The Business Line - Internet Marketing Blog

Have you ever thought like you are doing the blog hamster wheel? Doing routine blogging activities i.e commenting, thinking of next post, RT with no progress in sight? I’m sure you have. I’m sure most of us would have thought of this or are going through this and are contemplating about pulling the plug. Kill your blog and kiss it goodbye.

Great… What next? Have you thought of life without blogging? Perhaps..

But before you go down that road, I want you to think about a couple of things first.

Yeah, your blog ain’t doing great but what the heck, how much time did you spend blogging? A few days, weeks, months a year? The measure of success of a blog depends on a whole lot of things. This applies also to any business! Give it time and like all things online, you need to give your blog time to mature by itself, get the recognition and build a following.

Are you publishing posts that no one reads? Maybe it’s time for you to sit back and reflect on your content. If you want to make you posts fantastic, quality is something you can’t skim on.  You should also take a step back and ask yourself if your audience will enjoy reading your articles? I give you a hint. Create content that are:

It seems like everyone has something to say about blogging and making money online. I say this because these rehashed, repeated stuff almost always talks about topics related to those 2 niches. It gets boring sometimes like a broken tape recorder. Do you really want to talk about blogging and making money online? What about rebranding your blog? Change your logo, image, content and style into something else or focus on something more specific in those niches. A good example to illustrate this is Tia from BizChickBlogs.

Sometimes all it takes for a blog to catch your visitor’s attention is to do a complete site redesign. Design plays an important role in your blog or business site. Don’t underestimate the power of simplicity though. Too much clutter leaves your readers with too many choices. It can mislead, confuse and frustrate your readers.

The one thing that strikes me most about people coming online to start a business is that they are all plagued with the attention deficit problem. They don’t focus, hope for big returns and fall prey to those “push-button” software. Another thing that strikes me is they focus on the wrong thing. This affects me too and I’m working on it. It’s been said before on this blog. Follow the “Pareto Principle”. Focus 20% of your efforts on things that will give you 80% results.

I don’t imply a real professional but someone who has got much more experience than you. Don’t make quick judgements about your blog’s fate without considering the opinions from those who have walked the same path before. I’ve always got the more experienced bloggers and marketers to help me with certain things here. So you should do the same!

You see sometimes the easiest thing you can do is to ask your reader for opinions. A good way to do it is to have a poll system or just a short post to ask your readers about anything related to you business or blog. As for polls, I use the WP-Polls plugin to setup a poll on my blog.

That’s right. Is that your only skill? If that is the only thing you know then I have to warn you that you need to know much more than that to ensure a successful blog today. If you use your blog as a form of business or a medium for your business then you absolutely have to learn a whole lot of things. Copywriting, some design skills, networking, website creation, management skills, video marketing skills and some techie skills are some examples.

Granted, you can get someone to help you with the techie bit or outsource some video work. But otherwise, coming out with a 700 word post each time daily, is only a small part of the whole picture.

Most people are on the way to create another job by being the all-in-one business man. Trust me, trying to do all this will kill your enthusiasm even if your blog is still alive.

Yes.. Passion can’t even safe you. Being passionate is only part of the equation but doing everything yourself is not only going to kill your enthusiasm, it will also be detrimental to your health in the long term.

In addition to that, doing everything spreads your focus thin which is against the 80/20 rule. So you think you can handle everything and be good at everything? Think again.

Blogging is a powerful medium to spread your brand and business but blogging only won’t bring you far these days. You need to spread your wings and think out of the box. If your traffic is stagnant, readers scarce and opt-in rates poor, consider things like podcasting or video marketing. Think about Web 2.0 sites like Hubpages or even article directories as well. Right now I’m focusing a little bit on Hubpages as I find that the community there is great apart from having people actually read my articles.

Video Marketing is something in my plans this year but I don’t have the resources to go too much into it yet but I do see it as a great prospect for leads and opportunities. Pat Flynn is a great example of someone who has used podcasting for his blog. Of course, there are bloggers like Hector Cuevas as well.

What about opening your own online store? The possibilities are limitless if you only spend some time thinking…

I don’t care even if your Alexa ranking disappears or your readers disappear. Sometimes this is something you really ought to do. I know most bloggers suffer from some sort of separation anxiety syndrome. It’s true that your blogs might suffer in terms of rankings, traffic and readership but that’s only normal in today’s online world unless your blog is multi-authored. Take a break and get your head out into the open. It’s really like a breath of fresh air for me personally. You should try it too!

This can be tricky. Blogs like Technshare, BizChickBlogs, Problogger and Famousbloggers are multi-authored. No doubt they will survive even without the owner adding content. But, it can be tricky. It can be difficult to get people on board to help as a contributor regularly. Basically, you need to get this right in the very beginning. Alternatively, find some good blogging partners / friends to help you with this project.

If all else fails, then consider doing this. Find someone who is willing to buy your blog. This involves a lot of risks that is why I put this consideration LAST!! If no one is willing to take up the offer, go to Flippa.com and list your website for sale there. Remember that if your blog ain’t up to scratch with certain things like traffic, popularity and sales, it won’t sell for a high price on Flippa. You might as well forget about it and think about it again.

Before you consider killing your blog, take these 13 things into consideration or have you already decided? Let me know your thoughts.

Read More: http://www.earnmoney-fromhome.com/