Sitting shiva for yesteryear’s bloggolalia

By which I mean: last year. Have you noticed that blogging in general (the reading of, as well as the writing thereof) seems to be ebbing? Or, like me, have you been too caught up in the delirium of 21st century life for this to even really register?

Covered with shame though I am -- I mean, it’s been nine days since my last post -- all the above has come to light because I’ve finally showing my virtual face in order to accept an utterly undeserved acknowledgment -- the Prolific Blogger Award, bestowed upon me 33 days ago by my colleague Dot Hearn.

O, the ignominy. Grateful as I am to Dot for this distinction, she deserves it far more than I; she’s logged four posts already for March alone. All the same, I’ll take it, of course -- attention is attention.

The way the game works is that as a new honoree, I’ll name seven more prolific bloggers, each of whom will identify seven more -- thus perpetuating the distinction exponentially. Thus it’s like a chain letter, but with the benefit of immediate gratification. Yet when I went go to some of the old faves (sorry, I won’t name names), I was dismayed to find the virtual ink seems to have run dry. Most of them wheezed to halt several months ago. One former comrade, whose work I read daily, is now a year in arrears! Most damning of all, for me personally, is that I hadn’t really………noticed.

Is this cyclical, part of the ebb and flow of cosmic drift? Or have we, as true blue Americanetskys, just used up the experience and moved on en masse as early adopters of fresher, more supple “social utilities”? Blame Twitter et al. if you want, but strangely, I’m getting more visitors to this blog than ever. Someone’s reading, but where have all the bloggers themselves gone?

So. “Now more than ever,” right? As a salute to the few still writing the good write, here’s a passel some of my most oft-visited blogs:

Marissabidilla. With observations on cultural life in San Francisco and beyond that somehow combine the glee of That Girl! with the solemnity of a probate lawyer, I hungrily await this girl’s next posts.

Bamboo Nation. Still your go-to site for cultural singularities of all varieties. Makes Gawker look like downright tweedy.

The “blog” of “unnecessary” quotation marks. Still wryly excoriating after all these years.

Regretsy. The name’s a play on Etsy, the site for all things handmade. All Regretsy has to do is cull the most gobsmacking inexplicable craft items up for sale (you mean that’s for sale?? no way) and repost them, often without comment. I can’t describe Regretsy any better that its own tag line does: “Where DIY meet WTF.”

Fertile Ground Festival. Temporarily dormant. Temporarily. It will rise again. Pre-fest and during it, Trish Mead’s street-level blog was a hotbed of ferment, a peek into the crucible of new work for performance. I miss it, and can’t wait for it to crank up again in anticipation of FG 2011.

Art Scatter. Mr. Scatter and his retinue, which include Mrs. Scatter and the Big Smelly Boy, is still my favorite cultural gadabout here in mossy Portland OR.

And finally -- apologies about self-promotion be damned! -- there’s my very own The Editing Room, which posts occasional news and open questions about the writing process. I post this so I that I’ll now go to my own blog and post something there for the first time in weeks. I mean months. But who’s counting anymore, c’est vrai?

First, however, must visit Twitter. How else would anyone know that I actually have a new blog post?

Goddess Bless You, Diva!

Typically this blog gets 10-15 hits a day, which I consider not too shabby (as my sainted mother-in-law likes to say) for the inane ramblings of a theater geek. But recently it's jumped to an average of FIFTY daily visits.

How come? Credit where it's due, folks. One week ago today I blogged about Alec Egan's art opening, which was graciously hosted by the fabulous Kate Mulgrew. And it turns out that Kate can boast of a voracious fan base that misses nothing where she is concerned. We all know or assume we know how public a life of celebrity can be, but until now, I don't think I totally got it.

So thank you, Kate, for all the people you've brought to my blog, from Italy and Ireland and the United States Minor Outlying Islands that I didn't even know existed. Heaven only knows what they make of my pupu platter once they get here (they don't stay long once they've had their Kate fix), but hey, as Dr. Benjamin Spock used to say: attention is attention.

