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BlogCatalog, Traffic, Readers And You

By , on September 9th, 2009

A common recurring theme in threads on the BlogCatalog Discussion Boards is traffic. Specifically traffic generated from BlogCatalog to member’s blogs. The question, “Can/Do you get traffic from BlogCatalog has been asked and answered in many different ways, many different times.

The problem here is that, in most cases, people are asking the wrong question, or at least asking the question in the wrong way, and the answers that follow continue down the same path to the wrong place. The real question that we sould be asking is “Can/Do you get readers from blog catalog.

When I first came to the BlogCatalog discussion forums, at the invitation of Mark Stoneman, it was to a thread where several members were hotly debating whether it was good for the community to allow back scratching threads to be posted in the main discussion boards. You know, the “digg me and I’ll digg you”, “add me and I’ll add you”, “favorite me and I’ll favorite you” type threads that really don’t serve any one well, and actually hurt those participating in them the most.

I dove right in arguing for the banning of these types of threads from the boards, and I’ve been here ever since. During that time, TonyB contacted me through the shout box and said something that clued me in that BlogCatalog was a place I wanted to be. Tony said, “We don’t want to send traffic to the blogs, we want to send readers”. Not traffic, readers. That’s such a simple thing to say, but it’s also a very powerful thing.

Anyone can send traffic to your blog, for all the good that will do you. But readers, now there is something worth having sent to your blog. So don’t ask yourself how much traffic BlogCatalog has sent to your blog. Look instead to the comments and the statistics for the readers that have found your blog through BlogCatalog. A single reader is worth more than thousands upon thousands of visitors to a blog.

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Jan

Unfortunately, my niche target audience is very unlikely to be found within the broad readership of blogcatalog.com. That said, I'm not here for the traffic, or for the readers, but for the socializing, and the valuable tips on blogging, and all the everyday life stories that circulate here.

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Grievous Bodily Charm

Nice article. Something I was pondering also. Nice to see you also use the Thesis platform. I am a big fan and use it for a lot of projects. I like how blogcatalog is ratified and dont just accept any garbage. :)

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timethief

Without doubt BlogCtalog delivers targeted readers to my blogs, as opposed to, indiscrimante traffic that amounts to a flood of one hit wonders resulting in a high bounce rate. Targeted readers are far more likely to:
read more than one post when they visit;
become regular readers;
seek out my blog when they are looking for specific blogging tips;
leave meaningful comments that expand my knowledge base;
become subscribers.

And that's why Blog Catalog rocks! It's the best social network I have found.

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Theresa111

Readers means they will be repeat, whereas traffic is like rush hour and jams to silence and void. Good content and appreciative readers with whom one builds a rapport is very desirable, compared to having lots of surfers zoom in and off your site. There for the moment and too concerned with the next spot to check out.

BlogCatalog.com is a haven for sensitive, talented, opinionated and creative artists. We are offered a home base of security in cyberspace to park our works of thoughts, our crafts and arts, to explore out and then to return. As we venture out to meet and explore other members, we leave a trail showing our points of contact and an easy way to return to our exciting finds. Likened to bread crumbs in the children's story.

Readers read. Traffic is only momentarily rewarding. It is clearly a case of quality versus quantity.

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Dee

Yes indeed, receiving tons of readers will more likely get your blog more activity. What good is traffic if the traffic is just passing by.

Oh, you're goooood :P

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vinay kiran

A wonderful article and a must to read for the Blogcatalog users. I have been in this site for over 2 months and have understood the importance of the readers. My traffic has substantially increased as well. Thanks for the good work being done by you, informing people about the value of Blogcatalog.
www.vinay-kiran.blogspot.com

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