Back in June 2008, I gave myself a personal challenge:  Do I have the self-discipline to blog every single day for a full year?

Well, I did it.   The first post was made on June 26, 2008.  And I thank you folks for reading and commenting since that time.  This would have been very hard to do if it felt like no one was reading any of this.

What Seems to Help With Consistent Blogging.

If you’re working on a similar challenge, and for what it’s worth, here’s what I discovered.

• Take care of your articles the day before, so you don’t feel “behind schedule.” I generally write my blog articles the night before they are published.  This isn’t always the case, but I do that about 97% of the time.  I write the blog article around 7 at night after working out.
• Create a schedule that you know you can keep. The key seems to be sticking with a regular publishing schedule.  Doing this creates an “I will do this” mindset.  From the very beginning, before you install your WordPress, I think it’s best to decide whether or not the blog will be updated daily, weekly, every other week or so on.  It needs to be something that is reasonable and that you know you can handle.  Once that decision is made, do not deviate.  You can always schedule articles within WordPress in advance so that your publishing schedule will be consistent and so you don’t miss deadlines.
• Creating a “publishing deadline” has made me much more focused.  If I plan on going out of town, I write my articles in advance.  A consistent and regular publishing schedule definitely keeps the search engines coming to your blog.

Unique Content vs. PLR.

I have some other blogs — I post 5 or more articles to the successful ones daily.  Others are waning because I have not kept up with a schedule and quite frankly, did not seriously plan a schedule from the very beginning.

The blogs that are most read, quoted by other sites, and have the most interaction are the ones with totally unique content.  On those blogs, which includes this one, I have not used a single PLR article, nor have I bothered with keyword research.  These are personable types of blogs.

On product types of blogs, however, PLR has been pulling in organic search engine traffic for me.   They are based on keyword research.  There are few, if any, comments, but the people who show up are looking for specific products or information, not social networking.

The Most Popular Entry.

Guess what the most popular story on this blog was, over this past year?

It was about my top 4 ways to waste time on the Internet!

That article took a minute or two to write, as compared with some of the more instructive ones that took hours to do because I was taking screen shots and spending the time in creating thorough “how to” instructions.  To my surprise, people actually use the search term, “ways to waste time on the Internet” in the search engines.

You Can Do It!

If I can do it, you can, too.  I guarantee that if you have a blog that is regularly updated, you’ll start seeing traffic.  It will turn your attitude about your online business from one of “it’s a hobby” to “it’s a business.”

Thanks again for reading and commenting.

Popularity: 1% [?]

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