Lurkers vs. Commenters: a coda

I happened across this posting tonight whilst looking for something else. It should come as no surprise that there are blogs about blogging, but this post, from Blog about Your Blog, addresses what so many of you said recently in one way or another that I thought I'd share this treatise. Bon appetit.

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Everyone likes comments.

There are bloggers who put comments above visits when judging their own success. I’m always pleased to see in the morning several comments stretched over my blogs. In fact nothing makes the process more enjoyable for me than reading a new commenter and seeing them come back.

Over at Jakob Nielsen they determined that reader participation often more or less follows a 90-9-1 rule:

· 90% of users are lurkers (i.e., read or observe, but don’t contribute).
· 9% of users contribute from time to time, but other priorities dominate their time.
· 1% of users participate a lot and account for most contributions: it can seem as if they don’t have lives because they often post just minutes after whatever event they’re commenting on occurs.

Now it’s true that this ratio is something that you’re just going to have to accept, there will always be a much higher percentage of lurkers. It doesn’t matter who you are. There are some ways to improve upon them though. I’ve sifted through a lot of them and here are what I consider the best ten ways to squeeze those comments out of your readers and of course in doing so make you smile (go on it’s ok - at least a grin).

1. Ask for the comment. Invite your readers to leave a comment or participate. For new readers to your site they may feel a little out of your community. This is your chance to say ‘hey I want to hear what you’ve got!’

2. End your post with a question. This gives a springboard for your readers to know what they can say if they want to comment but not sure what to say.

3. Make it easy to post a comment. If it is too hard to leave a comment who is going to bother? You’re already batting against the 90:9:1 ratio. Don’t make it so your readers have to a particular account to leave a comment. I’m not against the verification text myself to stop spam either.

4. Make friends with other bloggers, by leaving comments and striking up conversations you will often get loyal readers in return. It’s never a good idea to go out of your way to be negative on someone else’s blog because you’ll only hurt your own reputation in the long run.

5. Interact positively with your comments. If someone takes the time to leave a comment you should respond! Even if you don’t agree with what’s said you can always discuss it like an adult without turning it into a negative conversation. Others will see you responding and be encouraged themselves.

As with anything some of these will work for you and others may not. Why not pick one and force yourself to do it for at least 2 weeks to see what difference it makes to the comments.

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Blogger

Is it something I said?

Maybe it's something I fail to say. Or the way my blog postings are worded, or perhaps they're just not compelling enough to invite comment. I know from the site meter that people arrive and depart from this virtual Illyria, yet only rarely do they feel moved to leave behind some trace.

Sister Michael Anthony always used to say that comparing yourself to others is fatal. But I can't help but be a bit jealous of those colleagues o'mine whose posts always inspire a few responses, and occasionally -- as in the case of Blogger Extraordinaire Prince Gomolvilas -- elicit long chains of reaction.

Okay, bad example. I just visited Bamboo Nation (Mr. G's aforementioned blogolopolis) and noticed that it is ineluctably fascinating. But what about the blogs of certain friends who detail the most quotidian of their doings and average several comments per posting?

You say: hey Dr Phun, how bout a little whine with that cheese, and of course you're right. But to brandish another cliche: I just want to be loved, is that so wrong??

So I ax you. Allow me, for once, to solicit your comments directly. What am I doing wrong? You're the only one who can help me, Obi-wan. What excites readers' interest enough for them to reassure me I am not all alone out here?

more technomania

So I add a tag-board -- see it there, to the far right, just under my pulchritudinous visage? -- and then within an hour, a shout out appears, courtesy of the glam Marc Acito, of How I Paid for College fame. A celeb! On my bloggling!

But then: you're all celebs to me -- from the dashing Enrique Urueta to the ever-lurking Ken Roht to my own dear sainted mother -- but MARC ACITO. I have taken the liberty of imbedding HIS visage, in another portrait by the tireless Gwenn Seemel. Now you too can accost him on the streets....

By the way, just in case you're not a charter member of the computer cognoscenti, the idea of the tag-board is that now you can leave messages for me, or for yourself or for others, on the board without having to comment on a posting. My assumption here is that the astral plane teems with people hoping to do just that. Leave messages, I mean, not teem.

Have at it. Please.