A case of the blahgs
Like Avedon Carol and Stranger, I've been noticing we've been getting less hits while seeing more and more sites linking to the "A-listers," and while I haven't hit burn-out I have hit despair. Despair and rage. And my left eyelid is twitching. What burns my cookies is that a blog that only started up a few months ago has already gone past a million hits. I'm at a loss here. Suggestions on improving the site, anyone? And "quit your damn whining" does not count as a suggestion, but thanks in advance anyway.
March 24, 2007
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34 comments:
Maru:
I read your blog everyday. I like your writing and the way you think. I like all the pictures and your sense of humor. Its a great blog.
There is so damn much political news happening that those stories dominate the blogs, including mine. I wanted a blog to discuss other subjects like books, music and even food, but the news just comes swift and dark.
I can't keep up with the coverage of TPM or Eschaton or Kos. They greared up for news. I'm just me.
I thought it would change after the 2006 election, but its gotten worse. Political Blogs need staffs. They are being taken more seriously now.
When I write a homegrown essay, pure opinion, no references to other blogs, I seem to get more hits. I've written a few obituaries that have made my numbers go up.
Evolution in the blogosphere.
I like your 'discoveries in science" posts. I vote for more of those.
Still, nothing beats primo snark and imaginative name-calling. You the man, Maru
:)
JB <--who has a LJ and updates it twice a year.
I love your blog and i read it everyday. I don't think you can do much more to improve the blog. Don't dilute the blog just to grab more hits.
You've had a place on my blogroll for 3 years, Maru, and will as long as there's an Alternate Brain. Shit, my ass is here 3 times a day. Heh ... I noticed the drop off too, but I chalk it up to the cycles of Blogtopia (y!sctp!). I've gained, I've lost, I've gained again ... feh ... I can't be bothered anymore. As long as my regular commenters hang around and I get my 200 - 300 hits a day, I'm okay with it.
Maru,
I read you two or three times a day to keep up with your additions, and those of your friend who writes now and then. You are the first and last blog I read. I love the strange combinations of name you assign various newsmakers..
it makes my day and fills me with the sense that it's all mostly bullshit except the serious stuff.
Don't dispair. WTF is a work of art and soul and heart and mind. And I'm rather charmed by it. And I'll bet you're not a bit like WTF in person...I'll just bet! So, don't even think of stopping!!
One of my fav's for a longgggg time. You're one of the snarkiest out there and I love some of you're creative name labeling. Just a few things that keep bringing me back...the photo's and layout are also why I keep coming. Some of those A-listers are easily left in the dust by you on those two scales. Please....don't stop.
I think it's a cyclical thing. I've seen my numbers plummet in the last couple weeks. But it seems to happen every year.
I call it the March blahs.
Of course, I still keep visiting everyone I always do.
Like this place. ;-)
Political satire in cartoon form might be helpful. I've been dabbling with it for some time but haven't had a decent outlet online. Let me know if yer interested and I'll post something and give ya a link.
Nick Z.
http://ts-variant.net
Btw, political satire is just a side-line. My full-time position is in sci-fi anime.
Keep doing what you do best, Maru.
It's all that we can do.
I have a couple of hitmeters at my blog, but, I rarely, if ever, look at them. I just like to see WHERE my readers are.
many blogs that "just show up, and get a Brazillion hits in a matter of months" are usually "A"-- run by VERY well-connected people-- like Jane Hamsher's FDL (yes, they do good work, but, they HAVE THE CASH to do it.), Jane made a TON of cash as producer of "Natural born Killers," and other movies, and is pretty-much living off the interest at this point. "B"-- They don't have to work for someone else (Josh Marshall, for example). These folks are fortunate enough to NOT have to deal with a 9-to-5er in order to cover the bills.
Think Progress is a spur of CAP-- a massively well-funded Progressive Think Tank. I can go on and on.
Atrios started his blog at EXACTLY the right time, and let's face it-- he's doing less blogging, and basically just maintaining fresh Comments threads, any more.
Kos? No one really goes there-- it's too crowded and chaotic-- again, it's just appearances.
Skippy is great because his place is ENORMOUSLY inclusive, same with Corrente, and First Draft, and the whole run of those blogs to which I gave "awards" back in December.
My HOPE was to EMPOWER the B-List.
We're in down time right now... i bet, if you DO look at your hitmeter, and do some math, you notice either a steady-state, or a very easy trend upward.
STOP LOOKING AT THE DAMNED HITMETER!!! It means NOTHING. Your readers LOVE you-- Change nothing!
--mf
Well, not to sound like an echo to previous comments, but:
* I love WTF
* WTF has been on my blog roll since I created a blog roll. OK so I have a tiny insignificant blog, but I have noticed occasional out clicks to WTF from one of my 6 regular readers (the 5 government domestic surveillance agencies and my last living relative checking to see if I'm still alive).
