It’s easy to find blogs that are, for all intents and purposes, “dead.” Plenty of people feel inspired to start using a blogging service or a social networking service (especially Twitter), then blow it in the follow-through; the blog gets a handful of posts, then the user loses interest in their blog, quits writing new content, loses or never establishes a reader base, and thus never gets a chance to make money. With no readers to buy potential products and no readers who might click on advertisements, the more likely way for bloggers to make money, the blog does nothing but occupy space, taking up domain names and usernames that other bloggers might have wanted for their own, more serious projects.
As a consequence, it’s obviously quite important for bloggers to do two things: they must both provide a substantial amount of fresh posts and a wide variety of posts to make money. If a blog isn’t updated on a regular basis, unless the writer is someone extremely important (i.e. someone who probably isn’t looking to make their money from the blog, but from something else they do, like perhaps making music or acting or writing things that aren’t blog posts), it will very quickly lose readers, which means less site hits, less traffic, and no chance of profits.
Maintaining a steady supply of ideas for posts can be difficult, but a blog that aims to make money likely has a pre-established focus, such as cooking, music, pets, or something similar. You thus want to diversify your portfolio within the world of your umbrella topic as much as possible. Cover aspects of your topic of focus that put you one foot within the familiar and one foot outside your comfort zone; if you write about cooking, for example, find a trend or a culinary technique that you and your readers might not be intimately knowledgeable about and familiarize yourself – and your audience – in the process. If you have a pre-established audience, you might be able to get sponsor assistance through this coverage, helping both you and your advertiser further each other’s goals.
Your comments section might also help you find inspiration for new posts. If your blog is assaulted with ad hominem attacks, you’re probably not going to get much long-term success out of having a meltdown on your blog, but if you have insightful, engaging regular commenters who ask questions of you – or make you curious about something – address the commenter’s question or comment in its own post and elaborate upon it. It’ll expand your own field of knowledge and expertise, but it does something else: it will quite possibly make that commenter share the piece written at least partially about them with friends and family, which will in turn potentially lead to an even bigger reader base.
However, there’s another approach you can take to the world of professional blogging, especially if you’re pursuing a book deal; many users of the microblogging service Tumblr, among other networks, have made money with one-note-jokes turned into coffee table books, such as Hipster Puppies, This Is Why You’re Fat, and Stuff Hipsters Hate. These blogs essentially post the same kind of content on a semi-regular basis – extensions of the one joke almost always explained in the blog’s title or URL. For these, all you need is a jokey premise that catches on and enough content to sustain it until it produces enough content to merit publishing a book, though obviously book deals don’t magically come to bloggers who decide to use the medium for this.
Both types of blog writing, however, essentially do the same thing to make money; they establish an audience, then use that audience to collect revenue. Audiences are far more prone to read something that continues to appeal to them and gets updated regularly, and thus a happy medium between consistency and diversity without compromising quality or credibility is what’s going to give you results.
I have also noticed a lot of “dead” blogs. Lack of inspiration is probably the cause of death in most cases. Thanks, this post was helpful to me.
Yeah, I really think the idea about the comment section is great! Never thought about it before and now I can’t quit looking for new topics this way!
Hey!
Thanx for a good share!
This tips and trix for commentsection is great!
Yeah, I really think the idea about the comment section is great! Never thought about it before and now I can’t quit looking for new topics this way! 😀 Just a great idea!
Thank you for this nice inspiration article.
I usually do this when looking for new blogs:
I visit a blog from my the comments section of my blog. I then check out his or her comments and continue doing so until the end of time.
Actually managed to find my favorite blog by using that tactic.
/Nabil.
hey
I just gave myself a fresh opportunity:
How to find a topic for my next article:
Open the IstockPhoto. Go to the free photo of the week section. Find the photo, think of a story valuable to the readers, and just write it.
Think about…what they need to read
connect the photo with your blog…
🙂
best wishes
Nicole
you arr absolutely right. there are cases when we start blogs just when we see the success of some blogs. but then we shall lose interest soon. no new update in the posts, the traffic has reduced, no comments. we can say the blog is almost dead. and the bloggers, they shall in the social networking sites.it seems to me that sites like facebook are really a threat to the blogosphere.
