How to Get Blog Traffic That Sticks

Tweet

One major priority of bloggers is getting traffic to their blogs but a lot of people make a great mistake nowadays, not because they don’t know how to get traffic but because they don’t know how to make their traffic stick. It doesn’t matter how many visitors you’re able to get to your blog there is no point in it if you’re unable to make them return.

While it is important to know that you can’t make 100% of the visitors to your blog stick you should also know that there are some things you can do to increase the likelihood of your blog visitors sticking.

Give Them What They Want

People are not visiting your blog for fun or because they want to make you happy but because they believe they can gain something from you. While it is possible for you to spend a lot of money on advertising your blog or to try several marketing strategies you can think of you should know that this won’t help you if your visitors don’t find anything valuable on your blog. The first step to making sure your blog visitors stick is by giving them what they want: this means you also have to know where they came from and why they’re reading your blog. If people are reading your blog because they want more information about home insurance you won’t have any luck giving them information about blogging and if people are visiting your blog in order to know about the latest fashion in town you won’t be able to make them stick by trying to teach them how to make money online.

Try to have a crystal clear understanding of what your readers want from your blog, if you aren’t sure about this you might want to survey them or even contact some of your major commenters to ask them what they’d like to be seeing more often on your blog. You will go really far if you can understand and meet the needs of your readers.

Get Them into a Funnel

Another sure fire way to make sure your blog visitors stick is by getting them into a funnel. This means you should try to know how they react to information and what is the best way they love to consume information. If your readers are tech savvy the best way to get them to continue to read your content might be by making them subscribe to your RSS feed and if you’re in the marketing niche or in a niche where people aren’t that tech savvy the best way to make sure your readers keep reading your content might be to make them subscribe to your email list.

Don’t rely on the thousands of daily visitors you’re getting because the source of that traffic may crumble: Google might stop sending you traffic one day and that big site that keeps sending you tons of visitors might one day stop, the only way to make sure you enjoy is by being in control. Start building a mailing list now and always ensure you do the best to make sure your readers always come back to your blog.

Related Articles

• Knowing Your Target Market for Effective Blogging For Business
• My Interview with Six Figure Affiliate Blogging
• Blogosphere Trends – What Bloggers Are Writing About This Week
• Blogosphere Trends + Choosing and Using Images
• Blogging for Money just Got Easier with Socretes Theme

The Jersey Shore Guide to Irresistible Personal Branding

The Jersey Shore is back and up to its old antics again.

My guess — you being a respectable content marketer who finds that sort of display crude, irresponsible and embarrassing — is that you’re not tuning in.

Hey, I hear you. But do you know who isn’t offended by it?

The 8.4 million people who tuned in to the season premiere last month, making it the network’s most-watched series episode ever.

Whether you’re a true fan of Snooki, or you credit her with single-handedly hammering that last nail completing the Decline of Western Civilization, it doesn’t matter.

The fact is that each member of The Jersey Shore cast has gone on to create a recognizable and profitable personal brand in the 14 months the show has been on the air.

Not too shabby. And tucked inside the show’s success are personal branding lessons that any marketer can benefit from. Even if you’re not spray-tanned to a disturbing shade of orange.

Get a pen and paper because personal branding school is in session, Jersey Shore style.

Lesson 1: Own your oddities

If there’s one marketing principle reinforced by The Jersey Shore it’s that your oddities are what make you watchable.

Five minutes into checking out what’s going on in Seaside Heights this season and you’ll notice that most of the Jersey Shore cast barely looks human. They’re walking Halloween costumes, tanned, oiled and gym’d to the max.

And it’s their oddness that makes them interesting and what drives millions of people to tune in each week.

In an earlier Copyblogger post on branding and belly dancing, I spoke about the importance of creating a character — one that allows you to show off a heightened version of yourself to attract the right people to what you’re selling.

You’re probably not 4’9″ and God knows the world doesn’t need another Snooki, but what’s kooky and stand-out about you?

Figure out what it is and how you can make it work to your advantage.

Identify it. Use it. Become it.

Lesson 2: Polarization is a good thing

It doesn’t matter if you’re big, little or fall somewhere in between. Most of us are afraid to be a polarizing figure by taking a hard stance.

Just look at what happened to Groupon after the Super Bowl.

We hold back from going too far left, too far right or too far in our own direction in fear that we’ll be isolating our audience. And I get that – because you very often will be. But that’s not a bad thing.

