Why Are So Many Muslim Blogs Abandoned?

I spent the weekend searching for other Muslim blogs and was surprised to find so many quality blogs left abandoned. Abandoned blogs are a dime a dozen on the web – Islamic or not. It takes commitment to maintain a blog. If you are trying to build a community, it takes lots of content. I run two other blogs beside this one (Avid Writer and Avid Writer Communications, LLC), and can attest to the fact that there are times when it’s very difficult to continue supplying readers with the interesting content.

What Readers Want

The most important thing to remember when it comes to blogging is that the main reason people go online is to search for information. This is why the Internet has often been referred to as “the information superhighway.”

When I went searching online for Muslim business blogs and other blogs that provide expert advice on business topics, I found some really amazing sites, but was surprised to find so many were seemingly neglected or abandoned altogether. I assume a blog that hasn’t had a post in four months is abandoned, although its owner could always return to resurrect it back to life.

Although the deluge of blogs that have descended onto the web can be intimidating and does make it more difficult to stand out as “unique,” I still recommend this platform as a strategic tool for promoting business and building relationships with your online target market. For instance, if you run an ecommerce site selling jilbabs and abayas, you can keep your readers informed about new items, special deals, make seasonal suggestions (i.e. fabrics best for Summer vs. Winter), take surveys/polls and initiate discussions to determine what your customers really want. It’s a good way to keep your finger on the pulse of your customer base so that they’ll keep coming back.

A couple of months ago I took part in a 10 week blog internship and learned a lot. With all of the sophisticated online marketing strategies you here about on the web, I was surpised to find that when it comes to blogging basic strategies still work best:

Comment regularly. Believe me when I tell you that there’s nothing more frustrating than getting hooked on a blog and finding yourself deprived of the fresh content you’ve come to depend on. Take time to research what matters to people in your particular niche and give them the information they want.

Create interesting headlines and sub-headlines. This is how you draw your readers in. This is not an area where you should not take shortcuts. If your headline isn’t strong, you’ll have a hard time attracting readers.

Link to posts within you blog. This is known in SEO (search engine optimization) as interlinking. If you mention a topic that you’ve written about before, be sure to link to the older post using a rich keyword phrase (don’t just hyperlink nondescript words like “click” and “here”) as anchor text.

Comment on other blogs. This crucial to the socializing aspect of blogging (which is priority) and it is a proven backlinking strategy. When you comment on other blogs, you usually fill out a form that requests your name, email and website info. Be sure to provide your website info on the form (not in the body of your posts- this appears self serving). When readers click on your name they will be transported directly to your blog.

Promote your posts. This is easily done using a number of forums and social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin.

There is so much more I could say about blogging that I think I’ll spend the rest of this week exploring different areas of this topic in more detail .

photo credit: Kristal Kraft ~ DenverDwellings