Blogging for Dollars Blog

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Your blog is a commitment. When you first start your blog, you’re blogging because you have a lot to say. Once your blog’s a year or two old however, and your blog is established, you have less to say - that’s only natural.

You’ve covered the basics and more of your blog’s topic, and blogging every day when you have nothing to say means that you’ll devalue your overall content.

On Blogging Isn’t Losing Steam, It’s Just Getting Easier Jennifer Laycock says: “Yes, it’s important to blog with consistency. You can’t put a blog up and only post six times a year. That said, the days of needing to post every single day, or even multiple times a week may be gone. There are plenty of fantastic bloggers in my feed reader who only blog weekly or a couple times a month. With feed readers making it easier than ever to follow multiple bloggers, it’s now more about quality than quantity.”

On my own blogs, I’ve noticed that my blogging frequency has gone down; this is fine. New readers can investigate the archives, and regular readers will be patient.

I’ve never understood the need that some bloggers feel to announce every slight hiatus “I’ll be out of town this week, so blogging will be light…” or “I’m on vacation until_____” Since regular readers read your feed, so they know there’s no posts, and new readers who arrive via a link or the search engines won’t be aware of how frequently you post, why bother?

Blog at your own pace. There are no blogging police.

Technorati Tags: blogs, blogging, how to blog

Are you building blogs in order to sell them?

There’s some excellent advice here - 6 Lessons From a $6000 Blog Sale | Blogging Fingers recommends: “Patience is they key to a successful sale. When something as important as your number 1 blog is for sale it is tough to wait for replies to emails you have sent. It is temping to reply back to the first person who contacted you with an BIN offer for them; when the smart thing to do would be to wait (no longer than a day or two) and then you can make a more attainable offer to them based on what other feedback you have received. When the site is up for sale on a straight auction this need for patience is lessened but waiting to put it up for auction while you build ‘pre-sale hype’ is another challenge in itself.”

This blog was just four months old at the time of the sale.

If you’re selling a blog, remember to announce that the blog’s for sale on the blog first, so you can gauge interest.

Technorati Tags: blogs, blogging, blog sale, sell your blog

If you read the Internet marketing boards it seems that every blogger is either desperate for traffic, or bragging about traffic and offering to sell you their traffic secrets.

Here’s a tip: blogging is about sharing your ideas and what’s interesting to you. And yes, this even applies to business blogs. You need enthusiasm for your topic.

When you blog with interest and passion, and give without an expectation of immediate reward, you will get traffic.

If you’re not meeting your goals for a blog, then find a way to meet those goals with the traffic you already have - getting more traffic won’t solve the problem.

I know this goes against perceived wisdom on the marketing boards, but the value of a blog to your goals has nothing to do with traffic. Over the years, I’ve tried a few of the “get traffic” fads - against my better judgment - and always regretted it. I got an increase in traffic for sure, but by and large that traffic was useless.

OTOH, at those times I thought strategically about how I could add value to a blog, and what I could do with the traffic I was getting, I found that I met my goals for that particular blog.

In The Dos and Don’ts of Blogging Lorelle says: “Give Without Expectation of Return: Like chasing, when we give our words, links, credit, and appreciation to others, do so without expectation of return. I do not expect to be asked to be included on a blogroll or get permission to link to one of my blog posts. Do it because you want to, not because you want me to do the same for you.”

Blog generously and you’ll be rewarded, it’s karma: don’t chase the traffic chimera.