Blogging in 2006 - How Did You Do?
December 29, 2006 – 1:42 pmby Darren
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When all was said and done, I had a pretty decent blogging year in 2006. I didn’t get serious until March, but I managed to press out a great bit of content this year (with the help of my wife Heather), that is turning into an archive that generates revenue. That was my original goal when I set out, and the results have been good. December was by far the best month I had, as several blogs started to really blossom.
I had a very nice bit of luck lately. Donald Trump To Sue Rosie O’Donnell was quite a hit in Google as the controversy hit the mainstream. I received about 29,000 unique visitors from that post alone. This was well beyond the “Digg effect” everyone is always looking for, except with a few exceptions: 1) my server didn’t even blink, let alone crash, and 2) these were users from Google so they clicked! The amount of extra income in 5 days was extremely impressive.
What have I learned about blogging? I’ve been writing about it all year, but basically I’m convinced you need to do this:
1) Concentrate on a blog in an area that has high interest
2) Update many times daily to increase your archive count
If you make the mistake of founding too many blogs too early, they will all lose focus, and none will have the necessary energy to build a critical mass. I’m also learning that you have to use every stream of traffic you can to get your website up to a decent level. Blogging is incredibly hard work!
What have you learned this year?
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5 Responses to “Blogging in 2006 - How Did You Do?”
December has been my best month but considering i started 3 months ago Im not doing that bad, I have around 280 unique visitors this month, it has been very wobbely at the start of christmas and continuing.
But overall I have learned to use meta keywords and descriptions for each post really helps and the bigger the archive the better!!
By Mike on Dec 30, 2006
Hey there Darren,
I started blogging early this year too - I started with a hobby blog back in January. Things were moving well, but I had only about 20 odd visitors a day - which wasn’t too good.
After setting up blogopreneur.com and really going into blogging, I think what I have learnt best is that blogging is really about getting involved with other bloggers. It is when you start contributing to other’s blogs (in whatever way - trackbacks, comments etc) that you start to really tap on the blogosphere.
By Kian Ann on Dec 30, 2006
Good to hear it’s picking up for you guys. 2007 promises to be a great year!
By Darren on Dec 30, 2006
I probably sound like Mr.Grinch. The three biggest lessons that I’ve learned in 2006 are:
1) The first thing I’ve learned: Readers are not loyal - and remember that! It’s like trying to keep the lousy client who is more needy and you make less profit. Good riddance I say! If I’m not the type of site you are looking for, I can live with that. There are gajillions of other sites for that person, and fabillions of readers that I can attract to my sites. Instead of trying desperately 200% of my efforts trying to keep waning visitors that really don’t want to be here anyway and maybe get 10% success - I’ve decided to concentrate on the stuff that is working - or try something else - or add a new feature (or register a new domain). Sometimes, you just outgrow a site. I remember reading Problogger.net every day all the time. Now, I just read or browse everything but, not every day. Tomorrow, I might just follow other people’s links back to him and catch up on my reading.. Readers change. So should the site.
2) The second thing I’ve learned: I think I did the right choice concentrating on the “encyclopedic” type of content, than a “linking” type of content. I’ve been experimenting with Random links on all my blogs, and I do get more traffic. But, less monetization results. I hope to increase the “encyclopedic” stuff and somehow make it better to access and search my archives .. but I will still continue to random linking. I’m finding it easier for me than to just find a story and ‘make up my twist on someone else’s idea’ and create a gratuitious link.
3) And the third thing I’ve learned: The reality of the matter is that I haven’t learned anything since I’ve started blogging, otherwise I’d be much more successful. I do have an imaginery business plan in place, and I think I’ve improved in my outlook towards achieving my ends since I’ve started this path. If I read honest stories about people who are trying to make things work etc .. I relate more to these type of people because they are truthful. Anybody who claims they are experts out here in blog-la-land are full of crap and these people will not survive in 2007. More experienced, perhaps - but nobody’s an expert. Some are just luckier than others. Some have a bigger capital base than others. Some have more time on their hands. And, some people’s criteria for defining success is different than others.
By HART (1-800-HART) on Dec 30, 2006
I have learned that I know basically nothing about blogging.. Still so new to it..
But I also learned I like it…
By Ryan Velting on Dec 30, 2006