This year my blog flopped badly, It’s time to plan for 2014

Being a successful blogger is tough. Having your blog make it past year one is even more so and generating revenue can at times seem next to impossible. So, for those blogs that have successfully gotten over these humps — and made it look easy — I want to congratulate you.

This year blogging has been a bitter experience for new bloggers, better experience for seasoned bloggers, happiest experience for pro-bloggers. Rules which apply in the world system, that rich grow more richer and poor grow more poorer applies even in the blogosphere. Many blogs which have seen glorious days in 2010-12 have failed this year due to many reasons. We should not blame Google alone for this because the rise of bloggers in 2013 is greatest compared to those numbers in the earlier years.

Professional bloggers are quite comfortable as they have already gained lot of social media following, good page rank and their affiliate links are not dead yet. But for new bloggers it is the situation of struggle for existence or the Darwin’s theory of Survival of the fittest. Many blogs rise and fade away due to lack of proper results. Especially those who thought blogging pays not only bills but is a source of luxury has not been proved this year, because they never earned a single dime. Google has at last updated its Page Rank after a long gap which turned out to be a curse for many blogger’s who have seen a decline in their page rank, because people measure the success of a blog from its page rank or Alexa rank. Some times guest bloggers won’t turn up cos we have no page rank at all.

Do you think Blogging has ended?

No not really, its true that Google changes its algorithms, tons of blogs of the same niche on what we blog seems to rise day by day, same posts appear again and again on how to increase traffic? how to gain Facebook followers? how to make money blogging? so on and so forth. Can we give a better blog post next year? Will our blog able to survive all the problems in the coming year. Will blogs be profitable business for those who put all their hopes on it?

All these answers can be answered in a single sentence. Yes, that sentence is nothing but ‘lets plan for 2014’. This year might have left some bad impressions, but if you see through them they are not bad experiences but some good lessons on what not to do in blogging. Because a professional blogger earns $50,000 a month its not mandatory for us also to earn the same amount.

Professional bloggers do really earn huge amounts but they have established their business long back and now they simply manage their blog with some employees. Never underestimate a professional bloggers income report with a one man army. Most of the bloggers who earn in millions have a big team working behind.

If you observe Pat Flynn’s income report at the end you will find his payments to the SPI (Smart Passive Income) team, which means what ever podcast’s he does, what ever micro niches he builds are not done all by himself but rather by a team. Pat Flynn is the smartest guy who utilized his earned income in hiring team and getting his work done. His micro niches have been built by research of a team, back links are built by his team and what ever activity happens with the micro niche happens because a team is working behind. Pat simply manages, please don’t argue with me that I am saying all these just as an assumption. A single person though he works 10 hours a day can’t bring out value to a blog. Even if he did, one thing we need to remember is he is also a human being like us, who needs rest, who has family to look after and many other offline affairs other than blogging. A person gets bored or tired when he keeps on doing the same thing for several months and blogging is not an exception here.

Some times we need to take some break from blogging, it might be due to writer’s block, personal problems, health problems, family problems etc. A team in hand will definitely rescue our blog at times when we need a break because blogs are those which when not attended will lead to loss in traffic and in turn affect our earnings. Especially these days posts which are written recently are ranking well even when our blog has got a more quality article compared to the one written recently.

Did your blog got flopped this year?

1. Are you able make a good impact with your blog this year (in terms of comments and subscribers)?
2. Where you able to make your traffic cross 100 visitor a day mark consistently for a month?
3. Where you able to make $100 in a month with your blog?
4. Where you consistent in posting at least 20 posts in a month?
5. Did you get any good back links for your blog?
6. Have you earned some good clients if you run a service based blog?
7. Did you get good Facebook, twitter and G+ fans (more than 100) for your blog?

Try to answer the above seven questions in Yes or No.

• If  7 of your answers are yes then you are running a good race.
• If  6 of your answers are Yes then your blogging is up to the mark.
• It 5 of your answers are Yes then you are just surviving.
• If 4 of your answers are Yes then you are blogging is not bad.
• If 3 of your answers are Yes then you are doing it bad.
• If 2 of your answers are Yes then you are struggling.
• If 1 of your answer is yes then your blog has flopped badly.

So whats your score? Just try to analyse your blogs performance. Don’t get depressed if you have got bad results from the above test. When we are able to analyse where it went wrong we can correct it in the next go.

Read: Feel like Quit Blogging here is why you should NOT

What to do for 2014?

If you haven’t got a good score in the above test don’t worry we still have a month to rectify these errors and plan a good blogging schedule for 2014.

1. Action Plan:

First and foremost make an action plan on what to do in 2014. Jot down few points on what lacked in 2013. You might have not been consistent in writing your posts regularly. You might have lacked time to answer your comments. You might have failed to monetize your blog properly.

Read: Basic requirements before you start monetising your blog

2. Focusing on your Blog’s niche:

Just think of what your blog is about, don’t just scribble what ever you want when ever you don’t know what to write. Keep your blog focused and clean up to your niche. Don’t bring in technology or weight loss articles to your marketing or blogging niche it might not convert. If you want to read more on how to focus then my friend Angela might just help you out on how to focus with her article Focus…Focus…Focus…

If possible take some time and jot down all the upcoming posts what you feel like writing in the coming days. This could just lower your writer’s block on what to write next.

3. Setting Targets:

Keep targets for your self. How many blog posts are you going to write in a month. How many back links are you going to build in a week. Read: Building dofollow Backlinks the Ethical Way. How much time are you going to spend on your blog. Just keep targets for your blog and try to attain them at any cost.

4. Start Working:

Once you have done the necessary ground work like setting your targets, next thing you need to do is head over and start working. You simply cant write an action plan and stay calm. Hard work does pay well so once you feel you have organized a good writing schedule then simply start working.

Read: Tips for Nocturnal bloggers to Supercharge their Workflow

Just try to attain the targets and don’t worry about the results. Once you attain your targets successfully results start to come automatically. If results are not up to the mark then sort out your action plan, increase your targets and work even harder for at last what we want is success. So with this simple post I bade god bye to 2013 and welcome 2014, a wonderful year which is here to bring in some results. I wish all my friends a happy and prosperous New Year.