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Most bloggers start out with nothing and build up their image and content over time. With that they expect automatic traffic, instant fame and popularity. Some make it big, but most simply fail and give up. It all comes back to the reason why people blog. Some just do it for the sake of blogging, to kill time, to have fun and to share what they have in mind with the world. But others aim blindlessly for various moving targets. The latter don’t usually last when they don’t get what they want.

The Blog Herald has an excellent article by Duncan Riley about blogging perseverance. He talks about how one can generate and build traffic through perseverance.

You know, I don’t think I’ve ever met a person yet who doesn’t like people visiting their blogs, but I’ve know plenty of people who want more people to visit their blogs. Building up a number of blogs over the past few months has reminded me of a lesson that’s is sometimes forgotten in the pursuit of traffic and (for some) wealth on the blogosphere. Perseverance.

Very few people find fame and fortune through launching a blog overnight, but over time most people can build a reasonable audience, or even more, based on perseverance at blogging, literally going the distance.

He also shared a few tips for traffic building:

There are a few tips that will help you build your traffic over time:

Post regularly – I can’t emphasize enough that you wont build traffic unless you post regularly. Blogging should never be a chore but try setting a time each day you can spend reading and blogging as required. By all means take days off, but develop a pattern.

Post quality – You need to provide readers with a reason to return, and quality does it all the time. Quality is of course subjective, so some research in your market or amongst your peers might give you an idea of what works, or what isn’t being catered for.

Don’t give in – There are going to be times where you get the blog blues, where you’d ask yourself why you even bothered, we all get them at some stage, your success will be measured on your ability to get past this and get on with the task at hand. Remember, the longer you post and the more you post, results in more traffic from search engines, which means more visitors to your blog.

Happy blogging!

Link via ProBlogger.

Darren received a check of $14,436.45 from AdSense for the month of May 2005 from his collective websites/blogs. It surprised me as I never believed that one can actually make a living from blogging. It’s one dude in a million but his success is proof that one can really have fun and live well if you put quality efforts into whatever you’re doing.

Congrats Darren, I’m following right behind you man, stepping on your marked footsteps.

I just got a text from Lee right out of the shower telling me about the terrorist attack in London. So far they’ve confirmed two deaths at Aldgate. There were a few other explosions, seven to be exact, I think. I’m chatting with Lee now to find out more. He’s safe, so is Rupert his son and his girlfriend is stuck at the office. She was in the tube when one of the explosions stopped it. I just emailed my ex-boss but haven’t heard back from him. He moved to London three months ago. All the underground systems are blacked out. Tony Blair has officially declared this a terroris attack. I can’t seem to load any of the news channels right now, they’re probably overloaded. I’ll post more later.

Update: Here’s Lee’s post on the incident and here’s some official news from CNN and Hindu News.

More Updates: US sources confirmed 40 dead and a hint of Al-Qaeda involvement in the attack. And my ex-boss is safe and sound back home in the States. Apparently he was forced to leave because of visa problems.