If you’re planning to make money with your blog, you need to treat your blog as a business. For independent bloggers, sitting at home doesn’t feel as official as going to an office every day, so the blog becomes something far down the list of priorities. That’s a recipe for failure. If you don’t want your blog to enter the digital wasteland, start applying these ideas today.
Put Your Money Where Your Blog Is
It takes money to make money. That simple rule is well-known to successful entrepreneurs. If you have the idea that you’re going to own a blog that attracts more attention than the millions of other blogs already online, you better have some cash ready for deployment. You’re probably not an expert promoter, writer, coder, and SEO person. Even if you were, you don’t have time to do all of those tasks, anyway. There was a time when you could gain a lot of traffic with marginal effort. Those days are gone.
More Content
I write for many blogs and I’ve noticed a key feature of the highly visible sites: When I log into their WordPress dashboard, they have crazy amounts of content. Many have more than 1,000 posts and no less than 500. Every rule has exceptions, but you should aim high. Don’t expect results until you have tons of content. It’s a Herculean task, but how serious are you about the success of your blog?
Higher Quality Content
Let’s be honest. There are many people trying to make it as a blogger. If your plan for attracting traffic is to recycle the same sorry, dried up information that I can find on any blog in your space, I’m probably not going to pick yours as my go-to site. You have to give me fresh, new content written in a style that will hold my attention. If you don’t, I’m leaving. Hint — unless you’re an exceptional writer, hire people for that task. Nothing says amateur quite like the misuse of “too,” “to,” and “two.”
Stop Trying to Trick Google
Ten years ago called and it wants its SEO strategy back. You aren’t going to keyword stuff your way to success in 2012. You’re not going to exchange backlinks or guest posts to get to the top page of Google. The Google algorithm knows all of the tricks and if you try to game the system, Google will penalize you harder than the Oakland Raiders. Just ask the many big name websites that were slaughtered by the 2012 Google Penguin update. (Not familiar? Google it.)
The Bottom Line
Actually, it’s not all that tough. Work hard, leverage peoples’ talents, network with others in your niche, and keep learning. That’s how every successful business thrives.
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