Why do most blogs fail?

Technorati carried out some research in 2008 that showed that only 7.4 million out of the 133 million blogs the company tracks had been updated in the past 120 days. That means to 95 percent of blogs are essentially being abandoned and left to lie fallow on the Web, where they become public remnants of an unfulfilled dream.

Most bloggers start out thinking their world will change for the better when a publishing house will come knocking with a million pound book deal… but that couldn’t be further than the truth.

Many bloggers become despondent, too busy, decide they want their private life back OR simply run out of creative energy when it comes to blogging. It’s hard work with little reward at the beginning that’s for sure!

According to Richard Jalichandra, chief executive of Technorati, at any given time there are 7 million to 10 million active blogs on the Internet, but “it’s probably between 50,000 and 100,000 blogs that are generating most of the page views.” He added, “There’s a joke within the blogging community that most blogs have an audience of one.”

But, for the individuals or brands that stick at this ‘labour of love’ there is light at the end of the tunnel. Blogs open doors (FACT) as we have found with our own. It’s like a game of chicken in fact… the people who go the distance will at some point reap the rewards but the secret is to plan ahead and motivate yourself with traffic numbers, which bring reward in the form of business, fame or perhaps ad revenue.

The true secret to successful ‘individual’ blogging lies in niching the content and expressing human emotion. You also need to have a passion for something of course – there’s nothing worse than trying to dream up content that you couldn’t really give a stuff about.