Elk charging toward me, Evergreen, Colorado
Bloggers ask me how to put their struggles behind them on a daily basis.
I usually immediately ask them:
“What is your specific blogging strategy?”
I then guide them to:
“Please share exactly what you do blogging-wise on a daily basis.”
Common replies:
- “I write and publish what’s on my mind.”
- “I write and optimize posts for Google.”
Becoming a professional blogger involves following a:
- detailed
- in-depth
- thorough
- intelligent
- targeted
blogging system taught by an experienced, full-time blogger.
Writing whatever seems to be on your mind leads to guaranteed failure because people follow specializing, trusted, credible bloggers who learn, practice and master their craft. They do not follow random people expressing random thought-vomit through a blog.
Writing and optimizing posts for SEO is a good starting point but still comes up 10, 15 or 20 steps short. How do you build high quality backlinks? How do you engage in genuine blogger outreach? How do you monetize your blog? How do you drive high quality traffic from offsite, targeted sources to your blog? Do you guest post and comment genuinely on blogs from your niche to drive high quality, targeted blog traffic? You do not REALLY believe that JUST optimizing blog posts for SEO and doing NOTHING else will drive dazzling traffic and blogging business….do you?
Blogging successfully is a nuanced skill involving many moving parts. The only way to figure out if you work or ignore the moving parts is to list your specific blogging strategy, accurately and honestly.
Detailing exactly:
- what you do
- how you do it
- for what period of time you work blogging-wise
is the quickest, easiest way to see why you struggle.
But of course, honestly listing your strategy, practices, techniques and time spent working tends to bruise the ego a bit so it does feel uncomfortable, sometimes.
Follow these tips to explain your blogging strategy and to correct it if need be.
A1: Be Honest, Truthful and Brutally Blunt with Yourself
Walk into a quiet room.
Lock the door.
Spend 30 minutes listing what you do blogging-wise, how you feel while you do it and for how long daily you work your blogging campaign.
Never bullshit yourself. Lying to yourself perpetuates your struggles until you see yourself and your blogging strategy honestly.
How can you succeed if you do not admit that your blogging strategy causes failure?
Succeeding involves taking stock of your failing approach then working with a professional blogger to correct it with successful blogging techniques.
1: List Specifically What You Do Blogging-Wise Every Day
What did you do today with your blog?
What did you do over the prior 30 days?
What did you do over the prior 6 months?
List all blogging activities like:
- researching, writing and publishing long form, 1200-1500 word, targeted blog posts
- spamming your business link on social media groups
- engaging in genuine blogger outreach through authentic blog commenting, promoting pro bloggers through social media and your blog
- desperately asking family, friends and random strangers to buy your affiliate stuff
- opening multiple income channels
- trying repeatedly to apply for Google AdSense, only to be rejected
- working multiple, high quality, targeted traffic sources by guest blogging on respected blogs from your niche, publishing detailed updates to social media and broadcasting live on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
- complaining about not getting any Google traffic despite the fact that you’ve only been blogging for 11 days
- writing offline for 500-1000 words daily to become a clear, confident, skilled blogger
- writing once every 2-3 months only when you sit down to publish a blog post
I included both successful and failing strategies above as a clear wake up call for struggling bloggers.
Like splashing ice cold water in your face in the dead of winter, after the initial sting you will wake the eff up and see remarkably clearly.
2: Time Your Blogging Activities
Time your blogging activities.
Do you do blogging stuff for 5 minutes or 5 hours daily? Or do you do blogging stuff for 4 hours each month?
Do you spend 2 hours blogging daily for months at a time as a part time blogger? Or do you blog for 2 hours every Saturday because that appears to be the only time to get in blogging work due to your busy schedule?
List time spent blogging.
Stare at those numbers.
Gauge your commitment to blogging….or lack thereof.
3: Compare Your Strategy to a Successful Blogger Strategy Taught by Professionals
Look at your blogging strategy. Compare it to strategies taught by experienced bloggers.
Practical Tips
Successful bloggers follow different strategies but almost all guide you along the lines of following similar if not identical fundamentals.
Find pros whose advice resonates with you. Look closely at their strategy.
Follow blogging tips pros like:
Pay close attention to specifically what they do, how they do it and their abundant, trusting, relaxed mindset.
Compare one of their approaches – or all of their approaches – to yours.
4: Keep What Succeeds and Trash Everything Else
Keep whatever you’re doing that pro bloggers:
- teach
- endorse
- back
- guide you to do
and completely trash everything else.
Voila.
You are now well on the path to becoming a full-time, thriving blogger who enjoys freedom through this medium.
Practical Example
After reading Blogging Wizard (per step #3 above) you observe this blog post:
You look honestly at your latest blog posts and see:
- thin, 600 word blog posts
- no targeting
- no optimizing for SEO
- 3 to 4 half-hearted, practical tips
Now, you just know that it’s gonna take a while and much writing practice to publish a resource-style post like Adam…..BUT…..you will also understand that you need to immediately begin publishing detailed, targeted, long-form blog posts from 1200-1500 words at least, as I teach, because your struggles are borne of your thin, 600 word posts. Writing and publishing 1200 word, detailed, practical, in-depth posts will begin to accelerate your blogging success by establishing your credibility.
These Eureka, light bulb moments will occur in your mind with greater frequency when you only surround yourself with pro bloggers and mindfully study their strategies.
Potential Blogging Obstacles with this Process
Most bloggers bullshit themselves.
This means that most bloggers skip step A1; organically, each of the other steps falls apart, fading away into a maze of blogging obstacles, challenges and limiting beliefs.
You and I have all types of unconscious fears manifest as guilt that we push way out of awareness. Rather than face, feel and forgive those unconscious fears, most push ’em deeper, operate based on these fears, lie to themselves then blame the world for their blogging struggles. A select few do the somewhat noble thing of projecting the blame onto themselves but never listen to pro blogger guidance and follow it closely to correct their mistakes and to succeed.
Becoming utterly disgusted with failing as a blogger usually marks the turning point for most careers.
You say to yourself:
“There has to be a better way, a successful way, to do this blogging thing.”
Then you follow practical steps to find and follow the better, successful way.
Conclusion
You can and will succeed guys.
Admitting the cause of your blogging struggles is the first step to succeed.
100% of the time, your blogging strategy fuels your struggles.
List your strategy, compare it to systems taught by pros, keep what vibes with their tactics and trash all else to begin your fun, freeing, thriving blogging journey.
