If you are planning to start your own blog and have some kind of hesitation about the success rate and ongoing competitive scenarios then here are some good and bad news for a new blogger like you,
I don’t know whether I should start with the Good News first or the bad one but finally I will have to choose one. I decide to start with some Bad news first and then will cover the Good ones. The idea behind selecting this order is that you may feel good at the end of this story (Happy Endings).
Bad News For New Bloggers
1. Very Very Tough Competition
133,000,000 number of blogs indexed on Technorati (since 2002) and on an average 900,000 blog posts goes live on each 24 hrs. There are lot many free blogging platform available where you need to just enrol and start your blog. So the competition is really hard in this field.
2. Technology, Gadgets, SEO, Review… All Occupied and Flooded
Most of the bloggers start a technology, software, review or gadget blog because most of the people who land in this field are somehow related to these things only or they have interest in these topics. But if you try to find out number of blogs on these topics then you can say that most of the blogs are doing the same thing. So If you are also planning to pick the same niche then again a tough competition!
3. No Easy To Fool Search Engines
Now a days Search Engines are bit intelligent and they know which are quality links and blogs. So be prepared for wearing a hat of Webmaster and start reading about that on Webmaster Guidelines and Rules.
4. Link Building Not An Easy Task
As soon as you start your blog, you will have to start building links with other quality blogs, network sites and many more. Link building is not an easy task because today if you are linking to a site and it is Do-follow then after a time period the site owner may change it to No-follow. So keep linking to other sites regularly.
5. No Income Nearly One Year – May depend On Your Network
First of all you will have to build some good content, drive traffic around 30,000 page views a month and then only you can expect your blog to generate some revenue using Google Adsense program or other affiliate programs. This may take a year or more than that depending upon your content building and link building activity.
6. Writing Daily About Something Is Not Easy
It is not easy to find out or try new things on same niche and write about it. You can do it on intervals but if you are planning your career in this field then you will have to write daily on some section of your niche and that is not easy. If you will take a break of one or two days, you will loose Search Engine Spider, Visitors and everything for another 3 to 4 days. So overall one week is gone.
Good News For New Bloggers
Don’t worry too much after reading the bad news stated above because here are some good news which may inspire you to do what you are planning to do i.e. Blogging.
1. Not More Than 10% blogs keep alive After 120 Days Of Their Start
Yes, most of the blog shuts within 120 days of their starting date. This is a fact stated by Technorati itself. Since there are free blogging platforms available , people start their blog without any investment but since there are lot many hurdles in becoming a successful blogger, they decide to quit this task and start another initiative for earning. So once you will cross 180 days of your blogging career, keep writing and even start doing it more seriously. You will definitely succeed.
2. Still Lot Many New Niche Untouched
Technology, Software, Reviews or some thing related to Computers are favourite topic for new bloggers and that’s why the competition in this section is really hard but the fact is as time is passing by, Number of Internet users are also growing rapidly and most of the are interested in these things only. If you want to try something else then Fashion, Media, Architecture, Medicine, Decoration are other niche which you can prefer (Only if they interest you).
3. Competition Within Search Engine Market Is At Boom
Bing is here and now Google planning for Caffeine, So the competition in Search Engine Market is also going to be tougher by time and that’s why you can expect to get indexed in Search Engines by no time.
4. Lot Many Social Bookmarking (Do-Follow) Sites
Number of Social bookmarking sites are increasing day by day and some of them are Do-Follow. For example, Propeller, Yahoo Bookmarks etc are still Do-Follow bookmarking sites thru which you can get links and exposure as well. They will help you in getting more and more traffic in no time. Go thru the tricks to get maximum traffic from StumbleUpon.
5. For Sure Income Once Able To Drive Traffic
Once you will start getting 30,000 to 50,000 page views (mostly from Search Engine), you will start earning thru different means. That is for sure. First of all focus on content and traffic and then money will follow you.
6. Guest Blogging Is A Really Good Option
Writing regularly is not easy at all if you are not a professional writer. So if you are panning for a break or holiday then invite your friends or other bloggers for guest blogging where they will get a link from you. They will share their knowledge on particular day, and Google have no problem with that. For Google and for your visitors, new post is a new post. Before starting guest blogging on your blog, go thru the 12 point checklist.
Go thru the tips for being a successful blogger and I am sure that if you will keep your ideating mind alive, you will definitely succeed in your new initiative.