Are hanwritten blogs worth it

[LD]

Two part question:

I've been wanting to do a real handwritten blog. Do you think it's worth the time investment from a profit perspective? Some bloggers are reporting making as much if not more with automatic sponsor fed blogs.

And if you do recommend doing a handwriiten blog, would starting a new one with a new domain be preferable to converting an existing one? What I'm getting at here is I have a PR2 domain which is 100% rss fed now...I could just convert it. Would I be better off starting a new one?

[T Pat]

LD I think you would be better off going with the established blog, that way you can always switch it back to RSS Feeds if you discover writing feed posts isn't your thing or isn't worth the effort

[walrus]

Yes, handwritten blogs are worth it. Don't believe what other people report, is your RSS blog meeting your expectations? My experience tells me a different story.

Starting a blog from scratch is a pain but ...

I'd follow T Pats advice as you may find writing posts to be well, not your cup of tea.

[Cleo]

Personally I find most people's handwriting rather hard to read.

[bDok]

Do both. I mean once the RSS feed blogs are setup and running you kinda just need to keep your eye on them.

[hashbury]

Ive set one day a week to do nothing but write blog post. I have 30 rss fed blogs, and 7 handwritten blogs. The traffic from google with my rss blogs is slim. But If my hand written blogs are updated they recieve tons of traffic from google. My rss blogs have not made hardly any sales compared to my handwritten ones.

[Lucifuge]

Worth the time investment? If you enjoy blogging then sure. As far as from a profit standpoint, although I've made some sales, I haven't been at it long enough to really tell. I have fun blogging, I usually write off the wall, goofy posts. I started doing it more or less for fun as I am a Wordpress n00b and am still learning about it.
Then people started commenting and emailing saying they thought a post was hysterical, or it was cool, or that they can't stand the blog lol (gotten a fair share of those!)
I really hate using RSS feeds, but I like to update daily. I am guilty of using 'em when uninspired or don't have time to write a decent one.

T Pat hit it on the second part of your question.

[tasman]

Originally Posted by walrus

Yes, handwritten blogs are worth it. Don't believe what other people report, is your RSS blog meeting your expectations? My experience tells me a different story.

Starting a blog from scratch is a pain but ...

I'd follow T Pats advice as you may find writing posts to be well, not your cup of tea.

I would Go For the Brand Spanking Web site using only hand written Post and that way you can see what the SE is doing rather than the other Blog that has a higher Pr Ranking and then you can always turn that one in to a Hand written Blog Later and you will have Learned so much more....Se loves Hand written text ..... Good Luck....

[LD]

I can crank out dedent custom post, but I do seem to run out of things to say after a while. Custom written blog post are pretty cheap...what you do guys think about those?

[walrus]

Originally Posted by tasman

I would Go For the Brand Spanking Web site using only hand written Post and that way you can see what the SE is doing rather than the other Blog that has a higher Pr Ranking and then you can always turn that one in to a Hand written Blog Later and you will have Learned so much more....Se loves Hand written text ..... Good Luck....

So many people start blogging and then realize it's not their thing, whether it's because they don't like to write or it's a lot of work and the return is really long term not short or they'd rather spend time building other things, I almost always advise to use something you don't care about or something like LD has were there is a feed blog. Otherwise you can end up with a domain that you either use for something else or just turn the blog into a feed blog anyway.

Originally Posted by LusciousDelight

I can crank out dedent custom post, but I do seem to run out of things to say after a while. Custom written blog post are pretty cheap...what you do guys think about those?

I know some people who don't write at all for their own blogs and buy posts. It must work for them.

Personally I believe for a blog to work it needs to have a single voice. In other words the posts should sound the same and be written in the same style. So if I were going to buy posts it would be one writer for one blog.

[NY Jester]

I am very new to blogging. I have two hand written blogs as of today and a third in the works which should be back filled by mid-week. I really like it. I also like the fact that with each post or I should say each week that goes by,I see the SE traffic increasing. Id go with a new domain fresh install and go from there. That way you can see it grow and where the growth comes from.

[oOghostriderOo]

I also think handwritten is the way to go, just be sure to know your niche and enjoy writing about, it's not much fun writing the 50th post for something you don't care for.

[T Pat]

I still think going with your established splog is the fastest way to
A, Make a Buck
B, Test the bloging waters to see if it's really your thing
I know it's not my thing, the second I sit down to write a post my mind goes blank

[Simon]

Originally Posted by Cleo

Personally I find most people's handwriting rather hard to read.

Yeah, that's why I usually print everything.

Originally Posted by LusciousDelight

I've been wanting to do a real handwritten blog. Do you think it's worth the time investment from a profit perspective? Some bloggers are reporting making as much if not more with automatic sponsor fed blogs.

I think this question is sort of related to asking about making your own graphics and designing your own paysites. What I mean is that it's kind of a skills and talents kind of thing. If you're already a good writer, if you find writing about things very easy to do (even things which don't interest you that much), and particularly if you understand what's involved in creating and maintaining a 'voice' for the blog as Walrus mentions, then writing your own blog posts may work for you.

But like creating graphics or building paysites, if you don't already have the necessary skills to launch and sustain a personally-written blog you may not do that well trying to do it yourself.

