I used to run a blog in 2008 and I got it to 6.5million page views before I quit it and I was featured in the book "Blogging Heroes" along with the founders of Lifehacker, Engadget, Ars Technica, Gizmodo and Boing Boing.
My key strategy when I was growing my blog was to find existing communities that would like what I was writing and then build relationships with those communities.
It was a huge time sink. I stopped blogging when my mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and getting away from "trying to be popular on the internet" gave me the distance to see that I wasn't getting anything out of it.
I also changed jobs to something more interesting and now that's where I put my passion instead of a hobby.
Made to Stick is an excellent read on the subject of branding and marketing. http://www.heathbrothers.com/madetostick/
I used to run a blog in 2008 and I got it to 6.5million page views before I quit it and I was featured in the book "Blogging Heroes" along with the founders of Lifehacker, Engadget, Ars Technica, Gizmodo and Boing Boing.
My key strategy when I was growing my blog was to find existing communities that would like what I was writing and then build relationships with those communities.