Blogging is all about writing great content, patience and networking. If you lack in anyone of these factors you are putting your blog’s survival at stake. Blog creation and running is not a big deal, but what about long term results? Are you sure your blog will exist for just first six months? I don’t think blogging for very first six months is an easy job due to;
- Lack of patience & hard work
- We have lot of expectations,
- We think that traffic will automatically come,
- Our stats will touch high numbers and even will beat big names in industry,
- We also think that we will have lot of comments and will receive uncountable guest posts to publish.
- We will start earning a huge amount of money.
I was thinking about some survey or poll that can show us the number of bloggers and their blogging time period since they are blogging. For more detailed and accurate results, we need a large readership so that we have a trend in blogging time period. I searched for net and landed on Problogger’s blog.
He already conducted the survey via creating a poll and exactly fulfills our need of having large audience. I participated in poll and viewed the results. Results were highly skewed towards blog failure ratio. Bloggers blogging from 3 months and from 3-6 months attracted the attention. (Please note that we are considering “Less than 3 months” figure as base for our analysis)
Only 40% of bloggers continued blogging till 3rd to 6th month and 25% continued blogging till 9th month. Results are very interesting when you further interpret it. Only 21% of bloggers continued blogging till first year.
What does all this stats means? It is crystal clear that a newbie is very energetic when he starts blogging, but within first three months they lose their hope and quit blogging.
These results are evident of this cruel truth. Survival for first six months and then continuing requires true dedication. Now question is how we can prepare ourselves for the first six months of blogging to survive? What are the steps and initiative that will make us champ in this time period?
Motivate Yourself
First rule is to motivate yourself. Your thoughts, thinking and your attitude towards blogging are very important. You need to have a lot of patience and courage to face the first six months of your blogging journey. Daily traffic stats and no comments will discourage you, but keep in mind every blogger starts with zero.
Train yourself; prepare your mind to face these expected situations and promise yourself not to give up. If you do all these things, you will find yourself much motivated and situation will turn in your favor.
Develop a Writing Routine
People like to visit such sites whose content is refreshed on daily or at least on regular basis. If you are unable to write on daily basis, set posting schedule for you and strictly follow it.
Updating your blog on regular interval is much better than non regular or more frequent posting. Your readers will get used to your sites’ updating frequency. Too much posting will also kill your blog. Because later on you will not be able to continue this tempo due to work load and will start losing your readership. Find out your productive working hours to maximum the output in possible less time. Be smart.
Killer Content
Blogging is not a simple writing job. You need to attract people to read your blog. They are loyal readers of big names in your niche. Regular stuff will not attract them. You need to brainstorm and produce unique ideas for your content. Such idea/article that is never published will force the visitors to become your site reader.
Optimize Your Every Post for SEO
Don’t underestimate the power of generic traffic. They are cheap and easy to get just with a little know how of basic Search engine optimization. You need to include every post in search engine indexation. Avoid black hat SEO, use white hat SEO tricks for long lasting results and learn from big SEO Company’s mistake.
Write for Your Readers
Don’t make your blog an operational or technical manual of a product. No one will like your blog and will let it to die naturally. People want to share their views by participating in your blog’s community. Technical jargons and stuff is totally useless.
Blogs are also not meant for search engine. If you are only targeting search engine, rest assure bots, crawlers and spiders would be your best friends for all time and all of they don’t comment.
Write your content for humans, so that they can digest and discuss it online. More your readers are involved in your blog, more your blog’s buzz will spread around.
Engage Your Readers
Have you noticed, tech and gadget blogs don’t have comments or very few comments if we compare to the blogs that are non tech. Reason is they are aimed to give you latest news and development for the products.
All you need to engage your readers by opting in various techniques,
- Held a contest,
- Encourage them to participate in Polls,
- Provide a platform to discuss the issues,
- Ask questions etc.
- Held some interesting quiz,
Networking
Networking within your niche will considerably boost your motivation and traffic. Remember, no man is an island. You have to have strong social networking with bloggers, readers and commentators.
You have an easy opportunity to have good social networking with your commentators. Top commentator widget will help you to reward your commentators. Announce top five commentators in a post to encourage them.
Stumbleupon, Reddit, Digg are treasures of traffic. Participate in communities; exchange of e-mail ids will greatly help you. Don’t forget to guest post on high traffic blog within your niche.
These are steps and initiatives that will take you out of tough period of blogging career. If you have more ideas to share, please come up and share your views.
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{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post! I am in month two and I am determined to make it many years. But this is great motivation and I’m going to look back at it when I’m frustrated and want to quit. Which hopefully won’t happen for a good long while. Thanks again.
Rebecca, work smart and look around yourself for inspiration and motivation. For a newbie like you, networking is very important. Keep in mind, no man is an island. Try to network and keep commenting as more as you can. You will ease your life.
Thanks for the tips bro. I’m into the first six months period. Lets see how much I can survive too
Mani, two things are important, content, networking. You will be happy even in your first six month phase. Wok hard and use social networking.
First six month is really a tough time for bloggers…
– First they have to engage in a community of bloggers…it will help them a lot in many ways
– Sudharsan @ Technoskillonline
That’s true, Sudharsan. Initial stage of every process/business requires lot of hard work. Such phase become more worse for bloggers due to ignorance and lack of strategy. Every new blogger should start with networking before starting his own blog.
