Is your revenue inversely proportional to your blog post frequency?
As you might know from scanning my blog, I have only been blogging for a few weeks now. But I am certainly not a newbie. I’ve been SEOing for 6 years, and I think I am starting to understand what it is like to blog on the side while trying to make money during the day. Maybe it gets easier when you are not tweaking your layout and getting things set up, but my guess is it does not get easier over time.
I was driving home the other day, and while “talking web” with my carpool mate, Mike, he mentioned how last year Rand over at SEOMoz posted their 2006 financials and they recently posted an update for 2007. I took a look and sure enough, he did. It was interesting to note that the revenues were less then both of our perceptions considering how front and center they are in the search community. Now, with the launch of the SEOMoz paid membership area in 2007, along with taking on funding - I am sure things have changed drastically this past year - but that’s besides the point. SEOMoz has been pumping out some of the best, more informative, must read posts in the industry for the last 4 years. So how is it that Rand was releasing so much great content but not pulling seven figures? Maybe back then he was pushing out TOO MUCH great content!
I’ve been following tons of industry blogs during my “lurker” phase (pre blogging), as well as listening to quite a few podcasts over at WebmasterRadio.fm and I have noticed that some people like Shoemoney drop new posts all the time (10 a week or so), while others like Oilman and WebGuerrilla Greg Boser of (SEO Rockstars fame) are lucky to get off 1 or 2 posts a month. Is it because these guys were are too busy adding to their bankroll hand over fist to post more often?
It is going on 3 years since the famous Shoemoney check, I wonder if revenues have matched the curve at the same rate as his readership? Shoemoney & team built Auction Ads, and from this post it sounds like they really started focusing on it in Feb 2007. Notice in this graph when the traffic peaked and started declining.
SEOMoz’s traffic started to decline right around the same time; Feb 2007 - right when they launched their premium services.
(Yes, I know Alexa is complete garbage and the numbers don’t exactly match Rand’s numbers, but I am too lazy to dig further…so stick with me here)
How many hours a week are you spending blogging and commenting on blogs?
I pose the question to you….are you making less money every time you pump out a new post?
- Jim
Hey Jim - hows it going?
I find that I very rarely have time to make posts to my blog, I’m always planning to make posts (I probably have nearly as many drafts as posts), but making a worthwhile blog post takes time, time that I could be using to make or spend cash rather than helping out other people.
I’ve always had this idea in my head that having a good solid blog would be good for business, but having never had a good solid blog I’ve not had the opportunity to find out.
How much time are you spending making posts? What are your goals with this blog?
Comment by pilks — February 7, 2008 @ 11:31 pm
I could not agree with your comments more. I am just getting off the ground, so that is what I am trying to figure out. I have found that posts do take considerable time, and frankly I see a ton of really well thought out, researched and detailed posts. I can only imagine how much some of these folks are spending on their blog and how it is playing into their cash influx.
For me I am probably spending an average of 1 hour per blog post itself (idea, research, writing, etc), but I have been spending double that amount of time really trying to get the SEO Wrench name out there (reading more posts, actively commenting, starting to use sites like Sphinn.
In regards to the goals of my blog…I touched on it in my first blog post, but I still need to finish a more complete post at some point.
Comment by Jim Matheson — February 8, 2008 @ 12:53 pm
It’s a tradeoff I’ve found.
Less posting frequency creates a subscriber dropoff, but more links to the last post(and yes, if that last post was a “money” post, it generates more revenue).
However, frequent posting(although it generates less traffic per post) creates a LOT more subscribers. If people start seeing your articles everywhere, they’re infinitely more likely to subscribe. 3-4 days of not posting normally drops my subscribers by 5-10 or so. A week of always posting increases subscribers by 15-35 per day.
So it depends what you want, and what your last visible post is. Links vs. Money vs. Subscribers.
Comment by SlightlyShadySEO — February 11, 2008 @ 11:13 pm
Shady, I gotta admit your blog is one of the best, if not the best blog to hit the scene over the last few months. You continue to pump out thought provoking posts on a daily basis that seem to appeal to both the white hat and black hat communities. It sounds like despite your young age you have loads of experience. Are you able to pour out these posts and still maintain your edge and profits from your money sites?
Comment by Jim Matheson — February 12, 2008 @ 12:01 am
Thank you very much
Comments like this are what keep me writing.
And it took me a bit to find a good balance(when I was doing every day posts), but I think I have it now. What I figured out is that I enjoy writing right when I wake up; a time I never feel like promoting or hunting out links. So I just write then, when in the past I’d be watching an episode of Scrubs or something.
Comment by SlightlyShadySEO — February 14, 2008 @ 10:00 am