Posted on February 16, 2009 by Giovanni

How do you keep it fresh?

If you’re blogging as a way to make money online, which is the reason most people blog, the most important part of your blogs is, obviously, your content. In the same way that a store is going to need customers to stay in business, your blog site needs a steady flow of traffic to remain active and help your online business. Keeping your content fresh is the most important thing to remember when blogging, regardless of the reason for blogging. In fact, having fresh content on your website or blog is the key to success with your online business. Here are a few tips on the best ways to keep your content fresh.

Use Keywords

Using search engine optimization (SEO) through the use of keywords is one of the best ways to generate traffic towards your website or blog. What’s even more important is using keywords that are relevant to your blog site so they’ll show up quickly on search engines. Search engines are what interested readers will use to find websites that are similar to their interests. If your site consists of several different pages, make sure you use different keywords for each page so the chances of them getting to your site will be better. The higher your site shows up on search engine results, the more traffic you’ll get to your site.

Although the idea of having fresh content on your blog all the time may seem difficult, if not impossible, there are ways you can do this if you have a plan from day one and do everything possible to stick to it. Determine the frequency of your posting or, more specifically, how often you will make posts to your blog. If you have time to make posts on a daily basis, this is great. Not everyone, due to work schedules, can do this every day but if you can, it’ll be very beneficial to your blog. Once you’ve determined what your frequency is going to be, let your readers know. This is important for two reasons. One, if they come to your blog and see nothing new, they’ll know when they can expect to see something new. If your content is good, they’ll start to look forward to this day or time. Second, by making a commitment such as this to your readers, you’re also making a goal for yourself and making yourself accountable. When you know you have to do something, it’s much easier to get it done.

Plan Ahead

Don’t be too hard on yourself if something comes up where you can’t make your post as planned. This does happen to everyone at some point, whether they’re unavailable, sick or just don’t have the motivation. Many blogging systems offer an option where you can schedule your posts in advance. This option will come in very handy if you know of something that is going to prevent you from making your regular post.

Blogging is NOT just about Blogging

Never stop researching and looking for new content you can post to your blog. Even though you may feel you know everything there is to know about your topic, there is always something new to learn. Your readers will love hearing about these new things and may have feedback and comments to add to them. Don’t just rely on the internet for your research, however, as you can learn a lot just in your day-to-day living. With the use of cell phones with cameras, you can take interesting shots throughout the day that you may want to share with your readers. Readers also enjoy looking at photos. Just make sure they’re saved in the right size and format so they won’t take forever to open.

Find small items and topics that you can add on a weekly or even a daily basis. While the main topic of your blog may be something larger, you can always break it down into small topics to keep them interested. For instance, if your site is about photography, which is a broad topic, once a week you can have individual feeds about smaller photography-related topics such as filters, lens, film, etc. These small topics or subjects will serve two purposes. They’ll allow your content to remain fresh while giving your readers even more interesting topics to read and enjoy.

Don’t be afraid to add some humor into your blogs. Although most of the readers are there to participate and possibly learn more about your topic, no one wants to feel they’re back in high school in a classroom. Put a friendly and light spin on some of your posts, which will also help you to develop a friendly relationship with your readers. Encourage them to contact you and let them know that you look forward to hearing from them. A contact form can be located somewhere on your blog and encourage readers to leave any comments or feedback they may have. Make sure you respond back to any of the comments you receive so they’ll know that there is a real live person behind the blog and that you care about them. The more contact there is between you and your readers, the better your chance of getting new content from them as well.

Your new content doesn’t have to be some long drawn-out article. It can be a short post of only 250-300 words but it lets them know that you are available and it will keep them interested. Even though your blog site is about a specific topic, don’t be afraid to add some “evergreen” topics occasionally. Evergreen topics are general interest topics that never change but yet will draw their interest. They don’t even have to be related to your blog subject but they can still be interesting. You may even consider finding some private label rights articles where you can get some great ideas. But, DO NOT COPY THEM.

Get rid of any old content that has just been sitting around there taking up space. You should do this regularly, like every other month. Keep an archive, however, so readers can always go back and find something that interested them that they may want to retrieve. An archive will also allow new readers to see that you’ve been doing this for quite awhile and that you blog is not new. This will do a lot towards proving your seriousness and credibility.

Pay attention to the seasons and holidays of the year. People will love your acknowledgment and it will go a long ways towards letting them know your content is fresh. Again, they don’t have to be long posts. It’s quality and not quantity that counts.