The Jersey Shore kids are good examples of that. You’re either appalled by their train wreck or you’re mesmerized by it. And that’s why it works.

A post on the OK Cupid blog last month touched on the same concept, bringing up the mathematics of beauty. Specifically, it showed how playing up what some people don’t like about you allows you to attract the people who will.

It’s why edgy Meaghan Fox is more attractive than wholesome Kristen Bell, or why guys with tattoos are rated better looking than the average prepster.

If you want to be memorable, create a contrast. Going the safe route and trying to be everything to everyone won’t win you fans, it’ll only bring in people who don’t have an opinion about you either way.

Those people aren’t going to buy your stuff, and they won’t remember your name in the morning.

Lesson 3: People want a little drama

Season 3 of The Jersey Shore came with one promise -– that it would be the most drama-filled season to date.

So far, it’s lived up to the hype, with cast members getting into scary physical altercations, getting arrested, and with sudden character exits. The drama keeps people hooked because everyone wants to see what’s going to happen next and who is going to do what to whom.

If you’re working to build your personal brand, I wouldn’t recommend going out and getting arrested tomorrow, but do look for ways to create a little spice.

Maybe it’s Groupon releasing controversial commercials or you deciding to take an unpopular stance on your blog.

Associating your brand with a splash of excitement will help keep it top of mind and always relevant.

Lesson 4: You’ve got to build your platform

It’s easy to hate on The Jersey Shore kids for what they represent, but at the end of the day, they’ve created a platform that extends far past the show.

Snooki is a New York Times Bestselling author (wrap your head around that).

“The Situation” is said to have made $5 million from appearances and products (including his own vodka line and garment bags).

Jenny aka “JWOWW” has a book and bronzer, Ronnie endorses a popular weight loss drug, Angelina has a music single, Sammi has a perfume, and Vinny and Pauly D both have clothing lines.

Not bad for 14 months in the spotlight.

Sure, it’s ridiculous, but they created it.

The personal brand you create means nothing if you don’t have a business model. If you’re spending an hour a day on Twitter talking to people without finding a way to bring them back to your site or direct them somewhere else to do something, you’re leaving money on the table and you’re wasting your time.

Decide what you want these channels to give you and then create a plan for how you’ll be accomplishing that.

While The Jersey Shore certainly isn’t doing our younger generations any cultural favors, they are giving smart marketers some branding lessons worth tuning in for.

And now you have an excuse for the next time you’re caught watching …

Related Articles

• Six Figure Affiliate Blogging
• How to Write Your Ass Off
• My Two Biggest Blogging Mistakes
• How to Sell More From Your Blog (Blog Critique: Steven Aitchison)
• Truths about Making Money Online

Outsourcing: the Secret to Blogging Success

This guest post is by Mark Collier is the author of Link Building Mastery.

As an Internet entrepreneur, it’s easy to develop this sense of single mindedness—the if-I-can’t-do-it-no-one-can attitude. I call it RTODIY (refuse to outsource; do it yourself). Although the name does need a bit of work. Maybe I should outsource it…

The symptoms are: excessive DIY, penny pinching when you could outsource for little or nothing, and learning the basics of advanced theories in a vain attempt to save money.

RTODIY is also the major obstacle between your self-created job and a successful business that runs independent of you. As Keith Cunningham puts it, job is just an abbreviation for Just Over Broke.

Overcoming RTODIY

I have certainly done my fair share of RTODIYing, most recently with my experience in launching my relatively new website and writing and launching a new ebook.

I wrote all the content for my website myself and learned all I needed to know to create a website myself. While this is pretty common, this was only the beginning. I decided to write an ebook, and once it was finished, I knew I needed to create a sales landing page for my product.

Now for those who don’t know about landing pages, let me fill you in. Landing pages are designed to make all your ebook sales. Sure, promotion is crucial, and you need a great product, but without a great landing page, you’re wasting your time.

I recognized the value of a landing page and went about buying a template and customizing it, after, of course, I learned the basics of CSS.

This is what my landing page looked like:

That’s exactly what I expected would sell my $47 ebook! And I actually believed it would sell.

That was until I received the best business advice I have ever received from Glen Allsopp. I sent out an email to the 15 people I interviewed for the ebook, informing them of the new sales page. Glen said, “I hope you don’t take offence, but I really don’t think you’ll get a single sale with that landing page.”

