Nizwa, Oman
As I trend deeper into my blogging career I see that:
- social media is as volatile as shit
- blogging, guest blogging, commenting genuinely on blogs, selling courses, selling eBooks and earning ad revenue through my blog are stable, prospering, profitable and completely divests me of any investment in Facebook, Twitter, and for intents and purposes of this post, YouTube
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube owners have every right to:
- ban
- delete
- censor
because each owner possesses the freedom to run their site however they so choose.
But why would I as a blogger spend a decent chunk of attention and energy creating and connecting on leased, volatile, tumultuous cyber real estate known as social media?
At Donna Merrill’s nudging a while back, I wrote and self-published this social media eBook for you. Check it out if you want to understand how to navigate social media in an increasingly chaotic world.
Successful bloggers like:
Spend most time and energy blogging, commenting genuinely on blogs and building their business on cyber real estate they, me and other WordPress dot org bloggers own.
Social media is not the enemy. But social media is not the blogging answer.
Bloggers blog. Bloggers who spend too much time on social media do not blog much. Bloggers who do not blog much struggle, fail and quit because where your attention and energy goes, grows.
I felt an intuitive nudge to embed my eBooks (check them out here) via Selz on the Blogging From Paradise sidebar recently. Ditto for adding an email opt-in form as I have here and there in the past. I am transforming this blog into a helpful online store offering free and premium content.
I also updated and re-published the sales page for my blogging course the 11 Fundamentals of Successful Blogging Audio Course to reflect my current day vision, values and overall mindset.
Why did I make these seemingly big blogging changes?
The more closely and honestly I observe social media I know I need to spend more time and energy on:
- my blog
- promoting my blogging courses
- promoting my blogging eBooks
- guest blogging
- commenting genuinely on blogs
Create and connect on real estate that:
- you own
- your blogging buddies own
- fellow bloggers you do not know yet, own
Spend a little bit of time on social media. Make friends. Engage some. Pop in and out. Again; social media is not the enemy. Simply frame Facebook, Twitter and YouTube properly as a blogger. Use each a little bit. Blog a bunch. Pop in on Twitter 1-2 times daily for moments. Write a blog post. Stop by Facebook for a few minutes. Write and submit a guest post. Scan YouTube for a few. Record and publish a podcast. Comment genuinely on blogs. Mention bloggers on your blog to link directly to their site, keeping people on your blog and on their blog and divorcing social media from the process.
Do not write off social media completely. But give most of your attention and energy to:
- blogging
- guest blogging
- engaging in a genuine blog commenting campaign
Toss in podcasting. Feel free to publish videos to YouTube but beware investing more than a few moments of time on a platform you do not own. Give your energy to your blog. You own your blog. Grow it. Give your energy to buddies’ blogs. Buddies own their blogs. Grow their blog, strengthen your bond and allow your collective success to grow, independent of volatile social media.
Minus the volatility, Facebook and Twitter have never been dependable based on the sole idea that each network is clearly, explicitly designed to keep you ON social media AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. Does that sound like a good idea for a blogger? Especially when you need people to visit your blog, to thrive, spending more than a few moments on sites deliberately designed, engineered and crafted NOT to bring people to your blog or any other website is downright foolish.
Like any mild addict, I plead guilty as charged from time to time in terms of spending too much time on Twitter and Facebook.
But I spied myself in the mirror over the past week. I did not like what I saw in terms of my social media usage.
Do yourself a favor. Honestly list how much time you spend on social media sites daily as a blogger. Allow that number to stare you in the eyes. Then, in most cases, you will need to spend a ton more time and energy daily on your blog and on other blogs in your niche.
Visit Donna’s blog. Visit Lisa’s blog. Visit SharlaAnn’s blog. Hang out in blogging circles. Accelerate our collective success.
I appreciate social media owner’s:
- hustle
- leveraging ability
- insane levels of scale
but just as Mark Z did not build Facebook into a behemoth by spending his time on blogs all day long, I will not spend hours on Facebook to build Blogging From Paradise into something bigger and better.
