Blogging Can Get Weird

markrhunter (62)in #humor • 14 hours ago

Last week I posted a blog about the Artemis Moon missions. When I put the link to that blog on social media, I headlined with a really cool Artemis logo:

Just cute as heck, right? The cat is the character Artemis, from the Sailor Moon anime and manga. My youngest daughter and I were heavily invested in that show when she was little.

Well, the artwork just took off. That was great: People seeing the illustration would read my blog, and some of them might be interested enough to check out the links to our books, and next thing you know our sales will shoot up to the five figures--maybe even the medium five figures!

The day after the blog came out it had 21 views, but then I started putting up the link on social media. (Except for Substack, which is kind of a thing of its own.) Facebook, for those of you who don't know, has been rumored to suppress links that lead elsewhere, but there's a workaround: Put the photo on the post, but the link to the blog in the comments.

Look at me, look at me! Pay no attention to the bird.

It worked, too, because I tried it twice on FB: With the link in the post, I got 5 likes and 2 reposts. But with the link hidden in the first comment, I got 90 likes and 16 reposts! I couldn't wait to see that reflected in my blog views.

A few days later I double checked: 25 blog views views. According to my fingers, posting my blog link all over the internet increased interest by ... four.

What happened? Well, what happened is the artwork was just too cute. Everybody thought so. They even sent it to their friends. What they didn't do was click on the link and read the blog. (Yes, I did say in the blog where the link would be found.) This is clearly my fault, although of course I tried to find someone else to blame.

Look, cute dog and cool clouds in the same pic! And a fridge. And power lines. Click the link!

(My next blog, a photo post, got 165 clicks.)

There's a lesson to be drawn from this, and I'm working on what that is. Maybe it's that you shouldn't be too cute. Maybe it's that people don't read blogs anymore. I did get 174 clicks on a blog last month, though, not including the 40 or more I typically get on Substack, and other places it appears. Looking back on that sentence, maybe the lesson I should learn is that I'm spreading myself too thin, but never mind.

So from now on I'll put really good images inside the blog, and something bland and boring to headline social media. I'll also try to remember the old writer's adage that there are three good ways to get attention online, but nobody knows what they are.

Maybe I could blog a photo of me blogging a photo of me.