And he was right. Not a single sale came from the first 300 people who visited the page.

So I decided to go and outsource—yes, I said outsource—the sales page design to a professional and the results were and are absolutely incredible:

What a turnaround! I certainly would be more likely to buy from a sales page that looked like this.

The results

When I talk about results, I mean money. While the orders certainly haven’t been unbelievable, they are far better than nothing, which is what my original page generated.

In the month since I launched the ebook—and I have no reputation or marketing budget—I have made seven sales. Okay, that’s not a mind blowing amount, but it’s $327 in sales, and the email sign up box has captured 120 email addresses.

I am more than happy with these results, having had no experience in launching a product, and no email subscriber list that I could promote the launch to. In fact, I didn’t even bother having a launch.

I expect sales to continue to grow, and my initial investment in that web designer to continue to pay off.

My learnings, your learnings

My reluctance to outsource to a professional web designer for $150 would have cost me $327 today, and what could be thousands in future earnings. I’ve learned that spending that extra bit up front distinguishes you from the competition, and is well worth the investment.

But I understand that not everyone will launch an eBook or create a sales page. So how can these learnings be applied to your blog, especially if you are a solo blogger?

If you find yourself doing all the work—and I literally mean all of it—you’re a class one RTODIYer, and you may need help. You need to learn the art of delegation and to commit to investing that extra bit into your blog that will come back and reward you many times over.

You need to stop acting like a one-person blog and starting acting like ProBlogger. After all, that’s how ProBlogger has been so successful: outsourcing and hiring (for free or otherwise) the best to do the work for them. Guest posts are just one example of that.

You wouldn’t have seen W.K Kelloggs out in the field growing the corn for his Corn Flakes, you wouldn’t see Michael Dell personally handling customer complaints against Dell, and you wouldn’t see Richard Branson micro-managing the 200 companies he has controlling stakes in.

All these great business people have committed to outsourcing. They have committed to investing in and trusting others, and ultimately they have overcome a human’s natural instinct to Refuse To Outsource and Do It Yourself.
That’s what your blog is, right? A business?

As a blogger, you should give up you RTODIY ways and move forward with your business in a more profitable direction. Trust in others and be prepared to invest in your blog, and you will reap the rewards. Here are a couple of ideas I know you’ll like:

• Open your site up for guest posts. It’s a great, free way to take the writing pressures off you, while retaining full editorial rights.
• Get a custom design made by a designer, or at least have a blog brand with logo and color scheme that’s consistent throughout your blog, Twitter, and Facebook page.
• If you really want to step up to the next level and be an outsourcing master, why not hire a part-time writer or regular columnist? You can pitch their work to the big names in your industry and get a lot of exposure from them.

The general rule of thumb is to try to outsource your weaknesses (my big one is design), and give yourself more time to focus on your strengths. To control of your RTODIY and your blog will only go from strength to strength.

Have you outsourced any part of your blog, or are you a RTODIYer? I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments.

Mark Collier is the author of Link Building Mastery, the best ethical guide to link building available on the web. With 86 powerful link building strategies and 15 interviews with link building interviews, including an interview with Yaro Starak (the owner of this blog). You can join the ethical link building revolution now.

Related Articles

• 20 Free WordPress Themes from 2010
• Truths about Making Money Online
• My Two Biggest Blogging Mistakes
• Oracle’s Larry Ellison Weighs In On CEO Blogging
• Best Tools to Promote Your Blog

The Easiest Way to Make Money Online

This is a post by contributing author Bamboo Forest.

I’ve been blogging for a couple years now and except for a few affiliate sales from ads, consulting is the only way I’ve made any money from blogging.

Ways to make money that might make you cry

If you told me that to make money I’d have to build websites, acquire thousands of emails for my list, have a hundred thousand monthly unique visitors for Google ads, or write an amazing eBook that must compete with the zillions of other eBooks already on the market, I’d cry.

I’m not saying you can’t use the above methods to make serious money. But these methods are some of the most difficult ones with the steepest competition.

There’s just got to be a better, more immediate way to make money from blogging.

And there is.

Method to make money that won’t make you cry

To be a consultant all you need is a website and a PayPal account.

I’ve recently become a consultant through a website called Email Life Coach. This site is an extension of one of my blogs.

People hire me to help them with their life issues.

I reasoned that there are zillions of life coaches out there, but how many email life coaches are there? After all, there are definitely people who don’t feel comfortable chatting on the phone but still want advice for their life. And I decided to fulfill that demand in a compelling and elegant way.

