Debunking the lie that "Content is King"

The A list bloggers are wrong when they tell us that content is king and that we should invest most of our time on creating great content for your readers. These things, in no particular order, are much more important:

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Checking your stats

This should be done at least every hour, and ideally you should be tracking them using some kind of spreadsheet software. You don’t want to miss it when a post goes viral, do you? There’s a great piece of software from performancing metrics, which allows you to watch visitors on your site in real time. I’d recommend you get that and check it every few minutes.

Playing with your theme

How your site looks is vital, and should be updated all the time to keep up with new trends. I’d recommend minor changes at least daily, with a full theme update at least once a week. You don’t want readers to become over familiar with the site so they focus on what you’re saying rather than how things look.

Packing as many widgets as possible onto each page

You need to keep up to date with widgets and modules and add any new ones as soon as they become available. After all, they’re free! You should have every kind of feed going to the site – it makes it look busy and alive. All the widgets will slow things down a little, but it makes things much more fun for your readers.

Reading other blogs

As a blogger, you should have several hundred feeds in your RSS feeder, and you should be checking it all the time. Use every suggestion for improving your site that you read, so that you capitalize on other people’s experiences.

Guest Posting

The problem with writing great posts on your own blog is that only a handful of people will read them. Far better to save all your good stuff for other people’s blogs, where you’re likely to get more readers. They will then come to your site and enjoy your theme and widgets!

Commenting on other blogs

It’s a well known fact that you only need to do this to get links, so don’t waste time writing an essay! A pithy “Great post!” will do nicely. But if you want to go the extra mile just add the poster’s name and you end up with “Great post, Chris!”

Working on your next project

Working a new project like an E Book is much more fun than posting, so spend lots of time on those kind of things, but be sure not to rush them out, keep checking them and refining them and one day they will be good enough to offer out. You can even put a post up to tell readers that’s what you’re doing, so they will realize that it’s something important and they’ll wait expectantly for your new product.

Optimising Adsense

If you are monetizing your blog, you really need to invest lots of time on getting Adsense right. Make sure you have the maximum number of adverts allowed on the page, and really get into the reports to understand where people are clicking. Also make sure the adsense is the EXACT color to blend into your site so people don’t realize they are clicking advertising links.

Have I missed anything?

Maybe also have a look at:

1/ Eight ways to overcome a lack of motivation as a blogger

2/ How to get your partner on board with your blogging

3/ How the blogging market is changing