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How to Grow Your Blog and Stop Going in Circles

February 12th, 2008 · No Comments

Roundabout Blogging Tips A common frustration from bloggers is they get to a certain level of momentum then stall. It’s like there is a ceiling that they can not break through.

Rather than steaming ahead toward your goal, do you feel like you are going round in circles?

How can we keep driving our growth?

I often see patterns in blog growth. Rather than being a straight line or even an upwards curve most bloggers grow their audience in spurts. It is like a series of small hills, two steps forward, one step back. The same is true for RSS subscriptions and for traffic.

After a while though we get stuck in patterns. We keep going round the roundabout without getting off and going anywhere. It is just easy to keep doing the minimum amount of effort. We go into “maintain” rather than “expansion” mode.

When was the last time you …

Emailed another blogger?
Had a Skype conversation with another blogger?
Started or joined a blog carnival or blog meme?
Created a killer bookmarkable post?
Commented on more than the same three friends blogs?
Experimented with a new traffic tactic?
Analyzed your stats?
Queried keyword tools?
Generated links?
Networked at Twitter rather than posting messages about your lunch?
Joined a blogging forum?

Just like a pushing a broken down car, getting started takes more effort than maintaining a speed. If you stop pushing then you have to put in more effort to get going again than if you kept the thing moving.

This very blog has stalled twice, both times because of my own distractions. Once because of a vacation and once because I prioritized a book project over my blogging. Doing “enough” is never enough, you have to put in 100% and always be looking for ways you can improve.

There are two reasons why blogs stop growing

You stop doing what works - Once you work out which tactics work for you don’t stop doing them
You stop experimenting - If all you ever do is what you always did you will always get the same results. Try new things, mix things up, experiment and tweak.

Stalled growth is a sign that sooner or later your blog is going to stagnate. If your blog is still growing then keep up the momentum and take it to even greater heights. Make it good then make it better.