And while I haven’t gotten rich from this business yet, I’ve certainly made far more money than anything I’ve ever done online to date.

What kind of consultant you could become

For starters, there needs to be a demand for the kind of consulting work you want to begin. Other than that, the sky’s the limit.

You could consult others on how to improve their copy and tweak their site so they get more subscribers.

You could consult people regarding their relationship issues.

You could consult people on how to make it in Hollywood.

You could teach people Japanese.

The possibilities are endless and it’s up to you to find something that’s in demand that could gain you profit.

It goes without saying that your blog needs to be focused on the subject you’re going to consult on. Your blog will act as a funnel to your business.

What mediums you can use to consult

The number of mediums you can currently use is really exciting.

You could be as simple and low tech as I am and use email.

Or you could do something more sophisticated such as making a client a YouTube video or chatting with them online and using a camera so you both can see each other face to face.

There is even software available now where your client can see everything on your computer, which could work well for tutoring or teaching web design.

What’s required to consult successfully

While it’s really easy to start a consulting business, you can’t be mediocre at what you do and expect to get lots of customers or repeat business. Trying to do the aforementioned just isn’t honest when people are paying you money.

I don’t recommend you put a ‘Hire Me” on your blog until you feel completely confident that you can offer what your service will advertise.

For example, I read a book that I found particularly helpful multiple times before I started my Email Life Coaching service because I knew I needed to become more knowledgeable about personal-development before I could help people on a higher level.

How to set your price

I recommend that when you’re starting out you keep your rates low. The reason for this is twofold:

1. When starting out you have zero experience, and you’ll get better at consulting as you go. In the early stages you’re not qualified to ask for a higher fee.

2. Having a lower fee will help get your business rolling. Get enough business and do a good enough job and word of mouth will soon become your ally.

Why consulting is so enticing for potential customers

Because nothing beats the allure of personal attention.

For example, if you read an eBook, as amazing as it may be, it’s covering a subject as a whole and not being laser focused on your specific needs.

But when people hire a consultant they’re getting their exact concerns catered to.

You always hear A-List bloggers say that you need to solve people’s problems if you want your blog posts to go viral. Well, as a consultant, you’re in the business of doing nothing but solving people’s problems and in the most intimate way possible.

The down side of consulting

While consulting is the easiest way to make money, it’s not without challenge.

Daniel has already made the point that selling anything online is difficult and selling consulting is no exception.

Consulting is not the kind of profit model where you can make money in your sleep. On the contrary, with consulting, any money you make is the result of you working directly with a customer which is time consuming.

While you by no means need a popular blog to make money with consulting, you do need to have some kind of an audience. Having a strong presence in the search engines can also help you find clients. Additionally, consider having a YouTube channel to showcase your knowledge which can help you tap into an even greater audience and more potential customers.

Tips to help your consulting business thrive

Always give a money back guarantee. When offering a full money back guarantee you’re removing a huge barrier to entry. Potential customers will feel secure that if they hire you and aren’t satisfied with your service, they can easily get their money back.

Since I’ve launched my email life coaching service I haven’t had a single person ask for a refund. I doubt I would have had any business at all had I not offered a full money back guarantee.

Think about it… would you hire someone you’ve never worked with if you knew that even if you had a terrible experience you could never get your money back?

I wouldn’t.

It has been said in the business world that you make most of your money with repeat customers. It requires significant effort to find new customers, and much less effort to maintain the customers you already have.

You should reward repeat customers with a discount to promote repeat business.

Currently I charge 35 dollars for new clients and just 30 dollars for repeat clients for my month of change package.

If you’ve been trying for a long while to make money from blogging and haven’t seen much more than a few dollars trickle in, maybe it’s time to give consulting a try.

About the Author: Bamboo Forest is a professional Email Life Coach, helping people work on something in their life over the course of a month through email.

Related Articles

• Truths about Making Money Online
• Why I Switched to the Headway Premium Theme for WordPress
• 5 Most Popular Myths About Making Money Online
• Always Make Sure Your Links Work Before Doing a Mail Out
• Zac Johnson Is Giving Away 10 Copies of My New Book

The Ethics of Pay Per Post

Suppose you ask me to write something nice about your company. I do it and you give me a $10 bill. If I work for you, then it’s a paycheck. If I don’t work for you, then it’s Pay Per Post and that’s a whole different bowl of noodles. . . or is it?

