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What are the Different Ways to Build a Blog?
By JLP | August 18, 2006
The First Way
Ramit’s post about his blog’s 2nd birthday got me to thinking about the different ways that a person can go about building a blog. Ramit’s blog, I Will Teach You to be Rich, has been wildly successful. Ramit DOES NOT:
1. link to other blogs (unless there’s a specific post he likes)
2. advertise on his blog
3. normally post more than 2-3 times per week
4. post too much about current events
So, how has he grown his blog? Although I haven’t specifically asked him this question, I would venture to say that his growth has come from two sources:
1. networking
2. public speaking
I have never heard one of Ramits talks, but I would be willing to bet that his audience is told about his blog and how to subscribe to his via a reader service like Bloglines. This brings me to my next point: have you seen how many subscribers he has? It is unbelievable. I have a little over 1,100 total, while Ramit has over 6,800 on just one Bloglines account, alone!
If you have ever read Ramit’s stuff, you’ll know that he is very passionate about what he does. Passion is very important. It takes passion to hammer out the same points over and over again.
The Second Way
FreeMoneyFinance has only been blogging since April of 2005 and yet his blog has over 500,000 hits. Most of those hits come from Google search results. So, how has he built his blog?
1. He blogs OFTEN. I would 15 posts per day on average. That’s a lot! In fact, I call him a Blogging Horse!
2. He doesn’t post a lot of original content – most of his stuff comes from news articles where he takes the jest of the article and then adds his thoughts.
3. He contributes to carnivals and hosts carnivals. Personally, I have quit using carnivals so much. There’s simply too many of them and they have become ineffective for the most part. But, this method has worked well for FMF.
These three ingredients have made his blog successful.
The Third Way
Here’s what I’m doing with AllFinancialMatters:
1. Post quite a bit of original content. This is getting harder to do because it seems like I have talked about everything. I know I haven’t but it seems that way. I guess maybe I’m experiencing some writer’s block. I try to write a lot of “how-to” posts and things of that sort.
2. Ask a lot of questions. I would say that I have been successful creating an interactive blog. I love getting input from different people on various topics. It makes blogging fun. I have some of the best commenters around!
3. Share the love. As one of the “older” bloggers, I have this desire to bring a sense of community to the personal finance blogging world. One of those ways is my Blog of the Week feature that I use to highlight a different blog each week. Another way is the Question of the Day Marathon, which allows a different blogger to “host” a question each week day during the month of August. Over all I would say that the experience has been fun and I think it has helped bring traffic to some of the newer blogs.
I have a really big project coming up in October that I am really excited about. I don’t know how it will turn out, but right now I’m pretty optimistic that it too will be a success. STAY TUNED!
Over all, I have been pretty happy with the growth of AllFinancialMatters. I figure as long as I have readers coming back to visit, then I’m doing my job.
I’m sure there are other ways to build a blog. These were just a few that I thought of.
Now it is your turn to weigh in:
What do you see other bloggers doing that you think is making their blog a success?
What things could I do differently here at AllFinancialMatters?
Topics: Blogging | 7 Comments »
August 18th, 2006 at 2:56 pm
I agree JLP…you have been bringing the PF community together…I like that. Not sure if there is much you could do differently…I think you’re doing a great job. I like knowing there’s a real person behind each blog…that’s what kind of keeps me coming back. In fact, I think once I like the “blogger,” I’ll read anything they have to write.
August 18th, 2006 at 2:58 pm
It’s too bad I don’t have enough time to read everything. :/
August 18th, 2006 at 3:02 pm
1. Thanks for the “plug.” (though it’s more like 7 posts a day.)
2. You certainly are bringing the community together — and doing it in creative ways. Keep it up! I think it’s a way you can differentiate your blog and grow your traffic in a unique way.
August 18th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
I started reading personal finance blogs perhaps a year ago. Initially I subscribed to all the usual suspects, but a few things turned me off:
1. Large numbers of posts. I read blogs through bloglines, and if a blog posts too often it is just too hard to keep up, even to scan through the postings. If someone actually visits a blog’s homepage I can see that more postings would help keep it interesting.
2. Lack of original content. There seem to be information “swarms” such that all the blogs seemed to wind up posting the same (often trivial) stuff; as soon as some random bank would raise their interest rate .15% that would be all you’d read about for the next couple days.
I imagine both of those points make the blog great for search engine traffic, but they make it difficult to keep up or care about the content on a day-to-day basis. Over time I pruned the blogs that I read down to those that post less frequently, but with higher quality and original material.
August 19th, 2006 at 9:43 am
To me, I know I can’t post as mush as FMF and I also not fast enough to collect all the latest information that happened on the internet(mostly personal finance information). So I decided I would provide some self-written original content which can help people to achieve financial freedom. I wish I can provide my knowledge and information from the other side of the personal finance blogsphere.
Although my site is not as famous as JLP’s and FMF’s, but I think there are some value in my blog there. No matter what happen, I still will focus on my initial target. This is my blogging system. Just like JLP said, if someone comes to my site and read what I written, then I think I’ve done my job…
Opps, am I selling my site? Haha, I hope I’m not making you feeling like that,
August 19th, 2006 at 8:13 pm
I’m still trying to figure out how to drive traffic to my blog, The Coin Jar. I’ve been blogging since June 2006, and just passed 100 hits (I know, yawn!), though I’ve only made 14 posts. I found this article helpful, though obviously it hasn’t helped too much.
Networking has been good, especially at work. People who know me seem to have the most interest.
-CJ
16 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog
http://nextlevelpartner.typepad.com/bbab/2005/03/16_ways_to_driv.html
August 19th, 2006 at 8:33 pm
CJ,
It takes time and effort to get traffic to your blog. I remember from the day I started my blog (October 13, 2004) until December 31, 2004 I had a TOTAL of 143 hits! To be fair, I did VERY LITTLE to drive traffic to my blog during that time period.