News blogs’ longevity boils down to five major factors: the size of the blog, referral traffic, blogging frequency, niche topics and adherence to quality. Other than the above factors, news blogs’ longevity can be affected by whether they are owned by a media company or an individual blogger, how well they monetize their website and their readers’ interests. This article looks at each factor in detail and reviews which publishers have excelled according to these standards. Bikernet news is a blog that’s small in size and gets minimal referral traffic but it has been publishing news articles since 2006 and is still going strong today.
Unlike other news blogs Bikernet doesn’t have any advertising on their website and will never sell a spot because they are supported by donations. Biker news also doesn’t publish very often, only about once or twice a week, but does so with high quality articles that are well researched. The niche topics of this blog keep the daily readership to about one hundred visitors per day. The blog isn’t owned by a media company but is run by an individual blogger who uses his own money to pay for the servers and other issues such as hosting costs and web design.
Blogs are considered to be more than just a new form of journalism, they are a way of life. The blogosphere is continually growing and presents new challenges for website owners who wish to develop and maintain lasting news blogs. The success or failure of a news blog depends largely on the lifestyle of the owner.
A profession in blogging is not as promising as it may seem, as there are many bloggers who have failed to keep their websites updated and find themselves starting from scratch again due to their neglect of their blogs.
5 Factors That Affect News Blogs’s Longevity :
1. The Size of the Blog
Size is everything in the world of blogging, and news blogs are no exception. News blogs that have a large audience have more opportunities to make money and maintain their growth. The larger the blog, the more traffic it will get from other sites and portals such as social networking sites. This helps in increasing a blogger’s opportunities for advertising, affiliate marketing or even through editorial links and mentions.
2. Referral Traffic
In order for a news blog to be successful it must first get noticed by search engines such as Google or Yahoo! The easiest way for an aspiring blogger to gain attention is through search engine optimization (SEO). This is the process of using keywords on a website to make it more appealing to search engines. By using appropriate keywords related to their niche, news sites can optimize their site so that it appears higher in the search results when a relevant keyword is searched for.
In order to be successful with SEO, however, bloggers must create a quality page that provides meaningful information for both their visitors and search engines. Content is king, and if the information on an individual website is not valuable, then any SEO tricks will not work. A blog that provides value to its readers will get more referrals as people link up to them from other websites and can also rank higher on search engines than blogs that do not provide much value.
3. Blogging Frequency
The longevity of a news blog depends on how often it is updated. Blogs that are updated more often tend to get more visitors. People have short attention spans and if a news blog is not interesting enough to make them come back, then they will quickly move on to another website.
A blogger should choose a schedule that allows him or her to post fresh content at least once per week and make sure they stick with it. Writers who continue to maintain the same frequency over time are likely to get higher ranking results than those who publish sporadically and inconsistently.
4. Niche Topics
The niche of an individual website is a very important factor that can affect the longevity of the blog. Something that is unique and highly popular will gain popularity much faster than a news blog which is not popular on its own. Bloggers should choose what they cover and stick to a certain topic. If they have many topics, then their audience will have a hard time finding things to read on the site. They need to make sure that they are choosing topics that are interesting and relevant to readers because if they do not meet this criterion, then their readership will drop off dramatically.
5. Adherence to Quality
Another factor that can affect the longevity of a news blog is whether the writer adheres to quality standards or not. An individual blogger should choose topics he or she enjoys and should keep in mind that people will only read what they love. The number one rule of professional blogging, according to Sean Platt, author of several blog posts on this topic, is “always write with your heart first and then with your head.”
