I know some successful bloggers. The keys are consistency and publicity. They make the circuit every day to numerous other blogs in their genre and leave relevant comments there which all lead back to their blogs. They join discussion lists and forums and do the same, always linking back to their blogs. They link their blogs in all their emails. They push and push and push it everywhere, always linking people back to their blogs for the full scoop.
Their blogs are updated at least once or twice a day, sometimes more. Their content is focused to the interests of a core group. They really take themselves seriously and other people do as well. Many of this type of people move on to publishing books which they then market and sell to the blog base in the same way.
The way I see it, is it is too much work for me. Too little privacy. Too much time. Potential employers and upscale hotels, among others, are now searching blogs and social network sites to get the low-down on a person before ever meeting. And those cute pictures of Little Jim peeing on the dog will be archived by Google and forever retrievable, even when he is running for Congress. I don't want to put myself or my family through that.
The other type of blog is the personal blog. It does not aim to grow large, but to inform. It is used like an annual Christmas letter to keep people up to date with goings-on of a person, family, or organization. For people or families, that's great as long as the privacy concerns are acknowledged and accepted. I think it is bad for organizations to blog inconsistently. It won't be checked on a regular basis once people look a few times and get no updates. That means an email has to go out to remind people to look at the blog, which is frustrating when the info could be in the email. We don't mind so much when we can see the chubby cheeks of our grandchildren, but we don't have the same tolerance level for organizations.
For anyone targeting those outside their social circle, I believe a blog does more harm than good if it is not consistent. Even if it is every Friday, people need to know they can expect an update on a regular basis. Otherwise, just get a website and update it at will.
Katie
Who has no blogs and is happy that way
To be on a quest is nothing more or less than to become an asker of questions. -Keen