* don't change anything
* stop watching the pot boil (site meter)
* I visit every day (unless ATT screwed up my DSL connection, which they have done a lot recently)
* what about RSS readers? I almost link to WTF from my blog roll after I get notified of updates with Google Reader. Anyone want to wager that RSS readers don't register as hits?
I love you, Maru. I've always loved you.
You, and your blog, are one of a kind. The A-List might make all the dough and go to all the kewl parties, but you make me laugh.
Duncan, bless his heart, does not make me laugh. So in that respect, you cold kick Eschaton's ass.
Screw the A-List, I say. We still rock anyway, right?
I hafta do this anonymously:
rename yr blog either "Anna Nichole's Secret Blog" or "A Paris Hilton Blog".
The quick way to a million is notoriety, plain and simple. Either that or publish porn.
You had me at "....Preznit Driveway Gravel....."
=)
LucyD
Please, don't change a thing. WTF is it now? is the best blog/zine on the intertubes. Best writing (really!)! Best attitude, best insight, best snark, best cats!
Please, don't go away and don't change anything.
I don't think I can live without you!
Love,
RD
I visit several times a day as I know I will always get to laugh out loud at the way you have with words.
I find myself calling W. some of the names you come up with.
I'll see what more I can do to promote the site. I love it! Don't change anything.
Hey Maru,
I read your blog every day and have since before I started blogging in 2003 and all I can say is hang in there, baby, I'd be lost without you. Me, I've just been blogging for myself and if anyone is enjoying is it then I'm glad. If there's a silver lining to any of this it's that even my trolls have left me.
I have a few dedicated readers. I blog for them when I'm not blogging for myself.
I think blog reading is down and this is a trend. I know I'm reading fewer blogs than I was a year ago and feeling less urgency to blog about shit. Maybe it's a sign that things are getting better. I dunno. Or maybe the essay bloggers have done the more succinct bloggers in. I dunno about that either. Oh well.
I haven't read Kos, Atrios or TPM in years. I love Bartcop, but haven't read it in a long time. Not sure why, but there it is. I think I'm reading more culture and comics blogs. But I do read WTF is it Now? and and Wood S Lot everyday. I read Cursor M-F, and a few others when I have the time and energy. That's about as much as I can do these days. If you look at the way far bottom of my blogroll you can see what I read everyday. I do Bloglines, too, I guess that also counts as blogreading.
Eh, love ya, Maru, whatever you do.
Oh, by the way, I've been making weird collages, http://lacollage.blogspot.com they're not all mine, but you can tell pretty quickly whose is whose. You're welcome to anything that's mine there. Enjoy!
Maru-
I know it's been covered in previous comments, but here's my two cents. Don't change. You aren't the first blog I read. You're the last, b/c I want to save the best for last. I'm not much into leaving comments. But I read your blog everyday, at least twice a day. I've gotten away from the big blogs, I find them to be too much of a beating. You have fans even in red state hell Texas. And I've even used "well we all can't be ditto monkey assclowns" in a conversation or two.
Do not change a thing. If I could only read one political/cat blog daily, WTF would be it.
Period!
I read your blog at least once a day and like it fine just as it is. I'll cast another vote for the Gee Dubya nickames like "Smirky McStupid" as the Best Thing Evar.
Love you Maru and visit every day as you must know -- as others have said, nobody does the original renaming gig better and the pix and animal stuff is also great -- speaking of which, "Jesus Christ on an effing pogo stick" -- YOU ROCK!! Nobody else in the world would ever come up with that.
If you put out a book of your blog archive, I would buy it. I know i could print it all off for free, but would I bother? No. If you put it together as glossy "best of" I would spend up to $50 for it. (When I'm employed :)
Piss on the swine who can't see the pearls cast before them. And fuck em if they can't take a joke. By design, your audience is an exclusive and discriminatory bunch. So go to bed happy like you made me tonight with the whole pogo stick thing.
LOVE AND HUGS
I can only echo the others. Don't change a thing. I visit every day for both the inventive name-calling and the kitty pics.
Not to be redundantly repetetive, nothing needs to change , Maru, this blog is perfect, and I wanna be just like you when I grow up.
It is the March blahs, really. It's definitely not you and divageek and whomever else you have blogging, you guys are hysterical, insightful and I love the pictures and cat blogging.
Is it still snowing there? I'll send some of the 80 degree weather if you want.
Maru, don't give up now, like others yours is the last blog I read before I shut down for the night. I just sent out 2 emails linking to your site, the only site I read that sounds like home. Your graphics are awesome and make me jealous. You had me with WTF..
Maru,
Joining the others in saying...don't change. On days when I am too tired to read any other blogs, I always read yours.
If not for you, I would not have discovered cuteoverload, rude pundit,and a variety of other places (yes, i found you first!). And I would have never found my department's "mascot", Guinness the cat (in case you don't know, he's the marmalade tabby with the knit hat over his eyes that you use regularly here). :)
Keep on keeping on!!!
