I have grown quite tired of reading about how computers and the Internet are supposed to simplify our lives. I have owned computers and have been surfing the web for so many years and my life is no simpler than it was when I was a blushing child in my mid-thirties.
My computer/Internet connection has given me new tools with which to earn a living but earning a living is still a matter of labor.
Article writers and marketers refer to blogging as “push-button publishing”. If only it were that easy. I realize that blog software is data-base driven, with automatic archiving, categorizing and syndication.
The thing is, none of those wonderful things happen unless I actually write a post and click the “publish” button. My blog can be the most fancy widgetized, tag-clouding, feed-pingingly brilliant weblog in the land but if I just let it sit there without regular updates it is nothing more than a collection of useless code, sitting on a server.
No matter how amazing your literary skills, no matter how shockingly unique your insights, in the blogging world, you are only as relevant as your most recent entry.
Blog fans want fresh material and they want it daily. If you do not give it to them they will find someone that will.
There is a reason that the majority of people that start a blog nowadays abandon them after a few months - blogging takes effort.
It does not matter if you have a whole backlog of blog posts. Your regular followers will have already read your previous posts and any new visitors probably will not read past the first page entries. If you want to create a loyal, consistent audience of fans, you have got to blog and blog and never stop blogging.
In truth, when it comes to the fleeting tastes of blog aficionados, one post a day probably is not enough. If you take a look at the most successful blogs in the blogosphere, 99% of them post as much as five-ten entries per day.
Granted, the entries need not be long on words but the point is that a high traffic blog is most often the one that contains several daily posts.
There are exceptions to the rule of multiple-daily postings. For example, celebrities get away with infrequent blog updates. Then again, when even celebrities let their blogs go unattended for long periods of time, blog followers go find a celebrity more willing to communicate regularly to fans.
Online artists and cartoonists can squeak by with semi-regular blog entries but only if their work is exceptionally wonderful. The same goes for instructional/informational bloggers. If you are giving your readers handy tips to fix their computers or valuable insights into some aspect of life, then you may be able to retain a steady stream of regular hits.
When it comes to running a niche oriented blog, think of yourself as no different than any other blog owner and your visitors as fickle as the people that go to TGPs. A good blog updates every single day, seven days a week. A good blog, like a good TGP, must always provide fresh content. When you begin to slack off, as sure as the sun will shine tomorrow, so will your traffic.
Your only consolation is that your multiple entries need not be breathtakingly substantial. Posting something as simple as a dirty photo with a bit of descriptive text will do. You do not have to post long diatribes about whatever.
In actuality, long blog posts are detrimental to your cause. While blog readers crave new, they love unique content. They want something they can read in less than a couple of minutes.
They want their yummy bits in small doses. Once again, think of the TGP. Your readers are not likely to venture past your first page. They want short selections of delicious smut.
Like I stated, I have grown weary of those who claim that computers and the net have made life easy. Terms like “push-button publishing” are misleading.
Everything worth having takes a lot of hard work and regular effort. Blogging is no exception. You must blog and blog and blog if you want to make money. Blog every day. Blog several times a day. Update or die.