I get my best ideas at the library since most of my blogs relate to the personal finance niche. There are a ton of good reads at the library and I’m sure almost any blogger can get more ideas there by relating similar topics to their content. It also gives fresh perspective because a lot of the offline writing isn’t found online, and vice versa.
Finding new blog topic is fine and it should undergo research before writing an article. Analyze if the topic you write is interesting and something that can enjoyable to our visitors. Because of this, they will continue on coming back.
Hello guys I’ve just signed up for this forum been a longtime reader and wanted to give something this site.
There are thousands of money-making opportunities that you can find in the Internet these days. If you are searching for a little extra money or a full-time online employment or looking for a way to making a fortune online, then read this article, it will give you ideas of money making paths on the World Wide Web.
Everybody wants to make easy money online. Why? More than 50% of the people in the make money online niche don’t even want to aim for making a fortune. While the fact is that more than 90% of the people in this niche will not be able to even make a living making money off the internet.
That’s when the question drops in that do you want to make easy money online? If the answer is yes then there is one warning: By nature all humans are greedy, if you cannot control your greed you will still make money but will never make easy money.
The more you are interested in the subject of your blog, the easier it is to come up with ideas. It is a good tip to always write down any ideas when they pass through your mind. It could be something you heard, or some news you read, if it inspired you to have an idea for a blog post, do not forget to write it down for later.
And there was someone in the comments asking how often to post. I just want to say that I think that it is important to make that decision at the beginning and do not change it later. I mean if you choose 1 post a day, be sure that you will always be able to keep up. If you think you will not be able, then choose 2 posts a week or something else.
Regards.
@Jason, Digg and other social bookmarking sites are great places to get ideas, especially if you’re good at writing quality articles quickly. You can find those hot topics and try to capitalize on them.
Simple yet solid tips there Andrew! As for me, I mostly find topic ideas through aggregator sites, such as digg, in which you can have an idea of what kind of posts and formats do get a lot of attention these days.
Interesting. I liked reading your article, because it reminded me of things i like to think about. I liked your ideas on striking a happy medium between diversity and consistency. Quality over quantity, and diversity keeps being mundane at bay. Cheers!
This is helpful, I like this quote “Your comments section might also help you find inspiration for new posts” I personally like to visit the sites of everyone who posts on my blog. I’ve found that I find interesting and useful stuff on most of them (except for the ones selling Rolex or Viagra, I skip past those ones). I’ve also found that by visiting their sites and leaving comments I’ve made some good relationships.
I often get ideas from reading other blogs, but I have had the experience of getting good blog ideas from my commenters as well. I think that if you spend some time and write a lengthy, quality post, you can sustain your blog with 2-3 posts a week. So, I find it’s the best policy to really research and put some time into each post I write, rather than doing a ton of posts throughout the week.
In my blog’s niche, my fav inspiration is high traffic related forums.
The people who ask about my niche’s topic give me the most of blog post’s ideas.
The other resources is my own problem, and when i can fix it, i will share it to my readers.
Thanks.
I simply watch what’s emerging as timely/popular online and then write a blog post about it. For example, a few days ago, I was able to give another blogger the headsup that his site was hacked; it inspired me to help out others prevent the same issue.
Oh, and of course….Chuck Norris did help. 🙂
My favourite way to keep the blog topics flowing is to brainstorm them in bulk. Sometimes I feel creative, and sometimes I don’t – so when I do, I brainstorm as many ideas as possible, and I save the spares to develop later.
It really depends on you… don’t stress yourself over the number of posts. I prefer quality over quantity. So post when you have some quality content as your readers will appreciate good content and will subscribe to read more from you. Just for a sake of a routine… 1 or 2 posts a week is probably a good number to aim for.
You said something about posting frequently so how often do you think a newbie should post article on their blog?
Good idea to use your comment section for ideas. Thanks!
Some of the best ideas come from the readers. Reading through comments for interesting questions can help you find a a good post topic. Thanks for sharing the ideas.
Thanks for sharing good information.Its valuable you are sharing such an info regarding getting contents,topics to make your blog successful. Really helpful for me.