Jul 18
Start Blogging Series (Part 3) – Getting Into a Blogging Routine
Part 3 – Getting Into a Blogging Routine
One of the notions of blogging that might not be quickly apparent to new bloggers is the necessity of routine. Well, let me back up a bit. If you don’t care about your blog, feel free to skip this part. If, on the other hand you want people to read your blog, and you want it to grow into something you can be proud of – By all means, continue reading. (#):)
Post Regularly
When you’re first starting off, (or some would argue more), when you’re an established blogger, your readers want to know that you post regularly. Especially at the beginning, that’s how you convert casual visitors into die hard subscribers which of course translates into more daily visitors, more impressions, and if it suits your fancy – More money. Think about it : You find a new blog that you really like so you check back the next day but there’s nothing new. You go back the day after that, and still you don’t find a new post. Are you going back the third day?Comment Regularly
You’ll also need to make your presence known on other sites by commenting regularly. The advantages of this will be covered more in depth tomorrow, but for the sake of today, understand that commenting regularly accomplishes three basic things that should be done on routinely basis:
- Getting you and your site’s name in front of other bloggers
- Getting links back to your site
- Inviting others to come to your site
- Making friends and relationships!
Check Your Stats and Dashboard Regularly
If you’re a WordPress user, you can just rely on your Dashboard. If you use another platform, hopefully they have some stat features built into the interface, but you might be reduced to Google Analytics or some other stat service. Whichever the case, you should definitely check your stats to observe the behavior of your blog and all that’s happening in or around it. If you don’t, you could miss a lot of info including:
- Incoming links that you need to respond to by thanking the owner that posted it
- Users’ comments mistakenly put into your spam buffer
- Regular comments that you need to respond to
Making Your Routine
Like almost everything related to blogging, you have to tailor your routine to your individual schedule, goals, and ultimately what works best for you. I could go on for a long time about considerations here, but most agree that setting a specific time seems to work well. So if you get up at 9AM everyday, maybe from 9:30-10:15AM you should try and check your stats and reply to your comments or e-mail. And from 10:15-11AM you should be on other people’s blogs saying “hi” and getting word out about your site and drawing attention to you recent posts if applicable.
Picking a time everyday to do this ensures that you’re spending a certain time everyday towards growing and nurturing your blog. Don’t be one of those people who look back 6 months from now and say, “Man, if I had only worked on my blog 1 hour each day – I could be so much farther along than I am now.” And look, IF you’re serious about your blog and looking to make money from it, treat it like a business and remember…Time is Money.
Next Time : Finding and Making Friends
July 18th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
This is something I need to work on. Thanks for the tips and keep them coming.
July 18th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
Hey Mikel! Glad you found the series! Please let us know if you’re finding any of parts a bit lacking, and we’ll pump them up for you! GL on your new site!
July 18th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Another Excellent post my friend.
July 18th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Thank you Ms. Sassy. I hope you found it useful! *nod*
July 19th, 2007 at 8:51 am
I think regularly can be a relative term
If you have massive traffic, you might want to post at least once a day. If you are just building your traffic, a couple of times a week will probably do the trick.
July 19th, 2007 at 8:54 am
@Angie – Thanks for visiting! And I think you have something there. I think also, it can depend on how you condition your visitors ya know? There are some blogs with multiple authors that post all the time, (and some single author sites too), but I guess when you get big – People hang on your every word huh? (#)\:)
July 19th, 2007 at 11:31 am
Great advises for both beginner and some regular bloggers. I’m now working on setting a daily schedule, I noticed I’m easily slipped into using too much time on browsing other web pages, I think I should set my priority on handling my own blog first, then only go for visiting others or do info searching.
July 19th, 2007 at 11:59 am
Great tips you got there Bush.
A good routine is definitely something that you need to get into in order for your blog to succeed.
July 19th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
@Joanne – Yeah, that’s a good thought. Personally, I was spending A LOT of time on my own blog at the beginning, and also when I switched over to my new theme. But I think that was time well spent because I’d much rather have my blog setup correctly when people arrived then having MORE people come to a ugly/brokenish looking blog. (Did that make sense?) But I think if you find yourself having trouble on the time thing, just allotting a specific amount of time for both tasks would probably serve you quite well.
July 19th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
@Bucky – Thanks for finding my blog! And you know what? I was just in WV for my first time this past weekend! (I don’t know if you knew that). I forget EXACTLY where we were, but I think we passed through two small cities named Davis and Thomas. Sound familiar at all?
July 19th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
Great points I tend to do my posting early. My high traffic is in the morning hours My average, presently, is about 1600 hits per hour that includes everything for regular users to bots. If there is an article, I want to submit to a social engine I post it that gets additional hits. Since April my traffic has doubled every single month.
