A lot of people want to know, “how long?”
How long before I get a lot of traffic to my blog?
How long before I can make money?
How long before I close my blog down if it’s not working?
People need to understand that a blog is just like a business, my blog is just around 8 months old and I am still not 100% satisfied with my traffic levels, design, etc. When you start a blog you are starting from 0, you literally have nothing, just a blank page on which you can start writing. Your traffic levels start from 0 and you have to understand that to make it grow you are going to have to sweat a little.
The early stages of blogging are always the hardest because it is easy to get discouraged. I’ve seen it happen several times, people write for 1-3 months, don’t see the traffic they hope for (or the money) and then they close up shop…big mistake. It’s not going to happen overnight and it’s not going to happen in just a few months…how could it?
As a blogger it is your job to get readers to your site that you have never met before in person, does this sound like an easy task you can accomplish in just a few months? I know I can’t. Don’t give up and don’t stop. If you aren’t seeing the traffic levels you are hoping for that doesn’t mean the content you are writing is crap, it just means that you need to be more aggressive at promoting yourself. Don’t think that just because you write a lot of great stuff that people are automatically going to come to your site, how are they going to find you?
I’ve talked about this before but I’m going to talk about it again, you have to promote yourself and your blog if you want to see results. When I was in Turkey I saw streets with many cafes and restaraunts lined up next to each other, do you know what they did to bring people in? Store owners or managers would stand outside their stores (in nice clothes) and greet every single person that walked by; chatting them up and inviting them in. You are the store owner of your site/blog you need to be out there talking to everybody, inviting them into your store. So what does this mean?
It means putting a link in your email signature to your blog
It means putting your blog URL on your business cards
It means joining in on similar topic conversations on OTHER blogs
It means using twitter and facebook to promote your content
It means going to meet ups or gatherings all the time so that you can meet people and connect with them
It means going to conferences such as SXSW, Blog World Expo, etc. Here you will meet tons of folks
It means trying to get syndicated on sites such as alltop, social media today, etc.
It means using digg and stumbleupon (or others) to get the word out
It means responding to every single email, twitter msg, blog comment or other interaction that you get
It means writing quality content; often!
Don’t worry about how long, if I told you it would take 6 months or 1 year, would it really matter? You’re doing this to achieve a certain goal and you just need to work hard until it happens.
Instead of thinking about “how long”, just think about “how.”
p.s.
By the way I recently announced that I am going to be writing guest posts for everyone, so if you want a guest post, read this.
thanks for reading
Most often (and I have fallen prey to this as well now and then), I see bloggers that get so focused on posting every day or on constantly crafting the perfect post that they forget that they have to go out and sell themselves. As you point out, you have to be out there, putting yourself in front of people, for them to even get the chance to find your material, and once they do, they often don't want to just read the same old stuff they could find other places. One of the most important bits of advice on blogging I got recently was that most every blogger needs to have an opinion, a personality, something to differentiate them from all of the commenters out there that often just post something like, “I agree. . . Now, please come check out my blog at. . .”
I'm one of those 'just write and hope' bloggers in the main, probably because I'm not use to selling myself in other parts of my life – I'm a stay-at-home-mum – so it wouldn't occur to me to do so for the blog. I can sort of see the benefits and have tentatively started to mention it on twitter but the other stuff is something of a mystery to me (and am I the only blogger who hasn't particularly thought of making money from it? I can see that's important if you have a business to promote but not for my sort of blog surely.)
That makes me look very naive; I'm not, but I can't be the only one that is a beginner in all this (despite writing a blog for a couple of years now)
Further posts on the basics would be great, Jacob, thanks.
Julie
x
hi eric,
yep, as the saying goes, if content is king then marketing is the queen. personality is a great way to differentiate because to be honest a lot of the bloggers out there talk about the same stuff. i try to keep my content unique and fresh but i also try ti give a little bit of myself in every post, i want people to be able to read a post and say “oh jacob wrote that”
thanks for reading and commenting again 🙂
hi julie, i actually don't make money on my blog from ads as well, although i do get leads and folks asking me for consulting help so that's always a good thing. if you are not seeking to promote your blog, make money, get leads, etc. then of course that's fine. the important thing is that you are happy with the way things are going, if you have no complaints then don;'t change anything and keep on rocking your blog.
although i would suggest finding online communities that share in your interests and introduce yourself there and perhaps share your blog, just a thought 🙂
thanks for reading and commenting!
hi eric,
yep, as the saying goes, if content is king then marketing is the queen. personality is a great way to differentiate because to be honest a lot of the bloggers out there talk about the same stuff. i try to keep my content unique and fresh but i also try ti give a little bit of myself in every post, i want people to be able to read a post and say “oh jacob wrote that”
thanks for reading and commenting again 🙂
hi julie, i actually don't make money on my blog from ads as well, although i do get leads and folks asking me for consulting help so that's always a good thing. if you are not seeking to promote your blog, make money, get leads, etc. then of course that's fine. the important thing is that you are happy with the way things are going, if you have no complaints then don;'t change anything and keep on rocking your blog.
although i would suggest finding online communities that share in your interests and introduce yourself there and perhaps share your blog, just a thought 🙂
thanks for reading and commenting!