I had lunch with a friend of mine yesterday and she had lots of questions and comments about my blog so I thought I would provide the same answers that I gave her, for those of you who may have similar questions and are just too afraid (for whatever reason) to post a comment/question here. I know that there are other people out there, like my friend, who read my blog but don't comment...lurking is totally okay. It's easy to assume people know the same thing you do about what a blog is, how it works, how you get visitors, etc. so here is a Q&A for those of you.
Question: How do people find you? How do people know you have a blog?
Answer: There are a couple of ways that people find my blog. Some people know me personally and know that I have a blog but they may not know its URL. So, they usually do a Google search on my name such as "Karen Ruby" + blog, and depending how the Google gods feel that day, my blog will pop up either as #1 or one of my posts will be retrieved on the first page results. My close friends all know that I have a blog, so most of them already have the address and read my blog. I also have a website and some people find me by searching for it. Since I have my own domain and my website/blog are named the same, I'm not that hard to find.
Another way people find my blog is through a search term on one of the search engines and one of my posts contains the search term. A lot of people perform really weird searches and for some reason, I get really weird referrers (sometimes). More on referrers in another Answer. When Google Mapping came out, I did a post about the Satellite images in Toronto, which was/is very popular and a lot of people came to read that post. (See Popular Posts on the sidebar for the posts that drive most of my traffic).
When I first started blogging, I would read lots of other people's blogs and comment on their blogs. They would reciprocate on what they found interesting on my blog, which would sometimes drive people from/to their blog. A few very generous people have included my blog on their own Blogroll. I sometimes only found that I was on other blogger's Blogroll by doing some ego-surfing. I then included my own Blogroll of those blogs I frequently read and some people have linked to me.
Question: What are the Top Blogs and where do you rank?
Answer: Del.ici.us, Technorati, Feedster, etc. all have lists of the top and most popular blogs.
Some of those lists are:
- Del.icio.us: http://del.icio.us/popular/
- Technorati: http://www.technorati.com/pop/blogs/
- Feedster: http://top500.feedster.com/
Regarding my rank: What rank? 
I'm not ranked, although you can find my links on Del.icio.us and Technorati. What does rank matter anyway?
Question: Why don't you post anything personal about yourself or post your picture? I (my friend) was expecting to see some pictures and to see what you wrote about a shared event that we went to.
Answer: I don't have a picture posted on my blog of me (nor do I intend to ever post one) because I am all too aware of the power of the internet and that things like pictures/words last forever. I don't want my picture "out there" due to a variety of reasons, not just for identify theft reasons. I don't believe in listing very personal items on my blog so I try to keep my personal details to a minimum. I'm not that interested in reading about very personal details in other people's blogs, either. I also think that because my name is my blog, I have to think about my own personal brand. I'm basically marketing myself and have to keep in mind what I post about, link to, display on my blog - for future considerations. I try not to obsess too much, but if there are topics that are iffy and I know may be taken out of context in the future, then I usually don't post about them. I will talk to my friends, email them, and discuss sensitive topics face-to-face, rather than in my blog. I guess if I had a blog that was Anonymous and named something different, then maybe I wouldn't be so conscious of what I write about. So, the short answer is, don't expect me to write about too many things that I do in my real life and don't take it personally if I don't write about things that I do with my friends. Those who know me personally always get the story eventually anyways - you don't have to read it here.
Question: Why don't you have a donate button or PayPal button on your blog? I didn't know what a TipJar was until I read your post.
Answer: I wrote about what I think about TipJars and donate buttons on personal blogs on this post: http://karenruby.typepad.com/weblog/2005/06/blegging_blog_b.html. I do reserve the right to change my mind in the future, but right now, I don't think they are a good idea in general. I have not been convinced to add a donate button or include ads on my blog. Perhaps, if I had thousands of hits a day and earned lots of money by having them, I would change my mind.
Question: How many visitors do you get to your blog and where do they come from?
