Five ways to make a popular blog without trying
About the same time we starting writing the skedsheet blog, we also created a blog for our JobTracker customers. It’s barely a blog, other than the fact that we’re posting individual articles using wordpress. It’s actually just a library of xml files with a screenshot, short description, and some tags about which versions of our software it works with.
For the JobTracker forms blog, I’ve done nothing to publicize it, there’s about a third less content than on this blog, and it’s growing at a much slower rate – only posting weekly.
Yet, surprisingly, the other blog generates consistent traffic purely from search results, and has more traffic than this one. In the skedsheet blog, I’m intentionally trying to stir up enthusiasm for our company, our product, and scheduling in general and over there, I’m just trying to distribute some files.
How can this be? Here’s what I think is working.
- Solving a specific, real problem.
- Keyword-rich posts.
- Not trying to sell.
- Keeping each post short.
- Posting regularly, not necessarily frequently.
But, just because lots of people end up at the other blog, it doesn’t mean that we actually inform them, help them, or provide any kind of value. Instead, we should occasionally post some skedsheets here…examples or templates that you can use to get started and get an idea of what’s possible. That should get more folks reading, and actually provide something useful to them at the same time.
