There are hundreds of millions of people online all the time, right? So you do a few quick calculations; say to yourself, if I can attract a few thousand out of several hundred million I can make a pretty neat income (from advertising, selling products or whatever). The next step is to build a web presence, kit it out, and start blogging. After all, that's what the experts all say you should do. Content is king...

Three weeks later, you've only had a handful of visitors, one of which was from your mom who thinks your site is great. But that doesn't really count. Now it's gotten to the point where you're stoically adding content each day in the hope someone will read it, let alone actually buy something. At this point the preponderance of new bloggers start looking elsewhere for something to do because blogging clearly doesn't work.

The question - What's gone wrong? - has any number of answers at this point, but I'm going to pick what I believe is the primary problem. All things being equal, the reason the blog failed is that three weeks worth of blogging is simply not sufficient to start pulling in a goodly number of readers. That's the reason the blog failed, the problem is that the blog was started in order to benefit a business or website and not to benefit the readers.

How could I possibly know that, you might ask. The answer comes from the evidence itself. If the blog was being written out of passion for the topic, or a passion for sharing information with people, then three weeks is a bit short for a passion to run it's course.

Let me say it like this:

The reason a blog succeeds is first and foremost because the writer sticks with it. It's easy to stick with someone you love talking about and sharing. People love talking about and sharing things they are passionate about. So, if you want your blog to succeed you simply have to find something you don't mind writing about for months and years to come.

In addition, I'd like to point out that readers aren't stupid. They can tell when a blog has a distinct bias towards a certain product or service, and if there's one thing readers can't stand, it's the feeling of being manipulated for corporate gain. This is another reason that genuine passion is important for success - as opposed to writing under the duress of a financial imperative.

If you can't stomach the thought of spending months or years contributing to your business or startup blog personally, but still feel it is important to have it (which it most certainly is), then there are still options available to you. There are plenty of good writers out there who can be convinced to contribute to your blog. Find experts and offer them exposure and credit in return for blog content. If you can find five people willing to write a single blog a week then you've got yourself a daily blog.

Remember:

While it may seem like some of the superstar bloggers sprang up overnight and were heaped with praise, recognition and (let's use a web term here) monetization, a bit of research will show you that they probably spent years working on their success with little to no reward.

Blogging is a crucial part of promoting your website and/or business, but it has to be done in a certain way, and the effort must be sustained and sustainable indefinitely.

If you write it - they will come!