The title of today’s post was going to be passive aggressive blogging but, at the last minute, I decided that the title you are currently looking at was a little more appropriate. And, the term passive aggressive blogging describes something else entirely, something that I will write about in due course.
Something tells me you’ll prefer what I’m writing about today however, especially if you are trying to achieve, what is to some, the Holy Grail of blogging. Passive income.
It is entirely possible to generate long term passive income with your blog. I know it may sound like a pipe dream but stay with me for a few more paragraph and you’ll see what I mean.
Achieving blog traffic really isn’t that hard. You create quality content, ping the relevant services and engines and away you go. To achieve passive income however you need passive traffic. Not passive in terms of the action the traffic will take, but passive in terms of how it’s generated.
All you need, and I’m deliberately making it appear simple because this really is all you need, is timeless quality content.
If you write content that is timeless then, potentially, visitors will flock to read it in perpetuity.
It is entirely possible to build a number of blogs, perhaps one a month for a year, and fill them deliberately and aggressively with timeless quality content. Make sure your design doesn’t draw attention to dates, perhaps leaving them out all together both in the design itself and also in the permalink structure (just a couple of clicks in the wordpress settings panel), and you will soon have a large number of traffic magnets. And literally like magnets they will have permanent and passive attractive qualities.
Permanent traffic plus complimentary advertising equals passive income.
Timeless quality content is the key to passive income. Get it right and the pipe dream becomes reality.
Ashley,
You make a good point about timeless posts. Anything that is relevant across a range of dates is bound to be useful. I found myself bookmarking an article about the most efficient and space-saving ways to fold clothing and linens the other day. Of course, it was in an online magazine, so it was dated.
Removing dates from my permalink structure and re-structuring my site is a compelling thought, but I wonder what the impact is upon established sites. For sites that are already indexed and generating some traffic, no matter how little, updating permalinks without appropriate handling of old URLs (via 301) could cause a significant drop in traffic for a short while until the search engines and services catch up with the content again.
So my question is, what do you think? Should an established site with some timeless content consider restructuring, or is this tip best used with fresh sites?
Be well,
Ian
Ian – Restructuring would create a traffic drop, you’re right. But, it would only be temporary and the long term benefits should outweigh the short term loss. Especially if your content suited the new non-date format. It’s totally up to you, but I think I’d make the switch if I were in your shoes.
the real question is how to attract advertisers…