Reply: Building the Liberal Blogosphere in Michigan

This is my response to Laura's 4posts over on Michgan Liberal.

Probably the coolest thing I've done in the realm of marketing and networking with Black Bear Speaks is to sign up for Google Analytics (you need a gmail account). You can get a complete breakdown of visitors both by geography and referring source site, plus it very easily shows you which posts on your blog are getting the most hits/most popular. What I found out immediately? When I raved like a freaking lune about an environmental issue that really upset me I got a ton of hits, but when I simply copied a news story from reputable source I got nothing. The answer is of course to be unique and outrageously outspoken. The nuttier I appear- leftist whacko treehugging luddite - the more interest I get. I average about 50 unique hits a day, but when I raved like an SUV-burnin' ecoterrorist that number tripled.
Being unique is the path to success in this game. I've written a couple posts about EPA negligence regarding the ozone depleting fungicide methyl bromide and its phase out under the Montreal Protocol. I've only found two other bloggers out there doing so. I got slammed repeatedly in emails from EPA officials and a corporate CEO. That is a story to watch, these folks don't like having attention drawn to them when they are trying to screw you.

Leftyblogs is only great if you can write a headline. For example, "Canned Cheese, Hybrids and the Rightwing Bastards That Make Them" will most assuredly get more notice than "GM to Build More Hybrids."

Posting YouTube videos on Black Bear Speaks has so far only been successful when the vids are of Keith Olbermann or Bill Maher. I plan to make my own videos eventually and post about them, so I created a navbar link to my YouTube page. When I finally have the time to become a vlogger I'll be ready. Right now you can only see all the videos that I've "favorited" on YouTube, mostly 9/11 videos about the controlled demolition of the three WTC buildings... and Keith and Bill.

One more thing. If you join Technorati, make certain you use the Technorati Tag Generator. It's really handy and speeds up the process of adding tags to every single post. I have a post-it stuck to my monitor as a reminder.