If I disclose the fact that you paid me the money to write the post as required by the FTC, then I’m in good shape, right? But if I disclose the fact that you paid me, maybe the value of the post decreases because now people aren’t sure that I told the truth.

A few weeks ago, a mommy-blogger was outraged by a proposal from a marketing company that offered to pay her if she wrote nice things about a big name brand who was having an image problem. I can’t be any more specific about the incident because I’ve since found out that the the entire affair was drummed up by an industrious wannabe PR pro and was never sanctioned by the company. Still, it brings up an interesting point. How is asking a blogger to write something nice about a company for pay any different than offering a blogger a free product in return for a review?

You could say that a review requires an honest opinion, which could be good or bad. But what if I agree with the positive statements I’m asked to write? If I believe that, despite recent reports to the contrary, ABC Inc. makes the safest product in its category, is it wrong to say so and get paid? What if I write it and ABC pays me afterwards as a thank you, then do I have to disclose it?

Many years ago, I tried one of the Pay Per Post companies, wrote the required text and was quickly dinged by Google who dropped my page rank two points. I was devastated. If that happened today, I wouldn’t care. Page rank is passe. But I do care if people think I’m a shill, writing half-truths about window blinds in order to make $6.00. In the spirit of full disclosure, I do occasionally Tweet for pay but I’m selective about which offers I put through.

The question here is about drawing the line or if there even should be a line? It’s my blog and if you want to pay me to write something and I agree to do it, then are we all good?

KMart announced today that they’re looking for gamer bloggers to send to the E3 convention. It’s all expenses paid, travel, accommodations and entrance to the show and in return all they ask is that the bloggers write about the experience and post links to KMart’s gamer blog (who knew KMart was so big with gamers?). Is that the ultimate in Pay Per Post or what? A several thousand dollar trip to video game heaven? Sure beats a $10 Starbucks card as thanks, doesn’t it?

This is where you come in. What are your thoughts on Pay Per Post? Have you ever paid a blogger to write about your company? I’d like to hear about your experience and where you think companies should draw the line.

Related Articles

• Wibiya Toolbar [First Impression Review]
• How to Write Your Ass Off
• Truths about Making Money Online
• Blogosphere Trends + Choosing and Using Images
• Why Professional Writers Need a Blog. Or Not.

Are You Too Busy to Write? Seven Ways to Blog More Productively

Is finding time to blog something you struggle with? A number of people have asked me how they can find time to blog on top of everything else that I have going on.

Writing content is vitally important for your blog. It is your source of direct visitors, plus the meat of what you share in social media, the combination of which is essentially all the marketing many of us do. Your content attracts and maintains a relationship with your subscribers, and it is also what prompts readers to take action, even if that action is simply a blog comment.

Without regularly added, fresh, original, useful content … well, your blog becomes the web equivalent of the Pacific Junk Patch.

One thing you might have noticed though is that I don’t stick to a rigid writing schedule. This helps me find time to work on my blog around other commitments, but is only possible for me because of a few factors:

1. I already have a reasonably sized, engaged audience. You might say I have some “credit in the bank”.
2. “Traffic” is not something I rely on for my income. Providing I help enough people work towards their own goals then I will attract “few but enough” customers to pay my bills.
3. My philosophy is that you are only as good as your last post. Given the choice between “phoning it in” to keep up an arbitrary schedule and waiting to post something I am happy with … well, you guessed right, I wait.

You might not have these luxuries so need to balance your schedule a little more in favour of keeping in touch with subscribers more often but without making it too taxing a job for you.

My approach is to offer my loyal audience content you will want to bookmark, give you actionable tips via the benefit of my experience. If I succeed then I get more subscribers and clients, and really, unlike many bloggers my subscribers and customers are the only people I need to worry about where my blog is concerned.

I have no advertisers to keep sweet, and I don’t intend ever selling my blog, so I have no need to inflate my page views. Providing I do well with keeping my readers happy then my peer group and potential partners will also be happy.

If however you make money from impressions or ad clicks then you will need to get your traffic up and maintain that high level. That makes having a more rigorous publishing schedule a priority.

At the same time you can’t let your quality suffer because you are pushing quantity, making your productivity even more important.

