My New Addiction, Part II

As I mentioned in a previous post entitled, "My New Addiction," blogging has opened up my universe; I have found an emerging passion. It is cool to be able to voice your thoughts and opinions--and bam--you have an audience. After installing, Google Analytics, I found out that this blog has been viewed by folks in Hawaii, California, and even India! Call me a nerd, but I was tickled to see those statistics. Blogging is a new form of communication. I call it "the call and response." I write a post, you read it, and you respond--there is interaction. I also love to read other writers' blogs. My favorites are Blue Mosaic Me: The Writing Blog of Jackson Bliss and Alligator Legs. I like "Blue Mosaic Me" because Jackson Bliss, a Ph.D. Literature and Creative Writing student at the University of Southern California, blogs about the conversations he has with faculty including Aimee Bender, TC Boyle, and Percival Everett. He types verbatim both acceptance and rejection letters he has received from editors and literary agents. He shares the correspondence he has written to authors, literary agents and editors; he includes their responses (my favorite is the one from Junot Diaz; click here to read it). The other site I enjoy is Alligator Legs. I like how she blogs about the New York literary and arts scene. Plus, she chronicles her writing aspirations in New York City. Are there any writing blogs that you love?

The Countdown

School is coming to an end. It's like being back in grade school when you're counting down the days...that leaves me with question, "What will I do with my extra time?" I have a couple of things on the list which includes working on my short stories, reading, and perusing the library. And oh yeah, of course blogging. Before, I couldn't tell what traffic I was getting for this blog, but I uploaded Google Analytics and now I know. Thank you to all my Baltimore visitors, ya'll have been showing me love, and to all those from other locales. Thanks! I hope to keep giving you a reason to come back! Also, check out my other blog, The Writing Zone. For that blog, you can read about the writing process and post your comments. You even can become a subscriber (shameless plug, I know, but hey, you got to market yourself, right?).

My new addiction

The end is coming, and I am excited! May 11th will be my last day of class--Hallelujah! But I will admit, I have learned a lot this semester. For example, blogs! I never knew I would like blogging so much. I like communicating to an audience other than myself (I write all the time, but I only show a fraction of my work to the public). Blogging is cool because you control the content that you want on your blog. You can inform the audience about things you find important and the things that interest you. I never knew I would like blogging so much. Before taking electronic publishing, the word, "blog," intimidated me. I thought I had to be a computer whizz to master the art of blogging. Now, I see all I need is a computer with Internet, and I am good to go!

Confessions of a New Blogger

Blog statistics. The first thing I do when I turn on my computer is to checkout my dashboard to view the stats of my two websites, The Writing Zone and The Diary of a Black Prophet. Some days, my stats are so dismal. There are days when no one has visited my sites, and I think to myself, What is the point of maintaining a blog that no one reads? But on the flip side, there are days when you have a couple of clicks, and you become excited. So, I guess, I'll hang in there. Maybe one day, I will have daily traffic of hundreds of visitors on my websites. Wishful thinking? You never know.

P.S. For those of you that have blogs or websites, what do you do to attract visitors to your sites? And most importantly, how do you get them to come back? Help a novice blogger in training (smile).