This is the last of the are you a cheapskate series. I’m sure you’re glad by now. 
Let’s start with the content on your blog. If you write your own blog, you may wonder what this has to do with you. However, it needs to be noted that the more often you post to your blog, the better results you will get.
Many blog search places like Technorati serve up the “most recent” results related to the keywords a searcher types in there. That means if you have not posted for awhile you will be buried under all those who have used your keywords and blogged more recently.
In part 1 of are you a cheapskate, I mentioned sweat equity. This is where that comes in. You need to post no less than once per day if you want to be found in places like technorati.
Many bloggers, who also may be targeting the same keywords as you, are posting 2, 3, 4, or more times per day to keep their blog current. So how can you compete with that? Especially if you blog less than once per day?
How do you find the time to blog more than once per day? Invite a guest blogger to post on your blog. There are a lot of bloggers who will post to your blog for a link back and a little recognition. Ask people who comment on your blog. Ask bloggers whose blog you read and like.
Another way is to hire a blog content provider. Pay bloggers to post daily to your blog. Make sure they know how to target your keywords. Make sure they post about things you want them to post about. Give them instructions. A professional blogger can help you keep your blog up-to-date if you don’t have the time.
You may spend a little money, but it pays off in the long run. Your readers will keep coming back if there is new content all the time. They will get bored with your blog if there is not. After all, there are thousands of blogs that are updated more often that they could be reading.
Now about advertising your blog. Again, a little of your time is required first. There are a lot of blog directories you could be listing your blog in to get more traffic. You have to invest the time to do it is all. Most of them are free.
Using places like feedburner that make your blog’s feed available to more people will help you get traffic as well. You have to invest the time there and make your blog available through all of these mediums.
Now, about money and advertising for your blog. You need to create a budget. Decide how much you are willing to spend to advertise your blog. All the free services are great, but buying the right ad on the right website can bring you in extremely targeted traffic that can convert to click-thrus or sales.
You may want to use adwords or yahoo sponsored ads to bring in more traffic. It doesn’t take that much money to get started, but you have to be willing to invest a little if you are doing this as a business or a profession.
This series wasn’t meant to belittle anyone who is not doing this professionally or anyone that does not have the money to get started. It is just meant to make sure you know that just like any business, blogging takes a little money to make some money.
The more money and time you put into your blog, the more it will pay off.
I don’t agree with this post at all. Blogging daily isn’t a requirement. There isn’t anything wrong with hiring a ghost blogger, but if you have an original voice, it is difficult for someone to step up and match it. I believe my readers want to read what I have to say — not content created by someone else.
Perhaps I’m being vain, but I firmly believe my readers would prefer to read content written by me rather than ghost written content provided by someone else. The former is real and authentic, the latter is fake. And my readers would know it.
Perhaps my Technorati rank would improve if I blogged more often, but Technorati does rank Alphatracks and my server logs show steady Technorati traffic.
There are no hard and fast blogging rules. Suggesting you HAVE to blog daily, even if you have to hire someone do it for you, simply isn’t true.
Don’t misunderstand me. I enjoy your content and have gotten many good tips from reading your content. But please don’t tell your readers that quantity is more important than quality.
Excellent content will trump frequent mediocre writing ever time.
Tom Bonner
http://alphatracks.com
I don’t know, I manage a blog ghostwriting service and we achieve great results for our clients. How do you know the most popular blogs that you read every day aren’t ghostwritten? Just because they have a person’s name on them doesn’t mean they aren’t being written by someone else. And there are plenty of bloggers who write to their blogs every day who don’t sacrifice quality to do so. If your blog posts are quality blog posts and you write them once a week then you increase the benefits of your blog by at least 7 times if you blog every day and maintain the same quality. Nothing says that just because you blog every day that your blog posts will automatically decline in quality. It isn’t quality vs. quantity. It’s quality + quantity = better results.