How much time have you spent updating your company blog in the last week? In the last month? Ideally, you balance effort put into your blog with measurable return.
If you’re having success, keep it up and good luck to you! If you feel like you’re burning valuable company time on a blog that goes unnoticed, maybe you should consider calling it quits.
Blogging is not for every business. Here are a few telltale signs that your blog has become more trouble than it’s worth.
Page Views are Stagnant
You have few metrics to gauge the success of your blog, but you can easily see how traffic matches up day by day. If page views are increasing, it certainly can’t hurt to keep blogging. On the other hand, if you’ve hit a plateau with page views, then you’re likely not drumming up new business.
Many analytics applications, such as Google Analytics, can show you how many visitors are new and returning, and you can see how many visits are “bounces,” an indicator that your visitors are not engaged.
Mediocre page views can come down to a judgment call on your part. Ask your customers. If they indicate that your company blog has any influence – or for that matter, if your blog keeps existing patrons loyal – then maintaining a blog is worth your time. But if they’ve never seen your blog, it could be time to pack it in.
Page Rank is Not Improving
This is relevant if the goal of your blog is Search Engine Optimization. You’re likely using specified keywords into your blog to draw traffic to your company’s website. Google Analytics, Clicky and Crazy Egg analytics applications can help you determine whether your efforts are working.
Try to assign certain phrases only to your blog and watch the subsequent Web traffic. Rank is fluid, but you’ll want a positive trend over the long term to justify spending time on a company blog.
The Well is Running Dry
If you’re pounding your head against the desk trying to come up with an idea for a blog post relevant to your company, it might be time to call it quits. If you’re out of ideas, your blog will reflect that. Your readers don’t want to visit a blog that sounds bored.
While writing and styling a post can be challenging, the ideas behind them should come to you fairly easily. When simple brainstorming exercises become tedious, your blog might have jumped the shark.
You’re Losing Your Focus
Perhaps the problem is that your blog is losing its focus. Or maybe your strained efforts at relevant blog post ideas are steering you in a direction that no longer serves the purpose of your company blog. Take a step back for a clearer view of your blog. Ask an outsider if he considers your posts consistent with the product or service you offer.
Consider Larger, Less Frequent Projects
If you ultimately decide to end your blog, it might be worth your while to redirect your creative efforts toward less time-consuming writing projects. Consider a monthly online newsletter, as opposed to a weekly blog. An e-book might garner wanted attention and give your business an aura of authority.
Videos are an excellent way to demonstrate versatility and attract potential customers. By focusing on larger, less frequent online publications, you can reduce the risk of coming across as a redundant blogger.
Some company blogs warrant regular updates, especially if your product changes regularly. But if your business is to sell men’s knit gloves or to host maps to Chicago parking garages, you can probably find better uses for your website. Keeping a company blog alive simply because the other guy has one is not a wise business strategy. For that reason, take time to carefully consider whether you have the resources and reasons to maintain a company blog.
About Chris
Great blog post and thanks for sharing. Love the online newsletter idea.
Thanks
myniagaratours.com
Twitter: KontegoNetworks
says:
This is extremely insightful – I was wondering how would I know when to drop one blogging strategy and create another.
Hello I’m Bruce. I like your thread, more readers will enjoy reading this and it is very informative.
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Nice article..thanks for sharing and I actually learned something.
Twitter: cursor4life
says:
I don’t think any blog should be killed except that you are no more having interest in blogging. Every blogger should consider two things 1. making money with a blog (2)helping people to solve problems. If you focus on the second more that is HELPING PEOPLE TO SOLVE PROBLEM. With ability to generate lot of traffic, it will pay off.
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Twitter: erydave
says:
Hai Chris
Thanks for sharing. The most important of blogging is just focus and consistent. That’s will make finding the success.!
Great blog post and thanks for sharing. Love the online newsletter idea.
Lack of content ideas shouldn’t be a reason to give up and neither should traffic since that’s something that can be worked on. But if there is no viable business reason, then it’s better to just leave a sticky post talking about the business and leave it at that. Oh, and I’d also take the dates off the posts so that if someone does visit, it doesn’t look abandoned!
Twitter: sharynsheldon
says:
Hi Lexi,
Why did you quote this part of my comment? Did you not agree with it or have something to add?
- Sharyn
Sharyn Sheldon recently posted..Affiliate Marketing PLR Pack
Those are some good points, but is it really necessary to kill a blog (as in delete it completely) if it is no longer working? Wouldn’t it be better to keep it, even if you don’t update it?
