What is a blog directory? A blog directory is basically a catalog of blogs. Some give you a direct link and most will allow you to enter some kind of descriptive text and a category for the blog. Many directories will also track statistics and may even offer ranking based on visitors. Of course, many directories offer a community where you can join groups and leave comments.
I don't spend a lot of time registering for directories. 1) it takes a lot of time that I could be writing, 2) different directories have various rules for inclusion, 3) I think the search engines are aware that directories are a type of link exchange and discount them, 4) I have participated in several directories on various blogs and none of them ever sent me much in the way of visitors.
There are a few directories that I have registered with that have sent me some traffic. A few of those are blogrush (which is more of a widget thingie than a directory), blogflux, blogcatalog and blogarama. Most of these I registered for a long time ago. I know some people who swear by directories and spend a small part of each day registering with them.
Regardless of that, I found a list of directories that seems to include most of the main sites. That would be RSS - Blog Directories.
Do you use directories? If you do, which ones have been successful for you?
LewisC
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Blog Directories
Monday, October 1, 2007
What if someone already wrote it?
A question I have been asked, and a concern I have thought of myself, is the question, "What if it's already been said?" Have you wanted to post on a blog topic and then thought about how many people may have blogged in that topic before you? How many people may have been more original on the topic? Did that make you stop and walk away from the keyboard?
To digress for a second, I get quite a few writer newsletters. I usually let them accumulate in my inbox and then read a bunch all at one time. One of the newsletters that I really like is WrteSuccess. Maybe one day I will write up a list of newsletters that I like but that's not the topic today.
Today's WriteSuccess had a very good quote from a master writer, CS Lewis.
"Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it." --C. S. Lewis (1898 - 1963)
Add blogging to literature and art and that answers the question. What if someone already wrote it? So what, give it your spin. Be honest. Write.