March 29, 2012
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Make Quotes, not War
So every week or two we have people writing blogs (@Cakalusa wrote one) about how those dastardly quotes people might be cheating to get the #1 blog spot. After all, they are getting thousands of views while others only get hundreds. They must be doing something wrong.
However, I'm not so sure that this is true. For one, type "Xanga" into any search engine of your choice. What do you get as the auto-suggest? Take a look:
The typical Xanga user used to be a teenage or college-aged woman. That's changed a little over time, but there are still many of them on here. And they tend to like quotes, photos, and reblogging. That's what they search for, and that's what they look for. If you think teen women don't influence results and visits, who do you think determines who wins American Idol? As much as it hurts my competitive heart...their views may be legitimate, and they are more popular than me. I'll go cry into my coffee now.
Also, the real way to get lots of views is not to get comments and Xanga friends. I used to run a blog elsewhere that would get 3000/6000 views on an entry and 0 comments--because all the views were from Google search or link from other sites. If you want more views, learn Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how to use proper titles, tags, and links to get more people to find your stuff. Write about current events in unusual ways. There are a lot of easy ways to get hits if that's what you want.
Anyway, I just want to say, there are some explanations as to why the quotes sites are so popular. I intentionally decided to get to know some people who ran quotes and survey sites (waves at Katie and Kayla) and they were both very friendly and pleasant. So go meet some of the quotes and survey people already: they use this site too. I hope this won't become a giant us vs. them debate.
Comments (16)
My search results for both yahoo and google return nothing about quotes. Google engines tend to personalize many searches over time.
Aha that's so funny... Yeah.. Back off the girly girls... Mean ass bitter folks!
@CaKaLusa - OK SO MAYBE I SEARCH GOOGLE FOR XANGA QUOTES ALL DAY (breaks down crying in shame). Ok, ok, here's a non-personalized, non-Greek biased take. "Xanga Quotes" is the #2 term for search traffic according to Alexa: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/xanga.com
It's more attractive than meta-blogging.
@GreekPhysique - I KNEW YOU DID! kidding.
Despite it being #2, I still find it hard to believe these sites would garner that many in such a short period of time considering Xanga's been on a downward trend the past 5 years.
I don't really mind the quotes girls. I don't sub or anything, but when they come up on the front page I sometimes enjoy looking at their pictures.
See, I don't understand what the big deal is simply because I don't even REMEMBER the last time that Top Blogs reflected any kind of quality content, or gave any sort of indication of how to find a well-written and interesting blog. I skip right past the front page and go to my subscriptions unless I'm really, REALLY bored.
the same thing pops up for me when I search xanga.
quotes can be very interesting!
There is obviously a crack in the system and Xanga should address it. If everyone started doing what the quote sites did, then the Top Blogs would become irrelevant because the numbers would mean nothing.
I always wonder who reads those stupid "quotes only" sites. I can only imagine some chubby kid with no life, sitting at the computer scarfing down ice cream and reading these for hours on end, wallowing further and further into depression
I am one of those girls that searches for random facts and quotes. Tissue for those tears?
meta tagging for the win. lol.
To be honest, without the quote sites, I'd probably have to read Joyce Meyer and Joel Osteen.
Dodged a bullet, there.
@bombshell_couture - it's like you know me... *sigh*
I remember when I used to care how many people visited my xanga...
oh, those were the days, lol
don't cry into your coffee, you'll dilute it!
Comments are closed.