Inle Lake Myanmar
Did you ever hear the advice to blog from your heart?
I agree.
I guide bloggers to do so.
Sometimes I goad bloggers to blog from the heart on a daily basis; they need it. Way too many paper-chasers and popularity-seekers out there require an adequate blogging wake up call in one way or another. Alas, their rude awakening usually waits hiding behind miserable blogging metrics.
But never forget to use your head, too.
Logic takes you places. Planning grounds you. Following a practical strategy turns passion into profits.
True; passion makes your blogging career go. Passionate bloggers keep blogging through thick, thin and all in between. No way in hell would I still be blogging 17 years after day 1 unless I felt deeply passionate about this gig.
Blogging from the heart sustains you for the long haul journey. But it is not enough.
Blog from your head to follow a smart strategy. Be practical. Never let your passion run wild. That never works out well over the years. That always leads to blogging ruin.
You and I live in a practical world. Ideas morph into the tangible world. People do certain things to reach specific goals. People do certain things to get specific things. This is where head-based blogging comes into play. The passion needs to be corralled, not unlike a wild mustang being broken in for riding.
Blog from your center but use logic to follow a practical strategy.
Heart
Before any long road trip I fill the tank with unleaded.
Most cars still run on gas.
Gas fuels cars for the journey.
Passion fuels you for the blogging journey.
Something in the mind inspires you to blog. Without that something, you would just quit sooner than later.
In truth, most struggling bloggers quit versus gutting it out, for the masses lack blogging passion.
Profit-motivators are not enough. Being motivated by popularity metrics never cuts the mustard, either. Money and fame drivers temporarily motivate some until a harsh reality dawns upon these sleeping minds. No blogger gets famous and rich quickly. Prospering, well-known bloggers blog consistently for 1000’s of hours before thriving.
What motivates you before the money and fame arrives?
Passion fuels your journey.
Bloggers quit for various reasons but a healthy bunch throws in the towel when money and fame become long term goals and not the quick, easy goals each expected to come into form. Perhaps you expected to net thousands of dollars in a few months. Blogging to the tune of zero profits over those months forces most bloggers to quit.
Find your passion. Do what feels fun to you. What would you blog about if you never earned a penny? Start there. Play around with a few niches.
Assess demand to whittle down your list. Scour Google, Q and A sites and social media.
Pick a niche that melds your passion and reader demand.
Head
I struggled with this one for a while.
I definitely had the passion factor down cold. I loved to blog. I enjoyed helping people with content.
But I shoved my head into the blogging sand by looking past successful blogging strategies.
I will spare you all the gruesome details but these were a few of my mistakes:
- I blogged about multiple niches
- I charged a pittance for my products and services
- I accepted low quality sponsored content and backlinks solely to earn income
- I let anybody guest blog on my site
- I published thin content
Not using my head lead to each mistake.
I corrected each error by logically thinking through my haphazard strategy.
Turns out, blogging about one niche earned credibility. Pros taught me that. Charging premium rates for truly helpful products and services positioned me to prosper. Full-time bloggers guided me to do that.
I eventually stopped handing out links like candy to a baby (primarily in exchange for money) until I made it almost impossible to get a link on my blog. My job is to offer thorough blogging tips not to link out to specific bloggers.
I changed to publishing long form content and liked what I saw.
Why did I correct these errors?
I used my head to observe how my blogging passion had run amok.
Blogging “mistakes of passion” originate from wild-minded bloggers who do not slow down, calm down and use their mind to follow a successful blogging strategy taught by pros.
Turn around this unpleasant scenario by using your mind to:
- learn how to blog successfully from pro bloggers
- confidently follow a successful blogging strategy
- spot and correct mistakes
- tweak your plan if/when necessary based on your predominant state of mind combined with blogging statistics
Full-time bloggers follow proven strategies consistently. Each possesses a passion for blogging to fuel their journey. Yet using their noodle to work a practical strategy consistently allowed them to go pro.
For example, pros mindfully learned how to publish long form content well before going pro. Perhaps your heart adds energy and empathy to the content creating process but following a specific blueprint makes your passion tangible then profitable.
During my wild-eyed blogging days, I published short form content on multiple niches. Note; this was well before I created Blogging From Paradise Dot Com.
Spotting my lack of organic traffic flashed a serious red flag. I became motivated to follow a successful blog traffic strategy.
I reined in my passion to learn how to drive organic traffic from the pros.
I brought my head into the blogging process.
Conclusion
Blog from the heart.
But use your head to follow a successful blogging strategy.
Can you get anywhere if you do not know how to drive the car that you just fueled up?
Gas fuels a car.
Skilled drivers who learned how to navigate the roads via a sound plan and patient practice get from point A to point B successfully and safely.
