The IndiBlogger forum is now a read-only archive. Every public discussion is still here to read, but new topics and replies are closed.
Many of my friends - especially those dozens of youngsters who regularly flag my posts - may have noticed that I am off Indiblog for quite sometime. But my blog is active and getting readers as usual. I found that posting in Indivine neither helps getting more readers to my blog (primary reason why one may want to post here - nor improving Indivine Rank.
Has this been your experience also?
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I differ on it being complete waste. It's a tool and one can cleverly utilize it to, say, get true readers.
As Sorcerer said, it's scratch back thing. He is right on that point. But when scratched, if one scratches back and puts in some comments too, then it may or maynot start a readership on a mutual basis.
But one may be lucky enough to get the ball rolling.
I thank The sorcerer, Sinha and Lohia for addind different view points. Points raised are valid under different circumstances.
My blog is specially for oldies ( I mean the aged and ageing popluation, nothing derogatory - I am myself pretty old - and do not expect younsgeters to take interest. However, I do post many posts to my blog in quick succcession - more than two some days. Indiblog keeps a restriction that not more than two Indivine posts may be made per day and this ruling is incorrectly applied even when I post after waiting for 24 hours. And if the response from Indiblogger is luke warm (and superficial) should I waste my time?
I see your concerns, but every action, like sorcerer said , was mere scratch backs. Now if one can move further to bond further by reciprocative comments. Then it's good. Otherwise It's upto the person.
You are right. For some bloggers, like me, blogging is one of the engagements. For many others, blogging may be the only engagement. Interests, focus and target audience of blogs are also varied. Hence, more than mere scratching each other's back becomes almost impossible in the first case and your suggestion is highly valid in second case.
I think Sorcerer has generalized it.
Indiblogger has been the best help for me. My google analytics shows it! A visit from Indiblogger spends a 1:22 minutes on my site and visit 1.49 pages per visit. It is second only to facebook.
My guess is that sorcerer's topic (hardware review) is not for the crowd of Indiblogger. So he is just attracting people who just click like on indibloggers.
Google search has been a bad performer for me. But I think it will help Sorcerer very well because his site is an information dissemination site. (I am writing another thread on this)
About backscratchers, they really really are the scourge of blogging. But I have to admit that they are the majority in any forum you go to.
You can not generalize based on your experience. You have won two contests. So you are getting readers. I also write on general stuff like you. I don't get much from Indiblogger. I don't go about liking people without reading. So I can't like so many people (Don't have the time to read so many posts) to be liked back by enough people. (Because on an average for every two people you like, only one will like you back). And anyways having to read a post for every post of yours someone reads is not at all a sustainable model. Eventually you want to be read because people genuinely like what you write and not because you read one of theirs.
It isn't necessary that a contest winner gets a lot of traffic. The actual traffic comes during the contesta and not after the results.
I didn't generalise it :). I did say "In my experience".
IN Reply to The Fool: Instead of making Flagging "likes" after reading the post, it could be even on expressive Title / topic and / or a brief summary. This is equally meaningful. I should say yes I like it based on title or summary.
@The Fool
I read yours because you read mine is not a sustainable model. But guess what, any "Blog improvement forum" suggestion boils down to this. But I agree with you totally.
As to usefulness of Indi, I should give absolute numbers. I got today 15 referrals from Indiblogger. It is not a lot! But that is 30% of my traffic. So that's why I said Indi has been a good help. Google gives another 30%. But as I said the quality is bad. The repeat visitors from Indi and Facebook are 10 times better than Google. So it indicates that (at least so I believe) that Indi and FB crowd read what I write, like and come back. But I am sure I am never going to get 1000 readers a day anytime. Someday I might get one tenth of that. BUt in the distant future.
BTW, I have started getting lesser traffic after my contest wins, to go by google analytics :). But that may be because I post much lesser nowadays.
Much of the visits from IndiVine might have been recorded only because viewing a post is mandatory for voting. But even then, there is a probability that atleast a few of those get converted to loyal visits.
Till a few days back, most of the traffic from IB used to record an average time of around 20 to 30 seconds but today when I have looked at my analytics it went up to around 2 or 3 minutes which is the time sufficient to read a blog post. There is no harm in trying out things. We may succeed one day.
It has helped me always and i can vouch that indivine worrks for me!!!
Having said that, i dont discount opinions of theSoc n pramod as under each circumstances its how bloggers react to... N we cant help much... U will find genuine bloggers reaching out to ur blog n be converted to loyal followers/readers in less numbers everywhere... Not only here at indiblogger... N we have to live with it... There r ppl who are in only for personal gain.... I was in here for that too intially but the forum changed me.. It comes with experience, it comes with time and it will happen, most of our fellow bloggers who hang on to their blogs long will be mature soon, but newbies will still be there with u promote me i promote u model as this is a morale booster for them to write..
Through Indivine I have stumbled on some very good blogs that I now religiously try to follow and have got some genuine readers as well. Its good for me, but I guess its just that it tastes differently for different people...