Does your blog post represent a one night stand or marriage material? In other words, does it have long term potential? Over the last couple of days, we've considered the importance of catchy titles and personality. Thank you to everyone that has given me wonderful feedback and food for thought.
Ultimately, we have to decide, BEFORE we dress up our blog post and send it out to into the world, what our goal ultimately is. Do we want our dear little post to shine in the spotlight for the one day? Or do we want our post to have some long term potential?
I'll be honest.... the racy, sexy little post will attract attention. It's fun. It may be the life of the Active Rain Party for a day or so. While the other posts which are full of wisdom and insight are much more modest in comparison. The more modest posts may not attract lots of comments. Yet in the long run, the more modest types of posts have qualities that WILL cause them to be appreciated in the long run.
Overtime, I've figured out that not all of my posts that I care about will be appreciated by the Active Rain network. For example, posts about things that are highly local in nature - local politics, places and art generally will NOT generate a lot of comments. Every so often, I can figure out how to put a slant on it that will make the post a little more universally appealing. A great example of this is my post earlier this week about the The Big Sweep - the giant broom and dust pan that I was not allowed to fondle or caress, according to the plaque. That post was an exception.
Now here is the good news for the "modest" posts: The other day I discovered the "Statistics" button/link on the left hand side of my Active Rain Home page. Not only did the information displayed take me down memory lane, the numbers document the difference between the one night stand posts and the other posts. For each post of mine, the statistics page showed:
- How many comments
- The number of views
- How many clicks (Clicks are the number of times that someone actually opened the post)
I felt like a proud mama as I saw that the number of comments do not correlate to the number of actual clicks on the post over time. (It's also very exciting to see how much more traffic Active Rain is generating now compared to 2007 and 2008.)
I have no clue which posts that my great buyers and seller's that I acquired through Active Rain actually read. Regardless, I am exceedingly proud to say that of my top three of my four tops posts, from a click standpoint, were posts that meant something to me. None of my top long term posts were "featured posts."
1) I am most pleased to see that a post about about a local artist's work that I profiled was in the top three. http://activerain.com/blogsview/634623/pride-and-spirit-the-glue-that-binds-us-together. This post has had roughly 1,400 clicks even though it only received 10 comments.
2) http://activerain.com/blogsview/372209/neutral-or-colors This post discussed a listing of mine. The main topic was paint colors. It has had over 4,000 clicks.
3) http://activerain.com/blogsview/622412/getting-squashed-while-taking-pictures-of-the-brazos-river. I'm not exactly sure why this one has generated 1,900 views, but it has. Maybe pictures of the Brazos River are in short supply???? I did risk my life taking the pictures.
On the other hand, my fun posts that represented the "one night's stands" received less than 450 total clicks combined over the last few years even though they had the highest number of comments. (For any long timer's that might be reading this - my infamous porta-potty post has displayed longevity with over 900 clicks! http://activerain.com/blogsview/611138/new-homes-porta-potties-localism-art-perspectives
So.....to summarize: 1) Figure out what you are trying to accomplish when you write a post. Short term or long term success? 2) Be yourself. Let your personality shine through. 3) Use catchy yet descriptive titles. 
If you have written about something that is important to you, remember that the number of comments you receive DOES NOT reflect the long term value of your post.
Thanks for reading this and I will see you around in the Rain.
Note: Photos are of Cameron, my grandson and Emily, my Dad's blue heeler. I think they have long term potential.
Photographed,
written and posted by
Sondra Meyer CPA/Real Estate Broker
Star View Ranch, Real Estate & Financial Advisory Services
979-575-2700
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