You may have noticed that I haven’t blogged here in five months. I can’t believe it’s been that long, and was sure I hadn’t left it all this time.
But my neglect has led to it going dormant, and I’ve suffered because of it financially. It’s my own fault, but I’m back with a vengeance. I will attempt to revive this blog, while offering you tips on how to succeed with a blog, whether you hire a blogger or not.
Many people can ask the question “what happens when you don’t blog regularly?” Does it really make that much of a difference? Surely it depends on the blog.
Well the truth is it does largely depend on the blog. Someone who has built up a big audience could go a month or two without blogging and not see too much of a negative effect. Those who are only just starting out will see a considerably change within the first month.
However, if you don’t blog regularly, eventually you will see a big decline. Google forgets about you, people forget about you and even you can forget about you. Without people seeing you, you’re not going to make money, whether through advertisements, selling products or offering services.
Your blog goes dormant…
And it can die…
Does that mean it’s all over? Of course not!
You can build your blog again. Building it from sleeping form is much easier than starting from scratch. There is already content there, and if that content is old, you can repurpose it. You will have already gained some sort of reputation through your blog, and may still have subscribers.
It will take time, though. This isn’t something that will happen overnight. You need to put in some effort.
My effort is to blog here twice a week to start with, just to build up the content and traffic. From there, I can drop back to once a week if I really need to. I don’t want to post any less than once a week—and I don’t recommend you do, either.
Is it time for you to revive an old blog? If you don’t post regularly, you will find that people forget about you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t remind them again. The sooner you start, the easier it will be.
If you stopped blogging because you ran out of time, you can always hire a freelance blogger. One will be able to help with the writing and management, so you can get on with the other tasks at hand.
Sometimes a break is good, as it mean you can take stock and go gain.
It can be, but a break means your blog dropping out of the focus of others. What I should have done was have some posts being shared while I took my break–although I never intended to take the break.
I agree.I have a pet’s blog that nearly went dormant. I had to rebuild!
If a blog is like a diary, revealing your personality, hiring a freelance blogger wouldn’t do. However, for a business, this action would make sense.
I’ve started again at the end of the last two years with a different blog. It took weeks before I built up numbers, and months before I got good hits.
And that’s where the target audience for my blog differs. It’s not aimed at those with personal blogs that use them like diaries. Businesses really benefit from having someone else do all their writing. However, there are some that take a personal angle that really can benefit from hiring writers. I’m working with a travel blogger to produce content while he’s away. He sends me everything he’s done and a list of all the things he wants to blog about–he shares tips to other bloggers–and then I turn his thoughts into words.
For the longest time I didn’t pay much attention to my blog – way too busy working on my web development business for that! But last year I changed my perspective and made a commitment to have a new blog post at least once a week. Now, thanks to the help of having guest authors, we have 3 new posts a week! It makes a big difference as you say in building credibility, driving traffic to your website and making money.
I actually wrote a blog article about this myself! If you care to check it out, it’s at: http://evisionmedia.ca/10-reasons-why-blogging-should-top-your-marketing-to-do-list/
I’ve worked with a number of companies and individuals who have put off blogging. It’s one of those things that grown over recent years, but there are still a lot of people ignoring it. It’s a hugely successful part of marketing, and works so well with many other forms. That’s great to hear that you’ve built up your blog and now have guest authors to make sure you have regular content. Well done for taking that step and making that commitment.
The only time a freelance blogger makes sense is if your content is not personal. but if it’s a money making site, it might be worth it.
Yes, personal sites don’t benefit as much. My blog is mainly focused for those who have business/money-making blogs.
So far I have been able to blog regularly but it’s definitely something that concerns me in the future! Never thought of hiring someone.
Hiring someone can really help to take the pressure off. You never know what will happen in the future.
When you don’t blog regularly – not only will people forget about you – but YOU will forget about you. Once you stop, it’s difficult to build up the motivation to start again. I’ve left mine for about a week and I’ve noticed a big difference in my traffic and my inspiration to write.
Hiring a freelancer, in my book, is cheating. One of the reasons you blog is to build YOUR credibility. Even techy business blogs should show your individuality and personality. No one knows your business better than you do.
You’re right. I kept putting off posting, not realising how long I’d left it. And finding the motivation again was hard. I just had to tell myself that I needed to get on with it.
There’s nothing wrong with hiring a freelancer and it really isn’t cheating. Some people know the technical but can’t put that into simple English for others to understand. There’s no point having a blog that turns people off, whether due to poor grammar or extremely difficult terms. While you know your business, you need to write it in a way that interests others and helps them want to buy from you. Great writers will be able to mimic your voice, and will work with you to understand your business and your audience, then will write in a way that people understand. It’s actually a really smart thing to do if English writing isn’t one of your skills–and I’ve seen plenty of small businesses need help with that. Hiring someone could also mean having someone to proofread, find legal-to-use images and making sure the social media is done properly.