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What Do You Want When You Blog?

What Do You Want When You Blog?

When you post your blog content, what do you want to happen?

  • Adsense clicks?
  • Comments and reactions?
  • Attention and traffic?
  • Links and SEO boost?

There are many motivations for writing content, and how you approach blogging has to suit your goals.

This article was inspired by the following comment on my previous BH post:


Can You Have Too Many Adsense Clicks?

I think the idea behind Ventibate’s comment is that by providing your content in RSS you are missing out on the visit, page views and clicks that you would ordinarily attract.

Thing is I don’t particularly prioritize any of those things.

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My own blogging is about attracting an audience, hopefully providing enough value that they become engaged and receptive to what I have to say. I’m not over fussed where or how they get my content, the important thing is that they read and enjoy it.

What do you think?

View Comments (4)
  • Seriously, everything matters.

    I write so that it can attract comments and link backs. And then the link backs get me better listing in google and traffic increases due to good SERPs and finally organic traffic gets me good clicks on the ads.

    So i can’t go with a single thing in it.

  • From a recent post on a similar topic here’s what I want and motivates me as a blogger:

    Reader Interaction via comments and feedback – Whether positive or negative, receiving comments is a great motivator. At it’s simplest, it shows that people are reading your articles and what you write is worthwhile enough for them to post a comment. The best types of comments are ones where a reader says that you have helped them in someway. It is also great to receive positive or constructive comments because it validates that you are going in the right direction and keeping readers engaged. Even critical or negative comments (that are not blatant personal attacks) are good because you can learn something and improve on any weaknesses. Comments are the interactive heartbeat of most blogs and for me the biggest motivator of all.

    Traffic and Readership growth – Like most bloggers I love to check my blog statistics and it can be somewhat of an addiction at times. It has definitely been very cool to see my traffic and readership grow over the last few months, far exceeding my expectations. As the readership for this blog grows I find myself taking this blog much more seriously and feel more motivated than ever to ensure I keep writing good quality, entertaining and useful posts. The last few months of blogging have also exposed me to areas like SEO and different channels of traffic to try and maximize the potential of this blog. This part may be boring for some, but definitely interesting and motivating for someone with a semi-technical background like I have. The key thing to remember though with blog traffic is that it has spikes and troughs and as long as the overall traffic trend over the longer term is up, then all is good.

    Links and mentions from other bloggers – Why are the Oscars and Screen Actor Guild awards the most prestigious award shows? Because these awards are voted on by fellow professionals (actors) in the same industry. Similarly getting favourable mentions and track backs from other bloggers is always a great thrill and motivator because these are my fellow professionals and colleagues in this (online) industry. In particular a link back or mention from a prominent blogger you have admired, is a big endorsement and gives you the sense that you have “made it”. There is also the whole SEO aspect where the more link backs you get the more popular your site becomes in the various search engines – always a good thing. As an aside, one thing to remember is that as your blog grows; pay it forward to new personal finance bloggers who are trying to grow and do write good quality posts. Whenever a new personal finance blogger drops me a line, I am happy to review their site (within reason), share a few comments and provide some “motivation” for them.

    Show me the money ($$$). Even though I make no secret that this is a for-profit blog that I hope will generate a decent amount of alternative/side income one day, bringing in the dollars in is not my biggest motivator. It is a nice yardstick to measure the progress of my blog and its contribution to my bottom line (net worth), but if this was my biggest motivator, I would have stopped blogging along time ago. This is primarily because the time/effort I spend blogging far outweighs the monetary returns when compared to how much I earn working in corporate America. As I have heard, it is more profitable to work a part time job at McDonalds, then to run a blog with less then 10,000 readers a month. Given most bloggers are below this mark (especially in the first few months), money cannot be the biggest motivator to keep on going because it is simply not worth it. There is no doubt my revenue is growing (more details on this in my next passive income update post), and it is a great feeling to generate a reasonable amount of cash, but to keep the posts coming and stay interested points 1 to 3 are the key drivers for me.

    Blog Networks – The social side of blogging. As your blog grows you will find hundreds of similar blogs in your niche, particularly in the personal finance arena. If you are fortunate, you will be able to start a number of mutually beneficial blogging relationships which will contribute to all of the above points in terms of motivating you. Despite blogging being seen as a “solo” profession, it is quite social and to succeed and find motivation you do need the support of other bloggers – not to mention regular readers and commenter’s.

  • “This Is The Opportunity To Discover How You – Or Anyone – Can Earn A Comfortable Living From Adsense… In A Paint-By-The-Numbers Fashion!”

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