The Joy and Pain of Starting a New Blog
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It's not a secret that I'm not as active on SEO 2.0 as in the early days anymore. I've turned out an "occasional blogger" over the years while publishing SEO related articles mostly over at the SEOptimise blog. I have been hugely successful with SEOptimise. It's by now the number one and most popular UK SEO blog according to Google at least but it also has an impressive following and
some of my posts get shared by hundreds of people.
The SEO 2.0 blog is still modestly well known but not as widely acclaimed as it was once was. I get still some substantial Google traffic and even StumbleUpon sends me hundreds of casual visitors daily again. So everything is alright isn't it then? Well, it bores me a little. Thus I joined a completely new SEO blog over at cognitiveSEO, a promising SEO software startup from Europe. Their blog was almost completely empty when I started to write for it.
While blogging here and on SEOptimise has become routine, both in a positive and negative sense on cognitiveSEO I have to rediscover the art of blogging in a way. I have to
experiment and find a new unique writing style once again.
As this is actually my third flagship SEO blog I develop it's not as easy to become someone else for it. On the other hand I can't just copy the blogging style I use on SEO 2.0 and SEOptimise. I don't want to use the same types of posts, the same headline formulas. I don't even like to repeat myself all the time.
In a way who else could start a new successful blog? After all I'm the guy who explained how to achieve it in 2007 and has proven ever since that it works. Still, it's also a bit ridiculous. It's the same person writing, the same topics (SEO and social media) and even the same Internet. My readers vary though. Surprisingly very different people seem to read SEO 2.0, SEOptimise and cognitiveSEO. At least they appear to be different as other people share the posts on social media for instance.
You could think that the audience follows the author, like with books.
On the Web the publishing house, here the blog, seems to be much more important though. People know a particular source to be trustworthy and they return to it again and again. A new source has to prove it's worth it, even if the writer is already known from elsewhere.
Before starting to blog over at cognitiveSEO I considered writing again for Hubspot. I did a few times in 2007 but then lost touch with them. Now I did it again but it felt a bit weird. I didn't really know what to write about. That was strange because Hubspot's inbound marketing is largely the same as my SEO 2.0 philosophy. That lack of inspiration doesn't really happen at the new blog. I think I know why:
A new blog is like a new love. It's full of insecurities but it's also exciting.
It's exciting because not everything is routine and popular. You have to find out, you have to find your voice and audience. I love it. Call me a serial blogger. I love it despite the hard work it takes to get just a few shares on social media. That's the joy and pain of starting a new blog.
* Image by Elliot in Wonderland
Yes you are true.
i am on the same situation of not blogging continuously.
You just need to rekindle the old flame. I mean may be you missed the interactivity that’s why tend to lay low.
A new blog is like a new year at school – everythings different (classroom, teachers, subjects, routine etc) but you’re still in the same buidlings and still being a student.
It’s just that because everything is a fresh start, it re-egernises and helps the flow of ideas as there isn’t the bagadge that always builds up along the course of any project.
@Alex:very well said.
The toughest part I feel about blogging is that the most of the stuff we write about is already there on the web so it keeps us thinking of new ideas.
I agree with Akash. It’s difficult to find topics that haven’t already been written about and discussed. I keep a notebook specifically for blog post ideas and I find that about 75% of those ideas have already been done. It can be disheartening but at least those 25% of ideas are useable.
it is hard to think new ideas and strategy to catch readers attention to blog. people doesn’t care to read specially if your blogs are quite long.
I’ve always been reserved and reluctant to start a blog because although I read a lot, it’s hard to find the time to share thoughts. I’ve recently started my own blog with limited success because I always feel that small posts are not enough. I always want to write a monster post that adds value but this involves a lot of time invested time and time again. Still search for my flow…
I agree, one of the hardest parts is generating new ideas to blog about, as blogs that are full of dull or repetitive information just don’t work, so may as well not be published. From a business point of view, it just shows the importance of keeping new product development flowing, gaining good customer testimonials, and having great suggestion ideas (e.g. recipe ideas for a food company).
I think it’s painful to start a new blog. If you can make it through the first 3 months then it is much easier.
@Anndria,
Most of us do not like reading very long blog posts but as long as the posts are able to provide very useful information they can hold on the visitors.
Mark Mars: What can I say, you have a great blog there. +1!
Lewis Warren: I checked out your blog and the topics you cover are all right. You may want to spice the posts up with some images and maybe declutter your design a bit. You’re just a few inches away from creating a high quality blog.
Franklin: That’s true. 3 months seems to be some kind of magic number when it comes to blogging.
Akash: Most people scan instead of reading. So a long blog post that is scannable is great for both casual visitors and those few who take the time to read the full posting.
That is a good point Ted. But what I feel is that, it should not matter how long the post is, what is important is to look for whatever the post is about, is it able to do justice with the subject. One could right a 500 word post, still being very informative and one could right a 2000 words post. And, yes I agree that the longer the post is, it will be able to cover more things than a short one.
yes i agree. really hard to think of new ideas on blogging that people will be interested reading it.
I feel you. I’ve been blogging for fun since 2007 but I think (I’m sure) it’s about time I do something more with it.