Confessions of a Blogging Veteran
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Recently, I completed my 500th post on my blog, The Gospel According To Rhys. Like this excellent site, I also made the switch to WordPress (anybody who wants their blog to be appreciated a lot more, I’d do it. I have earned more money, got more comments and my traffic has picked up no end) recently. So, as a 4 and a half year veteran, I’d thought about giving some tips to keep your blogging fresh.
Well, by tips I mean tip. There is really only one: evolve.
Evolving can mean a lot of things. Change your design, change your system (it’s easy to import blogger posts from WordPress, and with a bit of .htaccess scripting, all the permalinks will be the same), introduce a new topic to talk about (I went from a strictly personal blog – football – other sports – gaming – internet and web design – money making and SEO).
Your readers evolve too. Looking through my blogroll, most of my current regular readers have been around for the past 2 years. Fantastic blogs have stopped blogging (typical veteran, but some of the blogs from yesteryear I believe are a lot better than a lot of blogs nowadays, but that’s just me!). Some of them come back, some just loiter in the comments, some disappear altogether. If you like a blog, tell them, either via e-mail or comments. Not just a “your blog is fantastic” (particularly on WordPress, some people with higher blogs do delete these comments, as they believe they’re just after a linkback), but try and encourage a discussion. Comment on the post. Trust me, I’ve had people say “Your blog inspired me to do this…”, or “I kept my eye out for Colwyn Bay FC on the football results, and I was happy they win.”. As a blogger, it makes me happy, as it shows I’ve inspired somebody’s life. Not for the better, per se. But certainly not for the worse.
Blogging has been my most rewarding hobby ever. It’s been one that has got me in newspapers, on the radio, on huge websites such as about.com. It has also been a nice little earner, and my current relationship is one of my readers :). So, when it feels like you want to give up, read your comments, email your readers, or do something drastic like change your design. There was a reason you started blogging, more reasons evolve for why you should continue.