A Question About BLOGS For Wizzley Folks

Hey Everyone,

I need some advice and hopefully personal experience/stories -

I have 2 Blogger blogs and 3 Self Hosted Wordpress blogs (Blogger ones were done first when I was just learning about blogging, etc. a few years ago).

4 of my blogs I will never run out of things to say - I post frequently on all of them because years ago I was told to keep them "fresh."

1 of my blogs, however, I backed myself into a corner on when I created it. It was a very niche specific rv topic/product and, honestly, I've run out of ideas. I keep fearing that if I leave it alone, it will "die off" - but after I listed all various rv products, I even started posting funny stories...trying to keep adding content weekly. But I just can't do it anymore.

In the summertime, when rvers are out, the blog takes off, generates Adsense and Amazon affiliate income. It isn't a "dud" by any means. But I honestly cannot put any other products up there and have virtually nothing left to say.

Is it blog suicide to just let it be now? Is this "freshness" recommendation a myth or real? Can you keep a blog "fresh" by simply editing/updating/pinging a post once in awhile instead of creating brand new, lengthy posts?

I also ask because I've considered creating more rv Blogger blogs on niche topics/products, but I don't have the time to tend to everything else I have going on...so the idea of MORE blogs sends me running in the opposite direction.

Thanks so much for your responses in advance...looking forward to hearing your expertise!

Robin

Well, not expertise but just advice. You're current blog is already doing well I presume (Talking about the one on RV's). Why not just extend the niche of the blog? I have a feeling you're not doing that because of the name of your blog?

Well, if that's the case don't worry much about it, because if you've got followers already and you post nothing new - you're going to lose them.

If you write on a related niche there, a large percentage of the people following would continue to do so.

Also, you wouldn't need to worry about posting new stuff as you would be now that it's a whole new topic. Plus you wouldn't have to work from scratch and gain traffic, your posts would probably rank well from the beginning itself. 

If it were me, I would have just extended the use of the current blog.

Hi and thanks for commenting!

I should clarify a bit...my cheap rv blog about my lifestyle is my "baby" - the two Blogger blogs are sales oriented only. That said, my sales blogs have my goofiness in the posts, and I promote my lifestyle and main rv blog on both of them. I do get traffic from Blogger (sales blogs) TO my rv blog. But in reverse it wouldn't work. One blogger blog is about gifts (for people shopping FOR rvers) and the other one is about rv jack/leveling products (mainly for rvers with a nice income). So promoting from my main rv blog TO blogger wouldn't be appropriate...all 3 blogs have a different target audience.

I don't have followers on the sales blogs, because people arrive mainly via Google/my keywords in titles of posts. They land, shop, hopefully buy and they're done.

So, hypothetically, if I didn't do another post and let them be, would you expect the traffic I got to decrease because I start to go down in Google searches due to inactivity and this lack of freshness thing?

Would it be enough to just tidy up the site once in awhile, edit/ping, etc. or does it need to grow for infinity?

I've heard of people having many Blogger blogs that were very micro niche sites on a specific topic or product. Are they posting on all of them, all of the time? Or do they reach an end point and move on?

Thanks!

Well,  I get your point. I guess it shouldn't make a difference. But, if you don't do anything at all there would be others in the same niche who are trying to beat you - they may succeed. That's the only thing that happens. 

The freshness issue as far as my knowledge is concerned is applied only to subjects that change frequently with time such as news issues etc. But, no matter what the niche, if you do update it often it would have positive impacts on your overall traffic.

Posting more on the other hand would help you out a lot! Why? Well, that's just because search engines (Or Google in this case) would consider your blog as one that is updated with the latest happenings in it's niche - the algorithm isn't smart enough to know that this isn't a topic with a lot of changes (At least I guess it isn't as of now). 

So, what I'd say is go ahead and create another blog. Try and keep revisions etc. to a minimum on your existing one (The one that's got no new posts). If at all you do happen to notice a drop in traffic begin writing on that blog again. But, you wouldn't need to do it often in that case. Once a month or so would be fine as long as it's being updated.

The plus point is that if you do drop because of inactivity it would not be hard to regain your rankings with a few posts every now and then. (But, I doubt inactivity should cause many issues). 

Looking forward to what the others have to say.  

Thanks so much lobobrandon, for such a helpful/detailed response!

You're welcome Robin/Jim  Hope i helped and didn't confuse you even more. 

Can I see what blog(s) your talking about? I'm a visual person... I wouldn't worry about google so much as your fans who depend on new content- if you have traffic entering the site consistently that's going to be more important than new content. 

Another idea I had is why not use guest bloggers? A lot of people just want a backlink from a relevant site so why not open your blog up to guest blogging. I'm not sure how to do this but you can simply have people email you content and post it with their guest blogger name, and a link to a site of their choice (but no sales pages, if they want to go that route tell them they will have to link to a presell page with good relevant and potent information to share first as well as adding an article to your blog. 

I see Chaz doing this all the time, he invites people to submit their articles to his blog as a guest, everyone wins, he gets the revenu on the site, the poster gets a linkback, and all is moderated by the site owner.

Another thing a lot of people do is outsource to ghostwriters. This is not a shortcut in this respect but rather tapping into new brain juice, new creativity, ideas. You can hire a ghostwriter and pay them by the hour, by the post, or barter something if you got it. You just tell them what the blog is about and tell them to go research and find something not there already :)

The beauty of sales oriented content is it doesn't have to be your own :) Diversity makes a blog interesting  wizzley, hubpages, squidoo- all are in this category (guest blogging), only on guest blogging you keep the content, on wizzley the author maintains ownership.

If you're looking to find guest bloggers you should check out my blog guest. I found blogs to post on that way. 

Some great thoughts and ideas here...thanks!

Jerrico, my main blog is in my signature here - then, on the home page of that blog down in the right sidebar is a "links to my other sites." That's all of it (the onelesskaren one is just our music website, btw...)

Thanks!

awesome I'll check them out- me and Michelle have been discussing doing what your doing- hitting the open road and many pit stops with no destination... We're going to get our businesses off the ground and are considering this as a lifestyle change in a couple years so I'd like to read your blog :)

Thanks, Jerrico!

If you can get passive income going and get some cool workamper hosting positions in state parks, etc...you could basically live rent free and get paid while taking a hike or whatever your heart desires...not too shabby!

I trust all this valuable and brilliant information is laced throughout your blog? :) I don't have a minute yet but when michelle gets home your blog is going to be our entertainment :)

frugalrvers: 01/04/2013 - 02:38 PM

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Thanks, Jerrico!

If you can get passive income going and get some cool workamper hosting positions in state parks, etc...you could basically live rent free and get paid while taking a hike or whatever your heart desires...not too shabby!

Hi Again, Jerrico -

My suggestion, given I've lobbed so many various things on the blog over 1 1/2 years, is to scroll down to the bottom of the right sidebar and use archives. That's when I was first getting my feet wet. Also "our story" tab on top left sidebar introduces us...a good starting point. Then you can just pick categories of interest, like boondocking, etc. (PS, the JOEY references and category is the name of our rv...he speaks with humor and some Australian lingo, to fill people in on what is going on in our home)...crazy, but fun.

I can't wait, your life fascinates me as someone whose spent the last 5 years glued to a chair and monitor (really I barely leave the house unless michelle's home)... I'll take a look tonight or tomorrow and leave comments as I go so you know where I've been :)