The lovely, shiny KNIGHT did a post last week about labels. A few people mentioned in her comments that it would make a great meme (I’m really hating that word lately) and they were right.
The premise is to see what, if anything, the labels you use on your posts say about you and your blog. I believe Knight called it looking for trends – she’s so research oriented!
So I pulled together my labels and this is what I discovered.
Out of 154 posts my most used labels are:
Animal related: 84
This included mentions of Mia and Siren as well as animal rescue, adoption, behavior …
Photos: 58
I only use this label when I’ve taken the photo myself. The copyrights I’m infringing upon are not included. This label is a more recent development as I start to join more weekly photo projects. Speaking of photography – I just joined a photo team blog ‘ The World in Black and White’ – click on the photo on the sidebar and check out some great photography.
Politics: 42
I actually wish this number was higher and I think it will be as I get more and more worked up over the crap I read and hear – and personally experience – related to the election.
Wordzzle: 21
This is just the best writing exercise ever invented in the history of written communication – including cave drawings! Check it out AT RAVEN’S NEST
Those are my big categories – I like animals and photography. I’m interesting in politics and writing. Oh and I like long walks on the beach and my measurements are …
sorry, the tape measure broke.
There’s a bunch of single mentions and a few Craig Fergusons (he’s dreamy). I refer to ‘Life’ 19 times but who the hell knows what I meant any more.
I label simply to be able to find crap later. A friend told me I should label to increase traffic.
So I think I’ll label this post:
naked firefighters, girl on girl action at volleyball games, get free pot here and – Cindy McCain confesses to having sexual fantasies about Obama (click here to find out – Barack or Michelle)
Oh and – this isn’t a meme! But what if I labeled it – Earn Money for Memes.
I’ll never know
31 comments:
I'm still in shock that I accidently made a meme. It's okay if you don't force others to do it right? I won't be damned to a fiery pit or anything?
That worked really well for you. It describes exactly what you get here with the exception of heart, but I don't know how you would fit that in the labels and it would have to go on every post.
We both have life labels and we don't know why. Somehow that connection doesn't surprise me.
I've never used labels. It just never occurred to me.
Glad you sent us to the Black and White. They are terrific!
Thanks for your visit...And I like that 'artsy' photi, too...I was just lucky with that one...lol!
I haven't that about labels at all....In fact, I'm not even sure what aq "label" is or where it goes. I name each post and if that is a label...Well....Who Knew? (lol)
knight - I wish I could come up with a name for something that is worthy of being done by many people - but has no tagging or obligation associated to it. that's what you accidentaly invented.
We have so many connections and we keep bumping into new ones! and I love it :)
bobbie - I'm so glad you like the B&W site! Some really talented folks contribute there.
oldold lady of the hills - luck makes for the best photos. there's a line labeled 'labels' at the bottom of the window when you're composing. I use it as a way to categorize my posts so if I wanted to search for all my many mentions of Siren or Mia I could.
I'm still not completely sure if the labels really do anything other than allow me to search for certain posts. I guess that's enough.
You're labels are pretty tame. I keep meaning to do this too. I don't think I'll have any label used anywhere near 84 times like you do though. I tend to just throw stuff up there for the heck of it.
When I started blogging I didn't think it would last long and I didn't know much about it so I didn't bother labelling. Now I wish I had so I can find stuff, the trouble is I can't be arsed going back through all my posts to label them now! I lie - I do label Wordzzles and Flash Fiction 55s!
Interesting, she said, as she leaned back and made notes in her diary ... ahem
I dont know about this ... when Holly, bless her extremely generous soul and unlimited smarts, made my Wisps from all the 'tags' on my multitude of posts 'we' decided to not include any single tags ... otherwise the damn Wisps would be come a veritable Waterfall of words ...
See I cant even comment briefly ...
