How to be Successful on Blotanical
In order to learn how to be successful on Blotanical we must first define what SUCCESS is. I'm going to make the assumption that for most bloggers who submit their blog and feed the definition of success would be more readers. Sure, we'd all like to be popular on Blotanical as well but if we boiled it down to the most important goal I think we could all safely agree that more readers were the epitome of our time here.
Each blogger enjoys a "honeymoon" period while their blog remains in the Recent Posts from the 200 Newly Listed Blogs. Posts are picked, a few messages are shared and you may even get faved by other Blotanists. But, once it's replaced with some newer blogs it's relegated to the backlogs with thousands of other gardening blogs.
So, once the honeymoon is over how do you keep increasing your readership even when you're competing against some very established blogs?
Finding Successful Blogs
With a little time on my hands I spent a few hours crunching the numbers on the 111 blogs (with working feeds) that were accepted in March 2010. The idea was to track how these blogs fared once they had slipped out of the 200 Newest Blogs and whether they had gone on to increase their readership or not. I continued tracking them until August 2010 - which is Blotanical's quietest month due to northern hemisphereans basking in their sun-filled gardens or heading of on vacation.
From the eligible 111 blogs that I started with only 7 had increased their readership share*. The remainder had either maintained their level of readership share, lost readers or had stopped blogging completely. I then took these 7 Blotanists and researched some variables that I thought might have contributed to their success; messages, picks, faving other blogs and faving other members.
The Results
I won't share individual names but I shall give the data to help you form your own opinions of how these different aspects of Blotanical may increase your success rate.
Conclusion
It's interesting to note that those with the best returns managed to maintain relatively consistent interactions over the six-month period. They picked posts, left messages, faved blogs and members in varying degrees.
While some bloggers seem to think that they can enjoy success by just submitting their blog to Blotanical yet it is apparent that those who contribute to the community and interact are the main beneficiaries. Engaging with Blotanists, whether they are bloggers or not, seems to increase the level of response to our posts.
If your blog has been losing readership, or the honeymoon period is over, then use some of your online time to communicate with Blotanists on a regular basis. Given a little time your readership should increase and the success of your blog on Blotanical will improve dramatically.
*(calculated by dividing the number of picks their blog received in April by the total number of picks in April and then comparing this to the number of picks their blog received in August by the total number of picks in August).
Each blogger enjoys a "honeymoon" period while their blog remains in the Recent Posts from the 200 Newly Listed Blogs. Posts are picked, a few messages are shared and you may even get faved by other Blotanists. But, once it's replaced with some newer blogs it's relegated to the backlogs with thousands of other gardening blogs.
So, once the honeymoon is over how do you keep increasing your readership even when you're competing against some very established blogs?
Finding Successful Blogs
With a little time on my hands I spent a few hours crunching the numbers on the 111 blogs (with working feeds) that were accepted in March 2010. The idea was to track how these blogs fared once they had slipped out of the 200 Newest Blogs and whether they had gone on to increase their readership or not. I continued tracking them until August 2010 - which is Blotanical's quietest month due to northern hemisphereans basking in their sun-filled gardens or heading of on vacation.
From the eligible 111 blogs that I started with only 7 had increased their readership share*. The remainder had either maintained their level of readership share, lost readers or had stopped blogging completely. I then took these 7 Blotanists and researched some variables that I thought might have contributed to their success; messages, picks, faving other blogs and faving other members.
The Results
I won't share individual names but I shall give the data to help you form your own opinions of how these different aspects of Blotanical may increase your success rate.
| Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Total | |
| Messages | 41 | 38 | 6 | 20 | 5 | 10 | 120 |
| FaveBlogs | 15 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 29 |
| FaveMembers | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 14 |
| Picks | 38 | 46 | 39 | 39 | 29 | 74 | 265 |
| Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Total | |
| Messages | 33 | 108 | 26 | 70 | 96 | 60 | 393 |
| FaveBlogs | 7 | 17 | 15 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 56 |
| FaveMembers | 2 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 19 | |
| Picks | 6 | 162 | 378 | 334 | 441 | 391 | 1712 |
| Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Total | |
| Messages | 187 | 87 | 3 | 1 | 278 | ||
| FaveBlogs | 10 | 4 | 14 | ||||
| FaveMembers | 14 | 6 | 20 | ||||
| Picks | 602 | 524 | 21 | 17 | 141 | 1305 |
| Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Total | |
| Messages | 22 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 27 | ||
| FaveBlogs | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 30 |
| FaveMembers | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| Picks | 0 |
| Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Total | |
| Messages | 4 | 13 | 9 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 39 |
| FaveBlogs | 8 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 18 | ||
| FaveMembers | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Picks | 35 | 31 | 8 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 83 |
| Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Total | |
| Messages | 0 | ||||||
| FaveBlogs | 0 | ||||||
| FaveMembers | 0 | ||||||
| Picks | 0 |
Conclusion
It's interesting to note that those with the best returns managed to maintain relatively consistent interactions over the six-month period. They picked posts, left messages, faved blogs and members in varying degrees.
While some bloggers seem to think that they can enjoy success by just submitting their blog to Blotanical yet it is apparent that those who contribute to the community and interact are the main beneficiaries. Engaging with Blotanists, whether they are bloggers or not, seems to increase the level of response to our posts.
If your blog has been losing readership, or the honeymoon period is over, then use some of your online time to communicate with Blotanists on a regular basis. Given a little time your readership should increase and the success of your blog on Blotanical will improve dramatically.
