Tuesday 1 September 2009

London Loves Spain!

¡Hola mis amigos españoles, recepción a Londres aman los tebeos! Espero que usted disfrute de mi charla aburrida sobre hombres en leotards.

which translates as : Hello my Spanish friendly, reception to London love the tebeos! I hope that you enjoy my char it boring on men in leotards.

which is nothing like the sentence I typed into Babelfish, but you get the idea.

Why am I pasting pidgin Spanish onto my blog? Well, yesterday I got linked by top Spanish comics blog Entre Comics, an event which has led to an overwhelming number of Latin hits.

None of these new found chums will hang around for long of course, but it was nice to see what real traffic looks like, if only for one day. And it did get me thinking...

From time to time, people have emailed me asking how to get people to read their blog based blathering, I've always replied that the question isn't important. And really it isn't, after all if I did this thing for readers I'd have packed it in yonks ago. Nope, I'm happy with the fact that six or seven people (three of whom I know personally) occasionally pitch up to check my shit.

I must admit though, on the glorious days where I've been linked by some monster of the comics glitterati, the influx of new people has made me a little jealous of those leading lights who regularly pull in thousands of readers a day.

It's a stupid state to get in. I mean, let's face facts, there are a gazillion comic blogs out there and the top ones, the ones that pull in the readers, are really professional looking, well written, informed pieces of brilliance. In other words, they get the traffic because they're good!

When I started writing this bilge, I had no idea that any of them even existed. I certainly didn't expect anyone but the one person I told about my blog to read it. I have neither the knowledge of comics, the craft with words or, since my son was born, the time to match the big boys at this game. I write this bilge on an (almost) daily basis, because I enjoy reading and wittering on about comics.

What am I trying to say? Fuck, I've forgotten. Oh yes: ahhem, fellow blogging chums, worry not about your hits. Comics blog fame is a cruel and elusive mistress. If like me, you feel the need to share your innermost thoughts on sequential art then do so. Just don't waste your time if the fact that no one is going to read it is likely to turn you off.

In reality the stuff you and I are writing isn't that interesting to anyone else but ourselves. Which is fine, there's nowt wrong with a bit of navel gazing. Pulling the metaphorical fluff out of your comics belly and waving it at the world is quite therapeutic really. Enjoy it, and don't worry that nobody else even notices.

There you go. Christ, that was dull wasn't it?

I promise NEVER to blog about blogging again.

Adios imaginary web chums, adios.

2 comments:

NSFW said...

"In other words, they get the traffic because they're good!"

I'm assuming you're using the word "good" in the sense of "dispiritingly bland".

It's nice to read something with a voice, like LLC

Dom Sutton said...

that's very kind of you sir.
Try some of the links in my sidebar though, there are many non-bland treasures there