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Consequences of choosing a wrong strategy for your blog

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If you are serious about blogging, then I am sure you have a vision (objective) for your blog and you have chosen an appropriate marketing strategy. Setting a vision for your blog and setting goals to achieve that vision is a characteristic of a blog that is set for a long term journey.

On top of your vision, having a proper marketing strategy (or shall we call it marketing identity) for your blog will be one thing that sets you apart from the rest of the blogs. And unfortunately this marketing strategy can actually cause your blog to die (i.e close down without achieving your vision).

Choosing sustainable Marketing Strategy

Marketing strategy here refers to a broad term, it includes your blog’s identity, objective and differentiation strategy. Choosing a sustainable marketing strategy directly affects your blog’s growth and success.

For example, JohnChow’s “being evil” is a marketing strategy that he has chosen to project himself to the readers. This strategy allows him to justify his actions and behavior, especially when the action he has taken is somewhat illegal or evil. So far, his strategy is working just fine, but not without some reader dissatisfaction. (I wouldn’t recommend using such strategy, even if it is just for fun).

On the other hand, blogs like CashQuests.com of Kumiko, had chosen controversy as her marketing strategy, which proved to be unsuccessful. She had a great success in the beginning but the success didn’t last (it was not sustainable). CashQuests is barely functional at the moment, after it was sold to an unidentified person in November 2007. It was probably herself who purchased her own blog. Right after the blog was sold on sitepoint, she deactivated the comments (you can post comments but they won’t show up). What a sad end for a blog.

Another blog Nice4Rice was one of my favorite blogs at the time. Nick Ramsay the author had chosen a marketing strategy of reviewing other blogs and “giving free backlinks” to keep the blog stay alive, getting traffic from other blogs, and making money at the same time. But it was not a sustainable strategy either. Nick wrote on his last post:

… I decided on the “free backlink rice giving idea” and called the site Nice4Rice. Smart thinking, eh?

Unfortunately not. Barely one month later, the DoFollow Movement took off, and before long, everyone was giving away free links. So, I made a promise to myself that if I wasn’t earning at least a dollar a day by the end of three months, I’d pull the plug on it.

… I would only write something once or twice a week, but it would usually take me hours to make each post, and I’d be thinking about what to write for days. In fact, compared to niche websites, it’s so much harder to monetize a blog - at least in my experience.

I understand Nick’s decision, and most probably I would have done the same thing if I was in his place. However, one thing I would do differently is, I would sell the blog or give it to someone else to continue.

How to choose sustainable competitive (marketing) strategy?

So, how to choose a sustainable marketing strategy or competitive strategy in general? Here are some characteristics of a sustainable competitive strategy for blogs.

• It should be socially responsible
  Your strategy should not harm others, on the blogosphere it refers to taking advantage of others, cheating them, making money by telling them lies…etc. This type of strategy can be successful in the beginning, but in the long run you will have a lot of dissatisfied readers, who will simply won’t believe anything you say. Your credibility will be lost.
• It should benefit the reader
  Your strategy should bring value to the reader. It shouldn’t be self-centered only. Eg: Nice4Rice had a value in its strategy, it was giving out free backlinks to other blogs.
• It should not be technology specific
  You shouldn’t build your strategy around one technology alone, because you never know when that technology will be obsolete or affect you adversely. Many blogs which were built around the PageRank system were badly affected when Google punished them.
• It should be durable (i.e long-term)
  You should choose a strategy that is long-term or at least that can last for a longer period. This is directly related to the next point, which is originality.
• It should be original (i.e difficult to copy)
  Your strategy should be difficult for others to replicate. The more unique it is, the better it is for you - the more sustainable will be your strategy. (eg. Apple products, particularly iPod vs the other mp3 players).

Incorporating one or more of the above characteristics into your blogging strategy will make it more sustainable and competitive.

Blogging is a very personal industry, that means your personality, your ideas, your thoughts and your writing style will directly affect your blog’s success. So please take them into consideration. In some cases, you might not be able to do anything or it can be difficult to improve (eg. your personality, thoughts and ideas) but in other cases (eg. your writing style) you can improve them fairly easily.

Also your personality is the only thing that makes you different from others, so don’t be afraid to show it. In fact, try to market your personality (especially if you are implementing differentiation strategy).

Finally, I hope you found this post useful. Please let me know your thoughts on different strategies that have been listed above. Any other important characteristics to add to the list? I would also be glad to read your feedbacks on marketing strategies for blogs in general.

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