(click image for larger view)

The above image is proof that more pageviews do not equal more discussion.

I blog for myself. My goal when crafting blog posts is not to get eyeballs. If I do get them, that’s fine. I don’t do SEO (beyond just having good code). I don’t name my posts to cater to search engines. I don’t have “digg this!” or “add to del.icio.us!” buttons every thirty pixels up and down the page.

I’ve had three posts that have generated… relatively considerable attention. I say relatively, because they are nowhere close to what an A-lister… or C-lister, would get on an average post (I’m guessing).

The first goes as far back as October of 2006. It was my first (seemingly harmless) post about Ella’s oat allergy. So far, that post has generated 39 comments, with another post about Ella getting seven more oat allergy-related comments.

Then there’s “The Blog is the New Resume”. That one hit Techmeme and sent quite a few visitors my way. That one has a whopping 63 comments, many of them coming from people writing their own blog posts on the subject and linking back. In fact, so much conversation was giong on that I posted a followup to push the discussion to the forefront. That post yielded another 31 comments.

Lastly came my most popular post ever. “Google Transit Comes Through: Best Customer Service EVER” was a goofy story about Google sending me a Superman cape after they put me through some hell. This post got me 20 comments, mostly trackbacks, along with 11 on the original post. Kind of a meager amount given the traffic for that post was FOURTEEN times my next most popular post (heck, even more than three times as much as my home page!).

Not only did the Google Transit post not generate as many comments, but the discussion for the oat allergy and blog as resume posts have been insightful and collaborative. The Google post is kind of like… oh, neat. And then you’re done with it. The other posts are topics that can resonate.

So, it’s not all about getting your blog posts in front of as many faces as possible. Get it in front of the right people, share a conversation, and learn from your readers. Your Technorati rank can wait.

How bad is this? Oat allergies are apparently so rare that a single comment on my blog gets on the front page of Google when you search “oat allergy”?

I have purchased the oatallergy.com domain. I think it’s time to finally implement some sort of resource. My only post on the subject has had a couple comments so far. People are looking for information. Looks like an opportunity to share.

Must. Find. Time.

My (nearly) two-year old, Ella, has an oat allergy. She also has a dairy allergy and a peanut allergy. The difference is, a lot of people have those two. There is a lot of information out there and ingredients on packaging are strongly pointed out. For oat allergies, however, hardly any information is out there because it is so rare.

A while back, Brian Oberkirch made a post titled Organic Approach for Organic Social Media. You’ll see there that I left a long comment.

Two months later, this hits my inbox:

Hello Adam,

I saw a post that you put up for “whole foods, Organic Approach for Organic Social Media” and I noticed that you refered to you having a daughter that is allergic to oats. I have a friend with a little girl that just turned one and is severly allergic to oats. She is having a lot of trouble finding information on the oat allergy because it is so rare. Is there any information that you could share with me about any of your findings? It would be much appriciated! Thank you!

Since receiving this, I have been exchanging what I found helps in dealing with this allergy, first with the author of the email and now eventually the child’s mom directly. I just find it interesting that leaving a comment on a blog can lead to this type of information sharing.

I’ve also been toying with the idea of starting a blog just about the oat allergy since there’s *nothing* out there about it currently. Of course, if I implemented ever idea I’ve ever had… I would say here that I wouldn’t sleep, but I barely do that now!

Like I said… I have a (nearly) two-year old.