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1. 

   Maria Staal
   Member

   Hi,
   I have a dilemma. I think the niche that I have chosen might be too specific.
   Okay, I know I have only been blogging for about 5 weeks, and that attracting traffic takes time, but that's not what I mean.

   I have been trying to find other blogs in my genre. One, because I would be interested to reading them and two, because I can leave comments, which might point people to my blog.

   My blog is about a search I am currently doing into the life of one of my (supposed) ancestors who lived 1100 years ago. My blog involves snippits of history, genealogy and travel, which might make it sound really random, but it actually isn't.

   I am currently following several travel blogs. I used to travel a lot myself in the past and have even written a book about it. So I really enjoy reading blogs by people who are on a trip and leave comments accordingly. But I think that other people who follow travel blogs might not be my target audience, even though I am sure that among travellers there are people interested in history.

   I tried to find interesting blogs about history (specifically the Middle Ages, which is my 'time period'). My conclusion: they hardly exist. A friend of mine, who is an historian, has a theory about it. According to her historians (and like-minded people) love what their doing too much and will publish something in an official publication only (read academic book), or have a website with only static pages on which they put as much stuff as they can for people to read, but without a blog, because they don't like putting short bits of information together. So, no blog and no interaction with their readers, which imo is a pitty as the interaction is half the fun.
   I have found one history blog that primarily deals with the Middle Ages, but the posts on it are very long (2000-3000 words) and rather boring. And no one ever comments on it...

   Then I come to the genealogy blogs. There are loads of them. There is even a site that is a sort-of list for genealogy blogs. I tried to get a mention on it, but they didn't want me because my site isn't 'genealogy enough'.
   I must admit that my site is not like other genealogy blogs, which mostly comprise of posts with lists of names and where things were found and in which archive.
   The few nice genealogy blogs I have found are all on blogger.com, which seems to be the default for genealogy blogs. I have found it very difficult to comment on blogger.com blogs and besides, even though some of those blogs have loads of followers hardly anyone comments on them, so there isn't a community.

   I like to get my site 'out there' via CommentLuv links etc. I also really enjoy reading other blogs and interacting with their writers, but I can't seem to find the blogs that compare to mine.
   I wonder if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Maybe people who are interested in history as simply not 'ready' for sharing via a blog. Is my niche too narrow or are there actually blogs that compare to mine, but haven't I found them yet?

   I wonder what other people think of my 'problem'.

   Maria

   Posted 1 year ago #
2. 

   Trisha Miller
   Administrator

   I guess I would start by asking you "what is the goal of your blog"?

   Personally, I find your blog to be very interesting. I enjoy the mini-history lessons (and I say 'mini' because - as blog posts should - they come in small doses) because I can find time to read them - if it all came as one long story (as a lot of other history or genealogy sites do, as you've found) then I probably wouldn't have time to read it at all. So for what it is, I really like the format.

   All that said, I'm sure you'd like to have more people than just me and a couple of others reading it.

   But it all starts with this: What do you want to accomplish with your blog?

   If it is JUST to chronicle the story of your search (with possibly the end goal down the road of compiling it into a book), then just keep doing what you are and don't worry so much about readers. That is not to say don't court them - what you're doing already is a good start.

   One thing I've noticed is that some of your posts are in Dutch and some in English - that can confuse potential new readers of either language. I know it would not be an easy task, but you might consider separating those into two separate "sub blogs" so that folks who read only Dutch see only the posts written in Dutch, and folks who read only English see only the posts written in English. It's definitely do-able, but I'd encourage you to post your question in the WordPress support forum to find the best way to go about doing that. I know some blogs just use translations plugins, but since you're fluent in both maybe a plugin is not the best way to go.

   http://wordpress.org/support/

   If you really want to attract more readers, I think you're going in the right direction by trying to find other similar blogs and communities - don't give up, because I'm sure some must exist out there, BUT also, don't dismiss any of the genealogy blogs you find, because a lack of comments doesn't always mean a lack of readers - you could be the first commenter on a site and that blog owner might be very grateful for that!

   Since Blogger is owned by Google, you can log in to leave comments on any Blogger blog with a (free) Google account - be SURE you set up your Google "profile", on which you can link to your own blog and folks who are interested will find your blog that way. Of course, any Blogger blog that you come across that does allow for leaving comments using your own URL do that - those that don't, use your Google profile.

   I'm sure you've probably already started with these two resources, but for anyone else who reads this post they might be helpful:

   http://blogfinder.genealogue.com/

   http://www.cyndislist.com/blogs.htm

   And make sure you're using your network of family and friends to spread the word - ask for their help in getting people to come read your blog....

   I know some of our other forum members will jump in with suggestions too....

   Posted 1 year ago #
3. 

   Maria Staal
   Member

   Thanks for your long reply, Trisha. I found it very helpful.

   I think I have two goals with my blog. The first one is like you said, to have a record of my search and eventually write a book about it. The second one is to make people interested in history. By keeping the posts short and the language non-academic, I am hoping that people who wouldn't normally be into history are not put off and will read it, and therefore develop an interest.
   Making money with my site is not my primary goal, but as you say, it is nice to know people read and enjoy it. The more the better.

   I know the Dutch and English posts might confuse people, but the Dutch posts are simply a translation of the English posts. At first I had the Dutch posts in a static page (the primary language of my site is English), but I found it not handy and clumsy to keep doing that. So I have created a new category, which is the Dutch translation.

   I have looked into plugins that give me the option to have mirror sites in different languages and I think that is the way to go for me in the future. I don't want to use an automatic translation plugin as the Dutch that comes out of that is absolutely ridiculous (even though it is hilarious...). So to have a mirror site in Dutch I will have to translate all my static pages into Dutch and that is for now just too much work. At the moment I already have to translate every post I do into Dutch and it takes quite a while.
   But in the (near) future I will definitely have two mirror sites.

   I will create a Goole profile to be able to comment on Blogger blogs. I am glad you told me about it as I do want to give the genealogy blogs a go.
   And I am going to continue searching for blogs in my genre. They must be out there somewhere.
   Thanks for the blogfinder links. The one I knew about, the other I didn't.

   Posted 1 year ago #
4. 

   Trisha Miller
   Administrator

   One last thought on the translation issue......

   I'm not an expert, but many of the people who help out in the Wordpress Support Forums are, and you may get some better suggestions if you post a question there about how best to go about that, given the sorry state of translation plugins.

   http://wordpress.org/support/

   Posted 1 year ago #
5. 

   Maria Staal
   Member

   Thanks Trisha. I will post my question on the WP support forum. My theme has a support forum as well, so check them out as well.

   Posted 1 year ago #

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