5 Questions About Blogging: Viviane
Apr 5th, 2007 by Viviane
The introductory post for this series.
It’s only fair I answer these questions, too.
When did you start blogging?
I started by commenting in 2005, by commenting on Jefferson’s blog. I had a Blogger account for commenting as Viviane and it was an easy jump to starting posting interesting items.
What do you like about blogging?
I like the information sharing aspect. I was always someone emailing friends with tons of interesting items, so it was easy to start doing it online.
Is blogging a major or minor way of connecting to other people for you?
A minor way of connecting, which as Chris Hall says, has become a disproportionately large part of my social life. I was reading and commenting on blogs when I was doing the Sex Blog Roundup last year. I also corresponded with bloggers when they starting up their blog and wanted advice. It’s also brought me visibility I haven’t always wanted.
I got to the point where I was reading a lot of NYC based bloggers, and was curious about the people behind the blog, which is why I started the Perverts’ Saloon. It is a small group and it has a literary standard – I have to like your writing. It’s turned into a really nice community.
Where’s your blog? Do you use a free hosted service (Blogger,Wordpress, Livejournal, AOL, Google Pages, etc.) or do you have your own domain and web server?
I have 5 different blogs on Blogger. I have a Livejournal page I post to. Just found about Vox (owned by SixApart) and am playing around with that. I’ve been kicking around moving the Carnival to my own server, both because of the size and TOS issues. I have Twitter, too.
What do you do to promote your blog or your writing (using tags in your post, blog roll, del.icio.us, Digg, Pingoat)?
I spend a lot of time working “on” a blog in addition to posting to it.
Early on, I would learn by doing, and then tell Jefferson and Madeline what to do. I set up Marcus’ blog.
Once I had a group of blogs, I spent some time submitting their RSS feeds to various engines, other blog directories (the Open Directory project, etc.)
I spent some time working on Lolita Wolf’s template and blog, and she’s the one who dubbed me ‘Blog Mommy.’
I claimed my blog on Technorati, which tracks many blogs. I get regular updates on who is linking to me, and I write thank you emails.
I search Technorati tags to figure out the ones that have the most posts and use those tags.
I use Statcounter and MyblogLog and check on who’s visiting me.
The Carnival is listed on Sexoteric’s blog news feed.
I ping multiple search engines and sites using Pingoat. I don’t use Pingomatic anymore, because it times out too often.
I read Darren Rowse’s Problogger, which has great tips on marketing a blog.
The Carnival has many outbound links to other blogs and many blogs link back to us (50% of my traffic is via links from other blogs). I used to have a huge blogroll when I was contributing a sex blog roundup to Fleshbot, but have weeded it down severely.
I don’t use Digg, because I haven’t really figured out how to use it. Also, it’s easy for a few users to bury your story.
I bookmark interesting posts on del.icio.us, and viewers still come in through those links.
Only recently burned a feed through Feedburner, whch let me add interactive elements. If I were to do this again, Feedburner and Technorati are the first things I would do.
Thank you for this series: it’s invaluable for the new blogger, as well as being interesting!
I still don’t know where you get the time! You’re a star.
Ah delicious Viviane, I am really enjoying this series. I can only echo Suzanne and say I don’t know where you find the time to give so generously but I am glad you do. To be a part of your creation is my pleasure.
hugs,
M x
You’re amazing, Viviane. Thanks so much for this informative post. I’m such a novice when it comes to blogging, and I still don’t understand half of the terms thrown about on a regular basis.
Cheers,
Alison