Which blog started only a few months ago went over a million hits?
I'd like to compare. Then I could offer an opinion.
My opinion is maru does 4 1/2 stars out of 5 now.
Wow, thanks, guys!! I don't know what to say, but I feel 1000 times better! Yeah, at one point I was going to subtitle this "Britney's Used Panties" but that would made me a bigger whore than Howie Kurtz and some of the A-listers! Haw.
Thanks so much, everybody!!
xxoo
nudity helps.
Another vote for not changing a thing, maru. I adore this site, even if it does swallow up and spit out my comments 80% of the time. I'm a huge fan of your nicknames for Dumbya and his band of thugs as well.
Kos and Atrios must phone in their blogs. Nothing to see there anymore so I've moved along.
I was called Dumbya, Smirky McGolfcart while talking to a neocon co-worker. Her reply, "He doesn't play golf! He's a Texan!"
We love you, maru.
Maru. Can't help you get more hits, but really do love your site.
You succinctly capture the essence of these assholes' moronic antics.
You give me faith that I'm not alone in seeing a world gone insane -- that the MSM has not and is not yet calling Bush and Cheney out for their criminal behavior.
Please don't desert your post.
for what it's worth, i'm a long time reader (i've been known to panic when you go on vacation) and your site is on my daily read list. and i'm still loving every minute of it. but for gawd's sakes woman, let that cat in!
{;}o)
peace
mayn
Love your blog. Don't change a thing.
That being said, I think we're looking at two different factors here: it's March (March Madness) and the sudden onslaught of campaing coverage, which is already becoming irritating. We're probably just looking at a case of temporary burnout, nothing more. It'll pass, I believe.
Maru, you are a literary genius of great heart--quite a combo. You were probably one of the brilliant 18th C satirists in a past life, and did time as Sam Clemens, and are one of those rare artist/mystic/paradigm-shifting Magicians who has the unique talent and breadth of spirit to take humanity's rage and broken heartedness and make us–insto-chango--feel like we've come out from the badnews neotard brain-damaging world into a cozy home of a beloved genius relative for a while, where we can feel a pervasive contentment, and get treated to a brilliant take on our national disaster with a perfectly toned and timed delivery from your inimitable mind and soul blend style of what could be a stand up comedy routine as scathing and brilliant as a Richard Pryor routine and be just as paradigm-shifting affective, with your added visuals that spiritually and mentally treat and stretch our sensibilities from the most carnal (turds with Bush flags) to the sublime beauties of nature (blooming cherry grove), and directing us to important news to grok out there in teh tubes and then back again to laugh at what you say about it, and between the cozy kitteh nuzzles, the grand pix of nature, your brilliant incisive brave take on BushCo that via your always intelligent, often hilarious perspective, helps us vent our rage and grief, and vicariously we are ennobled by your whole THANG including your snow shoveling and gardening glimpses of your good good life—feeding the light and dark of it all through the prismatic kaleidoscope of your soulmind--expressing the eight-sided Octagon of the I Ching Upper Heaven arrangement, you manage to take all of those disparate things we do, and in one WTF day’s entries you amalgamate the mad fractures of our societal imbalances into some magically manageable understood and laughable Divine Comedy of TAO.
Your work is SO FINE. I only recently found you a few months ago, and have been reading the archives, sometimes jack-knifing out of my seat laughing, scaring my cats. Your work transcends Blogging, and will be considered Great Literature faithfully and hilariously documenting this Dark Ages of American History that has plagued this nation and infected the world with Woe. You’re a big light and a belly laugh and a heart full of warm in this fucking nightmare we’re all struggling through. You’re a master paradigm-shifter, tilting the collective mind back to sanity with insight and laughter. Soros should dump a few Mill on you to preserve your precious work and life. I’m obviously one of your million fans. I read hours daily. I read you daily. You are my fave. Mark Morford also gets to me. You two are the only writers today that I have written fan mail to because I love you’re talent and think you’re superb human beings. To be able to create humor at this level, daily, in this utterly hellish era, is pure genius. Once I get my website programmed to upload, WTF will be at the top of my Blogroll with an animated arrow pointing to it. I’ve turned my friends list on to you.
Thank you for delivering such a huge depth and breadth of spirit to us all out here. Never be disheartened, Maru. And for Egon’s sake DON’T CHANGE A THING, unless you want to change it back to the really gorgeous color-layout you had before (which I loved way better--yummy unique palette of colors).
I wish the English Lit profs of all Universities world over could get directed to you, I know they’d SEE your magic and great value and they’d have you be required reading for all their students. Yes, you’re a poet, too. And OMGAIA!! The bitchen Lava Lamp Zen Altar!!! Kills the bleak to the core and made me laugh and bliss out all at the same time. Powerful mojo, Maru. Word. Taking it back to the assassination, picking up the dropped torch. The blaze moves on, it is Maru.
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