As many of you know, Abhi is lazy these days and unable to keep is blog busy. Usually, most active when trying to win blogging contests (yes, four of them!) and doing his tech stuff around; it came as a surprise when he “announced” he was lazy these days and didn’t feel like being within a mile of his laptop. Shocking. For a person, who is super active with his online work, it is shocking.
Well, here’s a reality check. It happens. Yes, laziness is right around the corner and it might come pouncing on you one fine day. Maybe a sign that you need a break.
The bigger issue for bloggers here? Consistency is the key and absence will drive away your audience. Of course, they are a few loyal, lovely readers (cough, me, cough) who will always come by and comment and have a little chat even when you post after months! But then, most will run away. And that is the harsh truth.
Not only will you end up losing readers, your traffic might take a dip and rankings might go haywire. So to make sure all those efforts to better your blog stays put; here is something to keep your blog busy when you are lazy!
COME CLEAN ABOUT IT
Tell your audience that you are going through a tough lazy time and you just don’t feel like blogging. The readers will always appreciate honesty. Once you just go and come back weeks later telling them how busy you were, many not buy it. Your readers deserve to know the truth. And it is okay to be and sound human. Really.
GUEST POSTS WILL SAVE THE DAY
Once you mention that you are lazy and feel like going away, drop a hint of how you would love someone to guest post on your blog. People are waiting for opportunities to guest post. They are hunting for blogs to get their networking and exposure to be done. The only drawback is that you will have to screening the guest posts.
The best part about having guest posts, is that the guest blogger will help promoting the post and thus the blog. They will help you get the word out. So, you have someone doing a bit of the marketing for you!
OLD POST… REFRESHED
A lot of our older posts do get neglected over time. Publish them again. Make sure you have a little note in the beginning saying that this is re-run. Tell them why you think it would make for a great discussion and just see where the conversation goes.
A good idea that comes to mind is running your first ever post and telling people how much you have grown from that one! Or telling them why you love / hate your first post. And ask them to share their experiences!
SHORTER, SIMPLER POSTS
You don’t have to sound super smart each time you post. Really. The post doesn’t always HAVE to be about your niche. Sometimes it could be a fun post – about your favorite movie, your bucket list, your favorites videos, the music you listen to, seven things about yourself…just anything that helps connect with the readers on a more personal level and keep the conversation going.
Let’s face it. Writing about these is easier. And readers love that they can read something about YOU and share something about themselves!
RUN A FRIEND’S POST
You must have made some online friends. Get in touch and ask them if you could run one of their old posts on your blog. Some might agree to it. But make sure you give them the full credit including their name and all and linking back to the post on their blog.
LIST POSTS
Always fun, if done nicely. And easy too. This is quite similar to the easy, simple posts I mentioned. However, here you could touch topics related to your niche. Like for example, Abhi runs a blog about blogging here so he could do list about any of the following –
- The Social Media sites he loves / prefers
- Three Blogs he visits / subscribes to
- Four plugins every blogger must have
- Five top themes
Play around with the numbers and topics. List posts are easier to write and you could always end them with questions asking people to share experiences.
So, no matter how lazy you feel, there are ways to keep the traffic and conversations going on your blog. Try a few of these and see how they work for you!
And yes, do tell us what you do to keep the blog busy even when you are lazy!
And Abhi, shake off the laziness, it’s been over a month!
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