Cooped Up? Get Uncooped.

In web terms, a "sticky" site is one that is effective at drawing repeat readers. So if you're an outdoors blogger hoping to reach the huddled masses, stickiness -not cleanliness- is the virtue next to godliness.

(Besides - when it comes to the outdoors, if you're not getting dirty, you're probably not having fun.)

Here are ten tips to stickify your outdoors blog and make readers come back for more, again and again and again.

1. Teach them something. How to tie a tricky knot. How to lighten your backpacking load without resorting to sawing off your toothbrush handle. How to climb El Cap in twenty minutes with one hand tied behind your back. 

2. Give them timely information. For example, the latest development on the Black Sea oil spill. 

3. Make them mad. Not on purpose. But don't be afraid to cover controversial issues, as long as you're not doing it strictly for attention. Don't be the blogging equivalent of a radio shock jock. Sleaze turns readers off. 

4. Play show and tell. Don't be afraid to write about yourself and interesting outdoorsy things that you've done. Just remember rule #5...  

5. Don't be boring. Make your headlines interesting. And remember, nobody cares what you had for lunch - unless it was a guinea pig speared with a stick you whittled with your teeth and ate raw in the jungle because  you're lost and starving because the other members of your adventure tour group got devoured by a giant capybara and this meal shows the desperate straits you're in. 

6. Stick to it. So what if after three months you've only got four subscribers? Keep at it. Keep working on improving your writing skills and your technical skills. Build an interesting blog with solid, regularly updated content and the readers will come.

7. Give them useful information. Review the new approach shoes you got, or remind your readers that REI.com is having a big sale.

8. Make them laugh. Like Madonna says in her song "Say Goodbye": "All the world loves a clown."

9. Don't forget about the world. Remember, there's a great big world out there and not everything is peaches and cream. It's good to cover political, social, environmental and cultural issues that relate to your blog's subject.

10. Care. If you are passionate about blogging and about the outdoors, your passion will show. People gravitate towards passionate people.  

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