The first week in July and I wasn’t even posting since I was on vacation; however, I took advantage of the advanced posting and my page hits didn’t change and I kept making money with Adsense.
Regarding posting a few times, weekly on new blogs I’m the opposite I think it’s important to post on your blog often in doing so you’re adding a lot of content to your website which means your potential reader has more information to choose from.
They might not like everything you write but if you have a variety there will be more for them to read. It also brings more search engines by currently Vegan Momma gets checked by the bots several times each week. I write often.
This past month I tested posting daily and posting a few times per week on two of my newer websites. With their Alexa Ranking the one where I posted almost daily dropped to almost 200k the one where I posted a few times per week was stuck at 700k.
They both started at the same place but as you can see there was a big difference! Looking at my website stats showed the same story.
All comments left on my blogs are sent to my email this way if there is some reason I cannot access the admin control panel and have a question I should address I’m able to do so via email.
July 19th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
Also what you write is just as important as how often you write. I just wrote about that a few hours ago on my website.
July 19th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
@Bush Mackel – I know where Davis WV is… not too far north of me.
If you were in or around Davis, I assume you were headed to either Blackwater Falls or Canaan Valley?… Seneca Rocks perhaps?
July 19th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
@Opal – “1600 hits per hour”!? GeeZ. You’re just getting tons of traffic! I had no idea. I wonder what I would do with that much. … Maybe I’d do a dance around a sombrero or something. Ha ha.
Thanks for bringing up advanced postings and your opinions of writing on a variety of subjects too. I did that early on (and still do) and I think it’s a good way for making sure you’re hitting topics that all your readers will enjoy.
July 19th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
@Bucky – Those sound familiar but I’ll have to get back with you. I don’t remember EXACTLY where we were staying, but I remember it was a privateish community that had signs saying animals had the right of way. While there, the family saw 4 bears and a raccoon! (We don’t see those all the time in the city). (#):)
July 19th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
@Bush,
You got to remember those hits also include bots, spam, I get a lot of that but my real people have improved significantly.
I’m seeing an increase with Adsense. This past week I’ve averaged $3 per day. Whee I’ve hit the big time! Pfft!
Before I was averaging almost $2 per day. Currently I have a little over one hundred readers subscribed to my feed. My goal for August is to up it to 150.
I think my highest hitter will be my tech blog and my alternative health blog. I recently met a blogging pal who has over 15,000 readers not bad at all. He’s a vegetarian gardener. i
July 19th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Oh by the way the “what you write” I was referring to “quality” you can do that on a niche blog although it will be challenging to keep it fresh since you’re speaking to a specific audience.
I should have been more clear you cannot toss up “crap” and think people will constantly flock to your website. If you wouldn’t read it on someone else site than why in the world are you putting it up on your spot? You, of course, don’t have to worry about crap content since you don’t write that.
OT
Now if you would get an Xbox 360 I might visit more than three time (sometimes more depending how often you post) per day, lol.
July 19th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
@Opal – Ah, that makes sense. I usually check my stats through Analytics, so I don’t really know how many SPAM and BOT hits I’m getting.
And I can’t believe you brought up the 360! ARRRRRGH! Just when I think I’ve come to conclusion/good place on the subject, I just keep getting dragged back in!
July 19th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
@Bush Mackel – If you come to WV more often, you will realize that all communities are privateish, and all animals have the right of way.
July 19th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
@Bush,
I use them both however Analytics hasn’t been working since the beginning of July. I emailed support earlier of course I checked to make sure I wasn’t doing something wrong. I wasn’t.
I have both Xbox’s so yeah I’m will continue to try and get you to come on over to the dark side.
July 19th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
@Bucky – Well I love animals so it’s not a problem. I had just never seen that before, or so many animals for that matter! I saw more deer in 1 day than I had for the last year!
@Opal – Yeah, Analytics seems to get a bit buggy on me sometimes, but usually at the beginning when I first drop it on a site.
And just wait, I’ll be getting an XBox soon I hope! Starting next month we gotta start putting the kid in day care though and that’s gonna eat some funds. So it looks like it’s delayed again. (#):(
July 19th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
I just stumbled this blog post.
I hope you enjoy the slight traffic bump.
July 19th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
@Bucky – Hey thanks a lot, I’ll definitely take what I can get. (#):)
July 20th, 2007 at 10:54 am
[...] Opal had great thoughts on so many posts but she really went to town on the blogging routine post, so make sure you don’t miss what she had to say. [...]
July 20th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
Making a routine is always important ..but for me i never was able to form a good routine ..whenever i tried ….. a good site discovered and the next few hours of mine go on reading that …
exceptions you know