Some of you may not be aware that this isn’t our only blog. We actually have over 20 blogs and websites…way too many really. To make money online you don’t really need to work that hard and in fact if you are you really are spreading yourself too thin. We were doing just that for quite some time and it wasn’t getting us anywhere.
When we stopped to think about how hard we were working and the little return we were getting for that effort, we realised that we needed to do something about it. So we decided that we would take just a couple of our blogs and give them our absolute full attention.
We knew we needed to do something big to get these blogs to the next level. We were stagnating and not really making the income we wanted.
At about the same time, we read a blog post about two guys who were writing 20 blog posts a day for their blog and how well they were doing because of it. This kind of gave us the idea that maybe we could do the same, but 20 blog posts?!…this seemed like an enormous task.
We could have hired writers to do it but at 20 posts a day over 7 days at even $5 an article that would have been about $700 a week…yikes! So instead we decided on 10 articles a day…still quite high but something we could manage.
Was it Worth it?
Definitely!…within two months we had doubled our traffic and within three months we had effectively tripled our average monthly traffic – prior to this we were averaging around 10,000 to 15,000 unique visitors per month. It also became our best earning blog from that point on….and still is for that matter.
You can see the results in the image above. We started adding the posts at the beginning of October 2008.
It was the boost we needed and it paid off. Over time we reduced the number of blog posts – to continue with that many posts would have resulted in major burn out as we were writing them all ourselves.
Would this Work on All Blogs?
I don’t think so. The blog we chose was purely a product based blog which is quite different to the blog you are reading now. If I were to start adding 10 blog posts a day to this blog the information would be quickly lost and regular readers would get annoyed pretty quickly in their effort to keep up. However 2 or 3 blog posts a day could work and would still result in an increase in traffic.
How to Implement It
It’s pretty simple really…just keep adding content. This is particularly good if you have a brand new blog as it can get you traffic quite quickly.
The trick is providing lots of content but also content that has value. It’s all very well getting lots of traffic but if what you are providing is just garbage then the visitor is just going to hit the back button and never come back.
If you have some extra cash then consider getting a writer to do at least some of the work for you. You can hire a writer at Elance.
Just keep at it for at least 2 months but preferably 3. Once you hit the 3 month mark you can start reducing the number of posts to a more reasonable level but do it slowly over time. Although, if you are able to stick at it then keep going by all means.
And finally…
This method really illustrates the value of content – it got us to the next level in our affiliate business so it was definitely worth it! Give it a go…I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
I can’t imagine writing that amount of blog posts! I think I’ll stick with my one per day but I can understand how some niches would benefit.
Andrew
It was hard work but we were at a point where we could write up an article pretty quickly so it kind of just became a routine. Even so, we weren’t upset when we decided to start reducing the number of posts. You really can’t maintain those numbers forever without getting writers in to do it for you.
Paula,
After reading your posts from last year when you started this I decided to start posting every day instead of 3 times a week.
This weekend I had a lot of traffic, but I think it had to do with a controversy I became involved in on Twitter about the value of social media. I really need to send that guy a thank you note. ;)
I am hoping that I will see the results of this daily posting start paying off with more traffic in a few weeks. My goal is to be up to two posts a day in 90 days, but I have to get past the first 30 days to see how realistic that will be.
Brad
.-= Brad Harmon´s last blog ..How Plastic Surgery is Helping Small Business Entrepreneurs Succeed =-.
It would be interesting to see your results after the three months to see how it compares with our results.
Last year I wrote 300 posts in the first full year of my blog. I’m on pace to do the same thing this year. I write a lot, and have found that if I can be steady, I get consistent traffic. But I haven’t quite broken into the realm of what I’d call “nice” traffic yet.
Last year, there were a few times when I had more than one post a day; one week I wrote 15 posts. Many people wrote and said they thought that was too much, so I pulled back. However, since I’m starting to see that I’m bringing in more new people than having consistent visitors as often, maybe more posts is the way to go for awhile. It might be my next big test.
Wonderful post; thanks.
.-= Mitch´s last blog ..Everyone’s Got An Opinion =-.
That’s great that you got instant feedback from your readers when you wrote 15 posts in a week. That definitely says to me that your blog is not one that would work as well with this sort of approach.
True. I think it’s because many of my posts can be quite long. I regularly write more than 500 words per post, and tomorrow’s post is going to be well over 1,200 words; I had a lot to say in that post. :-)
.-= Mitch´s last blog ..Do Images Increase Readership? =-.
My blog is five months old and I can attest to the veracity of what you have stated here. Content if extremely important, it will make or break your traffic. :-)
Yes I agree Walter. You can really tell how important content is when you stop writing it. Traffic can quickly disappear.
Hey Paula! Yea I definitely agree with producing a lot of content and focusing on one or two blogs. Hopefully it works out for me too !
Well it seems to work when you focus. I read a post by Problogger yesterday and he went through exactly the same thing. He set up 20 blogs but realised pretty quickly that he was spreading himself too thin.
Thanks for supplying perfect supporting evidence that content still rules!
Juggling multiple blogs is quite a task. I’m fairly equipped to handle several but I couldn’t imagine twenty!
BTW, one great way to get more content for free is to bring on some interns.
Great idea Gabe. We also have a couple of really good writers who write for our product blogs. For this blog, we do all the writing ourselves although I am thinking of opening it up to guest bloggers.
Wow! Yes, this is very interesting and thanks for sharing the results. I’m trying to get up to posting daily and I’m enjoying it actually. I do have some product based websites but they are niche stores and there are a lot of them and I couldn’t possibly work up to 20 per day each but maybe I could focus on one and see how many would be doable. My husband has a product based site so I shared this info with him too … Thanks again! *SmiLes* Suzanne
You sound a lot like us – we have lots of product based blogs and it’s tough work looking after them all. That’s why if you focus on just one you will really see benefits.
yeah i agree.. i still think posting one really gud article is better than posting 5 crappy one.. :) nice post
Exactly…quality is so much better than quantity!
Paula,
I’ve been studying alot on backlink building, link wheels and, well, alot of research. Your posts somewhat go against what I’ve been getting. What are your thoughts on building web 2.0 properties around your main website with blog post comments, bookmarking and etc. (I think you know where I’m going).
Also do you have any thoughts on social media (facebook, twitter, etc) as related to focusing on a few main websites?
In my opinion if something works for you then do it. We aren’t the absolute experts on this but from experience we have found that the strongest and most long lasting backlinks come from guest articles.
We also recommend blog commenting and we don’t see a problem with using Facebook and the like. A good mix of backlinks is a good thing. We just focus more on guest articles than anything else.
The problem with things like link wheels is that Google catches on after a while and they lose their value. We like backlinks that are sustainable and that happens with guest articles.