Dynamics of Managing a Blog for Growth

Jcyreus dot Com went live during the first week of February 2008, roughly 2.5 months ago. Since then, I have seen traffic to the site climb, dip, climb some more, plateau, dip and climb (you get the picture). I have seen the same thing happen with RSS subscriber growth.

Through it all, I have learned quite a bit and thought I would share some of these findings. Whether you’re a blogger or perhaps thinking about setting one up or not even really interested in doing something like this, the findings are interesting and can easily be applied to other online ventures.

My intention with Jcyreus dot Com has always been to publish information that is useful and if not useful, at least mildly entertaining. The interesting aspect of such a writing philosophy is that not everyone finds the same things to be either interesting or entertaining. This is where the necessity to find an effective subject matter niche comes in to play. I have found that the writer himself needs to enjoy both writing about and researching the subject matter within his or her chosen niche because eventually, as a writer, you are bound to reach the limits of your own personal knowledge on any given topic and will be forced source (and cite) your information from alternative sources.

My motivation for launching Jcyreus dot Com was generated by a combined desire to establish a creative outlet for sharing my perspectives and insight on the events that surround us and the ability to actually generate enough revenue from advertising and affiliate resources to at least cover the costs associated with what I was doing.

It is fairly common knowledge that there are basically 2 things that a blogger needs to do in order to build an audience and generate enough traffic to actually draw a paycheck from it.

1. Consistently produce content that possesses a high enough quality and a perceived value that will convert casual visitors into regular readers or subscribers.
2. Monetize. This is most commonly done through advertisements using CPM, PPC, CPA or other ad cost-revenue models. Monetization can also come in the form of solicited donations, merchandise sales, paid product reviews, paid subscriptions or just about anything that you are able to [legally] get people to pay you for.

Sounds easy enough, right? If you can nail #1 down solid, you should have it made, especially considering the vast quantity of resources available to help any blogger out with executing what was described in #2. Where I believe that a lot of bloggers get stuck, is in the first few months of getting started because there is a hidden aspect to #1 that is in most cases a mystery to blogging newbies.

At the heart of this mystery is how to gain exposure in order to get the blogosphere to recognize all of this great content that you are producing each day (or however frequently you post) that no one seems to be reading. In my first few months of getting Jcyreus off the ground, I did a lot of research and information gathering using resources mostly available for free from self-proclaimed Internet Marketing experts such as John Chow, Gyutae Park, Alan Johnson and Zac Johnson. All of these guys had unique and interesting advice to offer. By incorporating their advice, I was able to garner some impressive traffic stats within a very short period of time. The challenge that I found was in sustaining that traffic or in other words, converting one time visitors into repeat consumers of my rhetoric. In coupling the tips and tricks that I learned from the Internet Marketing gurus with some more strategic experts in their respective fields, such as Guy Kawasaki and Jeremiah Owyang (both of whom I have a tremendous amount of respect for) I have been able to boil the ability to be successful as a niche blogger down to 3 key activities, which if executed consistently and effectively, will change a simple hobby into a profitable income resource:

1. Harness the power of social networking - People naturally share their experiences when they encounter services or products that impress them or tick them off. If you maintain a fairly large network of friends, colleagues and associates and you regularly post compelling material, you are certain to see exponential growth as a result of the natural progression across your social graph. I’ve also found that other bloggers are faced with the same challenges that I face and that networking with them is not only a good way to learn about new ways to promote my stuff, it is also a great way to forge alliances that can build your credibility as well as theirs and enhance name recognition for everyone involved.
2. Focus on long-term value - One way to quickly experience a lot of traffic to your site is to plaster your URL every place you can think of then email everyone that you know and even a few hundred people that you don’t know and post comments on a few dozen other blogs in an attempt to raise awareness of your new entry into the blogosphere. This is also a good way to get labeled as a spammer and quickly create more than a few enemies. In extreme cases, new bloggers are able to build a huge audience inside of just a few weeks. This is also generally accompanied by countless hours of marketing, promotion and lots of quick content development, along with a few hundred or thousand dollars in advertising expense. Through the dynamics of blog readership, traffic has to be continually replenished through continued efforts to attract new readers. This is where developing content that delivers value to the reader is essential and where SEO (search engine optimization) and site design becomes an imperative.
3. Walk, then run - Naturally, when venturing into something new you will make mistakes. Unless you are a web developer or have a lot of prior experience with PHP, HTML, Wordpress, Typepad or whatever blog platform you are using, the overall layout of your site may also leave some things to be desired. The great thing about active learning experiences is just that; you learn and move on to do it better the next time. A few of the mistakes that I made earlier this year in my great enthusiasm to be the best blogger I could be was that I first overloaded my site with way too many ads, then I drew a few thousand visitors to my site who never returned, most likely because my site was loading poorly and because I still hadn’t found my “voice” as a blogger and found myself writing about anything and everything that came to mind, regardless of whether or not it fit within the overall theme that I was trying to deliver upon. While I learned quite a bit throughout that process, I fear that I may have tarnished what credibility that I had and turned a few people away who might have appreciated what I have to offer as this site matures into a compelling, useful and entertaining resource for my ever-growing audience.

Thanks for being here!