The Blogo-gloom?

Recently Alice commented on an earlier post of mine on the growing blogo-gloom! Now, what is that! For those who are not very accustomed with the term, well, it simply means 'a gloomy atmosphere in the blogosphere'. By gloomy, we mean, more and more people are feeling more and more reluctant than ever to write full fledged blog posts. Why is that? Let me take this opportunity to scrutinize it a bit further.

With the advent of high tech social networking sites and micro-blogging sites, are people more inclined to write within a sentence or two, whatever they feel like?

Facebook and Orkut, the two premiere social networking sites have n-number of features which make it easy to share thoughts, comments, pictures, videos, articles and what not! With the age of less time-more work, more and more people are hooking on to them. And yes, how can I forget Twitter. Of course it is the mother of micro-blogging!

The resultant, writing a long blog post and meticulously placing relevant photographs, making the content catchy and beautiful is not exactly the order of the day, any more!

However, there is a different kind of flavor in full fledged blogging and helps to bring out the true writer in you, which can never be accomplished through bits and pieces commenting and status updates.

Regarding the intermittent gloom in blogosphere, well, I am pretty sure that this is a temporary phase. Everyone needs varieties. [At least I need]. Life usually goes a full circle and would be true in this instance as well.

So, when the phase of Facebooking and Twittering is over, blogging will return. For me, it has already... that is exactly why, you are seeing this blog post.

Alice, I broke my jinx. Let us see when others break...

Reborn

Hi friends
I thought a lot and lot and lot. About what? About my blog - how to improve. Somehow the old template had started looking congested and too much in-your-face. So, thanks to all of your suggestions, Blah blah blah... is reborn into Dreams and Realizations.
Finally I have a new theme for my blog. Let me know if you like it.

I still require all of your support and encouragement to keep this going. By God's grace, I have still not suffered from the typical Blogger's block. So, I continue with my ramblings...

Oh one thing.. I had lost my blogroll (blame it on my intuitions) and now, although I have one in place, not sure if I have all my erstwhile friends there. Hence, request you to check my Blogroll in my menu bar. Do comment if you do not find yourself there.

Until next time...

High traffic on my blog - tips anyone?

HIGH TRAFFIC. This is an aim every blogger has - whether or not he really agrees to it. Only the ones with a private blog are exceptions). In order to achieve this, there are many different tips and tricks and I tried many of these in these 3 years of blogging. Let me recount what all did I try to do:

1. Write quality articles:
I tried doing it. There were aberrations depending on mood swings and others, however, overall I did try doing it. I also tried emphasizing on current affairs and those which will catch the attention of readers.

2. Be regular:
Every month, I wrote articles. Though it was not possible to post each day, yet, the counts were substantial.

3. Focus on a specific topic:
I did not do this, simply because as a person, I have varied interests and that persona got reflected onto my blog as well. So, one would find topics that are very close to my heart, very personal and also those which have been written mainly to drive awareness among the masses.

4. Have a blogroll:
I have one of the longest blogrolls in the blogosphere - which boasts of some of the most exciting writers.

5. You comment, I reply:
I always do that. There are hardly any posts which have not been replied to. If your post belongs to that category, I am sincerely sorry. Let me know, I shall surely reply.

6. Read others' blogs and comment regularly:
I do that regularly. That is why my blogroll has blogs sorted by 'most recently updated'! I support constructive and healthy commenting.

7. Got my blog listed in directories and submitted to search engines:
You would find Blah blah blah... listed in many blog directories all over the world surpassing regional and ethnic boundaries.

8. Have an attractive look and feel:
I think mine is not bad. What do you think?

9. Have Google index my pages:
I have done this as well.

10. Have a high page rank:

Frankly, I had managed to have a maximum of 1 (only! :( ) at one point of time. Today, it is zero! My Alexa rank is not too attractive either, but since Alexa counts visits from only those nodes where Alexa toolbar is installed, it may not be a very accurate measure of a blog's popularity.

And in spite of all of these, I am unhappy with my visitors' count. I am unhappy with the amount of distinct hits that I receive. I am sad because my efforts are not really bearing fruits.

Now, readers, question for you: Why is it so? Suggest me what can be done to increase my blog appeal, its attractiveness, its visitor count. Be specific. Mention, where there is scope for improvement. I am really looking forward to some constructive criticism.

Image reference: My blog stats from June 14 - July 14' 2009. (Google Analytics)