There’s nothing quite so satisfying as seeing your blog launch for the first time.
All the preparation that you have put in suddenly comes to fruition, and you have a great new platform for promoting your products and services.
Blogging opens our marketing strategy up to a whole new level of personalization – we get to pick colours, templates and graphics, and choose exactly what layout to use to maximise our business message and support customers to get what they need when they visit the site.
The problem is, even veteran bloggers who have run sites for years sometimes come up against a certain amount of inertia once their site has been up and running for a while.
Once the first flush of newness has faded, it can be incredibly difficult to maintain momentum and keep blogging. When you think about the world wide web, it must sometimes resemble a huge cemetery of abandoned ideas, with neglected blogs languishing in forgotten corners after their owners have published a few posts and then got fed up and moved on to other things.
One of the key aspects of blogging is that to be successful, we need to keep going back to our blogs and publishing new content.
Google and other search engines like content in order of newness – older posts don’t get as much recognition as newer data which is published, so to stay ahead we need to remember to post up content regularly.
This is easier said than done – how do we maintain momentum on our blogs, and make sure our own sites won’t join the ranks of disbanded and neglected platforms that owners have lost interest in and abandoned?
One of the first principles to remember when you set out with a new blog is that you need to get all your planning done beforehand. You need to be realistic about what you can actually achieve with your blog. If you start out by posting up a five hundred work article each day, you’ll soon find that you can’t maintain this level of commitment a year down the line, and the ensuing guilt about neglecting your blog can be enough for you to turn away from it altogether.
Because of this, it’s important to sit down before you start thinking about colour schemes and logos, and really plan out your strategic approach.
What subject are you going to focus on?
Will it be enough to sustain your interest in a year, two years, or three years’ time?
Is it wide enough to find hundreds of ideas to write about?
Is it broad enough to attract enough customers, so you get an ongoing sense of achievement and motivation from a large amount of traffic?
If you choose to blog about something narrow that may only appeal to a handful of people, you will soon get a sense of frustration that your site isn’t being noticed. When you blog, set your style and tone carefully to something you can maintain long-term, and make sure you open your site up to enough variety to sustain your interest long in to the future.
Your first blog posts are critical – it is here that you will set your style and tone.
Keep true to your own way of writing to make sure you can maintain the articles over time. It is this initial period of thought and planning that will keep you interested, motivated and spurred on as time passes, to nurture your blog with the regular updates that it needs to flourish long-term.
How do you keep going with your blog?
Please share your ideas in the comments below.
Hey Andrew,
To be honest, I come to a screeching halt every once in a while with the blog. It just seems
like I can’t go any farther with it. Of course, my sever depression that I have been battling with for the past 5 years or so contribute a lot to it. All the mode swings and loss of interest and motivation.
But, one thing that has helped me 9most of the time) is simply stop thinking about my blog and going to visit and comment on other blogs. Hearing about other people’s success gives me motivation and keeps me going for a bit more.
Satrap
I agree…I get inspiration from other bloggers…every day.
Andrew
Come to think Satrap I think that Commenting on other people’s blogs is a great idea you have writers block. I think I’m going to use that method more often
thanks
Robert UK
It is a reality that we do hit the phase once in a while, but I usually look at that time as a refresher, take a break from the blog for some time may be a day and do something which I like like go for a drive or something else.
Sanjeev
Getting away from your blog…from your pc…is a must. I often go for a walk.
Andrew
A couple of thoughts…I’ve gone back to Google reader and subscribed to a number of blogs in the marketing space (like yours!) and I read posts every morning. This inevitably gives me loads of ideas that I then capture. I also try and always have some recording device with me at all times so when inspiration strikes I can capture it no matter when or where. Both these keep me loaded with ideas. Finding time to write and optimize posts…that’s another challenge all together 🙂
Cheers
Mark
Mark,
I like you approach to getting ides for blog posts.
And I agree sometimes we have too many ideas and not enough time to write them down or act on them.
I have several personal development books I’ve recently read that I want to act upon…I just haven’t had time!
Andrew
I think we all need a little break at times. I sometimes get side tracked reading news and just browsing the internet. So I guess it is kind of along the lines of staying focused and motivated. I think some people don’t realize how much time and work it can be to be successful.
Hi Andrew,
I agree with you that the motivation to do well in a blog that is newly launched fades away after as the time goes by. I have encountered many blog sites that have been launched, I’ve subscribed and stuck with them, read and commented on their posts, and after some months they stop publishing posts, and then in the end they sell their blog or just do not renew their hosting service anymore. I also agree that the first posts in a new blog are very critical as it entices new visitors to keep on reading and visiting in the future, but consistency is also very important.
It is not easy to keep going if you don’t see any success in getting visitors and generating some income after put in all the hard work for certain period of time.
we just have to keep at it and keep going and don’t stop because remember Rome was not built in a day. your blog may be small and insignificant but every blog starts out that way but then after a little while of consistency your blog can be as big and busy as Facebook. Remember consistency is the key
Getting fresh content And Coming up with new ideas is always a challenge. I find that consistency is the key when it comes Creating long-term blogging success.
What I do is post every Friday and Tuesday without fail and if I get any guest Posts I fit them in between
Robert
That seems to be a good strategy. I understand Google likes consistency.
Andrew