:-Daryl
Interesting post. I am a boring labeler. I didn't know about doing it early on and now - like others - I mostly do it so I can find things myself.... and in the delusional hope that someone will read something I've written and say - "wow, that was good, I wonder what else she's done on that subject." Hah! I like the Cindy McCain one. I'm still waiting for mention to be made of her history as a drug abuser, thief and embezzler. Seems like something that has some importance to me. A millionaire steals from charity to support her drug habit.... Hmmm.
Ooops. Got so fixated on trashing Cindy McCain that I forgot to say that I think the picture is great and thank you for the Wordzzle plug.
So thats how those labels are done! Thanks Dianne. ;-) I often wondered why some folks have them and some don't...like me. ROFL! I still have so much to learn.
Have a great day, and thanks for the new site, I am going to go check it out.
Hugs,
Kimmie
Besides triggering hits in search engines, labels are useful in another important way. If you tag related posts with a common ...er... label, you -- and more important your readers -- can find all of your ... black and white photography (for example) and filter out everything else.
You can build links using those search terms and put them in your sidebar so all your 55 Flash Fictions (again, for example) can be whistled up in one click.
(Shameless promotion time here) If you want to see an example, check out my sidebar under "Popular Searches". Go ahead, click 'em... you'll see what I'm talking about.
The same thing happens if you click a label on a specific post, but if you put the most common labels on your sidebar (or equivalent) your readers don't have to go looking for a post with that label to find the rest. The idea is that the easier your blog is to navigate, the more page views you get (which if you're blogging for dollars is your lifeblood). And folks are more likely to come back if it's not so hard to get around.
I'll even tell you how to build your own if you don't know and want to. (At no extra charge!)
And... you can add labels at any time so you can go back to your old posts on the "Manage -> Posts" page and retrofit the ones that don't have any.
*musing* Does anybody besides me remember that Nick Lowe song from the late 70's called "I love My Label"?
No?
Too bad... great song.
I put labels on most of mine, but I don't really know why. I guess it's just because Jay told me to. lol
I guess I'm not a label person. I never saw the use in it untill I read this post and some of the comments...
Now I'm wondering why I haven't done it!! Oy!!
Jay - I looked at all my single mentions or odd labels - i.e., 'connecting' used 13 times. what the f was I connecting to!? anyway - I realized my labels made more sense and were useful as the blog defined itself and as I became better at it.
akelamalu - I'm so glad I labeled wordzzle, especially now that I wanted to find all the 'Finolas'
daryl - I love that you feel you can't be brief lol
there's such substance to us rambling, wordy folks. I remember when you first mentioned your 'cloud' and I went up and down your sidebar trying to find a cloud!
raven - 'fixating on trashing Cindy McCain' - now that's a game I could get into! ;)
I was searching Goodgle images for 20 minutes looking for a photo that illustrated labels before I realized I could just take a freaking picture! sometimes ... oy!
kimmie - I never notice who has labels and who doesn't - I never really pay attention. the funny thing is I used labels from day one but wasn't sure why I was using them ;)
mojo - holy crackers!! you're like a blog guru. I especially like the idea of building links. thank you for so much info.
betty - I don't think it's a good idea to let our kids know we ever do anything they tell us to! lol
tt - as 'mojo' said if you're not blogging for $$ and if you're not concerned about increasing views and hits then it's really just your own internal filing system. What I loved about Knight's post was that it got me thinking about where the blog is, where it's going - for instance I've really shifted focus to more photos and I know I'm not writing enough about politics. I also think it's hard to do if your blog is more a personal journal - although I'd love to know how many times you blogged about 'parentals' or 'grape' ;)
oh hi, i came here from a google search on 'earning money with memes' and i was wondering where the tips are? i would like to subscribe to your money making newsletter. thanks.
actually i usually use that label thing to be silly. i don't think i've used one label twice, which makes it difficult now for catching all the posts about 'x'. yes, well done holly... ugh.
On my Mom Knows Everything blog I have hundreds of labels so when I started my Girl Talk blog I decided to keep the labels more generalized.
