I’ve been wondering this recently. What makes a blog successful? Do you count the number of subscribers and measure that against other blog giants in the industry? Do you count the amount of money your blog makes? To answer this question, we first need to determine your blog’s purpose.

Why do you blog? Take a minute to think about it. I’ll wait.

Many may blog to vent, provide information, sell a product, advertise an idea, or simply to expound on hot topics in their particular niche. Now tell me – what does a succesful blog look like? Does it have high subscriber numbers? Does it have a sleek appearance? Does it nail down content on a regular basis? (What?)

 A blog’s success depends on our own definition of our blog. One blogger may be comfortable with a blog’s few readers, while the next blogger wants a thousand and one people to open their RSS feed daily. The difference is in perspective.

Do you look at your blog as a business?
If you do, for a moment consider it a brick and mortar store. The more customers that walk through the door, then the more potential sales you’ll make. Stores do things for a rhyme and a reason too. Don’t think the 80’s music softly pedaling you through the store aisles isn’t by design. It is. Grocery stores have an entire science behind placement of products on shelves, location, and all. They want you to find this, so you then realize you need something else across the store.

The same principles apply to a good blog. A person may come in looking for SEO tips, and realize they’ve found a goldmine and explore further into the store. The repeat customer is the RSS subscriber, so the RSS feed count does make a difference, when considering the success of a blog as a business. It doesn’t mean as much as constant traffic, but you need folks coming through the doors, right?

A blog as a personal outlet
This type of blog derives success from far different metrics. The personal outlet blog frees a person up to spout political rants, to editorialize on current events, to gossip, mudsling, parlay, and otherwise vent in a secure place. These blogs do become vastly popular. They sometimes even morph into blogs as a business. Once the traffic comes into the site, their ad space revenue starts to add up. These blogs take a liking to it, and often times the blogger will kick down cubicle walls to be at home. They have a pioneer spirit.  As soon as that happens, they rely on the business aspect, and the walls of a personal blog’s success crumble away as well.

In the beginning though, a personal blog’s metrics lies with the quality of writing. Like me, many of you have probably experienced the exuberance over RSS numbers, but the real challenge, and the real joy comes from the writing and the process. Blogging becomes a lifestyle. It’s success everyday when we interact, engage, and entertain strangers through an online medium. We are writers, poets, pranksters, and socialites. That’s the success of the personal blog. It’s a unifier and a societal lens.

So to gauge your blog’s success you should first consider your blog’s purpose. If you want to make money, then success may have to wait for dollars and readers to sign up. A personal blog finds success when it reaches a true voice, when the author finds themselves laying in bed with an idea too good to lose to sleep. They stretch, find a pad or laptop and jot it down for its birth on the web the next day.

Google has smiled upon me! I just checked my site’s Pagerank and much to my surprise the site now has a Pagerank of 4. This must be how those WoW junkies feel when they finally level up their level 59 character.

I sat on the fat zero for about three months. Of course, I’ve been preoccupied these past weeks, so maybe this Pagerank update went into effect while I was hibernating. I don’t know for sure. I think it’s a recent development. Either way, it’s good news for the Jason Boom dot com site.

From what I understand of Pagerank, it helps have your pages rank higher in search engines. It represents the number of quality links back to your site’s content. As the name implies, each page on my site has a different rank. Some of the pages don’t register, while others hold a 3 or 2. I’m curious if anyone has written a definitive guide of Pagerank. I would love to read it.

Building Content and Links

Many bloggers will tell you that content reigns supreme. It’s true. Relevant content has a long shelf life. I just recently experienced a stumble rush from the 100 Why Not Activities for Bloggers. It was featured on Lorelle’s site and touched off a mini-camp of link passing and traffic blitzes. I can’t argue with that. I can only imagine what will happen with the blog as the years go by. Some stories may come alive again, while others may die cold and alone in the archives.

The content I’ve created so far has received a good amount of links. I would say the results have caused me to have the Pagerank of 4, rather than a 3 or a 2.

It probably didn’t hurt that I kiss my computer before I write each post, blow on my keyboard, and bury two fingers in my temples when I’m fishing for explosive content. We all have our routines, right?

Blog contests seem to run in the vein of money giveaways, Entrecard freebies, or something over the top. It’s all a ploy, right? Blog owners holding contests simply want backlinks and new subscribers. Exactly, but why not?

John Cow worked with his sponsors to create a unique contest where he’s giving away an Xbox 360 Elite with a copy of GTA IV. While this prize may not attract everyone, it certainly appeals to me.

The Cow has also decided to sell his blog. Do you want a MMO site to moo users? You could buy it right now. Heck, you’ll only have to pay $50K to snag it.

I talked a few weeks ago about the prospect of selling a blog. I still stand by my thinking that its up to the owner. I am still very interested in seeing how this pans out for John. I’m sure he’ll receive nice coin from the deal and he’ll be happy for a while, but can you really put value on the overall experience of running a blog like his? Maybe its just time to move on in life. It does happen.

