Posting Regularly to Your Blog: Why Bother?

Blogs are a bit like psychic vampires in that, when you go to write on them, you've suddenly lost your energy. Often when keeping one or more blogs, it can seem as if you are putting in a lot of effort for very little return. But there are a lot of reasons for freelance writers to keep on slugging away at your blog, even if you don't make money off of it.

Good Search Engine Ranking

The Holy Grail of all bloggers is to get their blog in the top ten results on Google for any given topic. Although there are other online search engines, the vast majority of people use Google, so that's the one to placate. Higher rankings means higher traffic and can sometimes lead to more money in revenue share or at least more publicity for you.

However, according to Jerri L. Ledford's "SEO Bible" (Wiley, 2008), one of the ways your blog will plummet far down in Google rankings is if you do not update your blog regularly. Websites with fresh content get consistently higher rankings than sites that haven't been updated for months. How does Google know? Through their web crawlers or spiders. You can't hide from them.

Good PR

Blogs are started for many reasons, but for writers it's usually because they are trying to promote their writing skills in order to drum up more business. Blogs can be used to promote a new book or showcase where your articles were published or to connect with future clients. Keeping up with your blogs is a good way to let a potential employer that may be eyeballing the blog that you are still alive.

One thing many writers like to do when sending out queries is to include a link to their blog. Blogs are a quick way for an editor or webmaster needing content to get a good feel of your style and competence with the written language. If potential new clients see that you haven't updated your blog in six months, they may wonder if you will be late turning in assignments.

Good Inspiration

It's incredibly rare when a writer can sit at the keyboard whenever necessary and pound out a masterpiece at the first go. They usually can't even remember their names and where they were last night, let alone figure out how to fulfil a complicated writing assignment such as "Posting Regularly to Your Blog: Why Bother?"

Writing is a bit like sport in that you have to warm up before you can play. This is where blogs come in handy. By posting on them or replying to comments, you help warm up your writing muscles, which can help you with all of the other writing assignments you need to do that day.