Your Blog is a balancing Act
Posted by Justin Smith at 26 October, 2007, 8:36 pm
This post was stirred on by a post from Joel Burslem over at FutureofRealEstateMarketing.com. He was writing about the death of the multi author blog, and it really got me thinking about local real estate blogs.
Joel pointed out that he is often overwhelmed by the multi author blogs simply because of the large amount of content. And to some extent I agree with him. One of the reasons I’m not a frequent visitor to the RainCityGuide and the BloodHoundBlog is because there is simply too much to read… it’s information overload. Sure it’s fun to visit every once in a while, but I would never consider putting either site in my RSS reader. Just way too much!
But, on the other hand, you have to consider the fact that most new readers to blogs come from search engines. And what is the best way to drive more traffic to a blog from search engines? Lots of keyword rich content.
A balance must be struck — between writing a consistent amount of posts in order to attract search engines, and also being careful not to turn off your current subscribers with too much content.
I tend to agree with Joel that the large group blogs won’t have the staying power of individual writers… but for all intensive purposes, we are still in the adolescent stage when it comes to real estate blogs. It still remains to be seen which will be more successful in the long term.
Danger #1 – Focusing too much on search engine placement. I see this with many bloggers. They unnaturally stuff keywords into every title and every post possible. They are obsessed with search engine ranking, and completely ignore the subscribers they do have. Sheer volume of content is not always the best thing when it costs you subscribers. Be careful
Danger #2 — Focusing too much on Subscribers and ignoring search engines. Just as dangerous as the first. I’ve seen many bloggers that fall into this trap simply because they are frustrated with the search engines, or are overly obsessed with subscriber counts. They completely ignore sound SEO advice, and seem to shy away from using SEO tactics for fear that they will lose a subscriber or two.
The Balance — Of course, both of these positions are extreme, but I meet people on a weekly basis that fall clearly into one camp or the other.
The Remedy — Keep writing consistently. Keep building subscriber counts with quality content and SMO. Pay close attention to your SE placement, but don’t become obsessed. The rest should take care of itself… and if not, just call me.
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Great post Justin. I was reading that same article that you refer to and I thought the same thing. I prefer a blog with great content that has only a few writers in different disciplines. And thanks for the great Tomato class today. I’m glad we noticed your blog. I had never seen it before. It is full of great info. All tomatoes should know about your blog.
Justin, very good point well taken. I also find that some of the same folks over on the Active Rain site are doing the same. Not a lot of good content just B.S. so they can rake in the points for placement. Look at Tampa and the top two and you will see what I mean. The top Banana is out of business as far as I can tell. Husband and Wife team have not had a posting since July and all their sites are dead. The next one in line points wise has nothing of any value other than posts about how many listings they have any one point in time. Totally useless in my book. I am the key player behind my Wife’s site, which is new. We seek to put up only content with substance. While I know we may not always achieve that …it’s what we strive for. Sites like yours, I will visit often. Great Blog
That’s very true, a balance needed in deed. Its also good to know your audience. We have obsessed “haterz” that demand constant updates.
They’re a very opinionated bunch. If there are no posts for a day or two they will start complaining. If the post quality sucks they complain again. We find that a daily posting schedule is most optimal. If somebody adds us to the RSS reader they know to check in daily for their “fix”.
Posting too often also doesn’t allow for a good conversation to develop in the comments section. Ours is a new blog but we’re already getting get 50-100 comments per post. If we post too often the comments will drop. Having a healthy comment count encourages additional comments.
Justin - thanks for the article. Managing a blog is definitely a balancing act. We’ve just started and learn so much daily. The main problem we have is coming up with content or a topic - how do you do it?
I’m with Jayson, content is our main problem. Seems like a ran out of things to blog about the first day. lol
Great post justing. For a time I had been trying to get a multi authored blog going but I have put that to bed for a while as it is hard to get people who are willing to write origonal stuff to go in it.
Very glad I found this site, some good info here about blogging. We’ve just started using wordpressMU and giving users their own blogs on subdomains. When yoru talking multiple authors there is a good argument for a forum. I still think forums have advantages and bbpress is something I am looking at adding.
Justin, I think you raised some very good points that so many of us struggle with while Blogging. This is one of those posts I will bookmark and read again occasionally to keep me on track.
Thanks,
Danger #2 — Focusing too much on Subscribers and ignoring search engines.
Is #2 really a danger? Isn’t RSS subsribers the holy grail of blogs now? If you put all your focus on subscribers, in a perfect world you’d convert 100% that come to your blog.
Now unless you’re totally SEO dead, you will get natural SERPs for many many keywords just by writing content. This formula will show a steadily increasing subscriber base.
I have competition watching what I say and gamers come to read my game recaps.