Woodbridge New Jersey USA
Bloggers bemoan you to be transparent.
I guide you to be honest.
Why?
Being honest aligns you with honest readers, customers and clients.
Being truthful sends less genuine people to the cyber hills.
You know who I mean; the get rich quickly crowd. People who crave something for nothing prefer not to hear the truth. Living in delusion feels more comfortable even if the truth sets them free and illusions bind them. The mind is odd.
Before we dive into this concept I want to explain: what do I mean by being a transparent blogger?
Tell the rest of the story. Share the highs and lows. Discuss your struggles. Dissect your nightmares. Divulge how many 1000’s of blogging work hours go into being a professional blogger. Explain how the hours feel boring sometimes. Share the messy leg work. Detail the grunt work, like updating a blog post with a few hundred more words to be thorough (I am doing this now).
THAT is being a transparent blogger.
Honest bloggers tell it like it is. Pros – and genuine amateurs – fear not sharing their lows. I enjoy sharing my struggles. Being honest feels like a relief for me and you. I feel relieved by not needing to pump up some perfect blogging image. You feel relieved because a human being who wins and loses, succeeds and fails, hits the high highs and low lows, is the persona behind this blog.
You and I trust bloggers who share the low lights and the highlights because life is not an endless highlight reel. We all get stuck in the suck from time to time.
Authentic bloggers remind readers that stars slam into the suck like every human being who walked this earth.
Transparent bloggers feel like a breath of fresh air.
In one moment, you wonder if any blogger seems to be telling the truth because most share only wins never losses.
But then you come across transparent bloggers who cover their struggles in painstaking detail.
Relief washes over your being.
Doesn’t it feel good to know that successful bloggers struggle sometimes, just like you?
Why Do Bloggers Resist Being Transparent?
Some fear scaring off potential readers, customers and clients.
Other fear pissing off people who despise hearing the truth.
Every few months, individuals come around my social media handles with the identical question: “How do you start blogging?”
The same people ask the same question every few months. The process continues indefinitely. The usual suspects never disappoint. I count on their presence like clockwork. I have zero issues with them. But I clock the same question asked within the same time frame through a regular pattern.
Most bloggers fear telling these hesitant individuals the truth. Reeling them in with less than honest advice keeps them around; perhaps you can make a few ducats off of these suckers. Maybe you can blow enough smoke up their tuckus to lasso a client or customer.
Being transparent almost always sends delusional people away for good. Nobody who wants something for nothing sticks around to give something for something. Note; I tell these bloggers the truth through my content in no uncertain terms. But none read, process, fully understand and apply my guidance because if they did they would never ask the same question a few months in the future. Or they would stop asking the same question after I doused their delusional blogging fire.
Being truthful repels delusional people. Who’s left? Genuine people. Readers who desire to work in order to be free. Hungry MFers. Customers and clients who pony up to buy your stuff and hire you.
Be honest to grow a genuine blogging community.
Be truthful to align with loyal readers.
Be transparent to attract people who want the truth.
One Example of Being Transparent
I routinely tell bloggers straight up that going pro means spending 1000’s of hours perched over a laptop.
Expect to invest many years building your blog intelligently before money arrives consistently.
Transparent bloggers never shy away from stressing how much work you need to do in order to thrive. Why would you fool readers? Genuine people hate being lied to. Why would you stir up the hornet’s nest?
Be straight with your readers. Authentic humans respect those who are honest with them.
Respect the Mirror Effect
Life is a mirror.
What you put out flows back to you freely.
But this is from a predominant perspective.
Consider life to be your full body of work.
Not everyone you let in appears to be a perfect match; this is why honest bloggers align with less than genuine folks from time to time.
At the end of the day, being transparent draws genuine readers to your blog. Tell the truth to magnetize your blog to truthful people. Doesn’t that sound like a peaceful experience? Imagine experiencing blogging success with a serene community in your corner.
However, being transparent comes at a cost.
Being honest means facing, feeling and looking past fears.
Fear Is the Hurdle to Overcome
OK.
I promoted one of my online course to the tune of 10,000 views before selling one copy over a decade ago.
Most bloggers could be terrified to share such a level of transparency. I bet that most would feel like a fraud to share this factoid. 10,000 clicks before one sale? Yikes. Industry statistics do not typically mirror my experience. But everyone walks a different blogging path. Even world famous icons slammed into much heavier resistance than the masses in most cases. J.K. Rowling got rejected more frequently than the average author. Things worked out OK for her the last time I checked.
Bloggers attempt to create a bullet-proof persona to project the illusion of being perfect. Everything appears to come easy to them, including seamless sales. Why do bloggers share only their highlight reels? Sharing struggles presses on terrific fears related to being a fraud.
Most push those horrors deep down beneath the facade of being highly successful, making this gig seem super duper easy. But all of these bloggers are full of shit.
Overcoming the “full of it” fear is critical to be highly transparent.
Stop faking it until you make it.
Frauds hide their struggles to create the illusion of blogging on easy street.
Successful bloggers discuss their struggles to project a realistic blogging career.
Pros overcome the fear of being honest, even if it means losing kooky readers lost in LaLa Land, wanting something for nothing or chasing the easy journey. Let them go. Replace them with authentic individuals who amplify your success.
Why am I honest?
You benefit.
Blogging obstacles become normalized if pros share the downsides of blogging.
Will you feel hopeless if facing obstacles is a normal part of the blogging journey? No way.
Tell the truth.
Let readers know what to expect to make their blogging journey easier.
Conclusion
Blogging is tough enough as it is.
Why encounter greater difficulties by lacking transparency?
Share your losses. Dissect your struggles. Discuss how much work goes into this gig.
Genuine readers will love your for it.
Hit your bullseye.
Succeed peacefully.