Back to the original topic — the contest. So John worked with his hosting provider to offer the prize. THC also gives JohnCow readers 15% off their hosting purchases. I think this is a great way to go about holding a contest. It not only increases his backlinks, but frees him up from spending money on prizes.

I’ve been approached to sponsor contests in the past. Many of the contest owners seemed to be holding onto the idea that sponsors should want to just throw out large prizes. Where’s the real value though? In The Cow’s contest, the sponsor should see nice traffic. The prize costs around $500, but for a business this might net them more than $500 in return. That’s how it should be.

Contest owners shouldn’t approach Jason Boom to sponsor some outlandish prize. I’m not a business. I’m not selling anything. How could I receive a return for a $500 prize? Better yet — how could you convince me I would receive $500 worth of anything in return?

It will be sad to see The Cow taken over by someone else. I suppose it will be like that strange cow costume you always see on lame TV shows. The guy in the front half of the costume will switch with the guy at the back. Soon we’ll get used to his personality and one day he’ll probably sell the whole costume. By then it will worn and tattered – a shell of its former greatness.

It’s a question that this blog cannot answer. I’m not going to comment on the great beyond. There’s a twist though — what happens to your blog if you die? I thought of this topic a while ago, but held off posting. I didn’t want to cause anyone grief. Bloggers are typically young, vibrant beings. We’re not going to die, right? Well, according to a recent NY Times article, bloggers may be in peril of experiencing a Big Crunch, so I want to explore this morbid topic.

Before we kick the proverbial bucket, we often times setup wills to carry out our wishes. Our will forks over our boatload of affiliate earnings to our next of kin or the neighborhood postman, depending on our eccentricity. So what happens to our online lives? I’ve personally witnessed MySpace pages fill up with comments for the deceased. I’ve read blog posts written postmortem (gives new definition to that term). I’ve seen blogs with guest appearances from loved ones explaining the sad affair. Whatever the case, our content survives us. Isn’t this what we want?

What if we have affiliate programs setup where our family members don’t surf? Should we catalog our online affairs so someone could access our earning reports, blog posts, and other doings? We do have passwords and logins to a number of ad networks, affiliate programs, blogs, and social media sites.

I thought of building a website to capture this information securely, but it would be horrendous for convincing people it wasn’t a scam. The online safety deposit box. A virtual time capsule ready to store for that ill fated time.

But I don’t think it would be popular for one major reason. We don’t want to think about death. It’s the same reason I fretted about this topic myself.

I searched many sites, looking through Terms and Conditions on Amazon for instance, but couldn’t find anything related to death. I guess they don’t believe in customers leaving this world.

I also searched for websites related to retrieving passwords of the deceased. I expected to find harrowing tales of customer service calls by grief stricken relatives, but found instead a site dedicated to members of MySpace who died, aptly named MyDeathSpace.com.

How can it be that with a wealth of online content, I can’t find the answer to a simple question — what happens when we die? Are our online lives separated from health concerns, natural disasters, and other mortal fears?

The Solution As I See It

We need to create a spreadsheet with the sites we use that have importance to us. Our loved ones might need to know exactly in what pot we were cooking. The spreadsheet doesn’t have to include a password, but simply the URL and login used. I’m sure with the proper paperwork the person invoking the rights of your estate could secure access.

The only other solution would be to live forever. I don’t mind that solution. I embrace it actually. But unfortunately its not a reality. It’s better to keep a postmortem post handy and provide a loved one with a spreadsheet to our lives.

With the rain coming down all around you, have you ever paused between your car and the door of your house to feel the cool water?

Moments can be universal. We can share a specific instance with our readers and invite them to relate on an entirely new level.

We may relate to our readers through any of the following commonplace blogging dilemmas:

1. I have nothing to write about.
2. My comments have dropped dramatically.
3. I need more traffic.
4. Where’s my money from Adsense?
5. Will I ever make money from my blog?
6. How do I [insert WordPress functionality here].

The most important reason to write blogosphere truths? Trust. We can share a trial on our own blog and guide readers towards a solution. (What solution am I providing now?)

This isn’t groundbreaking stuff. Some of the more popular blogs offer advice, tutorials, life hacks, and more. They have found a way to give away what comes naturally to them. In this way, they’ve built a niche around their particular expertise and interest. It’s a win-win. Readers gain information and the bloggers gain an audience.

Blogging Like Kindergarteners

In kindergarten we all learned one thing — how to share.

It’s universal that we learn to share with others at an early age. The mountain of Web 2.0 content has been derived from this concept. It’s users sharing creations with others. It’s the pinnacle of kindergarten success. Mrs. Redwick would be proud.

So do what comes naturally, well, as naturally any lesson taught at an early age provides. Share you insights. Share you moments. Be yourself.

What can you share with readers that may bolster their opinion of you?