Drive the Traffic or Pilot the Ship?

I’m having a dilemma, and it concerns this blog.

On the one hand, I’m keenly aware that each day that passes in which I don’t post something herein is a bit of a lost opportunity to drive traffic via the feeds. And so I constantly feel the guilt-powered tractor beam of my blog, even when away from my computer. It calls out to me. It begs to be fed with words.

On the other hand, I must constantly keep in mind the fact that, unlike most of the other blogs out there, this particular journal is not intended as a stand-alone destination to which I must constantly be driving my traffic. Rather, I consider it to be but a satellite moon of the much larger planet called SirRichardWadd.com. Or, as Obiwan might point out were he sitting behind me, “[That blog is] no moon — it’s a space station.” (Hence the above-mentioned tractor beam).

Thus I have felt a need to very consciously put into words (for myself) my priorities concerning the SRW universe — one that consists, in order of importance, of 1) a trilogy of Sir Richard Wadd plays, 2) a destination Internet experience featuring the Erotica of Sir Richard Wadd, and 3) a feedback mechanism for audiences of #1 and #2.

To this end, my first and foremost task is to create astonishing and timeless content that will be applauded by theatre audiences. Then, I have to welcome those audiences online, where they’ll discover Sir Richard’s website sitting quite happily on its non-interactive, Web1.0 domain — completely untouchable except to the eyeballs that scan it. In other words, jobs #1 and #2 are where I need to be concentrating my traffic-driving activities. And only after my visitors have been greeted by the performance of live actors or the novelty of my web-based Erotica, will they discover that they have the opportunity and the means (through this blog) to offer comment on whatever it is they’ve experienced.

Naturally, search engines and feeds will bring some visitors here before they hit the website. Such is life. But what’s far more important to me is to recognize that my traffic-building energies need to be directed to SirRichardWadd.com, instead of WordPress.

Given this recognition, I hereby pledge (to myself) the following:

• I’ll try not to care too much about my blog stats. They’re really not that important, especially given the fact that SirRichardWadd.com is where I want to focus my content-building energies.

• I’ll deliberately refrain from monetizing this blog, because that will just make me want to drive traffic here solely for the purpose of getting those ad-clicks. By keeping this place free of ads, I hope it will come to serve as the kind of inviting space that I’ve always envisioned for SRW’s feedback arena: thoughtful, understated, patient, and respectful.

• (This one is obvious, but I need to write it anyway, if only to have it in words when the temptation becomes palpable:) I will only add outbound links to other blogs/websites if they are relevant to the post and discovered in an organic fashion. I will not go trolling for links with the intent of luring those webmasters back here so they can figure out who I am and possibly link back. Hence, no blogroll and no links page.

So there. I’ve clarified for myself the raison d’etre for this blog, and that in itself has already set my mind at ease. Hopefully, it will help to diminish the somewhat addictive behaviour of posting simply to get my traffic fix. It suddenly gives me the freedom to post here because I want to — not because I have to. And although I’ll very likely still check my stats on a daily basis (because I’m only human, and I want to be loved), I won’t allow them (or their siren-like call) to steer me from the course I need to stay: a course in which the real and timeless content is created elsewhere.