*(calculated by dividing the number of picks their blog received in April by the total number of picks in April and then comparing this to the number of picks their blog received in August by the total number of picks in August).
Subscribe to this feed
Comments
Hi, Stuart,
I guess it's like everything - you get out of Blotanical what you put in.
Which reminds me, I haven't been very active on Blotanical recently, because I can't pick anything. I'm not worried about my ranking, but I'd still like to be active because this is where I've made so many friends.
When you have a minute, could you let me know what the problem is?
Best wishes,
Victoria
Posted by: Victoria | September 14, 2010 4:21 PM
Blog 4 with no picks. Is that still stuck in the glitch that shows no picks? She/he has faved 30 blogs. Is it can't or won't pick? We need an intuitive simple guide to Blotanical 101 ... Jean was going to, but she is back to teaching sociology.
Wish you would send us a message like the 'You have been Faved' that warned us, you are about to bounce from New to Old!
Posted by: Elephant's Eye | September 14, 2010 4:59 PM
Wow! This really is a detailed analysis, Stuart! I'm sure it'll be really useful especially for the new members. Maybe you could add a link to this report on the home page?
Posted by: Sunita | September 15, 2010 10:48 AM
Sunita - Cheers. I'm thinking I might add it as a link to the New Blotanists welcome email.
EE - The glitch you are referring to has been fixed (note the forum update). As for this blogger they have not picked any posts since joining. They have still benefitted from other's Picking their posts but this may be attributed more to their other activities within Blotanical - i.e. Faving Blogs and Blotanists - or maybe they spend time commenting on other's blogs outside of Blotanical (of which I'm unable to track).
As for the "You are no longer listed in the Recent Blogs" message this may prove to be counter-active as Blotanists throw their hands-up because they've now been released to the bigger pool. I'd be interested to know how others would react to receiving such a message and whether it would have made any difference to their Blotanical activities.
Victoria - I'm not sure why you're not able to Pick posts. It seems to be working fine for myself and others. Can you please email some more specifics of the problems you're facing or leaving details via the Help Desk. My email is scrobins[at]westnet[dot]com.
Posted by: Stuart
|
September 15, 2010 4:09 PM
You are telling us about New Blogs, Gone Old, Make Good. There are 2 problems. I skim the posts from new blogs, but I would like a WARNING list - these blogs are about to move on, so you better catch your faves, before they melt, away. And I wish I would have known, back then, when I was bounced. We Blotanists have to make like Hercule Poirot. Why can't I see my post on the (new) list any more?? I have blogged about this http://elephantseyegarden.blogspot.com/2009/10/to-blotanists-new-and-not-new.html
Posted by: Elephant's Eye | September 15, 2010 6:18 PM
EE - I just read your great post and comments. I certainly understand the dilemma and like your ideas. I'm not sure a "WARNING" to bloggers that they are soon to fall off the list will be practical but an email telling them that they HAVE fallen off with some practical HOW-TO's now that they are in the wider pool may be practical.
I also like the idea of the option for selected category lists for Gurus. It's in the TO-DO list but probably won't get done until I'm back in WA.
Posted by: Stuart
|
September 16, 2010 7:18 AM
Hello everyone,
I am new on Blotanical and pretty happy to be here just to see other blogs and find interesting posts. I am not here for competition or to do anything be first ranked blogger. There is a lot of excellent blogs and lots of bloggers, certainly, we cannot see them all. Sometimes I haven't got time to post something new or to browse through Blotanical and that is OK with me. I am here to enjoy it.
Posted by: Vesna | September 21, 2010 4:28 PM
I'm a 'don't come here as much as I used to' person. I'm still put off by having to plough around between pages. (Though I do visit and appreciate many of the blogs I first found through Blotanical.)
However . . . I did want to add another blog onto my page but when I went to the Help Desk . . . you are only wanting important questions so I wandered off again.
If there's any chance of adding
http://esthersgardennotes.blogspot.com/
I'd be grateful. (Unlike my other blog it has photos.)
Esther
Posted by: Esther Montgomery | September 22, 2010 11:54 PM
Esther, that's fine you just have to submit it via the Add an Additional Blog form located in the Join section.
Posted by: Stuart
|
September 25, 2010 4:51 AM
Thanks for including my new blog Stuart.
It reminds me of something I've always been meaning to ask . . . would it be possible to have links to members' blogs on their home pages? For me, plodding around the pages in plots is always an irritation. On my computer at least they take much longer to load than the blogs themselves. (I have rarely had trouble getting any of the blogs to load, yet that is where the main focus of change has been.) If anything were to go to make space in the plots, I would gladly get rid of the information about favourite thises and thats.
Esther
Posted by: Esther Montgomery | October 4, 2010 2:22 PM
You are quite correct Esther and the Plot will see some very radical changes when Version 2 comes out next year. While I'm still on holiday at the moment, I am taking some time to invest in putting ideas together for the upcoming changes and once home will begin the coding to make them happen.
I appreciate your thoughts and will add them to the list of ideas I'm working through.
Posted by: Stuart
|
October 5, 2010 5:16 AM
Stuart - that list of ideas you are working on? Can you share what we have to look forward to in Version 2????
And I do wish you some of that Australian sunshine you need ;>)
Posted by: Elephant's Eye | October 9, 2010 4:33 AM
Not yet, EE. Once I get closer to making them live I shall allow some sneak previews.
Posted by: Stuart
|
October 25, 2010 5:43 AM