Blog or Not? Your opinion...

Blog is a very good idea so long as you have useful and unique content that is beneficial to your readers. There is really no downside to putting up a (wordpress) blog with a few useful posts on it. The more you update your blog the better.

As for updating frequency keep in mind that the quality of the information you disseminate is also important. Frequent updates should not be made if that compromises the overall quality of your content. If you can churn out high quality, useful, and unique content, I'd say update as frequently as you can.

Terry, a blog can help you in a few different ways:

1. By hosting it yourself (ie: yourdomain.com/blog), your entire site will get "credit" every time you update it. What I mean by that is, the search engines like sites that are updated because they want fresh sites at the top of their search results. Instead of trying to re-work your home page or adding new articles pages, you can write a new blog post.

2. It helps you connect with your visitors. Sure, you can write sales copy that's conversational and gets the readers engaged with what you're saying. However, with a blog, you can be much more informal (while still providing plenty of relevant facts and figures) - so that you're seen as a "person" rather than a "business entity". If people feel like they're talking with the real you, they'll feel more of a connection, and the chances of them returning to your site or linking to it go up.

3. You can monetize it. With the right writing, you can promote products without making people feel like they're getting beat over the head with a sales pitch. It's a softer sell, but it can be a darn good one.

As for how often you need to update it, that's really up to you. The frequency isn't as important as the consistency. Create a schedule that works for you, and stick to it. Once you get loyal readers, they'll expect new posts at a certain frequency (like once a week or once a month, whatever). If you fall behind on the schedule, you'll lose readers.

Good luck! Writing a blog can be alot of fun!

As long as you have the time to spend on it to keep it updated with unique and fresh content, I think a blog is definitely a good idea. Its especially great when you are writing about something you are legitimately interested in.

I love blogging. For one of my more successful niche websites I started a blog for me, you know, the true reason a good ol' blog was started, it was some kind of a journal.

It took me 4 months and all of a sudden I started to get facebook likes on the articles I posted, then my statcounter account showed me people were coming in through tweets etc.

Now that blog creates a decent income every month...and this was never my goal. Other blogs I made with money in mind, never made more than a couple of 100 bucks a month. Go figure :-)

So yes, blogging is worth it, and you seem to have the right attitude as well!

Thank you all for the posts. I think I will get a few articles together and start a blog.

In my experience a blog is extremely effective regardless the objective of your website. Just be sure to do keyword research for every post to maximize traffic. If you go for competitive keywords, you'll have to promote those posts somewhat unless you have a massive readership.

The foundation of my online projects are the blogs. They bring in plenty of traffic, build up my lists, generate revenue, and when I ran an offline business, my business blog generated a ton of business (I recently sold my offline business).

As stated above, write great content. I shoot for 1 to 6 posts per week. I fluctuate a little depending on what's going on. However, rarely a week goes by that I don't publish at least 1 quality post on each of my main websites.

Blogging requires patience. If you do build up a blog, there's no harm in including some affiliate promotions. It's nice passive income. Even if you only promote 1 or a few products that you really like, it can put some dollars into your pocket ... unless of course you're focusing solely on products you sell ... then you probably don't wish to promote competitors (although compementary products don't hurt).

I can't really give you advice from experience; but I can tell you that my intention is to post content to my sites through a blog. Like you, I will be writing on my own. I'll probably update 3-5 times a week. Maybe you can try it too. If it fails though, I'm putting all the blame on you :p

For long term, Blogging would benefit you more..

blogging can be profitable but it takes a lot of time and good content too

A blog is what you should go for. It's worthwhile in the long run. Keep your blog updated daily or at least alternate days. This will keep your content fresh & updated that will help in your site rankings.

Blogging isn't worthwhile if you hate writing or don't have the time, resources, etc.. Successful blogs require a lot of energy that many people don't want to expend (hence all the crappy autoblogs). So I'd think long and hard if I were you -- especially since you're already hesitating.

If you go ahead with it, consider what Amazon requires as a freshness rule (I assume they know what works and what doesn't). My blog/site is a mobile blog via Amazon's Kindle Blog program, and Amazon requires 1 fresh post a week to remain a member. Can you publish 1 good blog post a week? If so, then blog away!

It's well worth it from my perspective (internet marketer into blogging). There are lots of ways to generate traffic to a blog, so if you're goal is to use it as a means to get people to an actual website, it should help there, too. There's nothing set in stone in terms of how often it should be updated, but I would say updating it at least a few times a week is good, especially when you're first starting out. Also, I'm glad to read you want to write your own stuff because unique, quality content that offers value to your readers is the way to go.

Good luck,
Joey

Of course! Great Blog strategies will help to give you an edge over the competition.

Hi:

Shireen here :-)

Blog will generate constant traffic if you update it regularly with good & unique content :-)

Blogging is great. But, word of warning, it does take time to build a good following and more importantly, a receptive list.

As to how often you should update. That depends on the quality of your posts. If you can write good, original, relevant posts on a daily basis, then do so, but always keep in mind QUALITY!

Personally I love blogging, well the writing side anyway.

Everyone else has said it but it is all about quality and being a source of information, or these days infotainment.
I think being too informative can be a negative (in terms of attracting a steady viewership), just check out the news today and look at how flashy it is. People want information and entertainment, thus infotainment. I think good info + good entertain = killer blog.
Of course, easier said than done...

Blogging is an awesome way to build traffic. Posting at least once a week is ideal, more often is better. But the key is to make sure it's valuable and 100% unique content