I must go through my old posts and add in "Forgot to add label ... again" as a label for all those posts that don't have labels.
Wonder if there's a macro that would do that ?
I am going to do this "not meme" too. I have been using labels from the start, though I wasn't very consistent at the beginning.
Thanks Mojo for pointing out how to use them on the sidebar.
Off to see the world in B&W now.
Glad I could be helpful. And if you really want to get the traffic that comes with naked girl-on-girl volleyball, etc. just set the font size for that string very, very small and make the font the same color as your background. It won't be visible to the naked eye, but the text will still be in the post for Google to hit on. Of course, you're going to have some disappointed readers when they get here, but most of them are probably used to it by now.
Thanks for stopping by, glad you enjoyed your stay! come back for Wordless Wednesday (the Tuesday and Wednesday editions this week. I've got some entries you might like.
Oh, here's a present for ya before I go. It's the best Google search string I've found so far:
jay leno fritos bag sold on ebay
(You can thank me later when the hits start rolling in.)
holly - very good! LOL
if only it could be that easy to make a few bucks.
tammy - generalized sounds like a good idea, I just need to decide on categories and stick to them.
sleepypete - I had to read that twice to make sure I got it LOL
You have a wonderful future in American government
reb - that's it! the "un-meme" - Knight invented it and you named - labeled - it! what a team we all are!
mojo - I already bookmarked you - I love your photos. I'm laughing at the image of all these disappointed volleyball fans ;)
Naked Firefighters! I'm there!
I was away from blogging for about 6 months. When I left I had never heard the word Meme. Now that I'm back, they are everywhere! I'm still not even sure what they are lol.
I'm like you. I make the labels so I can find something later. My top 4 are Barns, Old Buildings, Ocean and Beach so I guess you can tell where my interests lie.
You crack me up...again. Off to check out the black and white!
When I started blogging I didn't know what the lables were for. As it progressed I understood them, but thought I'd get around to it sometime. Now after so many posts I think ablout what a monumental task it would be to go back to the begining.
Oh well.
heh hehe To disorganized for labels am I!
This is interesting. I am not sure what all my labels will say about me as I have been quite random in using them. Yours seem to fit you very well, well at least from what I know of you through your blog!
I do have an issue with labels in life though. We apply them all the time but I have always resisted being labelled myself. It's very constricting and we end up putting people into stereotypical boxes if we are not careful. The problem with this is that we then assume we know what that person is like given the limited informaiton we know e.g. they believe x and like y so they must also support z. People are much more complex than that!
Ek! Didn't mean to get all deep and meaningful when this is just a bit of fun, but still, it made me think of this :)
faye - the naked firefighters are grateful for your interest LOL
I learned something new from you - I thought meme had been around since the beginning of the internet tubes. I think your categories suit your amazing photos perfectly.
shelly - thanks! I aim to crack up - well - uh - I mean ...
Hope you like the B&W
jeff - I wonder if I could become a 'human label maker' - offer to go through blog posts and categorize them for folks. a new industry emerges ;)
walking man - I could not begin to come up with labels for your work! Maybe - brilliant, searing, powerful ... you get my drigt :)
bob-kat - they do fit me and I was pleased to discover that - meant I was posting about things important and true to me which is what I wanted the blog to be.
I agree with you about real life labels - it limits us. I love when you get all deep and stuff :)
I use the labels to find stuff again. But i've got new ideas for using them from your comments..
cg - my readers are the best! helpful, smart, generous
but you know since you're one of the merry group!
mojo should be hired as a blog consultant!
Dianne, I guess you wouldn't do that labeling stuff for free, would you>
I think you are considering it as a part-time job. Oh well. I can't afford to pay you. Never mind.
Fun post! I enjoyed it and the comments. And I agree about labeling people, and the problems that can cause.
patti - I don't even have the time to do my labels for free LOL
I love the comments too! Most of the fun of blogging is 'talking' to each other.
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