I first started blogging on the now defunct WritingUp community blogging site.
When that site crashed and burned, I was at the crossroads you described: why should I continue to write, if there is no audience?

I was invited to Fanstory.com and, for a while, that was a great solution. But, I don’t feel like paying to belong – hosting fees are quite enough. So I left and turned my business website into a blog.

There were other issues separate from what you brought up in this post, but once I got everything lined up properly, I began to enjoy writing again.

My biggest fan? My dad.

Yet, I do visit other blogs and participate.
This was the legacy of WritingUp. Community.

The joy of discovering new blogs is worth the visits.

The joy of finding folks who like what you like – Blogging, Tech and Games – well, that’s just pretty cool.

I’ll be checking you out!

Cheers,

Mitch

I really think everything I’ve learned through blogging will help out considerably and will fix a lot of the problems the site had in its first iteration. And I think unlike this site, it will be commercially attractive from the start which may make you wonder why I focus on this site so much but hey, I LOVE BLOGGING! (#):D

@Mark – Plus, I’ve found that even if you take a bit of a break, your visitors are usually pretty cool with it. (#):)

I would like to think I’ve done well. The difference between Vegan Momma and this website is amazing following a set plan has really been the key in its early success. If I had followed the same rules with Vegan Momma I would have avoided many of the mistakes I made early on however I did learn from my mistakes.

Having quality content that people can relate to keeps readers coming back to a website. Anyone can add content but if its crap or you don’t know what you are talking about a person most likely won’t come back. Impression matters even online. Do I make money online sure but not by talking about it. Occasionally I’ll toss out a few money posts but for the most part I make money by what I provide to my readers. A brand “me” they can trust. If they feel that they can trust me they will purchase from my affiliates I market. I market only products I respect.

With my last three websites, I’ve added their only source of income is affiliate marketing. I have huge plans for this last website but for the first year I’m focusing on branding myself then I’ll move forward to the next level.

“Well, before people I start having people come to the site, I want there to be a ton of articles on the site for them to read…” That’s just a rationalization to get you out of doing something extra for your site.

I think it depends with a few of my new websites I wrote a lot of articles before I started commenting on other websites. I think I had around five – ten articles wrote. It didn’t take me long to write them only a matter of days but it got done. Was I purposely holding off marketing my website to get out of doing something extra? No I had a plan with me I wanted to focus on writing those articles, adding resource pages before I opened my virtual home to my neighbors. Just like I wouldn’t want people to come to my real home with junk all over the place I’m not about to have them in my virtual home until it’s the way I want it.

My newest website will hit the four-week mark next week. Funny, I thought I was already there but I’m not. I’m averaging 40 unique visitors daily and already have had several post Dug, stumbled, Linked to, and I’ve received two rewards.

Even though I didn’t market it it made me money, via affiliate marketing, my third day online. It was indexed by Google withing 24 hours and I was receiving traffic from seearh engines the following day. On average people stay on that website at least six minutes and the bounce rate is under 30%. People are led to that website by keywords, comments I leave on other websites and they stay because of the content. On average five people comment on that website daily. Again not bad for a one month old website.

I’ve finally figured works for me. It might be different for someone else. When it comes to releasing new websites that to my network they will follow the same process. I’ve done it with my last three websites with excellent results. Writers that I hire will be trained about my process and will be expected to use those guidelines for newer websites that I add to my network.