The best long term blog plan is to treat every single thing you do like you are planting a seed for the future.
The most important activity for long-term success is creating killer blog content.
The second most important activity for long-term success is to grow your network by providing value to others with no concern for yourself.
Photo by visualpanic
7 Comments
Short and sweet. Just what I was looking for before I wrapped it up for the night.
My focus is on the last concept. I am becoming ever more impressed how the Blog community really is about people meeting people — rather than SEO, links, etc.
Aaron
QuietMindCafe.com
Good timing for this post. Weird because just today I used the term ‘planting the seed’ to a friend about one of my posts.
I’ve been trying not to get discouraged about lack of readership at this early stage. But the few people I am attracting (to a narrow niche) are quality people who are getting value from my content. I think that will matter more in the long run.
I’m not blogging for other bloggers so it’s a bit harder.
I even sent out a free template (not available on my site yet) to the three people who have commented regularly on my blog…as a little thank you. After reading your posts I feel like I’m doing quite a few things right at least. And hope it pays off in the long run.
Thanks for the confirmation!
@Karen - Commenting frequently on high-traffic blogs like ProBlogger and Freelance Switch will get you a little referral traffic. Joining and participating in forums which are used by people in your niche is also a good idea.
Believe it or not, blogging for other bloggers is actually more difficult, because it’s a very crowded space. What you’re doing has a lot of cross-over appeal with other related fields like general illustration, animation, advertising, and writing.
Hi Michael - this is sound advice. So many thing get the networking thing wrong and just take, take, take and it does not work.
I love that picture by the way - it’s so eyecatching.
Karen’s comments are very pertinent for me, as I am in the same position still struggling for readers. However, your third point is my driver Michael, and from the comments I get it seems to be working. I found a great forum in my niche - there are some folks there with over 5000 posts so it was I’ve been tiptoeing to start with, rather than jumping in with ‘expert’ status, and that ploy is working. Traffic from the forum now makes up the bulk of my blog visitors and they are all ‘real readers’.
@Cahterine - Yes, it’s give, give, give, not take, take, take! The truth of life is in its paradoxes: give and you will receive. Take and you get nothing.
Thank you for saying you like the picture, I really like it, too. As soon as I saw it I thought it would be perfect.
@Heather - I’m so glad to hear that! Finding a great forum in your niche is one of the best things you can do. Take it easy and think “long run”. Build up your relationship capital slowly and steadily. Great job!