7 replies to this topic

[doogie88]

Would hiring a writer to make daily blog posts be a bad idea? I understand unless you pay a lot, you probably won't get the quality you are looking for, don't know if readers will be interested, but it would add a lot of content, and some of the information would be pretty interesting.

ie Site on baseball.
Writer types "baseball" in google, and goes to 'news' section. Sees interesting topic, writes blog, links to article, and talks about it.
I think the quality would be decent, and some users may be interested in keeping up to date on baseball news, no?

[Randy]

It all depends upon the writer. And that's the problem.

What people see on your site is going to directly affect how they view you and whether they'll buy from you, or come back to visit your site again and again. Frankly, there just aren't that many really good writers out there. Those that are good are very, very busy and can charge top dollar. I seriously doubt you'd be able to afford one of these really good writers unless you've got a pretty significant budget.

Personally I'd never hire someone to write anything for me without having the ability to refuse it before it got posted to any of my web sites. Not because I don't trust them so much as that there is no way they could know what I have in mind for with my sites, what marketing angle I'm shooting for or even what target market I'm trying to attract. Anybody who would "get" all of that and take it into account in their writings would probably cost me 5-10 grand per month at a minimum to add content daily or even every few days. At which point I might as well make them a partner in the site and do a profit split so that I'm not carrying all of the risk by my lonesome.

[doogie88]

It all depends upon the writer. And that's the problem.

What people see on your site is going to directly affect how they view you and whether they'll buy from you, or come back to visit your site again and again. Frankly, there just aren't that many really good writers out there. Those that are good are very, very busy and can charge top dollar. I seriously doubt you'd be able to afford one of these really good writers unless you've got a pretty significant budget.

Personally I'd never hire someone to write anything for me without having the ability to refuse it before it got posted to any of my web sites. Not because I don't trust them so much as that there is no way they could know what I have in mind for with my sites, what marketing angle I'm shooting for or even what target market I'm trying to attract. Anybody who would "get" all of that and take it into account in their writings would probably cost me 5-10 grand per month at a minimum to add content daily or even every few days. At which point I might as well make them a partner in the site and do a profit split so that I'm not carrying all of the risk by my lonesome.

Thank you, nice opinion.
My only concern here is that in my niche, blogs are pretty dead, there is not one blog that is popular. I know one 'expert' has a blog, and I don't even think that gets much traffic. I guess that kind of brings me to, should I even make a blog if readership will be low? Is it worth it for the content and SE sake? Or is only worth it if I can build an audience and get people linking to it?

[Randy]

Is it worth it for the content and SE sake?

No.

Or is only worth it if I can build an audience and get people linking to it?

And yes.

If it's not going to get real users and offer them something of value it'll end up being a waste of time, effort and possibly money. All of which might be better applied elsewhere.

[doogie88]

No.

And yes.

If it's not going to get real users and offer them something of value it'll end up being a waste of time, effort and possibly money. All of which might be better applied elsewhere.

Alright. Thanks a lot.

[Nueromancer]

No.
And yes.

If it's not going to get real users and offer them something of value it'll end up being a waste of time, effort and possibly money. All of which might be better applied elsewhere.

if you do it right you can get both - we have a blog based site that get's geting on for .5 M Page views

Its hard work and requires you put in the effort to get there.

[Jill]

The fact that nobody's doing already in your market might mean that you have a good opportunity. I wouldn't worry about whether people are reading it at first. Just do it, and make it good, and get the word out. It could take awhile, but eventually you could build up a readership.

As to hiring someone else to write for you, sure, why not? If you can find someone who writes well and who you trust (and who also understands your business) it could be a great hire for you.

[torka]

Before you discard the idea completely, might be interesting to ponder whether blogs in your niche are "dead" because people aren't interested in the topic, or whether they're "dead" because the other bloggers just aren't that good at it. In general, there are a bunch of truly terrible blogs, a whole pile of mediocre blogs, and only a minority that are actually worth reading on a regular basis. Could be your niche just doesn't happen to be lucky enough to have one of those "worth reading" ones yet. Could be you might become that one if you put in the time and energy.

So is the niche "all dead", or is it only "mostly dead"? Because as Miracle Max says, if it's only "mostly dead", that means "slightly alive" and -- although it might take a miracle pill, a wheelbarrow, a holocaust cloak, a master swordsman, a giant and some clever bluffing to pull it off -- it can be a winner in the end if you're willing to put in the work.

My

--Torka