Do you really HAVE to have original content to have a successful blog?

I'm not an experienced blogger. I run a graphic design blog. Some of the content is original, The other is not.

I find cool tutorials an group them together and post a link to the site they come from. Many say that blogs like this will never be popular since its is not original content.

However I have been to numerous blogs that are just like mine that are VERY popular. they do the same thing I do.

I don't know, Ive been having a dramatic decrease in visitors lately and have been brainstorming a lot. This is just a popular reason.

Figured some of you might have a straight answer and maybe some tips?

Thanks in advance

 

Contrary to popular "content is king" belief, I believe promotion is more important than content. A well written, original blog is not going anywhere if no one sees it, whereas even a "splog" can do well full of pulled articles if it's promoted in the right places.

One of my biggest blog earners is just a splog with affiliate feeds. I dont write any content for the site at all, but I do promote it to get targeted traffic, and that makes all the difference.

 

thank you very much for the reply. I was a little worried because i have put countless hours into this blog and being told that it would never go anywere because of not having original content was really a setback.

 

Sure, you must have original content and content that is unique. If your content is unique, where no one had blogged about it, then you get the attention of people for sure.

 

I think that you must have at least 50% or more original content on your site/blog to have a successful one, other wise why would people want to come visit your site when they can read the same content else where.

 

I think that sites like yours have their place in the blogosphere, they're nothing to be ashamed about! Grouping content is something that needs to be done, it's in demand.

If you're experiencing decrease in vistors, you need to find out why and fix the situation. Maybe your SEO is off, maybe you don't use your keywords properly, maybe you don't promote enough, maybe a competitor bushed you off to the second page in google. Find your problem and fix it!

 

Publishing fresh content everyday keeps your blog going strong.

 

You don't need original material but it would be a good idea to not copy stuff,.

 

One blog that I have been running for 10 months has gone from a PR0 to a PR2 and it has nothing on it but news items I've taken from other sites (with credit to theoriginal owner of course).

 

Absolutely Yes.
I am blogging since few years and in my experience, Copycat blogs are always a failure while my own articles gained a lot of traffic from Search Engines. Above all, fresh content will only provide you some extra backlinks from other blogs.
I have already written about the 'Importance of Fresh content in gaining maximum adsense CPC' in my blog.

 

Yes, promotion can be the most difficult part. Make sure you have at least some original content every now and then and I think you will be good!

 

Whatever it is, readers must benefit from the content.

 

Even with 100% original content, it will take more than just that to make a blog successful.

Think about it like this, you can have 100% really bad original content.

 

Thank you all for the great replies!

 

hem, great article, so basically, you must have an original content about 50 percent, promote it, reader must have benefit from the content, giving a fresh content, up date your page with the latest news, and that all i think.

 

"fresh content" means better than "original content"...fresh doesnt mean its an original, but fresh content could help people and they feel very helpful for its content...