Boquete Panama
I cannot lie.
I would be much further along if I had followed the advice in this post to a “T” for the past 18 years.
True; I experienced some sweet success. Reaching the full-time deal a while back proves that I stuck to a successful blogging path for a minute.
Yet I struggled on and off until I did not need blogging success quite as much. After pumping on the blogging brakes I lost motivation. During these times I did not step up to the challenge presented below.
After following a few multi-millionaire bloggers on and off for years I realized what they did and how I did not do it diligently enough.
Each stepped up to the blogging plate consistently; hence becoming millionaires through blogging.
I finally did – consistently – after realizing my mistake.
The Challenge
What is a challenging aspect of blogging?
Stop doing what clearly doesn’t work.
Go ahead. I dare ya.
Letting go is difficult. Even if the strategy caused suffering for years it feels agonizing to stop doing it. No one enjoys wasting time. No one likes trading years of their life for no worldly success in return. The world deems this as being a failure. Failures? The world labels them losers. Nobody likes losers. We all line up to worship winners.
The weirdest aspect of this mistake is this: in a split second you can stop hurting self and enjoy increasing success. All hinges on letting go of what caused struggles. Everything depends on releasing failure-ridden blogging strategies.
We cling to self-punishment – and self-sabotage – by refusing to give up what brings zero returns for months or even years.
The Unconscious Is a Jerk
Everyone reading this post harbors jerky unconscious beliefs mired in fear manifest as self-punishment.
You and I make things hard on ourselves unconsciously. The unconscious patterns play out by struggling in various aspects of life.
Continuing to engage in failing blogging strategies is one form of self-sabotage. You know it does not bring traffic and income but keep doing it. You know it is basically self-punishment but keep doing it. Maybe things will turn around, you secretly tell yourself. Working harder and longer at failing strategies will certainly manifest success, you tell yourself.
Complicating things, equally unconscious folks hellbent on punishing self support your insane beliefs dripping in delusion. The witnesses profess how you must be on the right track when in reality you are flying off of the rails, down a cliff, careening to your blogging death.
Look at Your Results
What does your traffic look like?
How does your blogging income look these days?
What about blog comments? How about time spent onsite? How is your bounce rate looking?
Observe these numbers.
Practical TipsÂ
- check monthly metrics
- check annual metrics
- observe micro metrics (weekly) sparingly because assuming trends based on short time frames is flat out dangerous
After gauging metrics it is time to look closely at your strategy.
Review Your Blogging Strategy
What is your blogging strategy?
List your tactics.
Practical Blogging Strategies
- publishing long form blog posts (include blog post frequency)
- guest blogging
- engaging in genuine blog commenting
- creating content for social media (text, images, videos and link shares)
- building an email list
Be specific. Detail everything that you do blogging-wise.
Consider every tactic to look closely at the return on the tactic.
Link Your Strategy and Results
OK guys; this is the moment of truth.
Look at your strategy. List your results.
Do you see scant returns?
How long have you worked your blogging plan?
Consider giving up on your strategy if you followed it diligently for 1-2 years to the tune of little traffic and/or no blogging income (or scant blogging income).
I cannot make this decision for you. Only you know. Trust your intuition on this one after looking at your:
- metrics
- tactics
- time frames
Link metrics with tactics.
Do subscribers open your emails? Do subscribers click links to actually visit your blog?
I stopped blindly emailing all subscribers years ago after following this process. Most of my list was dead weight. I emailed only 5 star rated subs to tighten up my metrics. My returns improved by honestly assessing my strategy and fruits yielded.
Follow this process for each blogging tactic.
Every Quiet Mind Knows When to Release Failing Strategies
Everyone knows when to let go if the mind is quiet. Inner chaos makes listening to the small, still voice impossible.
The voice that screams madly:
- “But you worked so hard at this strategy!”
- “Why would you throw everything away!”
- “Why waste all of those years by quitting now!”
creates the inner chaos drowning out the voice of clarity, reason and calm found in the silent mind.
Set aside some time to go into quiet. Lock the door. Turn off the phone. Power down your laptop.
If you do decide to move in a different direction you need to quit the strategy.
Let It Go
Let go.
Stop punishing yourself.
For example, I stopped publishing 600 word posts years ago. None drove significant organic traffic. I saw meager returns with this tactic.
I considered my hundreds of work hours spent writing these thin blog posts. Letting go felt scary. Wouldn’t letting go mean wasting hundreds of work hours? Did I want to trash that work? Couldn’t I salvage each post?
Not really because most were opinion pieces. Fleshing out opinion posts becomes near impossible because none sport a strong blogging foundation to expand upon.
I resisted getting rid of these suckers until realizing how much each post held back my collective blogging success.
That’s what it takes.
Look closely at how failing blogging strategies prevent steady organic traffic and blogging income to manifest.
Trash what prevents increased success.
Make room for doing what works.
Do What Works
Begin doing what works.
Make room for your blogging success.
The Holy Trinity of Blogging
- cover one niche to develop topical authority
- publish detailed posts to offer readers thorough solutions to their problems
- blog consistently
Follow these practical tips.
Put these ideas into action.
Far more goes into becoming a pro blogger yet following these fundamentals sets a strong base for your blogging strategy.
Stop doing what does not work.
Give yourself time, space and a calm mind to do what works.