Traffic jam, upon request

At some point, almost every blogger feels the need to juice the traffic stats. Maybe it's to impress someone, to pass a milestone -- or just for a quick ego boost.

The social net Digg can do the job, assuming the blogger knows how to sling link bait. That usually means targeting adolescent males and topping the post with a gotta-click headline.

This morning, top Digg topics include "The 16 Ugliest Men in the History of Rock and Roll" and "How to Write an Episode of 'Dukes of Hazzard.' " If enough readers digg the post, the traffic gushes in. No guarantee the superuser clique that runs the site will look favorably on the contribution, however.

For a flow of more organic traffic there are Reddit and Propeller (Netscape). They work the same way as Digg, but the audience proves to be more mature and less excitable. I also like the lower-profile Truemors (disclosure: I am some kind of sanctioned "Truemorist").

Then there's BlogExplosion, a free and totally reliable source of raw traffic. (No, this is not a paid post.)

BlogExplosion works like a co-op. Members visit other blogs and get a visit from someone else in return. Bloggers can allocate their credits to various web sites in which they have an interest or send it all to one place. (This has nothing to do with selling links, the target of Google's latest police action.)

BlogExplosion content isn't filtered for quality as it is on StumbleUpon. The site serves up a lot of marginal content -- from mommies, work-from-home gurus, Filipino teenieboppers, rightwingers, bloggers who blog about writing.

The neighborhood might be a bit run down, but anyone who wants a blog seen can make it happen here.

Don't count on these new readers to make return visits, though -- BlogExplosion doesn't even display the real URL for its "surfers." These visits provide an uptick in the blog stats, that's about it. As a marketing tool, BlogExplosion seems borderline worthless.

One member I encountered in a forum said she visits these blogs while doing laundry or watching TV. She never actually reads them, just waits out the timer in order to get a credit (return visit). Too bad -- every now and then members will come upon some finds.

I usually enjoy rummaging around. Here are some of my favorites from BlogExplosion, so far:

• The Fourth Avenue Blues from Andrew of Alabama. A talented writer in his mid-30s details his battles with booze and mental illness in a format that feels like a series of short stories.



• Sex is the New Blog links to to adult sites of an artistic bent. Mostly soft porn, classy nudes and lipstick lesbians, but be prepared for some hard stuff as well. Clever and classy commentary from the host. Well worth a visit if you're open to such things. (BlogExplosion has an adult-site filter if you choose to use it.)



• Kimchihead dishes out pulp non-fiction. "Names of people and places have been changed to protect the innocent. And to protect me from the not-so-innocent," Mr. Kimchihead writes. Almost all noir-influenced blogging blows, but this guy has the touch, on his snub-nosed keyboard.

Follow-up on social networks:

TechCrunch on "Why Digg Is Still the Best"
Center Networks on "Propeller Update - Up... Up... And Away!"

Wall Street Journal: free at last!

News Corp. chieftain Rupert Murdoch today confirmed that the Wall Street Journal web site is going all-free. This is great news, unless you run a financial blog or site.

"Instead of having one million (subscribers), (we'll have) at least 10 million-15 million in every corner of the earth," Murdoch told shareholders gathered in Australia. Those subscribers fork over about $50 a year on average.

(Update 1/11/08: Looks like the chief had second thoughts. At least a bit more of the Journal is free.)

The Journal made premium content work. When I worked with the Hollywood Reporter's web site, we always debated the free model vs. "the Wall Street Journal model." Since The Reporter dispensed exclusive entertainment industry news to pros, the web site had long been financed by subscriber expense accounts. In 2006, the publisher made almost all content free, in a move that had all of us sweating. It worked out, more or less. In any case, it was clear this was the way things were going in web media economics.

The New York Times, as you probably recall, made the move last summer, killling off the hated Times Select, which firewalled columnists and the full archives.

My standard advice to writers remains to always read the New York Times. That's where the standards are set for news and feature writing. No other paper comes close. But taking a good look at the Journal's writing always pays off.

The Journal writers are great at serving sophisticated and relatively unsophisticated readers at the same time. No matter how complicated or obscure the topic, there's always some basic information in the story to orient baffled readers. The Journal team's great trick is to do this without talking up or down. A lot can be accomplished in the parenthetical.

Update 10/14: WSJ adds Digg buttons to some of its content.

Want some cheap promo? Get carded

It's a simple thing but I bet most people don’t spend enough time talking up their blogs or web sites. People aren't impressed by the news that any of us are bloggers, but when we apply some enthusiasm to describing the unique content, that's another matter.

I do it all the time: Someone asks what I do, I mumble something about a couple of blogs, web consulting -- and let it go at that. Compare that with, "I write a high-end DVD blog, specializing in the cool and the unusual. And I write a blog about (dumb grin for efffect) writing for blogs." Oh, really? ...

Yaro Starak, who writes blogtrafficschool.com, had a good post on the power of word of mouth promotion the other day. He says, "Talking about your blog can generate exponential exposure, as your friends tell their friends about your blog, and so on and so on, creating a pyramid growth pattern of word of mouth. ... All you need to do is create the initial awareness."

Maybe so. The more memorable the concept, the better.

Two things I’d suggest, from experience.

Very few people can recall even simple URLs.

1. Have a business card (or cards) made up for your site(s). Just the URL and a half-dozen promo words. It'll run you about $15 at Staples.

2. Here's the important part: Carry these cards and hand them out! I have several URL cards and use them, but too often forget to refill my wallet. Duh.

When I see people I’ve carded, they almost always have checked out the blog and have something intelligent to say about it.