photo credit: cyanocorax

Charles Darwin has a lot to answer for!

Rather than accepting standard theories of how we humans came to be, he devised a theory of evolution which revolutionised our idea of existence, changing accepted beliefs about the animal kingdom and transforming views about nature, life and everything between.

His work has become so entrenched in our language that statements such as ‘Survival of the fittest’ and ‘natural selection’ have become common in all areas of our thought processes, including business.

So, how can Darwin’s theories help us to be better bloggers?

To find out, we need to know a bit about what Darwin actually came up with.

His key themes could be summarized as:

• Species have great fertility, and produce more offspring than can grow to adulthood in any given environment

• That after an initial increase, species populations remain roughly the same size with only small fluctuations in numbers

• There will always be a struggle for survival among individual members of the species

• Variations in reproducing species are wide, and no two members are identical.

With me so far?

Basically, we animals are great at reproducing, eat a lot, and fight it out to come out on top.

All of these theories are truly helpful when it comes to understanding what we need to be fantastic at blogging, make a profit for our businesses, and make sure we stay ahead of the rest of the online pack when we’re trying to attract customers and make revenue.

If you’re still not convinced, read on.

Species have great fertility… 

Let’s take the first point in our analogy.

Darwin suggested that all animals are good at reproducing, and tend to make many more children than are needed to populate a given space.

If we think of the blogosphere as our environment here, and blogs as our kids, then this is a perfect point.

At any given time since the birth of blogging, people have been churning out blogs with more enthusiasm than spring rabbits.

According to BlogPulse, there are well over 150 million blogs hanging around right now on the World Wide Web.

Close your eyes and imagine that number.

Now imagine that number in terms of rabbits in your front garden. It’s a very, very large amount.

With all of those blogs clamouring for attention, it’s important to remember a few principles about your business, and why you blog.

Your blog has to stand out like a black rabbit among the white ones to attract attention.

To make money, it has to be unique.

It also has to be fit, strong and running at peak performance to shrug off its competitors and attract enough readers to generate customers and revenue.

The next time you sit down to write an article, think to yourself – is this posting going to be good enough to get me traffic, or will those other 150-plus competitors be getting in the way?

Species population remains roughly the same size

Darwin reckoned that the average number of rabbits at any given time will stay pretty much the same, no matter what goes on in the environment.

If we go back to blogging, this means that while there will always be your average 150m sites up there, some will fade away and some new ones will be spawned.

One of the key messages for us as bloggers is that our site has to have the strength, longevity and persistence to stay alive, regardless of what mood we are in, how busy we are, and how much we have to do.

Your blog is a huge commitment – it’s your offspring, and it needs raising with all the care and attention that you would give a baby rabbit!

Out of date blogs are a terrible thing when they represent a business.

Make sure yours thrives.

A struggle for survival

Your blog is vying with millions of others to get read.

This means that, just like a rabbit amongst others, it has a lot of work to do to survive. It needs to beat off its competitors with power, strength and sustainability.

As a blog owner, you have a role to play in making your blog become bigger, stronger, better and more well-read than any other out there.

You achieve this through posting of quality content, keyword-rich material, new, interesting and regular posts, and a huge amount of promotion.

Guest posting, back links, video, articles, information – these are to your blog like grass, sunshine and mating is to a rabbit.

No two members are identical

If Darwin applied to blogging seems a little negative, here’s a way to feel truly inspired about your site.

No matter what niche you are in, what content you have, and how you blog, yours is a truly unique blog amongst the 150 million. This means that you have all you need right now on your site to be distinct from your competitors, to stand out from the crowd, and to truly evolve in your ongoing quest for online survival.

You may see blogs out there similar, but you have a truly unique site, because it is your own and there is no other the same.

It’s a bit like a litter of bunnies. They may look the same, or behave in a similar way, but each one will have different characteristics and slight variations, meaning that they will appeal to different people in different ways.

Only you can write in your unique voice.

Only your site is structured in a particular way.

It is this difference from others which will set you apart, create a loyal readership and retain customers, while attracting revenue. You can adapt with your readers, offer them what they are looking for, and provide a unique and sustainable site which brings true value to your customers.

So, if you ever feel as if the blogosphere is not an environment suited to survival, think again.

By harnessing your powers of individuality, and adhering to a few of the rules that Darwin set out in his theory of evolution, your blog can grow, thrive and perhaps even reproduce perfectly, no matter what external factors may be affecting it, or how many other blogs there are out there.

Let’s get Darwin to have the final word, which is a perfect way of viewing a successful blog:

“In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment.”