To anyone that has read my blog before (I think there are two of you), your eyes will be stunned to see that I have changed my layout. The old one just wasn't doing it for me. It kind of felt like the attention on the page was supposed to be for the things that were not written, as opposed to the words. The words are the whole point. I like this design because it's straight to the point: Here's my writing, now read it.
I spent a lot of time today trying to find a design that worked for me. I tried a few different layouts that I found at different free blogger template sites, but I just couldn't get any of them to work for me. On some of them, the HTML code wasn't very well written and you couldn't change the title of their template to your own blog without destroying the uniqueness of a certain design. I'm perfectly willing to give credit where credit is due for a design that I use, but I would still like to have my own title, you know? So since I couldn't figure out work arounds (let's face it, I am in no way a web designer; my knowledge of manipulating HTML is minimal at best) it took me a while to find a design that I liked. This is it. I'll see how it sits with me.
While I was working on redesigning this blog today, it got me thinking about the blog community and readership. I registered with BlogCatalog a few weeks ago, but I haven't really done anything with is since then. Not for lack of interest, just lack of time. I logged in to my account with them today and joined a community of women writers, but I have to say, I was kind of appalled at some of the groups that I saw. And I'm not easy to shock.
There were tons, I'm talking TONS of groups that were "Click Me and I'll Click You" or "Follow Me and I'll Follow You" of some other equally mundane title. I know that for people that monetize their blogs, such as myself, getting a lot of traffic is important. But I think that way of building up a readership is kind of like....well, cheating, if I have to put a word to it. I don't think people should visit your blog only for the sole purpose of clicking on your adds with the assumption that you will click theirs in return. People should visit your blog because they want to read it, or found you in a community of similar writers, or followed a link from somewhere else, or found you in a search engine because of similar interests. Not because they're trying to supplement their own income. It seems that people who use this click me/click you strategy to increase their page views are using it as a cop-out to actually having to create and post quality content.
That may seem hypocritical since I have ads on my blog. But I'll be honest and tell you that in the little-over-a-month period that I've been publishing, I have made $0.04. Yes, you're reading that correctly. FOUR CENTS. I'm not here to get rich. I'm here to write, to express my opinions, and to become a better writer in the process. If people decide to start reading this and I get higher ad revenue, all the better for me. But I'd rather that people visit this blog, read it, and return to continue to read it because they like what I have to say or how I say it; or maybe they don't like what I have to say or how I say it, but they want to keep visiting just to see what the hell I might say next.
I'd like readers for this blog just as much as the next person, don't get me wrong. I've done the RSS feed, registered with some feed readers, even set up that Technorati-watchamadozit, which has told me that I have no authority and rank somewhere in the 3-4 million range. Technorati has obviously never been to my house, or else he would know that I am quite authoritative and that there is at least one man in this world that ranks me as his #1 (and he would do well to remember that). Trust me when I say I barely understand what some of these things do. I want to help people find this blog, because I think I can make it enjoyable. But I want readers, not clickers. I want people to tell me what they think and give me their opinions and tell me how my story reminds me of their story, not just another hit on the counter.
I hope I'm not asking too much.
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