Help me out here.....

[D. L. Russell]

....I seem to be getting increased traffic on my website, but I can't get more people to take part in the poll or the blog post that I have. Any ideas to get more people to interact with the site? I thought about posting a political comment, considering we are in an election season, but I really don't want to go there. Thanks in advance.

D. L. Russell
Editor
Strange, Weird, and Wonderful Magazine
www.strangeweirdandwonderful.com

[Bob Sullivan]

DL,

Consider you're the editor of his own webzine stating his editorial preferences in the zine's blog. My feeling on this is, you stated your personal view on titles and how they affect your overall impression of a story. Most readers will probably come away (as I did) with the attitude of "good to know" but probably will not want to challenge or debate you on the matter. What good, really, would that accomplish? "I don't agree that you have that opinion" is a problematic stance for a discussion at best, agreed? Besides, consider the counter-argument to your position. "I think stories should have eery-day, boring titles." Again, I don't think you'll find many takers expressing that view, even if that's how they feel.

FWIW, on that topic, all I would suggest is, I would probably not reject a story simple BECAUSE of a bad title if the story is otherwise strong, but work with the author to find a strong title and seal the deal.

Perhaps to encourage discussion, you could open a topic on which you're less decided. One in which you are torn between both sides equally. This would probably encourage feedback as such a topic would probably have two (or more) compelling arguments. Do readers want more sci-fi? Fantasy? What sorts of fantasy? Hard sci-fi or character-driven sci-fi? High fantasy versus urban fantasy. Where's the line between dark fantasy and horror? What do your readers want to see more of? Your readers would have opinions on these things and as SW&W presents itself as open to all these forms, it might help to find out what your readers are partial to.

Hope this helps.

Bob

[Stephen James]

Yeah, I agree with Bob. People are more likely to contribute if they disagree with you than agree. The majority of my blog posts are either personal (hey, look at this cute picture of me on this great trip) or technical (first, attach the doohickey to the thingamabob and twist it clockwise until the whachamacallit pops up) which most people just say thanks if they say anything at all--so I don't expect much conversation with my posts.

[Erik Deckers]

A few ideas off the top of my head:

- Put a direct link to the poll in each article and post.
- Post links and article summaries to new posts in places like Smaller Indiana, and any other social networks you belong to.
- Put a note about the poll at the top of your page, or put the poll in a sidebar itself. If you visit Smaller Indiana every day, you'll see that Pat puts a new post at the top of the page. Stick the note about the poll up there.

[D. L. Russell]

Thanks for the suggestions! I guess I'm not the typical reader, maybe that's why I want to edit, lol. I will try some of the things you guys brought up and try to make the post more interesting.

DLR

[Nicki Laycoax]

Giveaways. Offer something like a Starbucks card or depending on the subject, a card to a store related... I'm a sucker for giveaways.

[D. L. Russell]

Thanks Nicki, I could give away a copy of one of my books!

[Nicki Laycoax]

Nice! Two birds with one stone... You get comments and readers!

[Lorraine Ball]

It may be that you are attracting more collectors, then editors and creators. These people come, read, but don't typically comment. If you are getting good traffic, the readers are enjoying the experience, but may never be active contributors to the content.

For more on this subject check out Groundswell - by Li and Bershoff. It was this month's book club read, and really an interesting perspective on what people are doing on line, and why!

[D. L. Russell]

Lorraine,

I am getting good traffic lately, and the current issue of the zine is downloading well. People are reading it. I assumed most of them were readers and writers, but maybe they are just readers. I've gotten a few good ideas from others at SI, and hopefully I can put some of them to good use. Thanks again!

DLR