Blog Life Cycles
Posted on 07. Jun, 2008 by Benjamin Patton in Blogging Tips
In order to be a prepared and informed blogger you need to understand the life cycle of the start up blog. Essentially you can bank on the first post being something akin to “Hello World”. From here on out all bets are off. The blogosphere is growing uncontrollably at the rate of roughly 175,000 blogs a day. You can bet that 90% of these will not survive because they are not equipped to handle the pitfalls and perils of starting up and making it over the “hump”. It seems this magical “hump” is right around the 2-3 month period. If you can make it past this stage you will be set as long as you can keep the content flowing.
As has been stated before usually the first traffic spikes come when the new blogger finds entrecard. Not to far behind this is the social bookmarks and networks. The new blogger is now establishing new relationships and rubbing elbows with others in his niche. Trading advertising and reviews is a great way to gain exposure. Another option to fly into the stratosphere at this stage would be to guest post. Lets take a step back as most will have done things in this order. You have discovered how to drive targeted traffic to your site, but you forgot one very important thing. Relevant content. Usually this starts the “top lists” for whatever the niche.
Now you have graduated to a blog that is gaining rss subscriptions and headway with traffic. This is where you decide you will dangle some free stuff for new readers to subscribe and take your content seriously. The contest of course! A shameless promotion is not a bad thing, but over use and you may skew yourself form your niche to a contest site. This is great if that is the type of site you want , but if not you may want to use this sparingly and with the least amount of hoops to jump through as possible. An idea I have toyed with is instead of the traditional contest is to run a spur of the moment, soon as we break xx amount of rss readers or comments on a post I will random off of the active participants some prize, a shirt, paypal cash, ebooks, etc you get the point. I think this gives a much more dynamic feel to your site and promotes active participation with your readers.
While you are realizing that the traffic from Entrecard has a 99% bounce rate and that this is driving your site into the ground. A lot of advertisers base what they pay you off of bounce rates, click throughs and over all impressions. It really just depends. You should be pushing higher quality content and promising your readers that you have seen the light. You are at this point still on a high incline on the curve going up and getting your first real tastes of success. By now people are commenting on your posts and active discussion is being had.
This phase usually lasts a short time and leads the new blogger to scournge for quality content. Not yet knowing many tricks of the trade they will get desperate. One thing I have learned above all else is to never be above causing some drama. Many bloggers resort to a topic like “The MMO Bubble Has Burst” Or John cow sucks, etc. I would advise you pick your topics carefully and think through the possible fallout. While most bloggers will work with you cause after all no press is bad press you may not want to openly attack someone unless you have the goods in one form or another. That being said some of the best blog topics to date are some made specifically to start massive drama.
Meanwhile you are at an interim stage with your blog it can tank as so many do or you can continue to learn new ways to innovate and keep people coming back for more. Some of the best ways to do this are writing series on how to, or scheduling quality content in advance. I like to keep 7 days or so in case of an emergency or a really bad day. Above all make sure you establish a routine and stick to it. The less you deviate from it the the more reader loyalty you will gain. Never underestimate a worthwhile contest try to offer prizes that fit the niche of your blog that you would be excited to win if you were on the other side. Quality is always better than quantity.
Do you have an idea for better blogging or a method you use to be successful? Share and grow our community.
Related posts:
- Time Management Makes Life Better
- Blog Networking
- How To Quickly And Effectively Gain Notoriety For Your Blog
- Organizing Your Creative Process To Blog Effectively
- 5 Steps To Higher Blog Commentation
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I think you hit it on the head Ben, constant quality content is what will keep your readers coming back. I’ve heard the drama/controversy method plenty of times, but, I just don’t think I want to run that kind of party.
I mean, I have posts where I call out scams and such…I guess that would qualify, but, I haven’t found the need to trash another blogger…..I just don’t roll like that
I think being consistent is important as well. Your readers will get used to a certain flow of content, and, if you disrupt it, that could lead to reader dropoff.
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This good stuff, Ben!
My blog has reached the “hump” of two to three months. Traffic is steady, but is mostly from entrecard. I am always looking for new and better ways to gain more quality traffic.
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Great post. Keep up the good work.