Smart Strategies for New Bloggers
One of the hardest things to face about blogging is that moment after you’ve published a few posts when you realize that no one’s visiting your blog. It feels like a punch in the gut. You have two choices: give up or press on.
Many of you will press on. Good, but not good enough.
Stop! Clear your mind.
Now, think: what are the real differences between what you’re doing compared to a blogger you think is successful? They are not somehow magically just better than you. They are not doing the same things you’re doing, but just more of them, or faster. No.
Successful bloggers are doing entirely different things than what you’re doing.
Persistence is vital, don’t get me wrong. Determination is absolutely crucial. But persist in making smart decisions. Channel your determination into strategic long-term planning. Blogging success is not about beating your head against the wall, it’s about using your head.
When you’re new to blogging, blogging seems to consist of reading and writing blog posts. You read posts by other bloggers, get inspired, and then write your own posts. Then you check your pitiful visitor statistics.
You need to break out of this habit quickly if you want to succeed.
Think production, not consumption
Are all the top bloggers leaving hundreds of comments on other blogs? Hardly. Are they “above” that? No, they’re too busy researching and writing original content. An important way to be an original, find your voice, and write prolifically is to not read other blogs so much. I don’t even hardly pay attention to the news. Reducing input gives you room to nurture your output.
One third writing, two-thirds networking
Although you might think so based on what I said above, successful bloggers do not spend most of their time blogging. They spend most of their time networking. One of the biggest “secrets” to successful blogging isn’t blogging at all–it’s building mutually beneficial relationships with other people.
Where do you think your audience is going to come from? Who will link to you? Who will leave comments on your blog? Nobody, unless you are subscribing to, linking to, and commenting on other blogs. But not just any blogs. The right blogs. Forming a blog pack is one way to accomplish this. Becoming active in a few social media networks you like will help tremendously (StumbleUpon and Twitter have been driving mad traffic for me and many other bloggers). This doesn’t contradict what I said above: limit your commenting to a few influential or like-minded blogs.
Observe what others are doing, and then do something different
When others zig, you zag. Most people are sheep. Leading bloggers are not sheep, they’re shepherds. Do not follow the crowd. Easier said than done, I know. Avoid repeating news. By the time you repeat it, it’s old. Visitors to your blog see nothing original so they leave without subscribing (obviously, if your blog is a news blog, it’s different: then you want the scoop before anyone else). Do not quote somebody else and link to them and that’s your whole blog post. That is the most boring thing imaginable. Don’t write about something just because everyone else is. Baaa, baaa, baaa!
On the other hand, do not automatically assume an opposing position that you don’t really believe in. Do not piss people off if you can’t deal with their anger. Instead: look at the territory occupied by others, and then look for the gaps. Go for the gaps. That’s where you’ll find what hasn’t yet been said. Most of what I write about business blogging at Remarkablogger is stuff that nobody else is saying. This takes thought, time, effort, and restraint.
Purpose and audience
But all of the above are merely surface strategies compared to the biggie:
* Know your purpose
* Know your audience
Sounds easy enough, but these are the hardest of all. Why? Because we’re elusive with ourselves. We are not exact and specific enough in our thinking, so when we execute, we’re fuzzy and we’re all over the map. How to be clear? Write them down. Get feedback from others. Revise. What is the purpose of your blog? Who is your audience and what do they want? If your blog’s content is where those two things come together, your blog will succeed.
These are some of my observations what successful bloggers do differently than new bloggers. If you’re a new blogger and you’re serious about success, don’t do what you’ve been doing–do what successful bloggers do. Learn from the best. Not by reading what they write, but by doing what they do. Except for me. You should do everything I say.
Article From Pureblogging.....David Culpepper
Many of you will press on. Good, but not good enough.
Stop! Clear your mind.
Now, think: what are the real differences between what you’re doing compared to a blogger you think is successful? They are not somehow magically just better than you. They are not doing the same things you’re doing, but just more of them, or faster. No.
Successful bloggers are doing entirely different things than what you’re doing.
Persistence is vital, don’t get me wrong. Determination is absolutely crucial. But persist in making smart decisions. Channel your determination into strategic long-term planning. Blogging success is not about beating your head against the wall, it’s about using your head.
When you’re new to blogging, blogging seems to consist of reading and writing blog posts. You read posts by other bloggers, get inspired, and then write your own posts. Then you check your pitiful visitor statistics.
You need to break out of this habit quickly if you want to succeed.
Think production, not consumption
Are all the top bloggers leaving hundreds of comments on other blogs? Hardly. Are they “above” that? No, they’re too busy researching and writing original content. An important way to be an original, find your voice, and write prolifically is to not read other blogs so much. I don’t even hardly pay attention to the news. Reducing input gives you room to nurture your output.
One third writing, two-thirds networking
Although you might think so based on what I said above, successful bloggers do not spend most of their time blogging. They spend most of their time networking. One of the biggest “secrets” to successful blogging isn’t blogging at all–it’s building mutually beneficial relationships with other people.
Where do you think your audience is going to come from? Who will link to you? Who will leave comments on your blog? Nobody, unless you are subscribing to, linking to, and commenting on other blogs. But not just any blogs. The right blogs. Forming a blog pack is one way to accomplish this. Becoming active in a few social media networks you like will help tremendously (StumbleUpon and Twitter have been driving mad traffic for me and many other bloggers). This doesn’t contradict what I said above: limit your commenting to a few influential or like-minded blogs.
Observe what others are doing, and then do something different
When others zig, you zag. Most people are sheep. Leading bloggers are not sheep, they’re shepherds. Do not follow the crowd. Easier said than done, I know. Avoid repeating news. By the time you repeat it, it’s old. Visitors to your blog see nothing original so they leave without subscribing (obviously, if your blog is a news blog, it’s different: then you want the scoop before anyone else). Do not quote somebody else and link to them and that’s your whole blog post. That is the most boring thing imaginable. Don’t write about something just because everyone else is. Baaa, baaa, baaa!
On the other hand, do not automatically assume an opposing position that you don’t really believe in. Do not piss people off if you can’t deal with their anger. Instead: look at the territory occupied by others, and then look for the gaps. Go for the gaps. That’s where you’ll find what hasn’t yet been said. Most of what I write about business blogging at Remarkablogger is stuff that nobody else is saying. This takes thought, time, effort, and restraint.
Purpose and audience
But all of the above are merely surface strategies compared to the biggie:
* Know your purpose
* Know your audience
Sounds easy enough, but these are the hardest of all. Why? Because we’re elusive with ourselves. We are not exact and specific enough in our thinking, so when we execute, we’re fuzzy and we’re all over the map. How to be clear? Write them down. Get feedback from others. Revise. What is the purpose of your blog? Who is your audience and what do they want? If your blog’s content is where those two things come together, your blog will succeed.
These are some of my observations what successful bloggers do differently than new bloggers. If you’re a new blogger and you’re serious about success, don’t do what you’ve been doing–do what successful bloggers do. Learn from the best. Not by reading what they write, but by doing what they do. Except for me. You should do everything I say.
Article From Pureblogging.....David Culpepper
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