How To Keep New Content Flowing On To Your Blog

Posted: 21 Jun 2012 06:28 AM PDT

As all bloggers know, the initial setting up of the website is just the beginning. Unlike static websites where information remains the same for many months at a time, blogs (especially newly established blogs) need to be updated frequently to remain or start ranking in search engines. Chances are, most of us who run blogs to make money have more than one project on our hands, and therefore, may not have time to update it daily.

Wake Up Early

One of the techniques I personally use is to wake up early. On a normal day, I will wake up at 5:00 AM and go to the gym to work out. Going to the gym gives me time to think about what I want to write about while getting my blood moving at the same time. By 6:00, I am ready to go home and start blogging for the day… My process usually starts with browsing blogs that are in my same niche. If I am going to write on my technology blog, I will spend 10-20 minutes browsing other technology blogs for inspiration. After I figure out two or three topics I want to write about, I jot them down on my whiteboard, along with a few key points I want to talk about. After I write about 2-3 posts, I will then continue on to my next project, whether it be a web design client, another blog, etc.

Schedule Posts

If you're the type of person who works during the weekdays, but has off on the weekends (such as a school teacher), then it may be hard for you to update your blog during the week. What's good for you is that WordPress (and other blogging software) will allow you to schedule posts. This will allow you to write ten articles over the weekend and schedule each one to automatically post itself on a certain day and time. This won't work for news blogs that need to be updated as soon as the news breaks, but for things like how-to blogs and editorials, it will work perfectly.

Invite Guest Bloggers

Every blogger out there (that is, the ones who are ambitious) is always looking for a blog to guest write on. If you are having troubles being able to write the content on your own, invite guest bloggers to submit articles for free. Also allow them to include one backlink that will go to their own blog. This not only helps build you free content, but it helps the guest blogger build backlinks.

Hire a Writer

If you can't seem to attract guest bloggers, there is always the option of paying somebody to write content for you. There are many "professional bloggers" out there that are looking for freelance writing tasks, but you could also hire a teenager looking for a job. The advantages of hiring a teenager are that they are willing to work, familiar with technology, and work significantly cheaper than a freelance writer. A good wage is about $4-5 per blog post, depending on the length and quality of the work.

Rethink Your Topic

If you can't find the time to write on your blog, is it because you truly don't have time or is it because the topic is boring? Although topics like financial and medical blogs will make more money, they don't do you any good if they aren't updated frequently. If your topic is too boring to write articles for, it may be time to make a blog about something you are actually interested in.

Sell Your Blog

If you don't go with any of the options listed above, I would suggest selling your blog altogether. I first started blogging in 2010 and started a technology blog on Blogger. It was the first blog I had ever started and its beginning days were quite lame… Posts were short, my blog name and domain were terrible, and I didn't really understand SEO. After about two years of practice, I moved the blog over to a self-hosted WordPress server. I realized that with the crappy posts from my beginning days and my domain name not being so great, that I should start a brand new blog. I was able to get $800 for the blog on the Flippa Marketplace for what I like to call my "sandbox blog."

If you are unhappy with your current topic and your blog is in a format that you can sell and transfer to somebody else, I say list it on Flippa and see what you get for it. Then, use those profits to fund a blog you are actually interested in. For example, after I sold my first blog for $800, I invested $200 of that into finding a good, aged domain name that will work perfectly for the blog I had in mind.

Ian Eberle is the editor at his blog Omega Web. Head on over to his site to read more blogging tips, web design tips, tutorials, gain access to exclusive downloads, and more.