So you took a year to build up a great blog. You started to get fatigue, and slowly stopped writing. Six months later, you want to come back to your abandoned blog, but it’s lacking traffic and nobody comments anymore. What do you do?
At this point, you might be thinking that it’s a lost cause. You may even think that you have to start completely over again from scratch. You would be wrong though.
Your Reputation Was On Vacation
You did not damage your reputation by vanishing for so long. The bloggers that you networked with still remember you. Chances are, they will be more than happy to come to your rescue and share the hell out of your new articles.
The cool thing is that bloggers are helpful people for the most part. We are very loyal to those we consider our friends, even if they are only digital friendships.
I can remember (and so will Alex), a few fallen blog soldiers.
- Jean from VirginBloggerNotes.com
- Scott Barron from ScottBarron.com
- Mike Roosa from MikeRoosa.com
- and many more…
If these bloggers were to come back, they would have a solid network to help get them back on the fast-track of blogging. That’s because we all started blogging around the same time-frame, and we supported each other by commenting, sharing, and learning together.
Make it SNAPPY!
The quickest route to letting people know that you are back, is to guest blog on all of the blogs that they read, and guesting on their own blog. This will ensure that everyone in your old network knows you are alive and kicking.
Don’t stop at guest blogging though. Chances are that you still have a bunch of rss subscribers, newsletter subscribers, and social network followers. Utilize all of these things to announce your comeback. More importantly, make your comeback article something that will be remembered for years to come.
Put Your Best (not smelly) Foot Forward
When you come back, you want to put your best foot forward. You don’t want someone that ‘kind of’ remembers you to see you now as someone with sub-par articles.
Aside from the quality in your content writing, you need to reestablish some sort of schedule so that your readers can expect something from you regularly. This means regular posting schedules, and it means regular blog-hopping schedules as well. If you expect to take, then expect to give a little as well.
Blogs are like testicles…
…sometimes they just need a little relief. Before you think I got off track here, let me explain.
While you are working on restoring your hard-earned reputation, you also need to restore your blog’s reputation for sharing quality guest articles. This will obviously give you a break in order to create a backlog of quality articles, and it will also increase the worth of your blog as “the place” to go to if you want to be seen.
Earn some friends with comedy
Everyone likes to laugh. If you can show in your articles that you have a sense of humor, you will earn some subscribers as well as renewed interest from old readers.
Comedy works on so many levels. Don’t believe me? There are actually television shows that show the “funniest commercials of all time”. Look it up. Funny and nudity sells. If you can’t get naked, get funny. (If you being naked is funny, then please keep it to yourself).
You aren’t David Copperfield
Who cares that you’re not the greatest magician and illusionist in the world. That doesn’t mean that you cannot use illusion to your advantage. Take for example this article. It seems longer than it actually is. Do a word count check.
You can actually make your articles look better, and longer than they actually are by spacing them out in parts. This isn’t just about making the article easier to read and follow. It’s also about making it look lengthy and in-depth. Your article may very well be in depth, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make it look like it’s more of what it is.
Move Your Arse (ASS in America Alex! Even spell check says so!)
If you have fallen prey to giving up, then these tips will surely get you back to the top of the blogging world.
Blogging from scratch is a tough game, but getting back into it is a whole lot easier. How would I know? Because I did it…
This is a Guest Post from my Awesome Blogger Buddy – Brandon Connell.
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{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
Alex..i know you got my back if I loss my mind one day and stop marketing. Know I can come to you, Pat F, John C, Lisa , Tyrone Shum and many more..you guys will bring me some kind of traffic to let the people know I’m still alive..
“Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”
Exactly right my friend! The power of networking continues to work well after you do.
Now, something you wanna tell us Antonio? Lol peace brother
I just finished a year with my blog and am really enjoying the writing. Traffic isn’t what I would like, but I just keep trying to promote it, and write.
After about 4 months I almost quit until I went to Twitter and found that a blogger had written an article, “so you are thinking of quitting your blog, read this first”. I did read it and decided to continue blogging.
I’m hoping to be able to continue blogging along with developing a Freelance Writing career. I really enjoyed this post. Thanks
Good thing you didnt stop it there. I’ve also almost did the same thing although the thought of missing out the fun and enjoyment came into my mind. It’s really quite hard to achieve success in blogging the easy way, but i think it’s much harder to leave the once established blog of yours.
I think if you truly enjoy writing, the rest of your blogging story will write itself ( pun totally intended)
Its a good thing you kept going. But sometimes its not a choice and quitting just happens due to the situation around you. Luckily that wasn’t the case with you and you were able to continue blogging.
Sally , you’ve a right decision, don’t stop, you will have an awesome blog one day!
I second that!
This is also great info if you’re simply trying to pick up the pace on your “good content but no traffic” blog.
It’s very important to provide your audience with “stuff” they can use. Then you’ve got to go on your conquest to find the highest mountaintop to scream it from.
Scream long enough and loud enough and someone will hear you.
Well said guys! Really – could not have put that last bit better myself. I’m off to yell… Ciao
You better not Alex. You yell in a foreign language and you call everyone mate.
Brandon, did you write this for me? Ha!
The 2 month trip I took was so fun that I really couldn’t pull myself to write during that time and there were moments where I was going to just give up on the Murlu blog because I wanted to focus on other things. It took me a month to finally make a post on it but it seems that I’m right back in the action. Some people haven’t shown up yet back on the blog but that’s okay because I completely understand it.
What I realize and can say from experience is that if you did a great job prior to leaving your brand is still going strong. I wasn’t expecting to see a great reception once I was back (although it still needs to build back up to pre-travel days) but it could have been way worse. People do remember you and are waiting for you to get back into the game so no point in putting it off, really.
Including me! I’m coming, I’m coming!
Hi Murray,
You aren’t someone I expected to see drop away, but I also wasn’t someone people expect to vanish either. It can happen to anyone.
This kind of reminds me of Heroes. They had that writer’s strike, left for quite a while and were never able to gain the momentum they once had. Can you make a full comeback? Can you become bigger and better without changing a thing? It really is a good question. I say no.
There are reasons why people leave and take time off from a booming site. Boredom. Pressure. Work… Once you lose steam it’s almost impossible to get it back unless you shift your focus or start some new path. I’ve seen a lot of people attempt a come back, only to fall short in another 8 months. Things get stale. Niche sites are the same way. People lose interest in them and they dry up. You have to keep things fresh and constantly evolving… Only then will I believe it’s possible. But, given another year, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Your strong community should rally behind you and support your efforts, but the real issue lies within you.
Well said Richard, it definitely comes down to ‘you’ in the end.
Strange. I wondered why they quit Heroes. I hated the show when it came out, but started watching the entire series just a couple weeks ago on netflix streaming.
I wouldn’t say you can’t get your steam back in full force. It’s just that someone over there must have been left out of the process. What most likely happened was a change in writers which took something away from the show.
These tips can be of great help…I am glad that you have shared this to us…I actually learned something especially about comedy..
Don’t encourage him man! He already thinks he’s funny, that’s bad enough!
Hush puppy. Alex you are the one that thinks yur funny. In reality, you’re just funny looking. LOL.
Heehee
LOL he does have a great sense of humour. It makes his articles a joy to read.
Great tips. Thanks for sharing as I have a few blogs that’s kinda abandoned too due to busy with work and stuff
If you abandon your blog and you want to bring back the activeness of your site, I think one should have the interest to do blogging again. Thank you for your post and I really have the idea to keep on blogging again.
Great tips, i have been doing this and not taking care of my blog. Its hard sometimes to put yourself in the mix with all the clients you are handling.
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