Content Strategy – How to Ensure Your Blog is Never Found

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Content Strategy

Here’s the one and only tip you’ll ever need if you don’t want your blog to be discovered by Google or anyone else for that matter …are you ready?

Tip: Stop writing

That’s it, that’s all you have to do if you’d prefer to keep your blog hidden under a virtual rock or in a hole.

That’s right, stop writing and let your content stagnate, turn green, and grow fuzz just like the science project growing in the back of the refrigerator. You know the one, it’s in the container than no one wants to open or touch with their bare hands, yeah the one that stinks…

Okay, okay, so you think this tip is absurd…and it is. Yet, this is what happens to the average blog. The owners start out super geeked about starting a blog and at first they start out posting every few days, then it dwindles down to once a week.

I’m not having a schizophrenic episode – I know that last week I gave you 1 Tip that will help you blog better that encouraged you to periodically take a break from blogging, to help you refresh your mind and most importantly, live your life, but that tip was by no means to encourage you to take extended breaks that border abandonment.

In my opinion, 3 – 5 posts a week are enough to maintain your readership, but you don’t want to go weeks without writing.

I don’t want to stumble on your site and find a post like this:

“Sorry I haven’t posted anything in a while. Life is just so crazy right now…blah…blah…I’ve been dealing with some serious issues…yada yada… but I’m back now…here’s an update…”

This kind of post is acceptable when you announce it ahead of time, or when it’s not a habit. If I visit your site a month later and I almost choke on the cobwebs, that’s pretty much a sign to me that you’ve left town for good. I probably won’t visit you anymore.

This is not to reduce or make fun of anyone’s hardships or life’s issues. I’ve experienced periods where I’ve had to post one of those messages. If you have a life, it’s bound to happen, but here’s my point:

Whenever you stop writing, after about three days of nothing your blog looses life for everyday that you don’t post anything.

Every day that nothing new appears, it makes it harder and harder for people to discover the valuable information you do actually have on your blog.

When you don’t write some new, it lets the millions of other bloggers who are writing – no matter what the quality – gain leverage that could’ve belonged to you.

When you stop writing, it reduces your chances of ever being discovered by that CEO of that multi-billion dollar company who is looking for people just like you.

When he set out to do a search, Google decided to present him with a list of blogs that had the most recent posts.

Even though your posts were more in tune with what he was looking for, he missed it because let’s face it, people rarely click on to page two of the search results which is where your blog could be found.

Instead that CEO chose another blogger who will now receive $5000 a month just for posting one entry a day.

This is not to discourage you if you can’t do more than a few posts a week – we all have other responsibilities besides writing for a blog.

Instead, I encourage to find more creative ways to present something new to your audience everyday or at least every other day.

Here’s 4 alternatives for what you can do when you’re not able to write:

Make a Video Instead

If you upload it to Youtube (this is actually most preferable), you can draw in loads of traffic from that site. It also keeps visitors on your site longer and sends search engines the message that you’ve got something good on your site.

I’m sure you’ve already heard this one a thousand times by now. If so, I’m probably repeating it because despite having the little built in camera in your laptop, you still haven’t done it yet. :)

If you’re shy, get a friend or a relative to do it – or you can simply leave yourself out of the video and simply talk in the background as you record relevant visuals.

For example, if you’re blogging about RC cars, record the cars as you talk about them in the background. You can also select a relevant video from Youtube to embed in a post – just be sure to write an intro so your readers will understand its importance.

You don’t want it to be obvious that you just slapped a video up there because you just didn’t feel like writing that day.

Create a Photo/E-Course Post

Use photos and few captions to tell the story or make your point. Include a brief into to orient your readers to what’s going on. This can work for comic strips or other graphics if you obtain permission to use them.

Make a PowerPoint e-course or record an on screen demonstration with Camtasia Studio software to create a how-to video.

This is especially useful if you’re doing a software review. It’s also great because you can offer this course later as a subscriber incentive or even sell it if it’s good enough.

Accept Guest Post

Allow someone else to write a guest post for your blog or go to ezinearticles.com to find a relevant article from the directory. If you choose this option, don’t just go there and grab any old article.

Choose one that’s well written and has the least amount of links to other sites. Once you’ve found a good one, write your own intro to the article explaining either why you chose it, why you like it, or why is relevant to your blog.

Then create an original, but related title for your post (don’t tamper with any of the article’s content or you’ll violate copy right). You can even close the post by posing your own questions or other notes.

Create a Link List Post

You’ve seen this a thousand times, pretty self-explanatory.

So that’s at least five days worth of alternatives right there – but don’t use them all in one week. Instead, save them for when you’re in a pinch.

Pick one day out the week for posts like these and then alternate your choice over the course of several weeks. These can be powerful alternatives if used appropriately.

Do you have any ideas to add? Do you have a unique way of dealing with those days that you just can’t seem to crank out any new written material? What do you do when you’re in a pinch?

Author’s Bio: Darren Carter is an expert marketing consultant and is associated with an SEO and marketing agency. He is a proficient freelance writer who works for many online publications where he covers online business related topics. He also offers his knowledge, particularly on SEO, social media marketing and many more.

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