Another Spring Picture

I was pleased to be asked to participate in the very cool Fairypunk Stories project. Here’s a teaser from the version of Sleeping Beauty that I just sent off.

(From “Seven Clockwork Angels, All Dancing”)

If a clock has ticked, it must tock, and thus time moves along. And in every tick and tock, there’s a story. Sometimes more than one.

Once upon a tick and tock, there was a great Lord and Lady, who were Patrons of the Arts and Sciences. They endowed libraries and laboratories, and commissioned portraits and poems and marvelous machines that could pay chess or spin a silk thread so fine you could barely see it or build their own, even tinier machines that could make tinier machines in turn, and so on and so on, until they produced the head of a pin inhabited by seven clockwork angels, all dancing.

The Lord and Lady loved the works they commissioned, but they yearned to produce something of their own. One day it came to pass that the Lady announced to her Lord that they had collaborated very well indeed, and that she would soon produce an heir.

I blogged a couple of days ago with five ways to increase your blog readership. Here’s an additional five that I hope are helpful for those who like to look at their numbers every once in a while. But remember — writing always comes first!

1. Be a pro. Proofread and remove errors. If someone points one out to you, fix it and thank them for the feedback. Make your posts look professional, not hastily assembled or sloppy. The appearance of the post can’t help but make an impression. Take the time to preview the post and make sure all links lead to the right place.
2. Monitor results. You won’t know what works unless you’re looking at the data, even if it’s at the topmost level of “how many comments?” (This is a bad metric because so often the answer is “none.”)

Your profile matters. Fill out your profile on social networks and make sure it includes your website’s URL. This adds to its search engine ranking, making it appear higher in search engine results.

3. Pay attention to the Zeitgeist. Pulling your blog topics from Google or Twitter trends can be a good idea — as long as you have something useful to say. Don’t hashtag for the hell of it.
4. Content trumps cash. Producing good, interesting, useful content will outperform any amount of money thrown at advertising. I find that some social networks send me coupons to use on advertising every once in a while and I do use those — but once they’re used up, I stop the campaign.
5. Promote other people. This gives you good content if the recommendations are wholehearted and worthwhile.