There are no shortcuts

When you are trying to build a blog and hoping to make a little money in the process, it can be discouraging if you are not building consistent traffic.  It can be especially discouraging if your traffic is going down.  This is when it can be tempting to look for “the easy way.”

What do I mean by this?

You’ve all seen the sites that are clearly automated content – often scrapped from “free content” or article sites.  This can be enhanced by the use of automated software that can generate a blog full of content in seconds.  Or “autoblogging” software that can post RSS content to your blog on a scheduled basis.  Sure, this creates content, loads of it, on a regular basis and “content is king,” right?

That is true to a certain extent.  It may get you some random traffic from search engines.  But it is not going to propel you to the top of the blogging world and it is not going to create a sense of community that keeps users coming back for more.

You need to sell yourself to your readers.  Develop a community.

Here’s a thought – check out Technorati’s Top 100.  Do you see anything there that is auto-generated content?  I’m going to tell you that you won’t.

I recently read ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income.  I’ve been blogging for quite some time now (this blog alone is over 5 years old) and I can honestly say I wish I had read this book years ago.  Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett do a great step-by-step for someone interested in blogging for income.  Certainly, there are somethings that are basic and the seasoned blogger will find that to be review, but there are some great ideas in here for even the seasoned blogger and you may find yourself re-evaluating what you have been doing.

I have digressed from my original point, but I highly recommend this book for all levels of bloggers and have included a link to the book. If you are thinking of (or already are) blogging for income then you owe it to yourself to read this.  (It is even available in a Kindle edition, which is what I read.  That way I could highlight and make notes and transfer that to my PC for reviewing later.)

Back to my point.  Rowse and Garrett point out in this book that if you are not unique in the marketplace, you are not going to develop readers.  If you do not develop readers, you are not going to grow traffic.  No traffic = no income.  It is that simple.

“For a blog to be successful, your content needs to be useful and unique to your readers.”

If you focus on short-cuts like auto generated content, you are not giving your readers anything unique that they can’t find somewhere else.  While it may be frustrating, especially in the early going, you need to stick to your game plan (you do have a plan, right?) and not be tempted to find an easy way out.  That “easy way” is not going to gain you anything in the long run.