Successfully running a blog to a profitable state is a long process that requires hard work and focus. Many people are unable to achieve their goal of earning a certain amount of income through blogging. Many people fail to achieve their goal of earning some income from blogging. I think the development of a blog should go through the following four stages to achieve this goal:
Phase 1: Creation of the blog
The first stage of running a blog is the very simple stage of creating a blog. The focus of this stage is on blog content and configuration. Most of your energy will be spent on creating high-quality and high-volume content to keep your blog updated. You can write 10 to 50 articles before creating a blog.
Basic blog setup tasks such as SEO and plug-in setup also need to be completed at this stage, but these tasks take relatively less time than creating content. In addition, you should also ensure that you have certain backlinks so that your blog is more likely to be indexed by search engines. My general preference is to get backlinks organically, letting search engines "naturally discover" your blog rather than by submitting your blog to search engines. The more content is indexed by search engines, the more natural the increase in external links becomes.
Most people fail at this stage because they focus on making money. It is very difficult to make money in the early days of blogging, so it is better not to consider this point at all.
Time required to complete Phase 1: 3 – 6 months
Stage 2: Increased traffic
If your blog has high-quality content, it will soon enter this growth stage. You start to get a certain amount of comments and maybe some regular readers. Because the content is indexed by search engines, it also brings you a certain amount of traffic.
The development at this stage is mainly reflected in the increase in traffic, the increase in the number of subscriptions, and the blog starting to earn you a little income. Even at this stage, traffic growth is still more important than revenue, so traffic is the one that should be focused on. Of course, the increase in traffic is achieved through continuous high-quality content and high-quality external links.
There is no easy way to get backlinks. Google is much smarter than we give it credit for, and it can clearly tell whether your backlinks were obtained easily through "cheating" or if they were obtained organically. Therefore, I de-emphasize backlinks in comments, forums, and social media. Backlinks from guest posts and natural backlinks (some people decide to link to your website because they agree with your point of view) are high-quality external links. Building relationships with other bloggers can also help you increase your backlinks.
Backlinks serve two main purposes. First of all, it can bring traffic to your blog. Of course, it would be best if some of these visitors can become regular readers. Secondly, backlinks can help improve your search engine position, which is very critical.
Set a goal for yourself to write two guest posts for some well-known blogs every month. These blogs generally have relatively regular readers and have relatively high PR values. Of course, the purpose of writing guest posts for other blogs is also to persuade those bloggers to recommend your blog to their readers and bring you external links.
Phase 2 is a longer process and may take months or even years to complete. It is possible that traffic will grow very slowly, but the goal is to ensure that traffic grows steadily. Some blogs can develop very quickly with the help of certain circumstances or maybe a little bit of luck, but for most of us, the process is quite long.
Time required to complete Phase 2: 6 months – 2 years
Stage Three: Maturity and Profitability
For most business cycles, the mature stage means that the business can grow relatively steadily. For blogs, maturity does not necessarily mean steady growth. I personally think that the maturity of your blog means that at this stage you don’t need much effort to achieve the same growth rate as before. Again, this phase is still characterized by traffic growth.
Because as mentioned earlier, compared with the previous stage, you don’t need so much energy to create content for your blog or other blogs (publishing guest posts). You can spend more energy on how to commercialize your blog. superior. You can sign an advertising agreement and optimize Adsense. If possible, try some affiliate projects. Even so, high-quality articles cannot be ignored at this stage.
In addition to the continued growth of traffic at this stage, you can also see a significant increase in revenue. It is at this stage that you begin to enjoy the fruits of the previous months and years of hard work.
Time required to complete Phase 3: 6 months – 1 year
The fourth stage: maintenance
This stage is very interesting, there are some very large blogs who care about the quality and quantity of content at this stage and have their blogs degrade. This is usually because they no longer need to create high-quality articles as they did in previous stages to continue to grow traffic and increase revenue. If they could keep the quality of their articles from declining, could their blog grow faster? Could they make more money? It's possible, but at this stage, it just takes a little attention to maintenance, which is basically the case for everyone. , is already a natural trend. For a blog that has been very successful and has reached this stage, it does not take much effort to maintain it. It is already self-sustaining. Readership will continue to grow and spread the word to each other without your prodding. Although content is also necessary, it is no longer as important as the previous stages.
At this stage, there is significant income potential, and it is very possible that blogging income can replace your professional income. Most blogs don’t reach this level, and only a handful do.
Tips:
The topic of your blog is either related to your interests or the industry you are engaged in. This makes it much easier when creating content. Run your blog the same way you run a business. It requires you to spend time and energy, there are no shortcuts, and you must be mentally prepared for slow growth and sometimes discouragement. Keep going no matter what!
Original text: http://www.dailyblogtips.com/the-four-stages-of-growing-a-blog/ Translation source: WordPress