Are blogs a complete waste of time?

[Snake Plissken]

Yo ... I've done a blog now for over a year at a medium-sized paper, and busted my ass the entire time -- scoring interviews with NFL sack leaders, and former Super Bowl MVPs with a fare amount of regularity.
Yet I hardly ever get ANY comments and responses by readers, which has to look bad to the boss.

Have any of you blogging vets found any tips for spurring responses -- like writing 10 inches or shorter, blogging every single day, only blogging after breaking news, narrowing your focus, etc?

I'm starting to think we here at Sportsjournalists.com should simply respond to each other's blogs, so we can all stay employed ...

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Reader response is always low. Newspaper web sites are no exception. Perhaps you should try Buck Henry's trick on an old SNL sketch where he played a radio talk show host without callers.
"Killing Puppies! I'm for it!"

 

[fishwrapper]

Yo ... I've done a blog now for over a year at a medium-sized paper, and busted my ass the entire time -- scoring interviews with NFL sack leaders, and former Super Bowl MVPs with a fare amount of regularity.
Yet I hardly ever get ANY comments and responses by readers, which has to look bad to the boss.

Have any of you blogging vets found any tips for spurring responses -- like writing 10 inches or shorter, blogging every single day, only blogging after breaking news, narrowing your focus, etc?

I'm starting to think we here at Sportsjournalists.com should simply respond to each other's blogs, so we can all stay employed ...

Would I have to read it?

 

[John]

Reader response is always low. Newspaper web sites are no exception. Perhaps you should try Buck Henry's trick on an old SNL sketch where he played a radio talk show host without callers.
"Killing Puppies! I'm for it!"

Some newspaper blogs get tons of responses. A friend that covers an MLB team averages about 100 comments a day on his.

 

[HejiraHenry]

Major. College. Football.

 

[marchmadnessallseason]

Major. College. Football.

Agreed. Team-specific blogs get tons of responses. I run a college basketball blog, March Madness All Season, and I don't get that many comments.

 

[NoTalentAndFatToo]

Yo ... I've done a blog now for over a year at a medium-sized paper, and busted my ass the entire time -- scoring interviews with NFL sack leaders, and former Super Bowl MVPs with a fare amount of regularity.
Yet I hardly ever get ANY comments and responses by readers, which has to look bad to the boss.

Have any of you blogging vets found any tips for spurring responses -- like writing 10 inches or shorter, blogging every single day, only blogging after breaking news, narrowing your focus, etc?

I'm starting to think we here at Sportsjournalists.com should simply respond to each other's blogs, so we can all stay employed ...

Unique readers and page views are what matters to the suits, not comments. Relax.

But, if you post the link, I'll be happy to make a comment if you think it will help ;)

 

[HejiraHenry]

I'm doing a very low-key blog right now and I don't care about reaction and readership as much as getting comfortable with the form. But I only say that because nobody is reading.

 

[zeke12]

Try starting all of your posts with "Yo".

 

[playthrough]

Yo ... I've done a blog now for over a year at a medium-sized paper, and busted my ass the entire time -- scoring interviews with NFL sack leaders, and former Super Bowl MVPs with a fare amount of regularity.
Yet I hardly ever get ANY comments and responses by readers, which has to look bad to the boss.

Have any of you blogging vets found any tips for spurring responses -- like writing 10 inches or shorter, blogging every single day, only blogging after breaking news, narrowing your focus, etc?

I'm starting to think we here at Sportsjournalists.com should simply respond to each other's blogs, so we can all stay employed ...

Unique readers and page views are what matters to the suits, not comments. Relax.

Not necessarily. One of my favorite BLOGS, Jim Borgman's editorial cartooning blog at the Cinci Enquirer, apparently did great with page views and even won some kind of award for being a first-of-its-kind blog (Borgman posts pages from his sketchbook, where you can see what he's thinking before he commits to one subject). Yet Borgman not too long ago had to beg for more comments, saying the suits measured success by comments as much as the other criteria. I think that's absurd -- it's akin to basing a paper's popularity on the number of letters to the editor -- but that's the suits for you.

