post the first

So.

I had a blog (once-upon-a-time) on Xanga. When I was in college, Xanga was the blog Place To Be. All my friends were on Xanga. In fact, Xanga became a verb ("I'm totally going to xanga this") and even occasionally an adjective ("ooh, this conversation is extremely xangable"). But when my friends graduated, most of them started posting less and less. Posts were months apart when a few years before there would have been multiple posts in a day. Most of us eventually abandoned our Xanga pages.

But-- there's always a "but," isn't there?-- since then I've discovered the wonder that is Google Reader, and the really truly good and entertaining blogs out there. You know, the ones that people read because they're good to read, not because the writer is your bestest buddy and you never know when they might post an AIM conversation you were in on (yeah, AIM was the Place To Be too). And I remembered that blogging was actually kind of fun.

So here you go. I'm starting another blog. I'm not going to send the link to all my friends far and wide, and I'm not going to make any promises about how often I'll post or what it'll be about. I'm not even sure myself, yet. (I do know that for awhile yet things will be boringly picture-free, because I accidentally left my camera at my parents' house when we were there for Easter.) We'll just have to wait and see.

I'm not sure how one goes about getting readership. I mean, I'm not desperate to win any Most Popular Blog Awards or anything, but it does seem a little pointless to write entries if no one is going to read them. Does one simply start commenting on other people's blogs with a link to one's own site at the bottom? Is there a special way to link to blogs you like, such that people can then see yours? Do you join a theme sort of group (difficult, since I have no particular theme)?

Hmm. I can see a have a bit to learn... and this time, just posting the link at the top of my AIM profile probably isn't going to work.