Stilettos

I'm fairly new to blogging and am always looking for ways to attract readers. And there's no shortage of people offering their advice. In fact, if you search on Google for "how to make your blog popular", you will, in 0.24 seconds, get 168,000,000 results.

I've been thinking that I should dip into some of those links because my traffic, while steady, hasn't threatened to crash any servers. But those 168,000,000 experts overwhelmed me, paralyzing me with too much information. I wasn't worried, though, because I was certain that the universe would speak and show me the way.

And that's what happened. Only it wasn't the universe. It was a spammer who inundated my Facebook page, tagging me with photos of stilettos - the shoes, not the knives. After awhile, friends and family began whispering. What the hell is up with that? What's Joel doing at home when no one is looking?

When I finally realized what was going on, I deleted and blocked the posts and reported them to Facebook as spam. I also posted on Facebook that I'd been spammed. And that ignited a flurry of responses, most of them from people relieved that I wasn't hawking or wearing stilettos, though, in fairness, a few seemed disappointed. All of a sudden, I had more traffic than ever before!


So here's what I learned. Blogging about writing, publishing, movement disorders and other things that are shaking up my world will only get me so far in the blogosphere. If I want to hit the big time, I've got to do more than put my best foot forward. I've got to put my best shoes forward. So here there are!