Doing something different always makes a difference, traffic or not. Is your blog’s income and purpose controlled by the number of people who visit, or the one to three people whose lives are changed or helped because of what you blog about?

If you find an interesting and creative way to reach your audience, you might be getting through were others aren’t. I have never used traffic as a measuring stick for my success, and I think it’s a terrible choice for any blogger.

You have a tiny market, and I think you need to reach out further beyond that market to those who don’t think it’s possible for them to even use a vacation home. This is the creative part of thinking outside of the box. I have friends who have used vacation homes, but I assume they are way outside of my financial capabilities. Breaking that assumption might be the creative twist you need to help reach out further.

I write a lot of ‘solution’ posts because I know the questions are out there – but am looking at more creative ways of getting the message across.

I’m not sure what the attention-getting “device” is, especially as I deal with words being the medium of influence, not visual media. However, a blogging poet with other interesting hobbies is not unusual, but is interesting.

Which is exactly what I’ve been saying. If you are into the business of blogging, then you better pay attention to how it works and what works, and do that and do it new and differently if you want the attention and traffic.

If you don’t, then just enjoy what you do. Please yourself first. It’s amazing what good things happen when you lead your life through your life’s passion. Especially in a blog format.

As for Icanhascheezburgr, it’s a blog for sure, and uses cat pictures and such to make it’s point. No different from those using video, photographs, or any other medium to convey their message. A blog has no “rules” for message conveyance. Cat pictures are opinions and entertainment. Why should it get less valued?

The neat thing about Icanhascheezburgr is that the readers are contributors. In talking to the site owners, they never thought anything so silly would take off. Such success wasn’t in their plans. They liked the idea of sharing funny cat pictures with funny sayings, and the misspellings make it different from the other lolcats sites. Little did they realize they’d hit on a magical formula for unique, participatory entertainment. Go to respect that, whether or not we like the pictures or the English. :D

Somebody has to say it :)

There’s nothing wrong with blogging for attention, but all this talk about rank and getting noticed and such is taking away from the fun of just thinking and writing. There are so many millions of people out there reading blogs that even if you are only noticed by a fraction of them, you can still have a decent-sized readership. Why not be content with that? We can’t all be in the first 25 or 25,000 even, but that shouldn’t stop you from simply enjoying the activity.

Changing your blog to gain attention means you end up with something that in the end is less a reflection of you than of what you think people expect of you, something you’re doing to please others instead of yourself. Not a recipe for happiness in real life, either.