The Blogging Blues

Are you new to blogging? Do you have the blogging blues? If so, you are not alone. According to statistics over 95% of all blogs fail.

Like most people, I enjoy browsing on the internet. One night while I was browsing, I saw an article on how you can make money with blogging. Consequently, I ran across Hubpages, a free blogging host, and I signed up for an account under the user name of Seamist. Since then, I have experienced the blogging blues.

When I first began blogging, I didn't have any idea what to write about. Since I didn't know any better rather than focusing on a niche, I answered whatever requests appealed to me. At the same time, I didn't understand Hubpage's expectations either. Unlike other blogs, Hubpages expects article quality blogs.

Although I didn’t focus on a niche, I did start writing quality hubs. However, after awhile, I noticed a disturbing trend. After I initially published a hub, my traffic would go up for a few days, and gradually, it would dwindle to nothing. Furthermore, I noticed as the hubs accumulated, my traffic still stayed in the same tight range. One would think more hubs would bring more traffic. However, that wasn't the case.

Since I didn’t understand what was happening, I decided to see if my hubs were still indexed with Google. I was not only frustrated but discouraged when I discovered two-thirds of my hubs had dropped from Google’s index after initially being indexed. Sometimes, content will be dropped from Google’s index if it is duplicate content or if unacceptable SEO (search engine optimization) techniques are used. However, I had done either. Therefore, it was a depressing situation. Accordingly if your website is not indexed with Google, no one will be able to find it, and you are not going to receive any traffic. If you don’t have any traffic, you’re not going to make any money.

In an effort to gain visibility and traffic, over the course of time, I have been researching SEO methods. Experts will tell you that “Content is king." If you have quality content, the backlinks and traffic will come. Although this may be true for established blogs, it does not seem true for new blogs. Before people can read your content, they need to be able to find it.

One part of me said just forget it; it’s just too much work. However, at the same time, I believe people can make money with blogging. There have been others who have done so. Was it luck? In some cases, I believe luck or having the right blog theme at the right time is a major factor. However, I believe knowledge is even more important in success.

If you want to make money at blogging, the path is not easy. Although most people don't realize it in the beginning, blogging is so much more than writing quality content. In order to be successful at making money, you also have to monetize your blog and use SEO (search engine optimization) techniques to promote it. SEO has a large learning curve. Therefore, before you begin blogging with dreams of recognition or dollars, keep in mind, it is harder than it looks.

Perhaps it is my Swedish/Danish stubborness, but I don't intend to give up. Although I am obviously not an expert, the purpose of this blog is to share what I learn with others and beat the blogging blues.

When the world says, “Give up,” Hope whispers, “Try it one more time.” ~ Author Unknown

Definitions

Traffic: The number of visitors a webpage or website recieves in a given time.

Monetize: Making money with your blog through Google Adsense, affiliate programs, direct advertise, selling products, or other ways.

Google index: a cache of webpages the search engine uses in queries.

SEO (search engine optimization): Methods used to increase your search engine rank and bring traffic to your website.