Since I dropped TTLB, Technorati, a bunch of “you blogroll me, I’ll blogroll you” and other such links from my template, I have had a precipitous drop in traffic, now standing at 1/10 the traffic that was normal just a year ago.
So? Of course, I also have dropped from 1,000s of spam comments a day to deal with to somewhere in the low hundreds, as well. *heh*
Those who now visit and comment (interestingly, more via email than in the comments form. I wonder why, but I don’t ask. Because I don’t wonder why all that much–and some of the email comments are from RSS feeds, I notice, so that makes some sense) are of a generally higher caliber than at many times in the past (a notable exception on the previous post).
Still, in recent days, I’ve had visitors from all over the U.S. and Canada, and some from Venezuela, Chile, Ghana, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, India, Thailand, Australia, Japan and a whole lotta lumps from places in Europe (very interestingly NOT Russia).
Sadly, fewer easily mocked Moose-limb boyz are finding me nowadays via “Mohammed in a Pink Dress”. Oh, well. How fleeting is fame. *heh* It was fun while it lasted.
I seem to have returned to my blogging roots: simply blogging to mollify the voices in my head. And that’s a Good Thing, IMO.
Trackposted to The Pink Flamingo, Leaning Straight Up, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Political Byline, Democrat=Socialist, The World According to Carl, and DragonLady’s World, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
I found that the “you blogroll me, I’ll blogroll you” deals were not really bringing people that had any real interest in what I had to say. I stopped doing the “open trackbacks” posts for similar reasons.
About a year or so ago, I realized that I needed to change the way I go about blogging. It’s changed what I post a lot. I don’t participate in blogbursts anymore. I don’t post “empty” open trackbacks posts anymore. In fact, I don’t do “open” trackbacks posts at all anymore, because most of the time the links are completely unrelated to the content of the posts.
Traffic went down a lot. The quality of comments went up.
I like that. I also find that when you’re writing about things you really want to write about, your own quality improves. Not that I’ve ever had a problem with the quality of your posts.
Pretty much my take, Perri, save that I still (obviously) do open trackback linkfests, because they provide me with a good reading list–usually. Of course, I rarely–very rarely, and then only if I want an easily-accessed reading list and simply don’t have time to write a “real” post–write a linkfest-only post; I never liked that idea. I’ll tag a “linkfest invitation” onto a content post, though… again, for the reading list benefit. *heh*
BTW, you may not have had problems with the quality of my posts, but some of the voices in my head have had problems with some of my posts…
🙂
ha I just this minute got a request from someone..I blogroll u if u blogroll me..was wondering why he didnt simply add me if he deemed me worthy..lol..its all about quality and getting folks to hear what I think are important messages!..David..you rock!:)..read my post about this years blog awards and you’ll understand some of my reactions too if u like?..:)
“…if u like?”
Angel, you know I always like reading your blog!