Monday, January 19, 2004

Xanga 101, Sec. 002: How to build traffic...

Many of the comments I received from readers on Saturday's post--I love each and everyone of you, by the way--indicated that they enjoy getting comments, even from new people. And, getting comments, I thought, was contingent on writing something that people find comment-worthy, but Mr_Mephisto wrote: "If you put up pics, the comments multiply. *nudge nudge*."

Oooooooooh, is THAT right?

Doh!! If you look like she does with those huge bambi eyes--Sensei, there are soooo many kanji this week...--posting pics will obviously elicit comments! Unfortunately for me--as killawhale indelicately reminded me in yesterday's Comment of the day--I'm about everybody's father's age... Well, almost everybody--Paiky and Sammy are two regular visitors who I know are older than most of you. so I presume their fathers are older than me. Anyway, if I were to post pics of my chubby little self, I'd not only get fewer comments, I'd probably lose readership. So what works for Mr_Mephisto will probablly not work for me... Bleh!

However, I recently came across a strategy used by Sleepingcutie.

    It's so hard to make same sex friends on Xanga as well as elsewhere on the internet.

    That's why I value my female subscribers more than my male ones. Sorry, guys... but one female subscriber = 5 male subscribers to me, just because it's that much harder to get them! =)

    Thus... my goal this month is to increase the number of female subscribers! Yes, my tactic is to comment on the females that comment on my male subscriber's xangas! [Ms. C is invading your Xanga harems... muahahaha. Male Xangans, I hope you don't mind sharing your females with me! hehehehe.]

    If you're a female Xangan who has come to my page just because I've already used above mentioned strategy on ya, please leave me a message! I'm a normal heterosexual girl [with the occasional somewhat-lesbian encounter, but that's a story for another day]. don't worry... I'm not trying to hit on you. I think.

Hmm, I was thinking of subscribing, but if I'm only going to be worth one-fifth a subscriber, I'll save it for someone who'll appreciate me more. Hahaha. J/K But her tactic sounds Kennedy-esque. Apparently, she doesn't strive for the simple or the convenient; she is trying to increase a same-sex readership not because it's easy, but because IT'S HARDER! Go girl... Your approach is interesting, but I don't have to target any one group. My readership is 47% female 53% male. Not to sound homoerotic or anything, but I am pleased that I have as many male readers as female. It suggests that what I write appeals to everyone without regard to sex... I mean gender, of course.

Dahahaha! But I'm so full of it. Please ladies, subscribe! I'm easy. Really. I would NEVER consider any of you to be less than my same-gender readers.

So what do you prefer? Comments from the same gender (or orientation) or the opposite? Be honest now....

Note: Kennedy, in his speech at Rice University, stated that the U.S. will conitinue its exploration in space, not because it is easy, but because it is hard, that things that have value are always hard. It is THE speech that got the country eager to support the goal of going to the moon. Click here if you want to see Kennedy's speech. And click here to compare this to Dubya's speech on going to Mars. You decide which is more inspirational. If you watch Kennedy's speech, notice Vice-Presdent Johnson sitting behind Kennedy. The dude is not EVEN listening!

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