as the blog, nobody talks to me ..boo hoo:-)I just joined Facebook but I have not got it ready yet. Thanks again

[ianpeatey]

With Twitter, or with forums generally, the best approach is to participate and add value as yourself. Not sure how you've participated in these things but talk about your interest area, for sure, but if you want to get people to talk to you don't use it to directly promote your site. People are fed up with people pushing their sites down their throats - and even more fed up with spam.

Just be patient! For most of us, it really does months and months to build up even a small following.

And people will talk to you. I am.

[exbrit]

Thanks again Ian. I understand what you are saying about not pushing the site. Actually the site itself is fairly established. We've had it since 2003 and we get about 7,000+ visits a month, mostly lookers. We do get a lot of complements and we also have a mailing list which I will try to gather some followers from...Thanks again Mate...