Blogging is not terribly unlike gardening. Like a gardener tending his crops, a blogger spends a lot of time working on his or her blog. That may include tweaking the theme, writing new content, commenting on other blogs, and so on. Let’s break it down, shall we?

Soil. Any good gardener will know that a good quality soil is an important start of a successful garden. Your blog needs soil too. In blogging, the soil would be your niche. What niche are you going to “plant” your blog in? Is there room for you? Will it be too crowded for your blog to stand out? And, if you can be the first to jump into a niche and start tilling, that may be all the better for you too!

Roots. Your blog needs to have some good roots. You need your roots to reach into the soil. They need to grab hold for stability and also absorb the nutrients around them. Your blog needs good roots too. You need to establish yourself by defining the basics that will form your roots. You’ve decided on your niche; now, how will you reach into that niche and grab hold? Your blog roots are your blog concept and fundamentals that will set you apart and keep you grounded. What makes you different from all the other bloggers out there covering the same topic, and how will you continue to differentiate yourself from them to maintain a firm grip on your niche?

Water. A garden needs the right amount of water, and most crops will do well to have a consistent watering program, whether it’s daily or weekly, depending on the crops’ needs. For your blog, the watering will be the frequency you post. This can be daily or even weekly. The important thing is, whatever you decide, to maintain that frequency. Neither blogs nor gardens do well to have long periods of drought interrupted by brief and sudden floods.

Weeds. Like weeds that need to be pulled from your garden, you’ll also need to deal with spam comments on your blog. Need any more be said on this topic? The fortunate thing is, unlike gardening, there are automated tools available that can help stop most spam from ever even posing a problem.

Fertilizer. A garden will do better with some regular feeding by way of fertilizer. Here is where we deviate from the garden model. To help feed your blog, you’re going to need to spread the fertilizer on other blogs by way of quality comments. Here, spreading manure around isn’t going to be helpful. You’ll want to stick with the man-made fertilizers. You want to participate on other blogs, really interacting with them, in order to earn that kind of interaction and feedback back to your own blog. Here sharing your fertilizer with other bloggers is really a good thing for you and your blog.

By understanding the soil, roots, water, weeds and fertilizer in your blog garden, you can really help your blog garden to grow and produce bountiful crops!

As always,
Believe. Act. Achieve!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 at 11:10 pm and is filed under Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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