Dave Pollard has posted an interesting set of ideas to help get an individual blog to the right readers in his post Four Ideas for Getting Great Little-Known Blogs Discovered

I'm intrigued with his idea for "Blog-Jackets" which are static (or rarely updated) pages that act like book jackets to help the reader vet the blog.

Blog-Jackets: Something analogous to book-jackets, that would contain the kind of information readers want to know when they first stumble upon a new blog:

- A short bio of the author(s), with your credentials and background, and perhaps a 'why you blog' paragraph 
- A quick overview of your blog content, how much/how long you've written, and perhaps a list of your best articles or table of contents
- What makes your blog unique, different, and valuable to readers
- Who your intended audience is (almost no blogs include this information today)
- Endorsements from readers, and/or Technorati, Bloglines or SiteMeter rankings and data

Where should this information be kept to attract the attention of readers? First, I think blog software should provide this blog-jacket functionality, on a separate 'About This Blog page' that can be accessed from any other blog page, just as your blog 'home' page is. This would allow blog directories to be more complete and to be compiled automatically, without the authors having to fill in a separate form for each directory. It could also serve to introduce your blog to new readers, both passively when they first happen upon it, and actively in your other promotion efforts, such as when you e-mail someone 'cold' with a request that they look at your blog or an article in it. I would certainly use a standardized blog-jacket to orient myself to a new blog, if it were available.

I had not given deep thought to the "audience" for this blog until about a year ago when my friend John commented that he read my blog but wasn't exactly the audience for whom I was aiming. That really hit me between the eyes, because in truth he is part of the audience I thought I was writing to, though in actually that wasn't how it worked. I had thought that part of my audience was friends and family who would be interested in what I was up to since I spend so much time locked in my study rather then out and about with them. But dear me wouldn't the average person be bored to tears reading my blog since I talk extensively about arcane things like CFP's and notes from conference and readings. *yawn*

The ideal reader for this blog is probably a fellow academic who is interested in CMC research, with a special interest in blogs, and who either knows me personally or figures we will cross trails in the real world someday. I'm sure there are others that do read this blog and they are all welcome, very welcome. 

You know as I write this I'm realizing that maybe I haven't strayed as far from the original intent of the blog as I thought I had. You see originally I was going to write this for myself, and reading that description maybe I still am doing so...for me and those like me. *w*

Posted by prolurkr at June 14, 2005 10:41 PM

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