November 1, 2005

1.3 Audience Synchroncity

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 5:39 pm

Interview with Indie
His Blog: The Synchronicity of Indeterminacy
URL: indeterminacy.blogspot.com
His audience: persons from all walks of life who like to read quality fiction–bloggers, high school and college students, people in the creative arts, and people who work with language in their jobs–his blogroll reflects his audience
Thing to note when you visit: the interactivity; the connection between Indie and his readers; the quality of the content; the special features and unique ideas

1.3 Audience Synchronicity

1.3 Audience

Indie has two English-language blogs and a Polish-language blog. Click the screen shot to see his satellite blog–Indeterminacies of Synchronicity. It’s this second blog that provides the venue for the feature that engages his audience in writing their own flash fiction stories each week. Each story posted there is rewarded with a link. The Polish-language blog offers translations of selected stories for a smaller segment of his audience.

Indie’s respect for his readers shows whenever he talks to or about them.

Indie, who is your audience?

I’ve been greatly surprised by the type of people reading my blog. In a nutshell I think of them as the blogging elite. I’ve received feedback from artists, musicians, authors, editors, stand-up comics, company CEO’s, psychotherapists, lawyers, professors and other high level professionals, many of them authors of intelligent blogs themselves. This is, for me, another sign of success. Not too long ago I noticed I had some referrals from an online university class in which the professor asked the students to analyze a flash fiction story of their choosing. He had included my URL as an example of flash fiction, a genre which I incidentally knew nothing about until long into the existence of my blog.

All this attention has been especially gratifying, but also intimidating. I hope I am able to keep up whatever it is that caught their interest.

How do your readers find out about you?

People have found me by accident, through links, random referrals, by word of mouth, using search engines and probably other ways I can’t imagine. I followed all the instructions for promoting one’s blog. I entered myself in all the directories and search engines, I use several traffic exchange programs, I comment at other blogs I find interesting (though these days I have hardly any time left for reading other blogs), I have a description and keywords list included in my blog template, which probably helps improve my search rank for various terms. Lately I’ve been presenting my blog at Blog Explosion’s blog battles. Also, many visitors seem to show up through image searches, which probably goes with the territory of having so many photo posts.

What do they like best about your site?

According to the feedback I receive, people like the idea of what I’m doing (pairing found photos with stories), even if they do not enjoy my writing. Others seem enthusiastic about the pace at which I post stories (five a week at the moment), as well as enjoying the stories. Others enjoy the interactivity or the fact that I try to answer all my comments. On weekends I post a photo without a story and invite my visitors to contribute their own story. I then post my take on the photo the Monday after. Those stories have all been collected at the companion blog indeterminacies.blogspot.com, including links to their respective authors. A few bloggers have been kind enough to write reviews about my project. I’ve linked to them on my front page, and would refer you to these for a feeling about what other people see in my blog.

Indie’s audience is made up of blogger readers from all walks of life. They could be the same people who read our blogs. It’s hard to miss Indie’s connection with his readers. I suspect that even with the great photos, stories, interactivity, and sense of community that the biggest attraction for readers is Indie.

What brings readers to your blog?

–ME “Liz” Strauss


Filed under Audience, Community, Content, Interviews, Strategy, Successful Blog |



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6 Comments to “1.3 Audience Synchroncity”

  1. November 2nd, 2005 at 2:05 pm
    Doug said

    It’s good to see Indie get his desserts. As a long time reader, I consider his site to be the epitome of blogging as an artform, balancing as it does word, image, personality, interactivity and immediacy. Ave, Indeterminacy!

  2. November 2nd, 2005 at 4:30 pm
    ME "Liz" Strauss said

    Hi Doug,
    Well, I’m glad to see that his readers are making it over to see all of the features and qualities that make Indie’s blog so special.

    You’re right it is the epitome of an artform.
    Thanks for coming Doug. I hope you’ll come back again to join the conversation.
    Liz

  3. November 2nd, 2005 at 7:58 pm
    pcunix said

    I miss this sort of thing.

    I have so much on my plate.. a few years ago I made a deliberate decision to stop reading fiction, simply because there is so much non-fiction that I *want* to read that I will never have the time to get to it. The problem with being curious about just about anything is that there’s so dang much of it..

    I indulged myself and read a few of Indie’s stories. My sister will chide me because she regularly tells me about good fiction she has recently read, and I sigh and remind her that I only read non-fiction. I have to tell her about Indie’s site, because it would be a criminal act not to, but that is admission of sin.. oh well.

  4. November 2nd, 2005 at 10:04 pm
    ME "Liz" Strauss said

    Hi PC,
    Good to see you!
    You’re right about that curiosity thing, it often keeps me going around reading everything, when I should be doing other things. . . . But hey without my curiosity I wouldn’t have learned anything.

    I think your sister will forgive your sin as soon as she reads Indie’s first story. You can always say that Liz made you do it. :)
    Liz

  5. November 3rd, 2005 at 2:13 am
    indeterminacy said

    Doug: You’ve always been very kind and warm with your praise. That kind of encouragement has had its effect on me. Probably I would have given up long ago without it. You forget to tell everyone what a brilliant and successful blog you have, the definitive, modern-day answer to Ambrose Bierce and his Devil’s Dictionary.

    PCUnix: I think most people feel like you. They’ve reached a point of saturation. Not only is there too much of everything in the Internet, finding your way to the quality content is a long and difficult process. Humble thanks that you want to count me to that group. (My muse went recently looking around to try and find writers’ blogs and was shocked. It was all crap, she told me. I never tried to look. Usually when I had to list my blog somewhere I listed it under photogrpahy. I didn’t consider myself a writer’s blog. Maybe that was a wise choice to make. Anyhow, I’m honored that you found something you think good enough to share. I limit my reading these days to the well kept secrets.

  6. November 7th, 2005 at 6:37 pm
    What Is Content that Keeps Readers? » Successful Blog said

    [...] YOU We saw from our interviews last week, how readers respond to the intangibles Indie brings to his blog. Our presence, our voice, our respect for our readers, they are the nuance, the one-of-a-kind sauce on the expensive meal. Too peppery, too sweet, too salty, too bland, and readers will think this dish isn’t worth having again. On the other hand, get the right balance and they’ll be back every night. [...]

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