Too many blog owners treat their blog with a “set it and forget it” mindset. They are excited to launch their new blog in a great new niche, but then things start to die out and pretty soon that once thriving blog is now stale. Here are some reasons your blog could become stale and what you can do to keep things fresh. After all, Google is not the only one who loves fresh blogs; readers just happen to love them as well.
No one is saying you have to write 3 articles a day and slave over your blog every waking hour. But if you only update your blog with new content every week or every other week you can’t really expect great results. Updating your blog does not just mean writing new articles, however. It also means adding new features, interacting with your readers, and even having a blog contest now and then. Google loves blogs that have new and fresh content coming in on a regular basis, and more articles also allow your blog to have a greater exposure, as every new blog post is another doorway through which readers can find you.
You don’t have to be a professional writer or poet to have a great blog. In fact, you don’t even have to have good grammar to have a great blog, although it does help. As long as you let your personality and sense of style come through in your writing you will keep from having a stale blog. I see too many blogs that are full of great information but it’s practically torture to read each post as it’s more like an encyclopedia entry than a blog post. Whatever your niche is, make sure you put your heart and soul into your writing and develop a style that is uniquely your own.
Whatever the topic of your blog may be you should be keeping up with the latest news in your industry. In fact, one of the greatest sources of traffic to your site can be through blog posts reflecting major events in the news. You will get a big search engine traffic spike if you among the first to report on something so keep a watchful eye on a few RSS feeds and use Yahoo Pipes to stay in the loop. Don’t just read other blogs to stay updated because then you will never be on top of the story.
Remember when you first started blogging and you got all excited when someone left a comment on your post? Well after getting inundated with spam you may have neglected some of those “real” comments. Responding to questions and comments on your blog can really help to keep things fresh and the more you do this the more you develop loyal readers who look forward to interacting with you.
Blog readers today just expect to see videos. You don’t have to post one every day, but once in a while it’s good to have a little video to mix it up a little. This not only helps your bounce rate, but it also helps to give the reader a more personal experience about who you are as a blogger. You don’t even have to show your face if you don’t want to. Just do a screen-cast video showing the readers how to do something and let your personality come through. Even if your writing has no style there really is no excuse for not having at least a little bit of style in your videos.
