Grecia, Costa Rica
However unpleasant, most of us need to reach certain points in our blogging career based on making stark realities quite evident. At the end of the day, your success and worldly peace of mind will depend on looking at your mind and blogging strategy with 100% honesty.
Of course most of us spend a fair amount of time lying to ourselves about our mindsets, our blogs and our overall tactics. This is okay because the world is obviously not a place of perfection but definitely a spot for imperfection.
I’m making more clear blogging discoveries on a daily basis. That should tell you something since I’m a 16-year blogging veteran. You too may want to consider thinking deeply about your strategy at least from time to time to see why you’re blogging, how you’re blogging and what you may need to change in order to thrive from a mindset of peace.
One realization kicking around in my dome involves the idea of chasing big numbers versus helping organic traffic, or hungry human beings who really want what you have to offer.
For example, I run a few Facebook groups and pages. Member numbers range from 16 to about 116 for groups and pages may reach in the hundreds if that.
But since everyone who joined each of these groups and pages did so organically based on the quality and depth of my content I actually drive the highest quality traffic and blogging income through these collectives.
Meanwhile, I’ve been apart of some groups with over 300,000 members and never generated more than a few likes or comments with my top updates.
Please don’t take this post to be a condemnation of these groups. But do understand that organic, quality traffic which finds your social media profiles, blog and any sources online, is the highest quality traffic which will generate the highest level of real blogging income through the concept of driving referral traffic and referral business. Never mind that your organic, detailed content will keep driving new, quality traffic to your blog.
Basically guys, the most important discovery you might make by thinking carefully through this post may be that you’re chasing big numbers which mask reality. Big numbers are meaningless only because these symbols serve as a cover-up for the truth: creating targeted content consistently draws humans who follow your blog, buy your stuff, hire you, click your ads and turn around and promote your blog and online business to their like-minded tribes.
That’s it. That’s the secret. That’s what the world really doesn’t want you to know because it’s based on the mistaken concept of chasing numbers, celebrating numbers and doing everything but honoring the process of helping organic traffic which would give you great worldly success, peace of mind and the side effect of worldly freedom.
You probably know by now that most would believe my life reads like a movie script. I’ve been circling the globe as a digital nomad for the prior 13 years. Sometimes it’s highly uncomfortable because fear rears its ugly head but overall, it is like a dream.
The only reason why I’m living this dream is because I created the targeted, detailed content which consistently helped blogging tips hungry bloggers who followed my blog, bought my online courses and bought my ebooks.
Largely, I did not chase numbers as this process unfolded but I did make some big blunders from time to time in giving too much attention and energy to huge sized groups versus intimately helping the few bloggers who kept everything afloat and growing.
Writing this post serves as a reminder for me and you to stick to these basics and to avoid temptation when it comes to chasing big numbers or joining mammoth size groups which do not yield humans who want your blog content, products and services.
Most of us give into temptation. My Twitter stream in particular produces bloggers from time to time who celebrate number milestones. I do not condemn these individuals or criticize them for celebrating numbers but the danger arises when you keep focusing on those bigger and bigger numbers and lose sight of the fact that creating helpful content draws the quality traffic, humans who want your help and blogging business which helps you go pro.
I cannot stress enough how important it is just to keep creating content for your targeted reader and to largely ignore numbers because the content will put money in your pocket via these individuals who love what you do. Sometimes your numbers might look quite anemic as the world would judge it. You would laugh at the size of my email list. But loyal humans, not a collection of email addresses, helped me to live my dreams.
At its core, creating helpful, targeted content for a specific blogger has allowed me to live this life. Human beings who enjoy the content make everything grow here.
For full transparency, almost all of my Twitter followers could care less about what I tweet based on my engagement levels. But I could care less because I only care about the humans who do love my updates.
Do you see why this is such a radical mindset shift from what the world teaches?
Pay close attention to Google results, or popular social media updates, or some mainstream bloggers who have experienced great worldly success. Each can do as it does without any criticism from me. But number worshiping seems dominant and confuses so many new bloggers and struggling veterans who mistakenly believe that big numbers bring them success based on all these titles, tactics and strategies shared predominantly through the mainstream.
Blogging confuses the hell out of many because so few guide bloggers with more of a purist approach which I intend to embody myself. Sometimes I come up short but usually I hit the mark. I also sleep well at night because hype has never been part of my blogging system. If I teach it I’ve lived it so I’m the proof and my detailed blog posts, online courses and ebooks are simply more proof of how to do this if you prefer to follow.
Before you join another group with 100,000 members and really believe that you will get rich quickly based on publishing content to the group, start to think about helping targeted humans with detailed, targeted content on a one by one basis. Build small but loyal, organic followings of your own who really want your blog.
By that, I mean publishing one mindful piece of content at a time and then, attracting one loyal reader, then the next loyal reader, then the next loyal reader, all of whom help you build something special if you consistently keep helping them, their tribe mates who find your blog through their generous promotion and endorsement, and new individuals who find you through other networks.
Blogging is about creating the detailed, targeted content which draws organic traffic (highly interested humans) who love what you do and how it helps them.
Blogging is not about chasing big numbers because these inanimate objects pull you in directions you really don’t want to go in.
In the history of civilization, a number has never done anything.
Humans have done amazing things, especially the ones who remember that being truly helpful is the secret to peace of mind and worldly success
