I keep an eye on quite a few blogs by scanning blog headlines on my Google page. It's a very easy, fast way of seeing what's happening on blogs, whatever industry you're in.
I was searching for something today, got distracted and wasted three hours, checking out a bunch of blogs written by affiliates. It was a frustrating, depressing experience.
I was reminded painfully how many totally pointless posts are being made on blogs.
Are you wasting your time blogging when you could be doing something more effective? When you could be generating decent revenue instead?
Are you blogging constructively with a purpose in mind, or are you just chicken scratching - energetically kicking up dust and straw but hardly ever finding a worm?
I'll make my bias plain here. I don't own a blog. Maybe one day I will, but I've been earning my living online quite happily without one ever since I quit my job in 1998.
If I DID own a blog, here's what I'd do.
Before I wrote each post, I'd ask myself: "What reaction am I aiming for? What do I want the reader to do after reading my post?"
For example, you can...
* Review a product, giving specific details which explain just how useful the product is, leading the reader towards making a decision to buy through your affiliate link. The result: Sales and commissions.
* Publish a helpful how-to article. Result: You give your business a face and a voice. You build credibility. If you're doing this, I hope you have simple, easy to understand instructions telling people how to sign up for your newsletter or RSS feed. Once you've impressed people, you should be adding those new fans to your database. Otherwise, what's the point? They'll probably just quickly forget you and chase the latest buzz.
* Make an insightful comment on news in your industry. I mean a really insightful comment, not just a reblog or someone else's opinion. Result: You build credibility.
* Publish linkbait, aimed mainly at attracting hundreds of links to your site. This makes pages throughout your site rank higher in Google. For a detailed case study on linkbait, keep reading.
Before you make your next post on a blog, ask yourself, "What's the point? What do I want to achieve?"
You should ask the same question before you write every article for a website.
By the way, although we don't call it a blog, we do have a sort of blog...
I was searching for something today, got distracted and wasted three hours, checking out a bunch of blogs written by affiliates. It was a frustrating, depressing experience.
I was reminded painfully how many totally pointless posts are being made on blogs.
Are you wasting your time blogging when you could be doing something more effective? When you could be generating decent revenue instead?
Are you blogging constructively with a purpose in mind, or are you just chicken scratching - energetically kicking up dust and straw but hardly ever finding a worm?
I'll make my bias plain here. I don't own a blog. Maybe one day I will, but I've been earning my living online quite happily without one ever since I quit my job in 1998.
If I DID own a blog, here's what I'd do.
Before I wrote each post, I'd ask myself: "What reaction am I aiming for? What do I want the reader to do after reading my post?"
For example, you can...
* Review a product, giving specific details which explain just how useful the product is, leading the reader towards making a decision to buy through your affiliate link. The result: Sales and commissions.
* Publish a helpful how-to article. Result: You give your business a face and a voice. You build credibility. If you're doing this, I hope you have simple, easy to understand instructions telling people how to sign up for your newsletter or RSS feed. Once you've impressed people, you should be adding those new fans to your database. Otherwise, what's the point? They'll probably just quickly forget you and chase the latest buzz.
* Make an insightful comment on news in your industry. I mean a really insightful comment, not just a reblog or someone else's opinion. Result: You build credibility.
* Publish linkbait, aimed mainly at attracting hundreds of links to your site. This makes pages throughout your site rank higher in Google. For a detailed case study on linkbait, keep reading.
Before you make your next post on a blog, ask yourself, "What's the point? What do I want to achieve?"
You should ask the same question before you write every article for a website.
By the way, although we don't call it a blog, we do have a sort of blog...
