Opotiki, New Zealand
Bloggers often celebrate reaching various popularity metrics.
1000 followers.
2000 friends.
3000 connections.
Some feel deflated by the fact that they are not popular enough.
Most bemoan generating lowish numbers in terms of popularity metrics at least a few times during their blogging careers.
Goodness knows I felt inadequate at one time after judging the size of my email list.
But I eventually woke up by realizing that being popular and going pro involve completely different strategies, skill sets and the most dramatic difference of being recognized versus being truly helpful.
Why would bloggers not confuse being popular with going pro?
Everywhere you look in the world the ego deceives you.
The world equates being popular with:
- receiving large amounts of money
- receiving large amounts of love
Go ahead. Check the news. True story. Look at all of the superstars. Peep their trappings. Being popular, rich and adored by millions seems like a perverse holy trinity (lowercase) of the ego world.
This is one reason why bloggers equate being popular with going pro.
New bloggers, struggling veterans and everyone in between having a helluva time trying to earn coin, let alone drive quality traffic, mistakenly correlates being known by a ton of folks with making enough money to go pro.
This tends to be the most devastating mistake of their blogging career.
Why Being Popular and Going Pro Have Nothing to Do with One Another
Being popular and going pro depend on developing two radically different skill sets.
Being popular means many human beings become aware of your bodily presence.
Going pro means you learned, developed and mastered blogging skills to be helpful, in-demand and trusted to the point of building a thriving blogging business.
Being Popular
Becoming popular comes down to developing the skill of meeting and being seen by as many people as possible. Tactics tend to involve:
- fear
- manipulation
- hurrying
- rushing
- pushing
- forcing
- straining
- striving
in order to be known, recognized and flat out seen by as many human beings as possible in as little time as possible, in most cases.
Being helpful does not factor in to this equation. Being useful does not factor in to being popular. All ya got to do is meet as many people as possible to be popular.
How about making a positive impact? Who cares? Your goal is gaining the highest number of followers, friends and subscribers. The bottom line is numbers and fame, in these popularity-seeking parts.
Going Pro
Becoming a professional blogger depends on:
- learning how to blog professionally from professional bloggers
- studying this guidance
- patiently following this guidance
- creating and connecting; publishing targeted, long form content and building strong relationships
- monetizing through multiple income channels
for a long, long time.
I made some broad strokes on that one. But you get the picture.
Do simple things genuinely and generously for a long time. How long? No one can answer that one accurately but rest assured my Young Blogging Padawans you will be following simple steps for 1000’s of hours spanning years of your life.
Freedom, on a worldly level, takes time and work to earn.
Becoming a full time blogger is a skill requiring a hefty chunk of learning, study, time and practice.
Honing that skill involves being truly helpful. Being truly helpful hinges on learning how to create content and build strong relationships.
These skills are serious, sometimes highly nuanced activities requiring being patient, persistent and practicing quite a bit.
Developing these skills earns you:
- credibility
- exposure
Being trusted and seen enough in highly targeted spots leads to a professional blogging career.
The Fake Steve Jobs Versus Jeff Bezos
Back in the blogging day, a parody persona known as The Fake Steve Jobs generated high popularity but made peanuts in terms of money. He became recognizable by millions and drove millions to his blog but various sources claim that he made a few hundred bucks through his blog for the entirety of his career.
Many people knew who he was but he never developed the skills of being truly helpful, targeting his readership and building a thriving blogging business based on his helpfulness, trust factor and targeted exposure.
I am typing these words on my brand new, baby Chromebook. My wife ordered it a few days ago through Amazon. The Chromebook arrived via ground in under 5 days.
Jeff Bezos became the wealthiest human being of all-time – or he remains in the top 5 – by conceiving and executing one of the most helpful ideas civilization has ever known. Order what you want from your phone. Get it in a few hours, overnight, in 2 days or perhaps a week or so, based on your personal preferences.
He developed his skills along with a behemoth of a company to bring the concept of being truly helpful to stratospheric levels..
The skill set difference behind what The Fake Steve Jobs did and what Jeff Bezos did are roughly 60 trillion light years apart.
Being a popular blogger may not be 60 trillion light years away from being a pro blogger, but it requires fear, manipulation and a short period of time to be popular, and 1000’s of hours spanning years of your life to be truly helpful, trusted and credible enough to become a full time blogger.
Practical Example
I can request and approve 200 Facebook friends today easily. That’s being popular.
Attracting one human being to Blogging From Paradise from Facebook, said person being a blogger who desires blogging tips, took me 100’s to 1000’s of blogging practice hours. Why? Learning and practicing the skills of creating targeted, in-depth, credible content requires bloggers to spend 100’s to 1000’s of hours of their lives mastering these skills.
No one has figured out how to get through this process with shortcuts.
You need to put in the time, work and energy to become a full time blogger.
Popularity Metrics Are Meaningless
Being known by a high number of human beings is meaningless because what is recognition but an ego ruse originating from those thirsting for love and acceptance?
Developing serious blogging skills to be truly helpful for a targeted reader means plenty because this is an expression of:
- love
- generosity
- genuine service
which feels great and also puts blogging income in your pocket when trusting readers buy your stuff and hire you.
Conclusion
Becoming a full time blogger requires a serious, long-term commitment to developing truly helpful skills.
Becoming a popular blogger involves manipulating people to be recognized.
Never confuse the two goals or skills required to manifest each.
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