Statistics show that in 2010 the number of blogs reached a billion and it is an ascending trend therefore we can expect an even greater number of blogs. This thing brings both advantages and disadvantages and it most surely cannot be ignored by internet users.
You can surely find any type of information you may be searching for online and especially on blogs, but the search is made difficult by the large number of sources. This loss of time cannot be tolerated and companies owning search engines have already picked up on this issue. Statistics also show that people start blogs as a way to earn money but in time few blogs are actually successful in this way.
The person that owns a blog, the blogger, is the author of the texts posted and also the administrator of the website. That may sound like a lot of fun but most of the time it implies a great amount of work. The question that comes to mind is if having a blog is profitable; can you assure that you have enough traffic so that the ideas you post are made popular?
A solution to this problem is posting on other blogs, popular blogs that already have an audience, but many consider this to be a substitute rather than a solution. I hope that this article will help you find a middle way between the wish to have your own blog and that of posting articles on other people’s blogs.
Some older articles in which you might be interested Beginning As Freelancer, Tips for Encouraging Others to Link to Your Blog, Importance of Checklist, Home Based Business, Designers And How They Can Make It Through The Bad Times, and How to Stay Ahead When You’re a Web Designer.
1. Having Your Own Blog
Pros:
- Sense Of Ownership
There is no doubt that having your own blog makes you feel like you have something to say and that somebody is listening to you. It is very possible that fundamental changes begin with blogs or even articles. Anyway, having a blog is highly addictive! (Believe me)
- Exchanging Idea
A blog is often a community, and a community means communication, dialogue and free exchange of ideas. All of these things happen around a blog, but the only condition is to have a reasonable traffic otherwise it will only be an exchange of ideas between friends. Social networks are a great way to generate traffic, so any article, any post and any blog needs to be promoted using social networks.
- Promoting
A blog can bring advantages that are unquantifiable. For example having a blog about journalism can be very helpful when trying to get a job with a magazine (having a blog can certainly make your CV much more interesting). The administrator of a blog can eventually be a well known person, even a celebrity, but this is conditioned by having good traffic.
Cons:
There Are Too Many Blogs So The Numbers Of Readers Grows Slowly
The number of internet users is growing but the numbers of blogs is growing even faster, so it is mathematically impossible that all blogs have a decent traffic. Therefore it is very hard for blogs to have a loyal public, many blogs fail on this account.
Finding A Niche Is Hard, Almost Impossible
Because the number of blogs is so great, there is no subject that isn’t already debated by a blog and so it is hard to motivate readers to read your blog.
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The Lack Of Motivation
It is important for a blogger to be popular, am so the lack of readers will discourage anyone. As long as you don’t have readers, you don’t feel motivated to write and so this leads to abandoning the blog.
2. Posting Articles On Other Blogs
Pros:
Practice And Rarning Experience
For a beginner administrating a blog is not an easy task and so it is recommended that the debut of a blogger happens on a shared blog. This means you post your articles on somebody else’s blog, in fact it is best that you post it on many blogs. This way it is easier to transition from a guest post to a blog administrator.
Financial Possibilities
Having a lot of posts on high traffic blogs may be a way to increase your personal budget. There are plenty of blogs that offer sums of money for quality articles. There is only one problem: these blogs must be sought out, not a one will go searching for bloggers and the standards are quite high.
Connections With Other Bloggers
Looking for blogs that accept guest posts isn’t difficult but it’s very time consuming. With the passing of time though connections will be established with other bloggers facilitating this search and experience exchange, which is incredibly beneficial especially for newcomers.
Disadvantages
Success And Profit Are Shared
The possible success of a post will belong to the owner of the blog; traffic and publicity contracts bring in revenue for the owner who usually shares some of this with the author. This will have to be established though through some form of contract or deal.
Having a great number of guest posts I might be biased but to my own surprise I couldn’t think of other disadvantages; I would greatly appreciate any comments or opinions relating to this.
Personally I don’t see the two: posting articles on other blogs and having your own blog as being antagonistic, instead I see one as the continuation of the other. Having an attractive blog is hard work and the “secrets of the trade” require time to uncover. On the other hand as a guest poster you share responsibility with the blogs administrator from whom a lot of practical things about administering your personal blog can be learned. I am interested in learning your opinion about this issue and any commentary will be appreciated.
One of the people I follow on twitter (ref: @seosmarty) guest blogs all the time and from what I have read it generates her a reasonable amount of traffic and in ‘SEO terms’ most guest bloggers get pure nofollow links which will pass ‘link juice’ (hate that term) to their site.
I think its down to the site owner to get good bloggers who can generate good content, unique quality content is the important thing at the end of the day.
As for sharing profits, the large sites pay a fixed fee and if that ‘good content’ is still generating organic traffic two years later and they have adverts on a CPM then those impressions will still be rolling in years later, maybe that’s one of the factors that the site owners look for.
eg a blog on ‘walking boots’
Dont blog about a brand of boot (incase they go bust after a month)
Blog about how to find the right walking boot, its generic and will always be of use and then put in some brands as a secondary bit of info.
As for finding blogs to blog on, most I have seen are ‘big players’ that dont have the time to blog anymore, I’d look for the niche you can create good content for then look for the big sites and approach them.
D
Hi,
Great infos you have here. I must agree with you on that.
Just to share a bit of my experience in this, I have been blogging for few years. But only lately I realize that if we have a good looking, attractive, active and popular blog, then only the freelancing works will work easily. People tend to believe in you when you have this so call super blog.
So after struggling for few months to make one popular blog, I ended up using a third party service that could achieve my dream much faster. It’s called xtiveblog. You can check out its website at xtiveblog dot com.
I never though it was that easy. Since I use their service on 4 of my blogs, my money making dream has now become a reality, much easily.. :)
this dilemma is pretty interesting and I mostly agree with having the own blog because it is something personal and it is hard to find people who believe and think 100% as you.great job!
What is “Rarning Experience” under #2 pros?
May be typo mistake. Its “Earning Experience”.
Good comments about too many blogs and quite a few of them just re-post what’s already been said on other blogs. Unique content will attract readers and sharing articles with the social bookmarking networks is a great way to go.
i feel it is better to have your own blog,it gives you the freedom to really express yourself and you are like the producer of your own movie!i strongly feel that with the necessary exposure a consistent blogger will one day find how to create traffic to his/her site.after all Rome was not built in a day!
Definitely have your own blog at first and get your opinions of a particular topic known. Then you can guest blog and stuff like that but form your own style of writing and point of view prior.