Songdo South Korea
Scaling effectively guarantees:
- you cannot keep up with all replies, emails and messages
- increased organic traffic
- increased blogging income
- exponential growth over the years
Most bloggers reading these words keep up with everything. You and I pride ourselves on being responsive.
But replying to everyone creates a sneaky error lost on bloggers. Responding to everyone eats into your scale. Reading everything dissolves leveraging potential. Never mind the fact that guilt usually drives this tactic.
I felt awful back in the day if someone criticized me for not replying in a timely fashion. Or I felt angry. Or I felt annoyed. Guilt seemed to be the prime emotion. I felt guilty. I felt bad.
Think this one through.
I felt guilty after being criticized for not replying to someone. Guilt partially motivated me to reply to everyone; this is why I experienced the emotion after being criticized for not replying. How far does guilt take bloggers? How can you thrive while feeling guilty? How can you blog with posture while weighed down by guilt? How can you leverage while holding on to one reader? Or one prospective reader? How can you scale while thinking small?
Either let them go and thrive or hold on to stifle blogging growth.
The Fear of Criticism Obliterates Your Scale
How?
Fearing that a negative comment from one person will adversely influence business scares you into trying to make every person happy.
How?
You stay up to 1 AM to reply to every:
- social comment
- social message
- blog comment
Or at least you read each message and comment.
But being up replying to folks at 1 AM means NOT writing and publishing your 1200 word, optimized, targeted blog post for the day. Bloggers who scale aggressively build assets. Building assets means publishing highly detailed content consistently. Publishing highly detailed content consistently means letting go of some reply opportunities because no one has 42 hours daily to work with.
If you fear being criticized by one person how will it feel to be jeered by 40 people?
BOOM!
So you think small, play small, micro-manage, read every message, try to reply to every message, dissolve your scale, pump the brakes on publishing blog posts and remain where you are to prevent:
- massive traffic
- the critical peanut gallery inevitably arriving as traffic reaches tsunami-like levels
Think Big
Build content.
Let content work for you.
Reply to a reasonable number of folks before writing your next detailed blog post. Distribute that sucker aggressively. Check replies. Publish your next blog post. Check replies. Continue to follow this simple strategy as:
- emails
- social comments
- social messages
- blog comments
increase.
Follow the strategy as engagement opportunities skyrocket.
At that point, replying to everyone becomes impossible. But something neat happens; organic traffic and blogging income grow passively while you sleep. Now you run a real blogging business since you prioritized publishing content and responding reasonably versus trying to fully control your reputation via your unconscious guilt.
The Customer Can Possibly Be An Asshole
I learned an important lesson after selling my first few eBooks.
Customers usually love my eBooks because I share:
- hundreds of practical tips
- genuine advice based on experience
- vetted blogging guidance
A few mentally injured individuals mastering in the art of “assholiness” left one star reviews. Some said that the eBooks offered no practical tips although I did inject 100’s into each read. Others aired grievances about the price as if $10 or $20 was akin to selling their children into indentured servitude. Others claimed that I was a fraud even though I obviously lived this life for years.
I learned a great lesson: you cannot control what people think of you.
Learning that lesson influenced me to let go of replying to everyone. I felt less guilty. I developed posture. I looked past people who complained about me to focus instead on my loyal fans. I looked past those airing big-time grievances to focus instead on my customers.
I also spotted the difference between helpful feedback and the rantings of someone who hated their lives and needed a backboard.
I consistently created new content with all the “spare time” I found by not staying up late to reply to every human being who requested my attention.
Should You Reply to People?
Hell yeah.
I reply to folks daily.
I prioritize creating the next new post. I create new content for social media. After investing hours towards both those ends I check and reply to some requests before quickly creating the next batch of blog posts and social media posts.
That’s it.
Reply.
But create something first. Create a bit more content, now that you’re at it. Create some more content. Good job. Then reply for a bit.
Professional bloggers blog.
Professional bloggers are not professional repliers.
Blogging takes precedence.
Replying is secondary.
Who Should You Reply to within 24 Hours?
Reply to:
- loyal readers
- loving customers
- caring clients
within 24 hours.
But in an imperfect world I break that rule too. Hey; it’s life.
I may not be able to reply to loving fans and customers because I am busy creating fresh, new content to help these individuals. They get it. They are big boys and big girls. I love ’em. That’s why I create detailed free and premium content for them. Most of them pretty much know this is more than enough.
Creating Content Is the Greatest Expression of Love
I can reply with two words.
Or I can give one hour to write:
- detailed guides to solve your problems
- 24-7 on demand content via my blog
- thorough blogging tips to empower you to live your dreams
What matters more?
Two words?
Or resources that potentially free you from time and location?
Library Analogy
The next time you walk into a library think about your motivator.
Do you want to take out a book to access helpful content?
Or do you want to send the author an email to get a reply within 24 hours?
Would you bitch out the author if they did not reply to your email?
Or do you clearly understand that the author is busy writing the next book for you to enjoy?
I think like that author.
My readers benefit from my content more than my replies.
Yet comments are open on Blogging From Paradise Dot Com for three months after the publish date.
I do read and reply to every genuine comment.
But I focus heavily on creating the next blog post because that’s how I leverage.
Conclusion
Blog.
Blog some more.
Reply after creating content but in moderation.
Devote most time to becoming a prolific creator.
Leverage effectively.
Gain freedom from time and location.
Call to Action
Do you need to think more like a successful blogger?
Check out my eBook:
Creating the Mindset of a Successful Blogger eBook