After I decided to change the direction of Technically Easy, I have been thinking more about what content I would like to publish on Technically Easy. Of course, as I started to think about the content, other questions started to pop in my head. How often should I publish posts? What long should each post be? What type of posts should I write? How many guest posts should I accept?
The odd thing is that I started Technically Easy over six years ago, and many of the questions I asked myself were the same ones I asked myself when I first started. It seems that since I reset the direction of Technically Easy back to the way it was a few years ago, I also reset my thoughts on my blog. After six years of blogging, I have come to one conclusion with regards to my blog, and perhaps blogging in general: do whatever I want.
Your Blog; Your Way
Many of the questions that I asked myself are common questions that anyone starting out in blogging has asked in the past. On the forum that I moderate – Website Babble – I frequently see similar questions for those that are just starting out.
After thinking it over, the best answer I can give is: “your blog; your way.”
The essentially boils down to manage your blog the way you feel is best. Many SEO experts will have their opinion on such things as publishing frequency, keyword density, length of each post, etc. but in the end you will probably go insane just to keep up with the “experts.” I tried to follow such advice, and didn’t find much success – in fact, my blog became worse in the end. I felt more pressure to continue to follow the advice that blogging stopped being fun, and felt more of a job than a way to help others.
I clued in that what I was doing wasn’t blogging. This is where my change in direction for Technically Easy happened. For the first few years of Technically Easy, I didn’t follow the SEO trends – no keyword research, keyword density, post length, or publishing frequency – I wrote the way I wanted, how I wanted, and when I wanted. Blogging was fun.
During those early years I began to see some success (all success being relative, of course), and decided to see if I can do even more. This is when I started to accept guest posts, and tried to perform keyword research, and apply SEO tactics to my post. Traffic dropped, as well as earnings, and I felt more pressure to try and resurrect my free-falling blog. I was following what other people said I needed to do, and published posts mostly written by others, and things were going badly.
Let me tell you something straight up. There is no optimum post length, post publishing frequency, and keyword research technique. I find that most of what is suggested in terms of SEO is just bunk. The optimum of anything to do with blogging is what you make it out to be – what works for you. Your readers will appreciate your blog for what you deliver, not what some SEO expert says you need to deliver.
The more you try to follow what SEO experts tell you about optimizing for search engines and traffic, the less unique your blog will become. The uniqueness of your blog is what attract people to your blog. If all you do is write the same way, about the same topics and, keywords as many other blogs, your blog will just become a small fish in a big pond, becoming lost among all the other fish. You want to be a big fish in a small pond.
When all is said and done, when it comes to blogging, it is best to have your blog about you and your uniqueness.