The risk of keeping a blog once it’s no longer being updated is how it might look to visitors. When you visit a blog with the latest post timestamped June 2010, for example, you might assume the company is not web savvy or isn’t as involved as you’d like for them to be. However, a comment below mentioned the possibility of removing the timestamp and keeping the content, which could be a good way to satisfy both concerns. Thanks for your comment!
Twitter: xtendedview
says:
Even if you are not updating any blog then at least keep it.. Or if it is not oyur personal one then you can sell it to some online selling website.
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Our ecommerce company run both static website and a blog. I think blog is a great way to communicate with your customers and present you services to them
Once the blog loss its visits or bounce rate increases. Its better to analyze deep about the strategy you follow and look for some other new options such as guest posting, polling, infographics etc.
Guests posts are becoming more common, and they’re a great way to add diversity to your blog. Good tip!
Twitter: strategi_web
says:
I have seen such blogs that have the “requirements” of having it killed already. But I think closing down a blog might not be the very best decision. You can still recycle the post and transfer it to a brand new blog. Or change the design of the blog and have it upgrade to an awesome look. If you are writing good content to your company blog and still not getting enough traffic, then the problem is promotion.
True. A change of scenery can help to revive a flailing blog, but don’t get too attached to content that doesn’t seem to be working. Thanks for your comment!
These tips you’ve shared will surely give a big chance to bloggers to enhance their stuffs. You give a very challenging deal to people in which they are need to decide whether they are going to quit their blog or do other things that can make it worth it.
I have learned a lot from this post and I am sure a lot of people can benefit from this too…
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Twitter: xtendedview
says:
You should continuously keep changing the blog becase of it google crawler will keep visiting your website continuously. this is very enough guide. Thankx. :)
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Sometimes when you are about to blog, you lose patience to go on. Life is full of circumstances that make us feel like giving up. I am happy to know your advices here and definitely I learn a lot.
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Twitter: sharynsheldon
says:
Thanks for the interesting post Chris. I think there are definitely some businesses that get on the blogging bandwagon simply because everyone else is doing it. Unless you have a customer based, or a potential customer base, that would want to visit your blog, then there’s no reason. That said, there are plenty of ways to add content without spending a lot of time. Images of your product or business in action, quick videos of employees or customers, guest posts from related business bloggers, private label rights articles that you customize, ezine articles that you can republish, round-ups of interesting articles around the web, etc. The list goes on and on. Lack of content ideas shouldn’t be a reason to give up and neither should traffic since that’s something that can be worked on. But if there is no viable business reason, then it’s better to just leave a sticky post talking about the business and leave it at that. Oh, and I’d also take the dates off the posts so that if someone does visit, it doesn’t look abandoned!
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Great points, Sharyn! Blogging applications make it easier to post photos and videos so that you’re not limited to text-only posts. Mixing it up can help to generate new blogging ideas. Thanks!
Twitter: ForteProperties
says:
I don’t think anyone should just call it quits on their blog. Keep trying new ideas and if all else fails, at least you’re building some content and maybe instead of starting all over just give it a new look, maybe change URL’s. There’s always a way to be successful, but you won’t know what it takes to get there if you don’t fail at least once or twice.
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Changing the voice of your blog can help, too. If a strictly business tone isn’t working, mix it up with some humor, or even repost from another blogger. Thanks!
Twitter: AnnCapatino
says:
Hi Chris,
Excellent article. And, you are completely right. If it is that difficult, look for a different venue. The list of other opportunities that you pointed out are terrific and well worth the try. Videos are becoming huge now. Good advise and I hope someone follows it.
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Twitter: christinaxioymail.com
says:
Thanks for adding your comment. It’s always appreciated!
Thanks for several tips you share with us, I will consider these several things to upgrade my stuff…
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Twitter: ileane
says:
I’m a blogger to the bone and all I can say is never quit blogging! No matter what.
You can always consider outsourcing your blogging tasks. There are some places that you can get quality blog posts that are inexpensive. Hang in there and don’t give up just yet!
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Words of encouragement! Thanks Ileane! :)
Good post Chris. I often find that at times I simple run out of ideas on a specific project – the work rate quickly slows up – and it’s time to move on. The problem is I have never made my mind up on whether that is the time you should soldier on like a good trooper, and call it quits.
It’s a difficult call sometimes. If you decide to stop posting, consider deleting it entirely so that visitors don’t stumble onto an inactive blog.
This really makes me think very positively…Thanks for the keypoints and the advice you have posted here…
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If visits are not increasing after doing all the possible things then I think we need to close the blog and start new and fresh blog with new ideas.
Very true. Starting from scratch can be more productive than scraping the barrel for a failing blog.