 

[fishwrapper]

Try starting all of your posts with "Yo".

A wonderful suggestion. A short, succinct lede that never fails to capture both the aimless and dedicated reader.

 

[lantaur]

Without seeing your blog (if you're comfortable, you can PM me with it of course), sounds like you're writing stories in a blog, as you mention writing in terms of inches.

I don't think there's any one way to do a blog, but shorter often works best. Of course, being updated often works best, too.

That being said, if you're writing about the NFL for a city without an NFL team, that might not help. Being specific to the team(s) in town ain't a bad thing.

As someone else said, it's page views that count, not necessarily messages. I think some people are under the impression people will start posting comments like crazy just because they have a blog. Doesn't work that way.

 

[lantaur]

Not necessarily. One of my favorite BLOGS, Jim Borgman's editorial cartooning blog at the Cinci Enquirer, apparently did great with page views and even won some kind of award for being a first-of-its-kind blog (Borgman posts pages from his sketchbook, where you can see what he's thinking before he commits to one subject). Yet Borgman not too long ago had to beg for more comments, saying the suits measured success by comments as much as the other criteria. I think that's absurd -- it's akin to basing a paper's popularity on the number of letters to the editor -- but that's the suits for you.

That's because the people who are the Cincinnati Enquirer have absolutely no freaking clue. None.

 

[The Rules of Golf]

best way i've found to attract page views is train the readers to expect new blogs at multiple times of the day. that way, your core group is clicking 2-3 times a day instead of once or even less.

as for inciting commentary, call all your readers a name so foul you'd blush if you heard it in front of your mother, then say "What do you think?"

 

[thebiglead]

Think we've been over this:

a) link to other blogs. bloggers like that, and in turn, leave comments. it also really helps your technorati ranking which means ... yeah, not so sure
b) if you comment on other blogs, people will comment on yours
c) been around longer than a year, rarely had comments, and sometimes still get none. had what i thought was a great post on A-Rod getting a shirtless backrub. Funny video! Nary a comment. Guess people don't hate the guy that much.

I'm surprised to hear the Cincinnati story. Had no clue comments meant that much. Some of these team-specific sites are 10 people commenting over and over and over, which may turn into 50 comments. In reality, you may only have a few mouthy readers.

 

[Hustle]

What he said. Not like that hasn't been a longstanding rule or anything...

I like doing my blog. It's the one thing I feel like I have complete ownership over. I remember the EE came out and asked the SE if he could do a NASCAR blog. He didn't say a word and just pointed at me. So I'm fairly certain he doesn't give a rat's ass about it, which is fine by me.

The fact that I work for a paper gives me some kind of in with the PR folks (I think so, anyway). I don't cover but a few races each year, I'm not near Charlotte and I don't have near the institutional knowledge that the full-time folks have - so I feel like I have to go with a different slant. Like some of the recent original reporting I've done has been things like how the COT affected scheme design (I actually got Sam Bass on the phone for that) and a weekly interview with the RIR PR guy to get a sense of the work they put in to host a race. I talked to someone today for something in the future on why companies would choose to run a contingency program. So it lets me get a little creative, which might not be the case for some of the FT beat folks. Mostly, it's just random commentary though.

(Though I guess it's not complete ownership...I keep bugging the webgirl to let me put the thing on Blogburst, but she keeps ignoring my e-mails.)

 

[Sxysprtswrtr]

If you break news with your blog, you're gonna get comments.

 

[HejiraHenry]

And if, like one of my writers, you can get USA Today to quote your blog ... you'll get more traffic.

 

[lantaur]

Big Lead - I can't agree with you on your point about having to link - or comment on - other blogs, if we're talking about a MSM blog that is. I know it works well for you and Deadspin, but a MSM blog doesn't (and shouldn't) need to link to other blogs to make it successful. Especially beat-driven blogs.

 

[Elliotte Friedman]

Sorry, Mert.

I had a game tonight.

BRoth, links and an "NSFW" notice next time.