Answer: I started posting Feb 12, 2005 (read some of my early posts here) and my stats say that the total number of page views for my blog is 4830. I have written 145 posts since then and there are 145 comments on my blog. It may not sound like a lot, but can you imagine if I devoted more time to this blog and really went after visitors? I'm okay with those numbers.
Comment: I like that you post about different topics, I never know what to expect when I read your blog.
Answer: Thanks! As I said in my About page, I have a lot of interests and find it difficult to just post about one thing. Another friend has said that I post too much about 'cool' things and wants me to post about certain topics that I don't feel represent who I am. My answer to that is: This is my blog, if you don't like what I write about, don't read it. If you want to read about certain topics, there are tons of other sources out there, go find them. If you want to read about gossip, go start your own blog and write about what you are interested in. I pay good money to have this blog (I have TypePad Plus, which is not free) and it's a forum to write about what I think is "interesting, cool or thoughtful". The posts are what I want to share with my readers. I hope that the majority are helpful, or at least interesting. I figure if I find it interesting, cool, or thoughtful then you will, too.
Comment: Thanks so much for advising us to download Picasa for our pictures. We just love it. It's so easy!
Answer: I told you! Glad that you like it. If I post about something like Picasa or CutePDF or the stuff on my blog, it's because I've downloaded and installed them on my own computer and they've helped me in some way. Or maybe I just thought they were pretty cool, and I wanted to share. Sometimes, it's hard though to know what to post about because I always assume people know what I know and if I know about it, then other people must know and use the tools. That's not the case because there are a lot of people who don't have the time or interest to find the stuff. That's why you visit my blog! I'm doing the work for you. 
Comment: Man, are you ever getting lots of comments on your blog.
Answer: Yeah, I guess so. There are 145 comments so far. You don't have to leave your email address or URL to leave a comment. You don't have to leave your real name either. I try to reply back to all the comments and I do appreciate everyone who leaves a comment. It's nice to know that there are people out there reading my blog.
I get emailed every comment that appears on my blog, so I can delete any that I find offensive. I've only had to do this once, and I have had spam trackback which I've had to delete, too. Spam trackback is what it sounds like: a trackback link or referral on another blog which is spam. Not good, and it should be removed as soon as possible.
I've had a couple of pretty well-known people leave a comment on my blog (I'll let you discover who they are) and am always totally thrilled to recognize their names. It can be pretty exciting to think that people take time to read my posts and comment.
Comment: I checked out some of the blogs you have listed and there is one that is almost all pictures on it. Some of the pictures are pretty personal.
Answer: Yes. Some people like to post personal pictures of themselves, their family, their children and their lives. That's their choice. I personally do not want my picture floating out there and will not post any personal pictures of me, my friends, or family. There are a lot of crazies out there and I don't see the need to post personal pictures or write about personal items about my life. That is why my photo albums are stripped of any live person in them.
Question: How do you keep up with posting every day?
Answer: I don't. I used to post every day, but couldn't keep up. I try to post often so that people have something new to read when they visit, but in order to post every day, you have to post very short posts, read a lot of blogs, have no life, or outside job, or....not be me. I read a lot online and use my RSS reader (see my sidebar post on that if you don't know what it is) and subscribe to different blogs to find interesting topics. I work during the day, so I post at night on a topic I either have planned to write about or write about something that I read online that day. Following through with writing is the hardest part. Trying to write about a topic that someone didn't already write about is hard, too. There are so many blogs out there, finding a topic that people haven't already talked about ad nauseum is tough sometimes.
Comment: I still haven't seen your Matt Dusk pictures, where are they?
Answer: I love his music and have his Two Shots CD on my iPod. The pictures can be found on my post: Matt Dusk at the Bay autograph.
This was a long post, but I hoped I answered some of the questions that you may have had. Feel free to ask other questions by leaving a comment.
Thanks, Y, for the questions and comments.
Hi all!
Great book. I just want to say what a fantastic thing you are doing! Good luck!
Bye
Posted by: tovorinok | July 05, 2007 at 04:04 AM