Why Do Most Bloggers Fail Miserably? |

Ryan Biddulph June 28, 2024 blogging tips 🕑 6 minutes read

Atenas, Costa Rica

Most want success after 15 days not 15 years.

Some want to go pro in 15 weeks.

Others want to become wildly successful in 15 months.

True; anything is possible.

True; bloggers can and do go pro before putting in 15 years. Some go pro in 2 years. Others go pro in 5 years.

But the 15 year number simply refers to my 15 years of blogging experience.

For example, I did a live broadcast earlier today on Twitter. Being armed with 15 years of blogging experience and 11 years of digital nomad experience let me seamlessly speak for 40 minutes. I did not broadcast “off of the top of my head.” I spent 13 years circling the globe. I have thousands upon thousands of travel hours stored away, having spent weeks, months and even years in 45 plus countries.

THAT is why I skillfully speak for 40 minutes about the topic of why one may want to become a digital nomad.

15 Years Not 15 Minutes

Most bloggers fail miserably because the majority wants:

peace
freedom
quality traffic
blogging income
referral business
exponentially increasing success

within an utterly delusional, fully insane time frame.

The world deems insane people as being fit for a mental asylum.

But different levels of insanity exist in the blogging world.

I may not fit a deluded blogger for a straight jacket but I will call out insanity when I see it. Expecting to drive 1000’s of visitors in 15 minutes is flat out nuts.

Yet most bloggers want big traffic in:

15 minutes or
15 days or
15 weeks

Naturally, expecting expansive success in 15 days, some of these bloggers rush the process which results in substandard work and no quality blog traffic. No; not low quality traffic. No quality traffic. Or no traffic, at all.

Rushing the process due to deluded, insane expectations skips all of the details necessary to earn:

skills
exposure
credibility

Unskilled, unseen, non-credible bloggers struggle, fail and quit.

Why?

Would you follow Blogging From Paradise closely and trust me if I was unskilled, unseen and non-credible?

Of course not.

Blogging skillfully, being seen and being credible demands 1000’s of blogging practice hours carefully executed, mindfully, which typically spans years of an individual’s life. This is what it is; becoming highly skilled requires a high volume of practice which requires a high amount of time.

But if you expect to become wildly successful in a short amount of time you skip the:

learning
study
practice
skills development
exposure gaining
credibility building

to become an experienced, credible, full-time blogger.

Instead of investing thousands of hours towards becoming a highly skilled blogger you will:

invest a few hours
see terrible results
beat yourself up in frustration
invest a few hours
see terrible results
beat yourself up in frustration
repeat the cycle until this feels personally intolerable to you
quit blogging

Imagine this Analogy

Have you ever seen a boxer work a speed bag?

Imagine the individual punching the bag as it bounces back to the boxer. He or she punches the bag as it returns to the fist for another punch, continuing the process.

Picture the individual placing their head in front of the bag after each punch instead of pounding it with their fist. Punch the bag. Observe the bag “punch” the head. Ouch! Stupid bag. Why did it hit you in the head? You punched it and edged in. You took two conscious steps which created the 3rd step; your bodily harm. Choose to punch. Choose to lean in. Hurt yourself. You, my friend, are completely doing it to yourself. Stop deciding to punch. Stop deciding to lean in. The pain and suffering ends.

You, my Young Blogging Padawans, are seemingly identical to the boxer whose pain originates in choosing to punch the bag and lean in – and lead in – with the head.

But most of you appear to be choosing:

unconsciously
robotic-style
completely unaware of your decision

Being largely mindless, you seemingly have no idea that “you are doing this to yourself by clinging to unrealistic, deluded, insane expectations tied to succeeding impossibly quickly with almost no learning, practice and skills development.”

I see bloggers crestfallen at their failure after a 7 day blogging career.

Mindless individuals are not mindful of the truth that only someone cuckoo would expect mastery or even a modicum of success after 7 days’ worth of practice.

The most skilled, talented artists, athletes and entrepreneurs practice for decades, not 7 days. Each genius did not become a genius after practicing for 7 days. Do you believe that you can become a savant in 7 days? Do you expect to become highly skilled after practicing blogging for 7 days?

My Blogging Experience

15 years ago, I sometimes wrote 300 words before falling apart, coming to tears, wondering why words simply did not appear to flow.

15 years later, if I so desired, I could write tens of thousands of words today.

Why?

I practiced writing for 10,000 to 15,000 or more hours during that 15 year stretch of my life. If you practice writing millions and millions of words then 10,000 words in a day is small potatoes.

That’s why.

I’ve even published a few videos over the years of me writing with my eyes closed, making no errors, churning out 60-100 words blindingly fast. That’s what you do after practicing a skill for 10,000 to 15,000 hours. You don’t have to even look; it’s almost like breathing.

But most bloggers fail miserably and quit because that 10,000 hour number terrifies them. Most prefer to practice writing for a few hours here and there…..when they get around to it. Perhaps one can set aside 5 minutes for writing on the weekend? Maybe one can devote 30 minutes to writing sometime next week?

Go for it.

But do not expect to write like the guy who practiced writing for 10,000 hours as the one who practiced for 30 minutes twice a month.

This is like practicing your dribbling for 1 hour each month and expecting to dribble like Kyrie Irving. Kyrie practiced basketball for 10,000 hours before he was 18 years of age. I have followed his career since he was a 16 year old in Northern New Jersey and can assure you; he was doing things with the ball as a teenager that almost no one in the NBA has ever done. He was doing stuff at 16 that made high school hoops fans say:

“Is this guy human?”

Why?

He practiced for 1000’s upon 1000’s of hours before he was 16 years old, often drilling with genuinely innovative dribble moves and finishes around the basket. He is a human being but most human beings do not mindfully practice basketball as much as he practices. Hence, his genius, especially rare at such a young age.

Organically, he became a basketball genius through good old fashioned basketball practice.

You will discover the same truth if you practice blogging like the dickens.

Tips for Practicing Blogging

Keep these ideas in mind:

learn how to blog successfully from a pro blogger; follow their guidance to know that you’re practicing the right things
write 500-1000 words daily in a Word document to become a confident blogger
stick to the blogging fundamentals of creating thorough content and building meaningful connections by being of service
never take shortcuts; skipping the process skips the success, too

My blog, online courses and eBooks can be helpful guides because I simply will not delude you with BS.

Fun, freedom and peace are yours if you really put in the practice, patiently, for a long time.

If you plan to be around for a while would you choose to fail miserably or practice patiently and gradually succeed?