It's a different kind of surfer too. Sure, there's always some crossover, but you need to understand the mindsets of the visitors and returning visitors to a blog you're writing yourself. And it's very important to remember that they're not just coming for the porn. They can find that lots of places. If all you'll do is write about porn in basically the same ways that sponsors do in their RSS feeds, you may be better off just rewriting the text in sponsor feeds, changing and adding photos, changing the alt and title attributes, and doing whatever else you can to make the post different than what may appear on another site.

The best test I know of to tell you whether or not you should do all your own blogs posts is to list the "real" blogs you visit every day or every few days in order to read what the owners of those blogs have to say. If you're not visiting at least of few of them regularly because you really like what the owners have to say and enjoy visiting their blogs, then you most likely should skip trying to do one of those yourself. Writers must first be readers.

HTH some.

[ronnie]

I think every one knows my answer.. But Simon brings up a good point and that is re-writing. I've done that quite often and to me it's much closer to handwritten. I know I've done it because, as we all know, after a while it's hard to come up with new writing, or your not feeling inspired, ect. Not to mention it can make for faster posting. Course many much to change it is a good question.

This question is also not one that can be answered with an easy yes or no, there are some variables. The big variable being how well the posts are SEO'ed. Also how SEO'ed the theme is, code v.s. content, if going after high traffic keywords or lower traffic long tails. Most blogs I've seen have poor SEO. I also think a big factor is, how often the blog is updated.

Just my thoughts.

[hdpblog]

I try to handwrite fairly entertaining posts on my blog (www.horndogpornblog.com). At least entertaining is the word most people use to describe them. I particularly like the story about baskin robbins, but I can't claim 100% credit due to a friend taking charge there.

[Mr. Blue]

Originally Posted by ronnie

I think every one knows my answer.. But Simon brings up a good point and that is re-writing. I've done that quite often and to me it's much closer to handwritten. I know I've done it because, as we all know, after a while it's hard to come up with new writing, or your not feeling inspired, ect. Not to mention it can make for faster posting. Course many much to change it is a good question.

I really consider the "re-write" handwritten or maybe assisted handwritten? lol. I know it might be a matter of semantics, but making an rss feed presentable, fixing it up, making it in your own style...that just = handwritten to me.

The only thing it does save is a little mental power coming up with the initial theme / focus and you don't have to select the content.

[RedCherry]

Originally Posted by T Pat

I know it's not my thing, the second I sit down to write a post my mind goes blank

I always think there are just so many ways to say "couple on a couch fucking", lol. I do so many galleries for women that feature just that, man it is had to come up with words not only to describe the gallery, but then to try and blog about it with even more words.

[Agent]

Originally Posted by RedCherry

I always think there are just so many ways to say "couple on a couch fucking", lol. I do so many galleries for women that feature just that, man it is had to come up with words not only to describe the gallery, but then to try and blog about it with even more words.

I find it best to treat the blog like it belongs to a character who is based on yourself. I'll take an experience from my past, like a trivial observation, blow it out of proportion, add some sex to it, and relate it to the gallery you're linking to. It works best with the kinds of sponsors who add "story lines" to their scenes. Sometimes they give you the grain and you can just run with it.

I've gotten few of my post ideas sitting in front of the laptop. Usually I get them on the way to the coffee maker downstairs or while out getting groceries or sitting in a coffee shop. Sometimes you look at someone and just make a little story about them in your head. Voila! Blog material.

If you have absolutely nothing to write sometimes it will suffice to just paraphrase the scene's storyline but make it more humorous and throw in some perspective from your character.

I think that's the only way you can keep people coming back (and to keep yourself from getting bored typing in the same repetitious keyword-laden blog content, over and over.)

[Rochard]

Everything I do is handwritten. Coming up on 200 blogs here shortly.....

[tigermom]

In my experience, what generates traffic is the amount of promotion. I have RSS blogs with lots of traffic, and handwritten blogs with little traffic (and the opposite cases too). What determines the sales is how targeted the traffic is, and how niched the blog. Yes, sales text plays a role as well, but some sponsor feeds are great that way, while others suck. Then again, I'm sure the same can be said for "handwritten" posts. After all, you have writers writing the feeds for sponsors, and they may be better or worse than you, right?

I guess it boils down to duplicate content issues and SEO, not to the quality of writing per se. In my experience, duplicate content is a non-issue.

[Jeka]

In my opinion it doesn't really matter if you write interesting posts or not. People are searching for porn to jerk-off. There are very few people who are interested in reading what you have to say. Most people do not come back to your blog either.
My primary aim is to send as many visitors directly to the paysite tour. Thus I do not even link the thumbnails to galleries anymore but tour pages.
Create yourself 3-5 different ways of writing a post and then repeat. Who cares if your blog is boring and every post sounds the same?

[elKabong]

Originally Posted by Jeka

Who cares if your blog is boring and every post sounds the same?

I wonder whether all the text being very similar in structure would affect how Google views the page?

[faxxaff]

In my experience it comes down to 2 factors:

- creative talent as a writer
- knowledge of the niche

If both go together a blogger can easily create a good blog that is worth the time reading and sales will come automatically. With a bit graphic spice and basic SEO success is easy. If one of the 2 above mentioned factors are missing people will feel lack of knowledge or experience difficulties in reading, hence you won't be able to earn their trust and they won't return to your site.

[hdpblog]

What is the general consensus on stories that stray a little bit from the material being posted? Example here: http://www.cocksmugglers.com/2008/08...o-fucking-hot/

It's a lot of text, but is it overkill is or this acceptable once in a while?