This is a blog about blogging, as well as related subjects. As everyone is surely well aware, there are already an awful lot of them out there!

That's because millions of people love blogging. They also see their blogs as an opportunity to make money. So there's this huge interest in this particular niche as well as massive competition.

Occasionally I've wondered whether it was a wise decision to choose such a saturated niche. But I do still think it's worth it. You should always write about a subject you enjoy regardless of its popularity, after all.

Break the subject down

Still, the competition can be overwhelming. So how do you overcome this problem? One way is to break the subject down a bit. For example, the big obsession bloggers have is how to get more targeted traffic. So there are countless posts about how to achieve this.

But if you've got a new blog you'll just never compete for a keyword phrase like "how to get traffic to a blog". So you should focus on just one method of getting traffic, and maybe break it down even further.

Take getting traffic from comments, for example. You could write posts about how best to approach this, answering questions like: Can you do too much commenting? Is daily blog commenting a worthwhile strategy? What are the potential pitfalls of commenting for traffic?

New angles

Perhaps there's another angle you can take. And this very post is an example: problems that you encounter when blogging about blogging.

Other questions that suggest themselves include: Is it worth writing a blog about blogging? Which are the best blogs in this particular niche and why?

When you look at a subject in different ways you can generate an unlimited amount of relevant and interesting content.

A big surprise

The endlessness of this particular niche has been a big surprise to me. That's because long ago, when I started to blog, I never thought the subject of blogging itself was all that interesting. I just saw it as a quick and free form of self-publishing. So I would just write posts about all the things that I found interesting, particularly politics.

Now, however, I've discovered that blogging is a whole world unto itself. The way people bring traffic to their blogs; how they establish authority in their respective niches; the methods they use to make money -- these subjects are all fascinating to me now.

And maintaining that fascination is crucial. You must write about what you're genuinely interested in. If you do that you'll constantly be learning new things and experiencing original insights. This will supply you with endless fodder for blog posts -- whether you blog about blogging, or another subject entirely.

Occasionally in this blog I recommend products and/or services. Some of the links I include are affiliate links. Needless to say, I'll be getting a commission if you eventually end up buying what they link to.

Please be assured that whenever I do this it won't only be because I want to you buy something! (Though of course it's nice when that happens.) I'll only ever link to products that I myself have purchased and used, or have done a lot of research about and know to be good quality.

Engagement with other members is very important when using Twitter, particularly if you are using it to promote a product or service. You can do this in various ways. Retweeting is one of the simplest and most beneficial.

Value for followers

You should do it a few times whenever you're logged in. It gives value to those who are following you -- but only when you are retweeting good stuff, of course. So you should be choosy about what you retweet. Don't do it merely for the sake of it.

And giving value to your followers is important. By repeatedly sharing quality content you are reminding them that you're a good source of information and they'll keep an eye out for you. Then when you come to tweet, say, one of your own blog posts, they will be that much more likely to click on the link.

Simple and quick

Retweeting is also very easy to do. While you can cut and paste the tweet itself and put the RT in front of it, as many people prefer to do, you can also just press a button. That's quicker. And you are still getting on the radar of the person you retweeted.

Being retweeted is a buzz

Those whom you've retweeted will definitely appreciate the fact that you've done so. So they'll be more likely follow you back if they haven't already. They'll be more likely to retweet you after a while, too. And if some of those who do this are big time influencers with massive followings, it can help lift your profile immensely on the site.

Leads to more engagement

Quite often they'll say thanks for the RT. When they do, that's a really good sign. It proves conclusively that they've noticed you. Whenever they do this -- particularly the first time -- it's a good idea to say "my pleasure" or words to that effect. Since you've conversed with them already, it'll be much easier to strike up a conversation with them in the future, too.

Clearly, retweeting confers benefits all on its own. It's also an excellent complement to other forms of engagement. (To learn more about using Twitter check out the excellent ebook Twitter Dummy, listed in the right panel.)

If you have a Facebook page, you'll want to get likes to it. Interacting with other Facebook pages in your niche is an effective way to do this. So you'll want to find and like as many of these as possible. (And remember to be logged in as the page you want to promote when you like them. Then when you interact with them, your page name is what's displayed.)

Facebook search

You can locate a lot of relevant pages simply by searching within Facebook itself. You just type your chosen keywords into the search box and click on the Pages button in the search filters. But if you are really determined to find a lot of pages then this method probably won't supply you with enough of them on its own.

Google, Bing, Yahoo

So, you should then move outside the "walled garden" of Facebook and search on Google, Bing and Yahoo as well. Just type in your chosen keywords along with "Facebook page". This will supply mixed results, but if you do it often enough you're sure to find ones you haven't seen already.

The pages themselves

If you've used both these techniques then you would have accumulated quite a few of them. And you can use these to find even more. Just look at the likes of each of these pages. They usually list several, sometimes scores of other pages in their niche. Helpfully, Facebook tells you which ones you've like already. It's kind of like going from blog to blog via the comments. You'll never run out of them.

Blogs

And speaking of blog-hopping: That's yet another way to find new Facebook pages. This is because a substantial proportion of bloggers already have their own pages. They almost always have badges for them (much as I have on this one). So, make sure that you're logged into Facebook while you're looking for new blogs. You can join them as quickly as you find them, then.

Facebook users

You can also find new pages via the contributions of others. You'll see these in the top right hand corner of each page as well as below each update in the form of likes and comments. A good percentage of them will be from other pages. And if they are from individuals, you can check them out too. A fair proportion of them will have liked several more pages in the same niche as the one they've commented on or shared a link with.

If you use several of these methods to find new Facebook pages, before long you'll have hundreds of them to interact with as your own. You can engage with them repeatedly and thereby get on the radar of many more people.

I've been blogging on and off for about a decade now, and I've noticed a repeated pattern in how I approach the medium. I have started several, writing them for many months, sometimes racking up hundreds of posts. Then I have just lost motivation.

Months -- even years -- later I've returned to them. I've had a burst of enthusiasm for a while, adding lots of new content, then stopped again.

I've often thought to myself that this was a waste of time, and that I should just backup all the content and take them offline. But then I think, no, not yet. I'll leave them up there a while longer ...

Don't delete old blogs

Ultimately I think this is the best approach. You should always keep your old blogs online. That way, you can always come back to them and start anew. If you give it time you'll have different ideas when you return. You can regain your enthusiasm about them and become more creative again.

By looking through all those old posts you'll realize how much you've learned since writing them. This will spark ideas for new blog posts. Or you can rewrite many of the old ones, including all the new and improved information.

Blogs are "public notepads"

A friend once said to me that a blog is like a public notepad. I've always remembered that observation. I think it's very true.

It's worth looking at a blog as a process rather than a destination. A book is like a destination. It's finished, complete. But a blog is much more fluid. It is a work in progress as opposed to a finished product.

That said, you can always turn your blog into a book -- then sell that very book off the blog that spawned it!

Free blogs can be advantageous

Because blogs are inherently fluid and changeable using free blog platforms like Blogger is the best approach. You can then rack up a whole lot of content on several different blogs. You can let some of them become dormant, then come back to them when you're good and ready. And you won't have to spend any money doing this.

If you use self-hosted Wordpress blogs in this way, though, you won't be able to do this. If you have three or four of them it will just become too expensive.