El Dorado County California USA
No way in hell.
Is that clear enough for you?
Yesterday X suspended my account for the first time in almost two decades. Okay I forget how long Twitter has been in existence. But at least it feels like I have been on there from the beginning which seems to be two decades.
Almost every one of my 705,000 updates on the platform is manually created by myself. I almost never use automating.
But since you can do everything right and the algorithm on these networks can be wrong, well, you get suspended in an imperfect world sometimes.
I refuse to bitch out X because the platform needs strict controls in place to weed out the riff raff.
I also do not want to complain about it or try to fight it.
I attempted to appeal the suspension for about 10 minutes on both the app and my Chromebook. But there is a bug on the site because it loops me back to the first appeals page again and again. I tested it on my phone and on my Chromebook. Same deal on both. Same error. Same bug on Twitter’s end.
As an 18-year blogging veteran, how do I handle an impossible situation like this?
I don’t!
I look past it and if it doesn’t fix itself in a couple days I may check in in a week or two. But time waits for no one. I let it go for now and move forward to what I can control. This is how you remain sane in an insane world. This is also how to accelerate your blogging success no matter what appears to happen.
This is why you should never rely on blog marketing channels. You have no control over there.
Rely 100% on your blog because you own it.
You can certainly control creating content, can’t you?
Rely on your blog and the content you create for your blog to drive organic traffic and blogging income consistently.
I do realize that offsite work bridges the gap between your blog and the outside world. But you never want to rely on the bridge because you do not own the bridge.
I already began doubling down on Facebook and LinkedIn. I also began working Blue Sky again.
Something really interesting happened on Blue Sky. After a few updates my engagement increased quite instantly. Why? I have only covered blogging tips on this network. My following is tiny but targeted.
However, my massive Twitter following is not targeted. This is one reason why my engagement never really took off on that platform. I also did not engage people consistently enough on Twitter. I did a pretty good job with the site but screwed things up by building a non-targeted following. I tweeted on too many topics over the years. This is one reason why those big numbers never really engaged me big time. I own that mistake.
But I also own not relying on marketing channels. Far and away, this has been one of the wisest decisions I’ve made as a nearly two decade blogging veteran.
As you can see I bumped up my publishing schedule on Blogging From Paradise Dot Com. I own this site and I can control the amount of content I create here unlike Twitter, Facebook or any website that I do not own.
I cannot suspend myself here. I can do whatever I want to help you with the most practical blogging tips as much as I want.
What’s the downside to that?
Over helping people?
Positioning myself to drive too much organic traffic or too much blogging income?
Guys you really have to think this topic through before looking closely at your blogging strategy. I can almost guarantee that you realize too much on Google, Twitter, Facebook or any marketing channel because you devalue your blog and overvalue sites run by billionaires.
I have no problem with the billionaires; everyone has to make a living. I applaud their success but that doesn’t mean I have to bend over backwards for them in order to make a living myself does it?
Admittedly, as you take on greater responsibility through your blog and your scale increases it means making uncomfortable decisions at times. Perhaps you need to invest more money and premium hosting to handle the traffic increase. Maybe you need to become skilled at handling criticism as more negative nellies try to skewer you with the traffic increase.
Perhaps you have to learn how to better handle your annoyance at being spammed. You will get pitched left and right as you make your blog the priority because more struggling entrepreneurs will want to be a part of it. Or at the very least, they will want to make money off of it as you become more in demand.
This is the type of stuff that scares you into playing small by relying on marketing channels heavily while you back burner your blog.
You may not want to hear stuff like this because goodness knows I didn’t for the longest time. But until you call yourself out how can you spot and correct this glaring error?
I’m sitting here dictating this post in bed after waking up instead of worrying about Google, X or Facebook and what I have to do in these places to be seen. Isn’t that what a blogger should be doing?
After I publish this post I will certainly give it a promotional boost through my current marketing channels. It’s not about ignoring marketing. But it is about prioritizing your blog and understanding that channels come and go, often times in genuinely impossible fashion.
I do not want to blame the networks for being impossible but programmers make mistakes. Why would you base your organic traffic and blogging income on other people who certainly make mistakes?
Most of the blogging strategies taught by the blogging masses make no sense. Think about how most new bloggers sprint to Google because pros tell them you need Google to succeed.
Since you do not own Google it makes absolutely zero sense to rely 100% on a site where you have no control.
This is an example of blogging nonsense.
This is also why most bloggers struggle like hell to drive Google traffic; their psychological attachment blocks the very ideas and work required to dominate page one consistently.
I have a better strategy.
Make your blog the priority.
Perceive marketing channels as secondary strategies.
But don’t rely on them.
Rely on your blog.
Rely on the content that you create through your blog.
You are in full control of your blog.
You are in full control of the content that you can create for your blog.
Remember that before bowing down to marketing channels.