Most of my readers are individuals, professionals or small businesses, so it might be well within your reach to shift your online business model to be more about authority than page views and clicks. If that is the case for you then focus on one solid article a week rather that try to achieve an unrealistic schedule – that might be all the solution you need. If you do want to eek out a few more hours in your week though, read on for some more tips!

How can you find time to not just write but create great content?

1. Set time aside – preferably quiet, focused time with zero distractions. I recommend actually putting this time in your diary and sticking to it. If you try to “catch 10 minutes” then you are going to either keep pushing the task back or you are going to find that time just vanishes altogether. Also setting a specific time allows your subconscious to prepare.
2. Write in Batches, and if possible schedule your posts in advance – Most blogging software such as WordPress allows you to write articles in advance and set the date and time when they should go “live”, visible on your blog. Publishing in advance allows you to write in quieter times and have the articles visible at busy times. While I no longer do this on chrisg.com I have always done this when writing for clients (when you have a contract for a certain number of posts per month it is not a good idea to write them just before they are meant to be sent out to subscribers!). Writing in batches allows you to get into a flow and you will find the writing process far more fluid than trying to task switch between your main job and being a writer. Darren often has cafe days where he will sit and batch write a whole raft of posts, and he ran away to a hotel to complete his work on the Problogger book!
3. Jot down ideas as they come to you – When you relax your brain or think about something else is when some of your best ideas will come to you, so make sure you store those ideas on a notepad, in your phone, or on some scrap of paper! A really cool aspect of the WordPress is you can use multiple tools, even email, to send a draft of a post to your blog for later use. I have a whole bunch of draft posts that are just headlines and some bullets waiting for me to complete them.
4. Repurpose content – “Repurposing” is taking your content and using it in a different location, in a different way, or re-packaging it. So I might take a series of posts and create an ebook, or I might expand an article into a presentation. Someone might request they republish my article in their newsletter. It can work the other way though, and it can be a great way to fill your blog. Take points from your presentations and write them up as blog posts. Maybe you have a transcript that you can copy and paste as a starting point? Have you got a section of a report or ebook tat you can use? Emails to customers? Existing content is an asset to be reused if you are creative!
5. Answer questions – Taking the last point further, my customer, coaching client and audience questions are my best source of content. This post came from a question I get asked a lot and was asked in interviews twice last week. When you answer a question in email, on a forum, in a chat, blog comment, or in an interview with a transcript, then you can copy, paste and edit to create a post. The best part? You KNOW it is on-topic and relevant.
6. Have a system – My coaching clients know that I have a writing system that allowed me to write for at one point twelve different blogs at once. This has meant I have written thousands of articles, and to be honest was probably too many because people were telling me I was getting over exposed! In brief, use headline formulas, write an outline, create without stopping, turn off the internal editor until you have a first draft. People try to write the whole thing at once and get stuck switching from creating to editing and back again. Don’t do that – split the creative part from the editing part and you will work with your brain rather than against it!
7. Failing all that – outsource! If you still struggle then get guest writers, pay writers, or what I think is a really smart move, get an editor to take your thoughts and ideas and polish them into finished articles.

These might not be silver bullets but they do work. While my family is watching TV I can sit with them with my laptop tapping out outlines, drafts, or editing. Some times it will take three or even four days for a post to get to the point where I am happy to hit publish but I have also had articles written in under half an hour that have been big hits in social media and in terms of traffic.

The big difference though is when you make time.

How do you find time to blog? Do any of my tips work (or not) for you? Please share your thoughts, experiences and tips in the comments …

Talking of being more productive … I want to tell you about my latest course …

Make More Progress: Quickly implement effective tactics to get more done and achieve more in your business.

Increase your productivity without any rigid organisation systems that cause even more work, rapidly create and launch information products in record time, and get more done with less effort.

Go ahead and click here right now to find out more!

Related Articles

• Why Professional Writers Need a Blog. Or Not.
• Blogosphere Trends – What Bloggers Are Writing About This Week
• My Interview with Six Figure Affiliate Blogging
• Best Tools to Promote Your Blog
• Blogosphere Trends + Choosing and Using Images

The New York Times’ Pathetic Case for the Decline of Blogging

If you feel that the New York Times has the pulse of the Internet then the answer to our headline would be yes. In fact, the Times article which ran on Sunday is titled “Blogs Wane As Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter”. That’s a pretty heavy statement especially when you are saying even the shortest blog post idea can be just as effectively conveyed in 140 characters or less. Maybe TweetDeck will end up being the “Anti-Twitter” by allowing over 140 characters?

