Are you blogging? Great! Is it what you’d thought it would be? Here are five things to consider as you continue to blog away:
1. It’s Hard Work
While you put in your hours at the start, are you still plugging away with the same enthusiasm? With so much competing for your time (family, “real job,” fun, etc.) you can get lulled into putting your blog aside. Everyone has the same 24 hours, so making your your blog a goal will get the job done.
2. The Rewards Are Not Instant
Hope you didn’t think that blogging was one of the ways to get rich quickly?! Your rewards will come if you continue to work hard to build your traffic, create a worthy reputation, interact with your readers, and work at it day by day. Create realistic goals, look for building blocks of success and build on those to keep you going.
3. Blogging is More than Just Writing
All you writers out there, just said, “Oh, man!” But beyond your great content, you must strive to put your blog and yourself out there. This means getting links, putting on your sales hat once in a while, and do a bit of promotion (online and off).
4. Where’s the Money?
Look for opportunities to monetize your blog. Do you have products to sell? Looking to do some advertsing – Google Adsense and Adwords campaigns are good places to start. Also, consider developing sponsorships, cultivating advertiser relationships, researching affiliates to create some real income potential. But remember blogging with passion often garners results over those who are blogging for the money.
5. Don’t Give Up
Don’t get quickly disheartened when their blogging goals are not being met (whether it’s earning big gobs of cash or garnering a following). Continue to be flexible with what you want out of your blog – and work, work, work towards that end.
If you want your blog to survive after the first year, try to work toward staying power, don’t be defeated by minor setbacks, and put in the hard work. Have fun and keep blogging!