I would definitely recommend networking. That will keep you motivated when you have other people to converse with. I would add one more to your list and say “Just write”. Your writing gets better if you just keep writing. Don’t over think things. Just write.
Kathy that is a good advice too for all bloggers. Exercise will make us perfect in writing. Without writing style, even a rich content becomes zero valued. My inspiration is viperchill. He is awesome with interesting writing style.
Thanks Kathy for your participation in discussion.
Hi Imran
I intend for my blog to be successful and to be around for a loooong time. I think that passion (for what you blog about) patience (to build up traffic) and persistance (to keep going even when it gets tough) are all necessary to become a successful blogger and stay around for the long haul. Also I agree it is important to not work in isolation but build relationships with other bloggers. One of the best things I did was join bloggerluv and wow what a great community they are. Yesterday I was stuck with a techie problem (I find that part of blogging hard) and one of the bloggerluv community came across to my site, offered to sort and now it is done. Took Karen 5 minutes to do what it would have taken me so long to figure. She enjoyed helping me and of course I will be over to her site and spreading the luv there.
Patricia Perth Australia
Passion, patience and persistence. That’s awesome Patricia. We can call it 3-P of blogging. That’s true that networking is very important for us and bloggerluv is awesome community. A platform where all bloggers meet each other. Karen is really helpful and a blogger too.
Patricia you need to give a touch to techie side of blogging to resolve the issues at your own within no time. No doubt, all of we are here to help each other, but it takes time.
Btw, your selected niche is very interesting.
Thanks for the encouragement and your kind words. Your blog is one I intend to visit regularly. I am enjoying your posts.
Patricia Perth Australia
So nice of you. I am glad you liked my articles.
Blogging is definitely trail an error and patience. I see a lot of people jump in thinking they can make a quick buck, but soon learn the hard truths. If blog about what you love then it is easy to carry on. Good post.
You are right in case if newbies have no mentor. If they seek guidance from experienced one, failure ratio will significantly decrease. Your point is valid, every one wants to make gain results immediately.
That’s great to know that I am in 21% of bloggers that continue blogging after first year. As long as people visit and find my posts useful, I continue to write new posts.
That’s good that you have successfully passed crucial period of blogging. All you need now to spread your voice (Marketing) and product best content. Good Luck.
Your Right .. To become in the world of blogging, the first essential things is to be consistent.
Great Post once again
Imran, I’ve started off a number of blogs. No wonder so many bloggers quit before six months. The Google Sandbox for new domains is exhausting. Others might have better results, but I’ve found it takes 2-3 months just to get a whiff of good search traffic. After 4 months, it gets better.
For me, I’ve found that social media is the only way to generate decent traffic for the first 2 months on a new domain.
Jarret your observation is correct and for established bloggers, this time period is not a problem because they have existing audience and they know what to do and how to do. Newbies face a lot of hardships in first six months due to lack of knowledge. And Jarret you are a established blogger, so launching new blogs is not a big deal for you. I know you can handle it very well.
first six months are vital , and you need to keep urself motivated … my friends motivated me a lot
Friends and fellow bloggers play important role in motivation. Try to locate source of inspiration to keep your self motivated.
i find facebook a great place to hang out with fellow bloggers , all like minded people …
Very interesting post. And I think you make a lot of good points, especially when it comes to the first three months of blogging. I was a bit scared I would lose my motivation, but it actually just grows and becomes stronger every day. I love this blogging biz!
This is the level of motivation required for newbies. Don’t lose motivation at any stage, if necessary take some break and refuel yourself.
Some of the excellent points I’ve ever seen for a blogging newbie. I survived my first 6 months of blogging and learned a lot of things. Hopefully I’ll survive more with the notes I took on the way. Thanks for the wonderful article.
This article was much more detailed than I expected … However, I believe that people taking up blogging professionally should also have backup money to support themselves for a year or so. Lack of money and running to find a job can really kill the spirit of blogging.
Gera you have raised a valid point. backup money is key to success because you will be in need of finance to run and expand your blog. Like hiring proof reader, researchers and reporters like stuff require finance. A good point. Thanks for your participation.
your article is so damn true, i started blogging with great enthusiasm but i gradually frequency of my post decrease, reaching point of lowest interest. Your post has run some fresh blood into veins. I would like my self not be victimize by above research. Thank mate for such a valuable article.
Hey Imran,
Nice article.Blogging is not concerned with a single area I feel.You can never ignore even a single activity.One needs to write well,should do proper marketing etc.I feel that Its all about passion that results in longevity and maintains consistency.
Hi,
Indeed these are all great things to do to your blog. I have recently started my blog and have learnt a lot over the last couple of months. There is so much more to learn still. Thanks for the info.
Great tips. After a year of blogging I lost my motivation. I stopped writing for a few weeks but a jump in earnings this week has re-motived me.
I think we just need inspiration to write and when motivation drops find something to kick start it back up.
Hi Imran,
It is a very nice and informative post.You well explained the topic and survival strategy in first six months of blogging.This post is reallt very helpful for neophytes.
Thanks! Another great post that really helps other bloggers out there.
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