There are two ways to write a blog.
The first is to sit at the computer and type up the first thing that comes into your head.
If you have interesting ideas, fun experiences and can write well, that can certainly work. There are plenty of bloggers who make a good income writing about themselves, their lives and their families.
But it isn\’t easy.
The other option requires a bit more thought but it\’s more likely to be successful: treat your blog as a business. That doesn\’t just mean following the stats carefully, optimizing your ads and making smart business decisions about buying and selling traffic.
It also means producing the sort of content that delivers users, creates a high profile, wins loyalty and generates plenty of conversions.
That might mean creating different types of content on a regular basis.
For example, if you were running a blog about video cameras, you might know that your users are particularly interested in posts that explain techniques.
But you also know that whenever you put up a post about video trivia, you get lots of links on other video blogs, and a stream of new users.
And when you write a critical opinion piece about some new camera, you get plenty of mentions on forums.
So which post should you write?
All of them. They might all be different but a bit of variety on a blog isn\’t a bad thing. You could make sure that you write one of each type of post at least once a week. That will help you to plan your week\’s content out… and it will let you satisfy your users while still bringing in plenty of free traffic.
You can think of a successful blog as a bit like an orchestra. There\’s certainly a place for soloists but when you have a whole symphony of different content instruments playing in harmony together, you can get a much more powerful effect.