There are many reasons to blog. Companies have blogs to promote their business, and individuals write blogs to gain mind share and build a personal brand. Most blogs are written by individuals either for business or just for fun.
The blogosphere is littered with abandoned blogs. Writing is work and it's easy for an individual blogger to give up, especially after a few months of low traffic and few comments from readers. Here are some tips for keeping the fire burning to avoid the ever-growing pile of dead blogs.
Write Blogs in Batches
When a blog isn't periodically updated, readers lose interest. If a few weeks go by and there is nothing new posted, why bother coming back?
Some bloggers try to update everyday and that's fine it there is time for it. Frequent new content tends to invite frequent visits. The task of writing a new blog post everyday can get tedious fast though, especially if you haven't quit your day job and it's not bringing in any income.
Write as many blogs as possible in on weekends. It's not hard to spend a few hours on a weekend drafting three to five posts for the coming week. They don't have to be perfect; just good solid drafts. Then, each day do a final edit and hit the publish button. Preparing posts this way takes the drudgery out of having to come up with something meaningful and polished every single day. Daily posts don't need to be as long or as in-depth as posts that appear on a longer interval.
An alternative to posting every day is to publish one solid blog on the same day each week. Mondays are good. Do it reliably and put a lot of effort into it—but not all at the same time. The "do it on the weekend" plan still works, but 10-15 minutes each weekday is often enough to produce a well-crafted piece and have it ready to go each and every Monday morning.
Recruit Guest Bloggers
The lone blogger has to do it all, and that can be discouraging. One way to add interest for readers and to lower the workload is to get some help. Network with others who are interested in the blog topic and invite people to write guest blogs. Colleagues, friends, and associates can be found on social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Ning.
Most people will jump at the chance to write a guest blog or even trade blog posts. Make sure you edit all guest blogs before posting and let the guest see and comment on the edited version before it goes live.
Encourage Comments
When a comment comes in, reply to it and thank the commenter. Let the commenter know someone is reading their comment and appreciates it. If comments are flooding in there is no reason for the blogger to address each one, but at least chime in once in awhile. If people are interested in your blog, they are likely to be interested in an occasional comment reply from you as well.
Sometimes readers will bypass the comment system and communicate about a particular post via email. Always reply to the email and in doing so invite the person to submit the gist of their message as a comment—often they will. If that doesn't work, offer to post the key thoughts from the email as a comment yourself (without pretending to be the person).
For example, one could begin like this "MyBog received an interesting email yesterday regarding the post discussing xyz...," and finish up by inviting others to comment on the comment.
Above all, Don't Give up
In most cases, it takes years to establish a business, and it isn't any different for establishing a blog. Commit to it at a sustainable lever, and keep it going at least for two years. If it hasn't caught on by then—keep trying, or try something else!
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