Timaru New Zealand
I’ll publish long form blog posts for a few weeks.
I’ll publish short form content for a few weeks after that.
I may try to build my email list for a few weeks after that.
You complete each task for a few weeks. No traffic. No income. Three strategies up. Three strategies down. Oh well; at least you tried, right?
You know what?
You think you will start a podcast and embed it on your blog.
So you run a podcast for 3 months. But nothing comes together. 2 listeners. Virtually no blog traffic. Certainly no income.
Hmmmmm……
…..What about AI blogging? Everyone seems to be doing that successfully these days? I mean, bloggers claim to make a fortune with AI blogging. If someone says it on the internet it must be true, right?
You go the AI blogging route for 3 weeks. You even go the extra mile by “humanizing” AI-generated content (which is like trying to turn dirty water hot dogs into Wagyu beef) but you only get 2o to 50 blog visitors daily.
After sticking it out for 6 weeks, you finally hit a breakthrough; 500 people visit your blog daily. Woohoo! Success! But your bounce rate skyrockets. 500 people basically treat your blog like a trip through a revolving door. Easy come, easy go. No one sticks around for more than 3 seconds because your AI content is similar to content published by other AI bloggers. No personality. No heart. No life. Nothing worth a second look.
Frustrated as hell, you decide to chase the most profitable blogging niche. Perhaps you can churn out a few hundred 600 word posts in a month. Yeah; that sounds like a good idea. Guess what? One month down the road, it turns out that nobody reads 600 word posts because ya get what you give in this world. Give almost no value. Get almost no traffic. Quality content wins. Publishing a heavy volume of low quality content barely makes a ripple in your niche.
The blogger above pigged out on the blogging buffet line. He tried something, then something else, then sampled something else then tasted something else. He changed strategies every few weeks. Sometimes he showed the patience of Job by sticking to a tactic for a few months.
He will never succeed because blogging is a marathon not a sprint.
Pro bloggers run one race for years. Pros do one thing for thousands of hours until pros do it exceedingly well.
Amateurs run wild sprints again and again by doing one thing chaotically and impatiently, then another, and so on, until quitting or changing their mind about how to blog successfully.
My Blogging Experience with the Buffet Line
I ate like a pig from the trough for a while.
But I moved from trough to trough, sampling from the buffet.
I tested doing many different things but never committed to doing one thing.
My success organically expanded after I committed to doing one thing for years so I eventually did it well. I practiced one skill. Since where your attention and energy goes, grows, my credibility and exposure blossomed but only because I stopped sampling from the blogging buffet line.
Do One Thing Consistently
Choose.
Decide.
Look past other choices.
Forgive other decisions.
Everyone seems entitled to try a few different blogging strategies. But pros do one thing for a long time to do it well; this is why pros are pros.
Why Does This Strategy Work So Well?
This strategy works well because so few bloggers stick around to work it for a decade or longer.
After updating old posts recently I pondered how almost all bloggers who began with me in 2008 disappeared from blogging or changed niches.
I estimate almost everyone stopped blogging or covering the same initial niche. Count me in that lot. I changed niches multiple times until 2014.
People who blog for a long time stand out by developing one skill thoroughly: blogging.
People who cover one niche for a long time really stand out by mastering that single niche.
Almost everyone quits or changes niches, or changes strategies, sampling the buffet line of life. Hey; there’s nothing wrong with changing yet this is why bloggers who stay the course covering a singular niche inside-out rocket to the top as leading experts.
Successful people do one thing for an extraordinary length of time. Unsuccessful people try many things for a breath or two.
I’m not saying it’s easy to cover one niche for 11 years. But I’m saying that covering one niche for 11 years positions you as a leading niche resource. That’s the rub. That’s the message of this post. Thriving involves leaving the blogging buffet line to do one thing for thousands of hours. Doing one thing for thousands of hours snares the attention span of readers accustomed to observing humans do many things for a woefully short stretch of time.
I condemn no one. Life is challenging. Making up your mind to take one path feels scary. But it is true. The world is largely a collection of floundering generalists terrified to commit to one discipline.
Why are there so few pro athletes?
Why do so few pros reach the top?
A few athletes on planet earth commit 100% to mastering their craft over 15,000 to 20,000 hours or more.
Most athletes quit before going pro. Most pros resist giving it their all to reach the top.
I am guilty of this. I played high school basketball. I received a scholarship to play community college basketball. I quit before transitioning to a D3 or even D1 school even though my jump shot and overall potential screamed D1, for my knowledge of the game and general work ethic.
I own quitting.
One reason why I committed to blogging was because I remember all too well what it felt like to quit basketball, physique modeling and my meteorology aspirations. I dabbled. Hey; that is life. We experiment. I get that.
Yet I watched NBA players, famous models and on-air meteorologists and thought, “I did walk that path but felt terrified when it was time to commit to increasing my athletic ability and handle, getting flat-out shredded and pushing my portfolio, and getting comfortable on-air.”
I could have chosen one of those paths to reach the top. But I feared doing so.
So here we are.
I decided to blog.
Here I am.
Get off of the blogging buffet line.
Quit your quitting ways.
Do one thing.
Do it well.
Thrive.