Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Is there anybody OUT THERE?

It would appear not.

Yes, I am back in Beijing.... but wondering whether I should continue with this blogging lark since, just at the moment anyway, I appear to have no readers at all.

This is one of the curses of the blog format: your readers tend to expect that you will add new posts regularly - if not daily! - and soon abandon you if you don't.

And August is a notoriously SLOW month here in Beijing..... pretty much everyone is on holiday just now.

And even my 'hardcore fans' have temporarily(?) forsaken me. Tulsa and The Cowboy have, apparently, been snowed under with tedious legal chores for the past month or so. (Tulsa, moreover, has been undergoing some sort of existential crisis: I can't really complain that she hasn't been writing on my blog when she hasn't even been writing on her own.) Leah's going on holiday. Moonrat and OMG, it would seem, are incredibly busy with their lives. Georg and Snopes and The Earthling are elusive creatures at the best of times, mysteriously dropping out of circulation for quite long spells. Caren's getting married (oh, the excuses they come up with!). And so it goes on.....

I think there are only about 25 or 30 regular readers here (and only a third of those ever leave comments), and they're nearly all long-time friends of mine. After nearly a year of diverse and often prolific output, I have scarcely attracted a single casual reader.

What else can I try, to get myself noticed?

Heck, I am top Google return for "panda abductions", "panda bestiality", "Zhongnanhai orgies", and "Chinese cooking sucks" - but this doesn't seem to have brought any traffic my way yet.

Any suggestions welcome, says a jet-lagged and disillusioned Froog.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

what about weaselyburrow... do you know him/her?

and anyways, you don't know HiK, OMG, or Bat.

and it's not about the number of readers, is it? it's about the writing. and you are a writer.

anyways, tedious legal work, existential crisis, weddings, travels, whatever... your readers would be quite sore to log on and find you had walked into nothingness.

Anonymous said...

Hey - I have been checking in. I even commented on a few things while you were gone. But I didn't comment on the return post because I don't speak French, and I was too lazy to reach for my French dictionary to piece it together. So far my interpretation is "A person cannot ______, he can only _____." Maybe something about people not being about to tell, only being able to re-tell. See. You didn't want a rambling comment like that, did you?

Besides, everybody knows I don't have a life.

Froog said...

Well, Tulsa, dearest, I did say "nearly all". And I think "friend of a friend" introductions count as being within the personal sphere of acquaintance, even if I haven't actually met them in the real world yet. Weasleyburrow is also a friend; a very new friend, but a friend nonetheless. Even Leah was someone I'd met via her blog. I think Moonrat (a very occasional commenter here) is the only entirely random drop-in that I've tempted to stay and developed ongoing contact with.

OMG, it is always lovely to have you around. You have been rather displacing your friend Tulsa as the chief commenter around here of late. I am grateful (she might not be!).

The de Beauvoir quote means "No-one can understand themselves. One can only tell one's story."

It always takes me by surprise when Americans don't know any French. Just about everyone studies it in high school in the UK; our ability in it may be somewhat fumbling, but almost all Brits have at least a basic familiarity with the language.

argonox said...

Hush, now, child. When you tell your regulars you won't be posting for a few weeks, then naturally we're not going to be stopping by as usual...

As for attracting the stranger-reader, I find I get the most random visits for entries mentioning foreskin and "Asian hunks." Seriously.

Finally, you can always take comfort in the crowded ranks of the chronically under-appreciated. It's entirely possible that your blog, like the work of Van Gogh for instance, might one day fetch vast sums at Sotheby's. Of course, you'd be dead then. Maybe try the foreskin trick mentioned above.

Froog said...

Ewwww. Moonrat did the foreskin thing a while ago, but I hadn't noticed you indulging in that ploy. But then, I haven't read all of your back numbers. (I'm afraid to now! I'm only just recovering from your "castration anxiety" onslaught of a little while ago!)

Have a great trip home!

Anonymous said...

There is a blog about Asian hunks? How have I missed this? ;-)

I'm not sure about following up the reference to Van Gogh with "try the foreskin trick." I immediately thought of Van Gogh cutting off his ear and... well.

No, no French studies for me. I think there was a two week course once in middle school. I focused on Spanish and Italian, so I'm not totally uncultured.

Anonymous said...

Keep the faith. It's August.