Volume is important--nobody's going to come to your site if they can't get fresh stuff every day.

And there is also the simple matter of good writing. A lot of personal ("my life") sites out there are stream-of-conciousness dreck without punctuation, capitalization, or any effort at organizing thought. That makes (in my mind) for a difficult, and thus, unattractive read.

On the other hand, there's the little matter of marketing. You can have the world's best mousestrap, but if you don't tell anyone about it, nobody will come beat down your door.

This bit of advice may be worth every penny you pay for it, but I think it helps to have a focus. If you're going to blog about golf, pop music, high-end mathematical theory, and Vatican II's enduring legacy, well, you may have a reflection of your interests, but it won't be a focused effort. People who have to wade through a lot of stuff they don't like (Vatican II, math, pop music) to get to the stuff they do like (golf) will go for the pure deal.

There is a term for this affliction.

http://www.samizdata.net/blog/glossary_archives/001999.html

It's not a pretty word, but its communicative.

Mitch,

Dumb question. Do you think timing matters? My schedule is strange and for the most part I can't publish until late evening. Do you think that makes a difference? I guess I am not all that concerned on my hits, they steadily go up, but could they be any better if I were to post early in the morning?

Jo: The devil is in the details. I've noticed on my hit logs that I get three big surges a day: 8-10AM, Noonish, and 7-10PM. I try to have new material online for the morning rush; I usually try to post *something* for the evening rush, which is harder, since I don't blog at work. Blogger's "post to the future" function is your friend; I'll often write something and save it for later use, so even if I'm running late I can post SOMEthing in the morning.

PolicyGuy: Focus is good, I think. I know I don't especially achieve it. My blog is pretty schizophrenic.

I'm starting a blog within a few weeks. My question has to do with advertising. How do you work advertising on your site? How do you know what to charge?

Also, the above advice from your blog has been ver usefull to me. Thank you. I have not registered my URL yet. It happens soon. Any advertising advice you could give me would be appreciated.

For advertising? Try Blogads. Go to blogads.com and sign up.

It may take a few weeks to hear back from them, so be patient. And unless you're doing a niche blog - on some very special interest - be ready to wait a while to sell any ads (except to friends of yours). Blogads usually go to higher-traffic sites. So get lots of traffic! That's not always true - I've seen some very small political sites get ads - for their party, of course. And blogs frequently advertise.

Here's a trick - blogads allows you to have a secret code that allows people to advertise for free. Give that code out to some of your blogger friends, and let them place free ads. It helps to build SOME blogads traffic numbers, which will make it more likely that paying advertisers will find you.