Daily Breakfast 478 - Looking For An Audience
In this episode: Writing and reading; your brain vs. the tv; which books do you read at the moment? The art of Catholic blogging: how to find an audience? How to evangelize GTA IV gamers; The Secrets of Battlestar Galactica; sign up for the Catholic New Media Celebration!
- FatherRoderick.com
- Twitter.com/FatherRoderick
- Productivity @ home
- A Cup of Coffee and a Random Thought
- Ikea Hacker
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I found your article about blog post writing interesting. Like you I’m writing a book and also do a lot of blog posts. Its a lot different writing on the internet - you need to make paragraphs a lot shorter too. I think it is difficult to read long articles on the internet. Something about reading on a computer is more difficult then reading a book in your hands.
Re books -
Just finished Jim Butcher’s latest Harry Dresden novel Small Favors. Loved it, but I love Jim’s style, I’m a huge fan of Harry, and the whole hard-boiled-wizardry thing combines my favourite genre work.
Am reading (sort of) the Autobiography of Saint Ignatius Loyola. I say “sort of” because I’m actually editing it into e-books for the web site. It’s a combination of reading, mark-up, lay-out with e-book readers in mind, etc.
Slowly making my way through Teach Yourself Norwegian. It’s slow because I retain more that way - do a chapter, wait, then do the same chapter again.
Probably going to pick up a Redwall book next.
re RSS feed readers -
I suggest Google reader. Easy to use, loads fast, integrates well with GMail and Google Calendar, and has a mobile version that works well on my Blackberry - which itself is a pretty fair e-book reader as well as podcast player.
Had to comment.
I am currently reading a book on the History of Austria — or Austrians I suppose as it’s titled “Austrians”. Regardless, that is what I’m reading. And why am I reading about the History of Austria(ns) you ask? Because it was a book given to me and I absolutely love reading so I will read any book given to me. I’m enjoying it but it’s taking me a long time to read because I have so many other things going on. I’m looking forward to being done with it and moving on to another book. I have so many to read!
In regards to your target audience in your blog and who reads it and comments, etc. *I* don’t have an RSS reader so if I was to read your blog would you still know I was there? And what if I found one of your longer posts to be very profound and just didn’t have anything to comment on because I went away thinking about what you had written? My point is, don’t beat yourself up and change what you write about, etc, because the numbers you’re looking at aren’t as high as you’d like. You can’t really know all the people you’re touching that are reading your blog or listening to your podcasts, can you?
Adrianne
Hello Father Roderick and Adrianne,
I agree with Adrianne and the comment she left in the second paragraph of her post. If someone (in this case you Father Roderick) is able to deeply and “profoundly” impact 60 people…that likely translates to 60 families that are deeply and profoundly impacted for generations to come. That is a much more meaningful contribution than providing a sixty second sound bite for a million people.
I also understand the desire and need for feedback from podcast listeners to podcasters. So I have to tried to provide a pat on the back to the efforts of the podcasters.
Lately, I’ve been feeling I am posting too much on the SQPN boards so I intend to step back and let others have more of a turn. My stepping back over the next several weeks of podcasts doesn’t mean I stopped listening; and it doesn’t mean I am not appreciating the efforts of the podcasters.
Instead it means I don’t want to become a distraction or a hindrance to other people that may be more inclined to post comments if ‘Jim from Columbus’ hadn’t “hijacked” the bulletin boards.
So let’s see if I can have the discipline to refrain from “hijacking” the bulletin boards and let others have more of a chance. It will be a challenge because I am enthusiastic about what is happening here.
Just passing along a note for Doctor Who fans…I haven’t listened to it, but I know you have mentioned it several times. I heard a podcast from Radio Wales that included an interview with one of the writers of the show. The focus was his religious experience and how it has had an impact on his work.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/radiowales/sites/allthingsconsidered/updates/20080511.shtml
I know that sometimes you have more to do than there are hours in the day. I appreciate the fact that you spent a great deal of time on Saturday to put out a 1 hour podcast to “make up” for the lost days last week. So, I say this not to criticize, but to praise…
I’m glad that you are doing (or did today) put out a Daily Breakfast at Breakfast time (at least for North America)!!
Thanks Father!
As someone who has been blogging just short of six years here is some of my experience.
For one don’t mistake number of people subscribed to your blog via RSS as the number of readers. I get around 2300 visits a day to my blog and between Bloglines and Google Reader about 500 people are subscribed to my blog. Most people don’t use aggregators of any kind and just bookmark a site they like. Father Z who has thousands of readers and only has a couple of hundred subscribed to his blog.
