 |
| Blog icon (Photo credit: photologue_np) |
A Word from Arlee Bird
A to Z may be about the letters, but it's also about the numbers. That's one of the reasons we do blogfests and interact with other bloggers isn't it? We want to get readers for our posts and more followers for our blogs. There's nothing wrong with that, especially if our blog is used as a platform for whatever it is we are trying to promote to others.
But what about a viral blog post? I'm talking about a blog post that gets media attention and turns the world's attention to something you've written. The post that gets hundreds or maybe even thousands of comments and massive numbers of views from people who would have never otherwise visited your blog. You become a blogging celebrity for your 15 minutes of fame. Could you handle it? Would you want it? What would you do if it happened?
Odds are your blog will not achieve that status, but if you focus on top quality content that deals with current relevant issues that are of interest to many people then your odds are increased. It can happen and has happened to some bloggers. In a sense it's like winning the lottery. But in the end it boils down to how do you spend your gain?
Why These Questions Here and Now?
If you haven't visited Tossing It Out in the last couple weeks you've been missing a somewhat interesting series that I've been presenting. And since we've been talking about odds, my guess is odds are you haven't visited. How do I know? Because the numbers of my visitors have been relatively low compared to the number of A to Z bloggers out there.
Even though numbers of visitors have been low, the quality of comments has been amazingly high. Some of those comments are like blog posts in themselves. There is valuable content in each post of my series especially with the comments included. If you're interested in building and bettering your blog I encourage you to visit Tossing It Out.
The Main Current Attraction
If you read no other post in the series I suggest you visit the post that went up today (Friday October 25, 2013). In this post I interview Liza Long of The Anarchist Soccer Mom. Some of you may remember when last December after the Sandy Hook school shootings Liza Long gained national attention with her post I Am Adam Lanza's Mom. Since her viral post she's done numerous national interviews and spoken at conferences throughout the United States as an advocate for mental illness. In 2014 she will have a book published by the Penguin Group on the same topic. All of this the result of one of her blog posts that went viral.
I encourage you to read the interview at my blog and then continue over to her blog for a continuation of her story. It's an exciting blog story that might stir your imagination about what you could do and make you look at your blogging in a whole new way.
Don't sell yourself short as a blogger. A to Z can sharpen your blogging skills and extend your audience reach. Maybe 2014 is when A to Z bloggers will be going viral in April. It could happen to you!
If You're Interested in the Series:
You can start at Do You Feel Respected As a Blogger? and then follow the posts that come after that one. Or go to the home page and start with Liza's story. Don't forget to comment on all of the posts as I'd like to hear your thoughts. And please share on Twitter, Facebook, and any other favorite social media sites.
Thanks for reading and being a part of another blogging experiment!
I find Lee one gets many new followers during the A to Z. some remain with you others you never hear from again. Of course it's lovely to get plenty of followers but to go viral is not my scene. Looking forward to April.
ReplyDeleteYvonne.
Has anyone's post from A to Z gone viral before? Or received some kind of attention outside our blogosphere community here?
ReplyDeleteHappy reading and writing! from Laura Marcella @ Wavy Lines
For me it's always about the comments. Up until this years A-Z it was just friends and family who would read, but not comment. I didn't think I was bothered about comments, stats and followers until the A-Z,then I realised how much I do like them!
ReplyDeleteSuzanne @ Suzannes Tribe
x
There's also something here that could probably be said about not just doing the same thing over and over again and hoping it works at some point, but I'm not sure, yet, what that is.
ReplyDelete