A successful blog takes hard work
Jul1Written by:
2009/07/01 09:36 AM 
When I first got into blogging I never realised how much hard work it takes. How much time and dedication as well as consistency. Many people blog for fun and amusement, or perhaps just out of curiosity. Some do it because they enjoy writing. Others because its a business or part of it. Whatever your reason, if you want it to be successful, it is going to require effort.
Increasing web content
As with any blog or website, content is King. Content is what drives people to your blog. Content is what causes the search engines to crawl and index your blog or website. Increasing web content can boost your blog’s success, but this is something that takes plenty of time and effort.
Sure you can quickly increase the content by writing useless airy fairy pieces and meaningless articles. You can get lots of useless content by using auto-content-generating software, or ripping off content from other sites, but none of these methods are actually going to improve your blog or business popularity or profits in the long run.
The only web content that is going to secure your success is information that is relevant and valuable. It takes time and experience to generate this type of information, so don't try to cheat your way to the top with empty words or words that are not your own, or words that have absolutely no benefit to your blog or your readers. Stay true to what you believe in and what your readers believe in and keep your integrity.
Link Popularity
Many times new readers would gauge the importance of a blog by looking at the Pagerank. Pagerank is obtained by having good relative inbound links. The temptation then is to get as many inbound links as possible. One of the most popular quick fix methods out there are link schemes. Anyone who does business on the internet knows how valuable links are. Links are what help to increase web traffic and increase website visibility. Links are like votes, they are a sign of how other people, webmasters view your site. If they think your blog or post is important and valuable to them or their market then they will link to your blog to increase the value of their own blog or site.
Having said that, you need to avoid becoming a link farm, and avoid subscribing to link farms. Avoid unrelated link exchanges, avoid purchasing or selling links. Because if your goal is to only get links to increase your SEO rankings, you're not going to take your blog anywhere.
Link popularity is not about quantity of links, but quality of links. Relevancy is the key here. You need to ignore link popularity. Your focus should be on your target market, your niche, and how you can reach them to let them know your blog or website exists. To do this, you need to market your website. Which means you may have to spend a little money, and definitely spend a lot of time. The more your blog is recognized, the better chance it has of ending up in the right niche markets to attract the right attention.
If you want to be successful with search engine optimization, you need to commit yourself for the long run. Be prepared for some blood, sweat and tears. This does take patience, but is necessary if you want to come out on top.
Some useful tips.
- Valuable web content. Don't create a website that is overrun by graphics. Graphics and flashy flash can appeal to the eye, but SEO spiders will crawl right over these graphics and pass you by. What your blog needs is a good amount of content that is crammed full of valuable, relevant information. It needs to be clear and concise, and should also convey your blog’s message and if possible needs to include the keywords you've selected to rank high for.
- Relevancy. If content is King, then relevancy is Queen. Make sure that your content is relevant. Relevant to your chosen niche, relevant to your blogs theme. Relevant to other posts on your blog. Make sure that all your link anchor text and title tags are relevant to one another, as well as to the web content that is presented on your blog.
- Patience is a virtue. This cannot be more true when applied to blogs. Blogging takes time. It will take almost a year, or even longer, before you begin to see any traffic from the natural results of search engines. Don’t get depressed, do not to let this get you down, and most of all, DON’T give up. Take this time to continue to improve your blog or site and give the competition a run for their money. Eventually, your persistence, patience and positive thinking will pay off.
Conclusion
Remember, it doesn't matter how well you market your website, you are not going to achieve overnight success. There is just no quick fix. Any successful thing takes a lot of time and hard work. Just like most things in life, taking the easy way out when it comes to marketing your blog online isn't going to create you long lasting success. It is blood, sweat and tears that are going to work, and perhaps a good time piece.
Happy blogging.
Related Reading:
5 Great tips to improve your website and blog.
7 Ways of getting fresh content for your blog.
Top 10 Tips on SEO
Blog Post Ideas
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3 comment(s) so far...
Re: A successful blog takes hard work
Hard work it is, but enjoyable I will not deny. I did it purely for fun and with no goal to achieve anything. I had to stop blogging now, but hope to return. I do not think it is wrong to use content from another blog, but give credit to the blogger who it belongs to. We do not always read the same blogs and it is a good way of spreading the "message".
By Rustig on
2009/07/01 10:43 AM
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Re: A successful blog takes hard work
Rustig,
You're absolutely right. Give credit where credit is due. I agree, there is nothing wrong with using content from another blog, as long as it is done in the right way.
I sure hope you get back to blogging
By Robert Bravery on
2009/07/01 11:24 AM
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Re: A successful blog takes hard work
The key is finding subjets you're passionate about, and as you said, patience. Rome wasn't built in a day. With all of the excellent bloggers out there, individual success takes time and effot. It's a lot of work!
I just read an article by Remarkablogger at http://michaelmartine.com/2009/06/30/how-to-get-more-time-to-blog/ which made the point that blogging is a great way to aquire clients, and yet, people can't seem to find time to do it.
I have so much admiration for those like you, who manage to blog regularly with passion and enthusiasm.
By Theresa Carpenter Sondjo on
2009/07/01 10:18 PM
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