Hi guys,
A bunch of hand-written blogs can *** DEFINITELY WORK ***, it is working for me. I have about 35 or so "blogs" (I don't update them often or even at all) that get healthy amounts of targeted SE traffic and make enough sales to make some pretty great money.
If you want to see some examples, here's a list of my blogs:
http://www.babes-surfer.com/link-trade.html
They are all on their own IP addresses (probably important), own domain (possibly not that important SE-wise however it becomes a more credible site for trading + submitting to LL's/directories when the blog is on it's own domain) and they are interlinked in my blog network more or less by niche.
I have first page Google results for a bunch of quality targetted niche keyphrases. Average traffic to each blog varies from maybe 50 uniques a day to 400+ to 1300!
I also have an automatic link exchange script (LinkEx) on all of them which brings in about 75% spammy links (which I just delete) but the rest of the trades are good and seem like they keep my pages relevant or even climbing in the SEs.
Also I interlink my blogs before submitting them anywhere, therefore they get spidered right away and start getting a trickle of traffic even before "finished".
The blog script I use is a very simple one I got from Tom's Newbie Booster (
http://www.tomsnewbiebooster.com/ - no affiliation) back in 2006.
As I mentioned... I am having $$$ success with my blog network of about 35 or so hand-written adult blogs (and I'm making more).
Don't forget what your job is. Not to entertain the surfer but to make $$$. (At least, that's what my focus is.)
I see my blogs as text-heavy SE-friendly targeted traffic and sales generators. When you have 35 it starts to add up.
Sorry for the novel! There's a ton more I could say if anyone's interested or if you have a specific question.
Regards,
~ Latif