La Jolla California USA
Bloggers often miss the forest for the trees.
I recall visiting the 6 million acre Adirondacks in New York State. The largest contiguous park east of the Mississippi is gargantuan.
Imagine if after crossing the park boundary I stared at one tree. I could analyze the tree. Perhaps I could note the dead branches or rotting trunk.
But if I concentrated on a single tree and its seeming “problems” I could never appreciate even a sliver of the 6 million acres of forest.
Do you know what?
Obsessing over one dead link on your blog is missing the forest for a tree.
Every blogger falls prey to this mental malady sooner than later. You and I worry about one or two dead links versus writing and publishing a new blog post.
We neglect doing what drives the most traffic and nets the most income to focus on non-essentials.
Bloggers fret over mentioning Twitter instead of X for a few old posts versus promoting old posts aggressively, being at peace with constant change.
I care not how often you update old content.
In a world of flux, your blog will sport dated content and dead links from time to time because we live in a world of imperfection.
Highly successful bloggers psychologically detach from the insane idea of running a “perfect” blog to focus on the forest not the trees.
Blogging leaders reach the top by doing the best job cultivating the entire forest versus wasting time worrying about individual trees.
Pros Do What They Can Then Move On
I update blog posts every 3-6 months.
I do what I can.
But I move on to what matters most while updating and after updating.
That’s the trick that almost no blogger fully understands.
Doing what matters most – publishing fresh, new content consistently to solve reader problems – while spending a few weeks editing and updating posts (and after) – drives maximum organic traffic and blogging income.
Yet almost all of us err in backburnering new posts to focus heavily on trying to sniff out and delete all dead links via posts from last week, last year or last decade.
Why?
Blogging is largely unconscious until you gently delve into your unconscious mind to own these mistakes.
Nobody enjoys following this habit because practicing emotional hygiene triggers fear. No one loves facing, feeling then looking past fear. But do this we must to focus on the forest not the trees.
Your blog will contain dead backlinks and dated content no matter how hard you try to prevent both errors. Deal with it. Readers can and will judge your blog for it. Deal with it. Continue to publish fresh, new, practical content while investing a bit of time annually towards reading, editing and updating old content.
That’s it.
High level pros concentrate on the entire blogging body of work not a dead link, an inaccurate reference or one substandard post published eleven years ago. Performing quality control involves fixing what you can when you can as you build something bigger, truly helpful and highly targeted at a level of scale.Â
Consider This Analogy
Lesser problems surface as you build a skyscraper.
The build continues as teams address the minimal problems.
Imagine if sea spray coated tower windows by the ocean during a build.
Would the owner stop the build for 2 years to address the problem?
Teams would continue building this castle to the sky while trouble shooting how to address the persistent problem.
Why would you stop writing and publishing new, practical content for 3 weeks just to strip dead links from old posts? No one loses significant organic traffic and blogging income from a few dead links. Everyone loses substantial organic traffic and blogging income by not publishing new content consistently.
Thinking This Way Is Not Easy
I admit it; thinking abundantly in a world of scarcity ain’t easy.
The world offers some blogging guidance based exclusively on scarcity.
Bloggers miss the forest for the trees because most fear that one or ten dead links will disappear their traffic but going 3 months without publishing new content is no problem at all.
I come along and make the skyscraper analogy and you say to yourself:
“Whoa crap! I never thought of blogging that way. I have missed the forest for the trees by worrying about small potatoes. Time to plant and run a potato farm to experience immense worldly success.”
Maintenance Plays a Smaller Role in Succeeding
Maintaining your blog plays a smallish role in succeeding.
Publishing highly practical, new, unique, fresh blog posts plays the chief role in succeeding.
High level pros build skyscrapers to the 120th floor as problems arise to be solved while everyone else stops at the 5th or 10th floor to worry, fiddle and deliberate about pigeon poop on the exposed floors.
Literally……who gives a shit!
Scrub the pigeon poop for a few moments at the right time as you continue to construct the building.
Spend a few moments when you can to progressively read, edit and update old blog posts to strip dead links as you continue to write and publish new blog posts.
Never get lost in tiny blogging details.
See the big blogging picture.
Never get too close to problems or issues will consume your mind.
Create space around your blog. Give most of your time to publishing new content consistently. Give less of your time to details of less import, like general maintenance.
Conclusion
Every seasoned pro knows that not everything is important.
Doing a thorough job with all blogging activities is different than making everything important.
Prioritize.
Otherwise you will move away from earning income towards the insane goal of making your blog perfect.
I have seen beautiful-looking blogs with some helpful content that barely attracted a human or a penny.
I have also seen a few plain-looking blogs certainly rough around the edges that drive heavy organic traffic and blogging income.
The former got lost in small details.
The latter spawned a heavy volume of highly practical content consistently over years.
One of the highest earning blogs from decades ago was the most basic-looking site. But the owner published a dizzying array of new, detailed, highly practical content.
He drove a high volume of traffic and blogging income because he spent most time doing what was important and largely looked past the lesser details.
Follow his lead.
Create fresh, new blog posts consistently.
Set aside a little time when appropriate to do maintenance and other blogging activities.
You may lose a little bit by ignoring tiny details.
But you will lose almost everything by ignoring the most important blogging activities.
