Is including a blog in your site worthwhile?

[V-Network.com]

I've been reading in a bunch of places as to whether or not blogs are worth the trouble & whether or not the really get more traffic to your site. Granted this might be newbie territory, but I have a hard time believing anyone really wants to read or get that involved in opinion pieces since there are so many sites out there that are filled with people sharing "stuff"...

So...

In order to get the most out of the time you put into these things, what should they be about? Is it strictly PR? Industry related news? Site promotions & deals you're running?

Appreciate the input...

[jayeff]

What turned blogs into a bandwagon for this industry, was the supposed magic they worked with search engines. Which makes us dumb twice over, since we have known since before blogs were dreamed of that search engines produce the best results if given lots of text to feed on. Knowing that and having been reminded of it by the success of "real" blogs, many nevertheless went ahead and - since useful (in se terms) text was too much effort to produce - stuffed their "blogs" with pics and clips.

The rules for creating text which will appeal to search engines, are no different for blogs than for any other kind of site. But even for the few who follow those rules, the payback must be getting smaller as more and more blogs are published. The real magic of blogs is that they provide a platform via which you can produce something different, which visitors will enjoy and want to come back and see again.

That is huge! Check out any adult board you like and you will see that for years the advice to newbies is do something different, don't put up sites exactly like all the ones already out there. That is common sense advice, so where are all these different sites? The problem is that something like a TGP has a limited number of options before it starts to lose its functionality. So you can have a different toon designed, but it is still a toon. You can use this size thumb or that, but they are still thumbs. For a blog to be different, all you have to do is write.

The snag of blogs becoming a bandwagon, is that although it takes just a few minutes to put something online which looks like a blog, most of us are not budding authors who would be famous if only someone would publish our work. Writing things which people will want to actually read, is a mix of skill and knowledge/experience with which we are not all blessed. But there is only one way to find out if you have that appeal and that is to give it a shot.

I suspect (although I admit I cannot prove) that most of the PR-style blogs you mentioned gain very little from their text in terms of visitor retention. As you point out, why should anyone really care about yet another sales pitch? What and/or how can you write, such that you will pull in an audience?

I apologize for turning your own question back on you, but since you are the person who will be doing the writing, you are the only one who can answer it. Perhaps you have a view of porn (or can create a persona which has) which is humourous or outrageous. Perhaps you write erotic stories which you could "illustrate" and otherwise link to your sponsors. Maybe you have fantastic recipes for chocolate chip cookies and can figure out how to segue into porn from them.

Okay, that last is maybe (just maybe) over the top, but the point is that you need an angle and it needs to be something you can sustain day in and day out. Although some will have more potential than others, it's a big world out there so if you find such an angle and can execute it reasonably well, you are going to get yourself an audience.

Too tough? Well you can't run a blog which functions fully as a blog unless you can attract readers. But perhaps you can take some of the pressure off your writing skills by playing with the topic(s) of your blog? You don't have to churn out PR schtick to sell goth girls for example. If you are into darkwave music, write about it and mix the girls in. You like cars? Write about cars and drop in Twistys or some other sponsor who features the kind of girls car fans might fantasize being draped over their hoods. Nerd porn: review the latest overclocked quad whatever chip oh and look at the FF rack on this babe. Etc.

[V-Network.com]

Thanks for the reply, now I've gotta find what I'm interested in enough to sustain some kind of consistent composition LOL!

[Ms Naughty]

What Jayeff says is true. I think a good blog is more than just a pseudo TGP. But it takes up a lot of your time, time you could spend doing other stuff.

I think one of the secrets is to always think of your audience. Remember that they've been gracious enough to click on your link and now they're going to give you a bit of their time (although not much... be aware that you've only got seconds to grab their attention).

So you need to make it worth their while.

I think humor is one of the magic ingredients. If it's funny, you'll create a positive reaction and they may feel inclined to come back.

Encouraging repeat visitors is one of the main reasons to have a blog.

[SmithsMedia]

I just started a couple of blogs, I have avoided anything to do with feeds as I can not see the benefit of basically using a blog as a TGP. I also tend not to link to FHG's but join page to the site I am promoting.

Now content, if content is king and I dont produce movies or pictures then I have to knuckle down and write, how I do it is simple, download a heap of free content and then take out 10 pics at a time normally sizing them to about 450 x 450 then write a description of about three paragraphs.

At moment my blog is and will likely remain selling one model, so I joined the site site myself and watched a few movies read the bio etc etc to try to get a feel for the lass behind the site. Traffic is building up well again nothing astonishing but its happening.