Why Successful Blogging Requires a Long-Term Perspective

Guest post by Mark Spicer
A couple days ago, a fellow blogger confided in me. She was wondering why she wasn’t getting much traffic. She felt like she was doing everything right. She wrote consistently. She promoted her blog through guest posts and connected with other bloggers.

I asked her how long she had been blogging. She said, “Three months.” I asked her how old the successful blogs were in her industry. She said most of them were older than two years.

Many new bloggers don’t realize the advantage of being a long-term blogger. Most successful blogs are old. They’ve usually been around for over a year and often times the top bloggers have been blogging for 2 or more years.

Here are 4 reasons why older blogs have a huge advantage over newer ones.

1. Back in the day, there was less competition. There were less blogs in the blogosphere. Therefore, it was easier to get noticed and promote your blog. And with each passing day, building a successful blog gets harder since more and more people are starting blogs. Aaron Wall, an online marketing and SEO expert, advises to start your blog as early as possible. He wrote, “Tomorrow the web is going to be dirtier and more competitive. Skipping one hour of work today might mean 3 hours of work next year or 12 hours of work the following year.”

2. It was easier to get links back then. With less blogs, the few blogs around got the bulk of the links. Bloggers weren’t as stingy with links as they are today. Nowadays, many bloggers know about SEO and linkbuilding so they’re more likely to think twice before linking out. Also, a lot of the early blogs linked out a lot but today’s bloggers are not linking out as often. Instead, they are trying to attract links with unique content.

3. Google loves old sites. In a survey between 37 search experts, age of site was the 4th most important Google search ranking factor. Also, many search experts believe that the older links are, the more effective they are.

4. The longer you blog, the more word of mouth marketing can work for your blog. With repeated exposure to your posts, you’ll improve your brand and become a respected blogger in your industry. But building this type of reputation takes time and hard work. Think about it this way. It takes time to build a good reputation offline. It’s no different on the internet.

Now don’t get discouraged if you’re a new blogger. There is still a lot of room to grow in blogging. But start thinking of blogging as a long-term endeavor. Be patient and work hard. In due time, you can reach a successful blogger status.

This guest post was written by Mark Spicer. He helps run Website Host Reviews, which is in the alpha stage but will soon have reviews on some of the most popular web hosts. Also, he’s part of the team that publishes College Crunch, a great resource about colleges, degrees, and college life. You can also share your tips and write a guest article on QOT.