Comments on: 7 Reflections on Scaling a Blog to a Sustainable Business

By: ozlady

ozlady — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:31:30 +0000

I am a personal blogger whose little site doesn’t do much except meet the needs of mysef snd my family. I have been thinking about expanding on my 2 years of personal blogging experience into my professional web sites and frankly this post is one big reason why I haven’t done it. Personal blogging works because I can take snippets out of my blog and mail it to family who aren’t wired in, or create a pdf doc that i can send to those that are… but it’s hard work.

I do salute you for discussing this and other blogging issues so openly – most don’t for fear of exposing their secrets to everyone. Well done.

By: James Joyner

James Joyner — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 11:01:38 +0000

One basic rule that I’ve developed over time is that any answer I write in the comments section of my own blog or any comment I write on the post of someone else’s blog that goes into a third paragraph will be instantly cut-and-pasted and instead used as the basis for a new post or, at least, an update to a post.

Quite often, too, very long posts that I write are either kept in draft mode and pitched to an outside publication or posted and then pitched in an expanded form elsewhere.

By: David Airey :: Creative Design ::

David Airey :: Creative Design :: — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 10:05:14 +0000

Hi Darren,

Like Wendy, I’m also very thankful for this explanation.

One point in particular that I’ve tried working with is the translation of my content into different languages, although I had a little difficulty with a few plugins.

I notice you don’t have translation buttons here. Have you tried it before?

By: Sheila at Family Travel

Sheila at Family Travel — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 05:10:33 +0000

I particularly liked your discussion about thinking of one’s blog as a jumping-off point for a personal brand — just part of a total package. As a freelance writer, that’s exactly how I view my blogs.

The blog itself is not the final product, but rather one of many moving parts if one is a writer and speaker and leads seminars/courses, etc. Looking at it that way takes some of the pressure off; if I’m working on a speech or print article, I’m not “blowing it” or wasting time, and the blog might slide a bit for a few days without the world ending.

By: George

George — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 04:10:53 +0000

Detsy,

Don’t worry about it. Just write both of your articles it will be from a different point of view. I have a post about this topic in my drafts folder, because it’s a common problem (one I am facing).

Nice post Darren. I think this will help Wendy and others facing these problems.

By: Matt Wardman

Matt Wardman — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 16:41:57 +0000

I think the two words I would say are:

Tactics and strategy.

I have posted some reflections at the link below.

By: Michael Martine

Michael Martine — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 16:30:26 +0000

Darren, I especially like point #4. It’s easier nowadays to hook up with other publishers and providers so you can be in more than one place at the same time, giving new readers an opportunity to see what you’re about.

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 16:19:13 +0000

I must have read some of Wendy’s articles before in Entrepreneur. I’ve been forcing myself to read every single article in Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Kiplinger.

I’ll have to quit doing that though, as my stack of magazines is slowly getting larger and larger.

By: firstbloggerlady

firstbloggerlady — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 13:55:44 +0000

I also have several blogs that I update on a daily basis and I understand the problems you have in building brand new content. But, on the other hand, my traffic allows be to do everything I need, so everything runs quite smoothly.

Best of luck and hang in there

Beijinho (kiss)

By: Karen Putz

Karen Putz — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 12:18:01 +0000

I read Wendy’s post and it echoed a lot of my thoughts. I’m working on a blog for a grant source and will actually make some money from it in the form of a paycheck. To me, that seems to be the best way to go as my time is getting spread quite thin with various other projects.

By: A Tentative Personal Finance Blog

A Tentative Personal Finance Blog — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 12:03:00 +0000

Some of these thoughts are so far ahead in the time schedule of my own blog. They seem so far in the future that it’s not even worth planning for or even thinking about. But I suppose that scalability can be an issue. I always assumed that I would just create more blogs if I needed more income.

By: Desty

Desty — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 12:00:56 +0000

I’m getting scared. I was in the middle of writing a post about a person’s niche when Kumiko posted about niches. Now today I’m in the middle of an article about spreading one’s self too thin by either too many businesses or the growth of a business and this article shows up! I wonder if someone’s gota RSS into my noggin? Great article BTW! :)

By: Billy Mac

Billy Mac — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 11:25:43 +0000

I found writing about a topic you know and love works best. I just started to realize some regular adsense money for my pest control info blog…I still can’t get any adsense activity on my Critique Blog….that is why I use PPP there and it seems to be working out well without being to “spammy” for my readers. I agree with just plugging along and stay true to the course.

By: Tomaz Mencinger

Tomaz Mencinger — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 08:28:17 +0000

It also depends what are your goals? If your goals are to make massive amounts of money and have freedom then blogging is not the best way to go.

Big authority affiliate websites are much better.

But if you have a passion for something and want to share your thoughts and help others, then blog is a great idea.

Or you can do both. ;)

By: Tejvan - net writing

Tejvan - net writing — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 06:47:57 +0000

I like having blogs on completely different topics, it’s like a break going from one to the other.

By: Danielle

Danielle — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 05:44:26 +0000

“One of the things that I’ve done quite unintentionally on my blogs is to build communities where readers feel empowered to help one another – rather than to just rely upon me as the blogger.”
Another added benefit you have gleaned is that a new visitor feels right at home here at Problogger. I have visited some successful blogs that are very clicky, the interaction is limited to the blogger and his or her established blogroll.
Guest Bloggers also build a sense of community and I think add very much to your brand.

Be well and enjoy the day.

By: Goddess Carlie

Goddess Carlie — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 05:38:10 +0000

I’ve got so many ideas for my blog as it grows that I hope it doesn’t come to this point (I guess it will one day, of course…) Right now I am about to experiement in offline advertising. I already have some smart ideas for diversification, I just have to wait till my blog is older and more popular for these to take place, as I don’t think they would have much impact now.

Over all you have some fantastic points in this post. It has been one of my favourite posts of yours lately ;)

By: Randy Hill

Randy Hill — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 04:27:22 +0000

Sir Jorge is right. Find something that you love – even have a passion for- and it will be much easier. I love music and art, so I combined both of those into a blog idea that is fairly effortless to maintain, one reason being because I love the subject matter so much.

By: Pip

Pip — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 04:23:06 +0000

one of your best posts yet Darren. I hope Wendy is paying you for this – I know I’d pay for this type of analysis! Do you do consulting work?

By: Armen

Armen — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 04:09:48 +0000

This is really insightful Darren. The more one blogs, the more apparent the ‘brick walls’ become.

We all have a breaking point, I just hope Wendy takes measures to implement a plan-of-action that will help to sustain her workload.

Great post!