Into the Fire

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A distinct advantage?

 

I kinda hate to suggest this, but I’m thinkin’ it’s true. If you’re a male blogger, you’ve got more potential to reach both genders than if you’re a female blogger. There. I said it.

 

I’m not suggesting men don’t read blogs written by women, but just to browse? Huh-uh. I think men read professional women’s blogs if the topic(s) relates to their interests and an occasional non-professional who covers their same interests or shares their opinions. I don’t think men hang out at blogs written by women.

 

Women, on the other hand, seem to have less difficulty hanging out at men’s blogs if the topics interest them.

 

Don’t get me wrong here. Generally speaking, some men have less time to spend on the internet. Before the female hackles get stimulated, the time factor also applies to women who work outside and/or inside the home. Budgeted time leads to setting priorities and favorites.

 

Then of course one must factor in the female-ness of some blogs—those which only cover topics related to their gender, lifestyle, parenting, etc., and if they’re writing females, sometimes their genre choices hold no real interest for the male gender. Both men and women decide who they want their primary audience to be in blogger-land.

 

This blog attempts to reach both genders with its attention to writing, publishing, and spiritual matters. Usually about twice a year I’ll do my posts on romance. The women who leave comments here outnumber the men, but that’s also common to male blogs in the writing venue.

 

So, what do you think?

 

 

Father, you know how grateful I am for every individual who visits this place. They’re valuable, and I get a little piece of their time. Thank you for that—it’s so meaningful. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.     

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10 responses to “A distinct advantage?”

  1. Brenda Jackson Avatar
    Brenda Jackson

    Nicole. Here you go again. Getting me to pondering instead of me getting my keister in bed where it belongs. 😎
    My first instinct was to say a male blogger has more potential to reach both genders–simply because a male blogger is a rare find.
    But then I went and did a tally of the blogs I routinely frequent each week, and the number of blogs done by women and men came up even at 6 and 6. Well close to even. In the male blogger category, I included co-op blogs where at least some of the bloggers are men, since that’s usually why I read those blogs—for example, the biggest reason I frequent Novel Journey is waiting for Athol Dickson’s next post. Likewise, I like to read posts of James Scott Bell and John Gilstrap over at The Kill Zone, even though both these blogs have terrific female bloggers.
    Content has everything to do with it for me, whether the blogger is male or female. The female bloggers I frequent are either agents in the industry or, like you, cover industry and spiritual matters, as you noted. The vast majority of my blog reading is industry specific. Others, like The Kill Zone, are industry specific and occasionally get off into forays you won’t find on most female bloggers sites–such as cool stuff about firearms and special ops, that sort of thing.
    I don’t want to read about romance and the hero and heroine because that puts me to sleep, likewise I get bored with discussions on what dresses women wore in such and such a time period, etc. I want either industry news and discussion or cool action topics.
    Like one of my missions for this week is finding out what kind of pistol the new Steve McGarrett uses on Hawaii Five-0. Stuff like that you’ll usually find out from a guy way before a woman (and yes, there are exceptions I’m sure).

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  2. mike duran Avatar
    mike duran

    Nicole,in Christian fiction circles (which you and I are both targeting), there are far more female bloggers than male. This disparity is so obvious that, at one time, I considered forming an alliance of male bloggers. There’s Blogging Chicks, Blogging Mommies, Christian Women Online, Empowering Christian Women, and the list goes on and on. Heck, the team at Novel Journey (one of the most popular Christian fiction sites), consists of 11 women and 4 men. And three of those men have only come on in the last year or so. This is representative of the demographics of the Christian fiction industry. There’s far more female CF writers and books aimed at women. All that to say, I’m not sure I agree with your premise. And even if it’s true, you need to tinker with contributing factors.
    Building blog traffic is important to this discussion, far more than just gender. I can reference many female bloggers who generate great traffic and reach both genders. So determining a gender target — or being of a certain gender — is only one of many possible factors to a website’s popularity.
    As I’ve said before, Christian fiction and review sites are a dime a dozen (whether done by men or women). Having your blog stand out in that ocean of “sameness” takes a lot of wisdom, hard work, and unique voice. Gender, in my opinion, has very little to do with it.
    Great topic, Nicole!

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  3. Tim George Avatar
    Tim George

    I think if’s probably the combination of genre preference and gender habits. But the moment I say that I realize my own review site which only covers suspense, speculative and mystery yet fully 75% of my regular visitors are women. So I guess this is one I need to think over a little longer. 😀

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  4. Nicole Avatar
    Nicole

    Mike and Brenda J., excellent observations and thoughts.
    I still maintain “the potential” to reach more of both genders rests with men, even though there are fewer of them that blog and less of them who write/represent CBA fiction. A lot of women read thrillers and novels which can be more associated with men. That same crossover–at least in numbers–doesn’t hold true for men with romance novels for example. And I think women who do blog tend to write more gender specific than men who blog. And of course there are exceptions.
    Just some thoughts . . .

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  5. Nicole Avatar
    Nicole

    Tim, it’s not your content. I also think men are more inclined to “lurk” more than women, visiting sites without commenting. However, those novel genres have equal numbers or at least large numbers of female readers. But this might be part of the point Mike was making: a lot of men read outside the CBA market, some of them unaware of the bounty of men’s fiction available that doesn’t include what might be described as typical fare for women (Tim Downs, Steven James, Robert Liparulo, Mike Duran, Mike Dellosso, James Scott Bell, Tom Morrisey).

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  6. Brenda Anderson Avatar
    Brenda Anderson

    Interesting perspective, Nicole.
    A quick peek at the blogs I frequent and only (3) have male bloggers. I think that’s primarily because of the predominance of female authors in Christian fiction.
    Assessing the blogs I do read, they are not romance or mom oriented. Most of them are written by friends.
    I enjoy blogs that get me to think outside my little world, ones that challenge me. Nine of the blogs I read do that on occasion. But only two blogs supply my daily requirement of mental stimulation, (yours being one of them). Those are the blogs I anticipate reading the most & spend the most time on.
    For me, it has nothing to do with the gender of the author. But, the important thing is, Nicole, you got me to think.

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  7. Nicole Avatar
    Nicole

    Brenda, thank you from my heart. Like you, I like interesting topics and those topics which warrant my participation–meaning that I might have an opinion, encouragement, or what I consider a worthy or legitimate disagreement that won’t be met with insults.
    I think you and I both appreciate a male point of view concerning certain topics and even though we might write in genres which typically draw more women, we don’t necessarily follow the threads of women’s thought processes or blog topics.

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  8. Jill Avatar
    Jill

    I’m a woman, not a man, so this may be meaningless, BUT I don’t frequent your site because of the black background. It kills my eyes. I very rarely visit blogs that are difficult to read, even if I love the content.

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  9. Jill Avatar
    Jill

    Oh, btw, I didn’t intend that to be rude. I just have sensitive eyes.

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  10. Nicole Avatar
    Nicole

    Thank you for taking the time to stop by. I understand about the eye thing. Sorry for that difficulty. Thanks, Jill, for leaving an explanatory comment. Appreciate it. I’m addicted to black. 😉

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