As much as it pains me to admit it, blogging looks like it's here to stay, at least for the next several years. I've made it no secret that I despise the stupid e-diaries, yet people seem to enjoy them. Furthermore, certain people search the web looking for blogs. Enter Technorati and Gawker.com. These sites allow users to search through millions of blog entries to find one that suits or entertains them. You can search by keywords or by title, so how do entries end up as a search result?
Technorati features the top ten blog searches on their home page. I clicked on the fifth most popular search of the day, iPod, half hoping to see my post from last week on there. Unfortunately, my post was titled "The obvious choice," whereas the search results that popped up were more concisely titled posts such as "iSuck" and "iDon't". The majority of the posts that turned up started with a lower-case i. Therefore I think that the title of a post (or headline, although I hate that term for blogging) needs to suggest what the post is about.
However, a look on gawker.com reveals that name recognition doesn't hurt either. Gawker brought up a lot more mainstream publications, like the New York Times and Newsday. This site seems like much less news and much more gossip, so the only searches that I did that actually turned up pertinent posts were of celebrities. Apparently Paris Hilton's perfume smells like teen crack. Did I mention how much I hate blogs?
I guess the best info I can give if you're trying to get your blog seen is to try to do three things. 1) Talk about hot topics in the news. It wouldn't hurt to drop in a celebrity's name. 2) Have a famous name yourself. This might not be too helpful for all, which is why you can also just work for a famous publication. 3) Include a suggestion of what the post is about in the title. See today's title.
Leave a comment