Also don’t let the number of comments give you any real indication as to whether people like your posts. Again in my experience most people are lurkers and people who take the time to comment are probably only one percent of the audience. It is annoying though that you can write a long and what you think thoughtful post and not get any comments and another day you can just throw off a post and get a lot of comments. Some subject though often have more comments such as discussions on the liturgy.
I think the most important thing is to blog about what you are passionate about and not worry about whether a post will be targeted towards a specific audience. The most enjoyable bloggers have their own voice that comes through in their writing and can make you like a post of theirs on a subject that normally you might not care about. Your podcast demonstrates your personality and you talk on a range of subjects. So I would just recommend that you do the same on your blog and let your personality come through your writing.
As for driving traffic to your blog, I find that most blog traffic is a result of traffic directed your way from other blogs. Popular bloggers linking to your site is fairly important.
I would suggest emailing Mark Shea about your blog since he always will post links to new blogs when asked. chez.ami@verizon.net
I have placed your blog on my blogroll in the section of priest bloggers. I will also link to your posts when I see one that will interest my audience.
Now as for the subject of aggregators I have used several over the years. I use to use Bloglines and their beta is an improvement. Though I switched to Google Reader which I found to be better overall. Currently I use NetNewsWire which is now free on the Mac. It’s feature set is extremely rich and the online readers just can’t compare. Even though it doesn’t run via a browser you can still use it on multiple machines since it keeps things synched.
Father Rod was right on again today re: how to attract readers to blogs etc.
In 1966 John Lennon got into a world of trouble by saying during an interview that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. He later clarified, correctly so, that his statement was taken out of context and that rather than implying that the Beatles were more important than Jesus, he was merely pointing out that rock and roll music at that time was probably more influential in the life of the typical teenager than was Jesus. Read more at - http://www.catholicregister.org/content/view/1827/854/
Snowbird from Canada
Hi Fr. Roderick - Listening to the thoughts on how to evangelize gamers. I’d suggest becoming their virtual ‘military’ chaplain. Peace.
I couldn’t agree more with Jeff. Be true to yourself. Your personality more than makes up for whatever bits of information others may not be so interested in. Personally, I’m not that into the geek segments on the DB, but I wouldn’t miss them — because YOU care about it. If something doesn’t inspire you, how can your talking about it affect anyone else differently? As Jeff said, I find that the more interesting blogs are from people who are passionate about what they write about. Otherwise they begin to look more like those annoying, forwarded junk mail sent by friends who don’t take the time to write something substantial.
Hi,
I am just finishing the autobiographie of St. Theresa of Avila. It is a great book, that makes a big impression on me. And it is an old german translation in gothic print (Sütterlinschrift). It is fun to read.
Books in the pipeline:
- Autobiographie of St. Maria Faustyna Kowalska
- Autobiographie of St. Theresa of Lisieux
- Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light
- The confessions by St. Augustinus
- Utopia by St. Thomas Morus
Have nice day and keep the good work!
I also agree with most of what Jeff said. I’ve only been participating in forums/blogs the last couple of years. I was predominantly an Internet lurker until Season 5 of American Idol found me searching the Internet for news on my favorite contestant. I joined a fan forum and was a regular poster. I eventually met some of the people at a concert. Next, I got a Myspace. I’ve had that about a couple of years too. I got my first iPod this March with the intention of listening to music and radio. Then, I clicked on Podcast in iTunes and found all the Catholic programs. I’m a Secular Franciscan and thought anything called “Catholic Under the Hood” must be cool. I subscribed to that one, iPadre, SaintCast, Daily Breakfast, Rosary Army, Catholic in A Small Town, Catholic Answers, Catholic Underground, and surely one or two more I’ve forgotten. I’m a NASCAR fan also, so, I do get Rowdy Racing. I listen to these during the day while I work.
At work, It is not appropriate to access the web for blog purposes, commenting, Twittering, etc. I listen on my iPod and then check out this web site at night. I need to take the time to do some iTunes rating for you all. I found that I spent way too much time on my computer when I was blogging away my evenings on the American Idol fan forum. I try to live a much more balanced existance now — take time for my Morning & Evening prayer.
I’ve thought about starting my own blog but have not really laid out any plans. I’ve written poetry and reflections most of my life and have thought about constructing something around that — I’ll be at the Catholic New Media Celebration.
Peace
Jan