The article is provocative for sure and focuses on younger Internet users (at least initially).

Like any aspiring filmmaker, Michael McDonald, a high school senior, used a blog to show off his videos. But discouraged by how few people bothered to visit, he instead started posting his clips on Facebook, where his friends were sure to see and comment on his editing skills.

“I don’t use my blog anymore,” said Mr. McDonald, who lives in San Francisco. “All the people I’m trying to reach are on Facebook.”

Blogs were once the outlet of choice for people who wanted to express themselves online. But with the rise of sites like Facebook and Twitter, they are losing their allure for many people — particularly the younger generation.

First off, nice job by the Times using Twitter as the catch for their story then shifting gears to Facebook (which actually makes more sense from the get go but who’s counting?). But back to the premise.

The notion is that blogs are losing much of their ‘shine’ to Facebook and Twitter. This ‘conclusion’ is reached based on the following bit of research.

The Internet and American Life Project at the Pew Research Center found that from 2006 to 2009, blogging among children ages 12 to 17 fell by half; now 14 percent of children those ages who use the Internet have blogs. Among 18-to-33-year-olds, the project said in a report last year, blogging dropped two percentage points in 2010 from two years earlier.

This is where I call BS. How can you infer that blogs are ‘in trouble’ when you are looking at numbers relating to 12-17 year olds? Kids in this age range can’t pay attention to much anyway just because they are simply kids in that age range! It’s certainly not because they have found the better way to get their thoughts across. It’s because they found the easiest way, for now. A quote from a young lady proves this point.

Kim Hou, a high school senior in San Francisco, said she quit blogging months ago, but acknowledged that she continued to post fashion photos on Tumblr. “It’s different from blogging because it’s easier to use,” she said. “With blogging you have to write, and this is just images. Some people write some phrases or some quotes, but that’s it.”

As people grow and mature in how they think, the inevitable happens which is that you cannot usually get a point across or make an argument or defend a position in 140 characters or less. Even Facebook has limits. This idea that blogs are fading based on the findings about teens and blogging is pretty silly. In fact, the Times shows it’s engaging in some sensationalistic journalism because if you read on the stance about blogging being on the decline softens and pretty much goes away. That’s why this whole thing is nonsense really.

The blurring of lines is readily apparent among users of Tumblr. Although Tumblr calls itself a blogging service, many of its users are unaware of the description and do not consider themselves bloggers — raising the possibility that the decline in blogging by the younger generation is merely a semantic issue.

Ok, New York Times what is it? Are you pushing the beginning of the end of the blogging or are you jus trying to use headline journalism to get a few more pageviews? Hey, even if blogs are going the way of the dinosaur it looks like you guys picked up a few tricks along the way, huh?

Let’s look at what is really happening. People who are blogging because they are looking for an outlet of some kind are losing interest mainly because people are not reading their posts. There are usually two reasons for that; 1) they are not promoting the blog so the idea of “if you write it they will come” is in effect and that doesn’t work and 2) it’s very likely that their writing is awful or what they have to say isn’t interesting to anyone but themselves. Don’t blame the platform if you can’t write.

Finally the article looks to blogging in older folks and reports

While the younger generation is losing interest in blogging, people approaching middle age and older are sticking with it. Among 34-to-45-year-olds who use the Internet, the percentage who blog increased six points, to 16 percent, in 2010 from two years earlier, the Pew survey found. Blogging by 46-to-55-year-olds increased five percentage points, to 11 percent, while blogging among 65-to-73-year-olds rose two percentage points, to 8 percent.

Here’s my conclusion. Right now, as the world exists today, with all of this still being relatively new to the masses, we like to think that everyone who is growing up on 140 character bits of communication and piecemeal updates via Facebook and location based services will continue to do so. I say they will but they will also embrace the fact that real communication requires more ‘meat on the bone’.

As a result you will see young people who really have something of substance to give to the world will come back to a blogging platform or one that resembles it. They will do it because they are thinking more analytically and realizing the limitations or annotated communications.

So if you are thinking that blogging is truly waning take a look at the reality and ignore the headlines. At least those from the New York Times.

Related Articles

• 20 Free WordPress Themes from 2010
• My Two Biggest Blogging Mistakes
• Oracle’s Larry Ellison Weighs In On CEO Blogging
• What If You Couldn’t Blog?
• Blogging for Money just Got Easier with Socretes Theme