10,000 hits might be impressive…or it might not be. There’s much more to consider beyond “raw data” alone.

As the director of SEO for a small interactive agency, I find that it’s nearly always easier to optimize and draw traffic for a big name. You, for example. You already draw readers because of your Yahoo Finance and newspaper columns. That’s guaranteed, built-in traffic to this blog. It’s nice to hear that it hasn’t gone to your head. ;)

I’ve found that it’s always a mystery what will draw people to your site, but the title of each piece obviously plays the biggest role. If you ever want to test the real drawing power of your linkbaiting abilities, I’d love to have you write a guest post on CultureFeast.com and then we’ll see how many people it draws.

Then again, I’d just like a guest post regardless.

I’m a geek who doesn’t really care about HR or career management, but I read this blog because it’s written by someone who talks about her marriage, her own job challenges, and is quick to show vulnerability. This makes her likable, makes me receptive to her opinions, and it also makes me want to know what’s going on in her life.

I like a lot of what Penelope says, but if she gave the same advice, and said she was the Queen of Human Resources, and plastered links to past TV appearances all over the page, her traffic would be closer to the levels of those thinly-read journalist blogs.

So write to the best of your abilities, and write what your gut tells you to.

I suggest, for those looking to become professional bloggers, to write several blogs, if they can, and see which one is the most popular.

for instance,
I write
http://daphnespears.blogspot.com

and

http://careerpeople.blogspot.com

two radically different blogs, both with their own niche.

Book reviews written as lists (with a creative edge) are popular in terms of traffic.

Posts about bicycling generate traffic.

Posts about conflicts (in my case usually urban development tensions such as McMansions, big box stores, etc.) generate more discussion in the comments.

For getting the best links (ie from high traffic blogs like this one, and others more connected to my subject), it’s the posts that provide my alternative perspective on a subject recently posted on, and dear to, these blogs. - but not always.

Like Penelope, I’ve found that when I’m “trolling” for a big link, it doesn’t happen. It’s those posts written in the inspiration of the moment — that are written because I have something to say and get off my chest — that tend to draw the best results.