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Benefits of organic growth
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What's your motivation for blogging? What's your desired timescale? If it's "to become rich and famous as soon as possible", perhaps this post will dissuade you.
A sudden jump from unknown to well-known is not just highly unlikely, it's also a lot harder for it to be sustainable. Here are some benefits of growing your site organically, i.e. slowly but surely.
1. Fewer people see your early mistakes.
Do you remember your first day at work, or your first day in a new job? Did you know what to do and how to do it before you even got started? I know I didn't.We all make mistakes, but I think we make far more when we're starting out. You can be cautious and avoid some of the pitfalls, but I think it's better to jump in and learn as you go.
If you're new to running a blog or website, you're not going to get everything right first time. That's fine! Use sites like mine to learn as you go. Don't be afraid of making mistakes, but accept that it's better to make most of your mistakes when fewer people are reading your site.
Readers do accept mistakes so long as you're open and honest about what caused them and how you'll avoid them happening in the future. However, if you make a lot of mistakes, people aren't so forgiving.
2. Managing your time is easier.
If your first blog had dozens of comments from day 1 and you updated it once or twice every day, you'd probably run out of steam after a few weeks or a couple of months.You have to find your feet before you'll be able to pick up speed. Updating daily is not absolutely necessary, but it helps if you can do it. Strike a balance by always posting on the same days if you can. You don't even need to write a lot of content so long as you're regular.
If you find that it's taking too much of your time when you're starting out, perhaps you can shuffle some things around to free up some time. If not, maybe this isn't for you. Or maybe you just need to find a balance that works with your other commitments.
Starting out with a full head of steam is not a good idea until you know where you're heading. See how it goes before you race ahead too far.
3. Your readers are more likely to hang around.
Are you focused on attracting as many people as possible to your site, perhaps by submitting content to social sites such as StumbleUpon and Digg? Or are you focused on writing for a specific audience and drawing those people in by writing great content?The problem with traffic from social sites is that while you can get a lot of people to look at your site, it's either very sudden growth with an equally sudden decline (Digg) or sudden growth followed by a steady decline (StumbleUpon).
If you're more focused on quality rather than quantity, you may grow your site slower, but the growth will be more steady. Don't be put off by sites who have thousands of subscribers - it probably didn't happen overnight. (Although if it looks like it did happen overnight, try entering their Feedburner details into Blog Perfume's Feed Analysis tool to see what their stats really are. It's quite fun!)
I've found that while my subscribers go up and down every day, the changes are not massive. It seems to be steadily increasing, and I keep an eye on it to see how I'm doing, but my main focus is on writing great content that people can benefit from. If you're focused, it's much easier to achieve your goals.
4. You appreciate what it takes to get noticed.
I really enjoy blogging. I update my site, read and comment on other people's blogs, participate in forums, place ads, exchange emails and chat on instant messengers. There are a lot of things to keep up with and if you really want to get your site noticed, you need to do a lot of networking with other bloggers.There's a lot of effort involved, but when you start to see people enjoying your content and leaving great comments, you'll know it's been worth it.
Over to you...
Do you agree with these benefits? Can you think of any others?If you could significantly boost your readers overnight, would you want to?
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Comments on Benefits of organic growth
I think it all comes down to focus. If someone starts out with a view to become rich and famous AND sustain it... I can't blame them for having ambition, but reaching the end goal is a lot harder if you don't have a plan. Growth takes time.
So, if they find a successful formula that is sustainable, they've done well... but the higher they climb, the harder they fall.
Maybe I'm not taking enough risks?!
You can evolve, not sticking to one format, topic or layout over time. I've put a lot into my blog. It's an expression of myself and a victim to my mad science experiments. In the end it's the closest thing I have to a boy toy and it never leaves the seat up and I am world ruler in my own corner of the digital world.
Some people are just too anxious to get famous and/or make money quickly. If they can sustain it, then why not?