Blogging is a funny animal. You ever find yourself aimlessly hitting the refresh button on your feedburner account or checking backlinks and comments, only to be disheartened and frustrated when there are none? Sometimes you need to give yourself a break and realize that you are starting from nothing.
You wouldn’t expect to run a marathon during you first week of running, would you?
Many would be bloggers publish one post, get super excited about all of the possibilities and then a week later they are done. In fact most are beyond done, they are frustrated and disillusioned and even worse, they now hate blogging.
The real secret to blogging success is…PATIENCE.
Yes, providing valuable content to your readers is extremely important, but the hidden gem (that’s really not that hidden) is having the patience and fortitude to stick it out, whether that be six months, a year, or even longer. In essence, proving your value and your worth over time and gaining the trust of your would be readers.
I’m sure you know this, but nothing in the blogging or social media realm happens without first laying a proper foundation, which comes with one blog post, one Google search, and one satisfied customer at a time. But, remember, trust is tough to gain and easily lost, and people might come to your blog once and never come back. (You have to provide them with a reason to come back and make your blog sticky.)
The foundation of content that you create should be based on the goals that you want to achieve and the benchmarks you’ve identified to indicate progress. Laying the foundation properly, in turn, helps to grow your reputation, aids you in your efforts of developing trust, and works to attract an audience to your blog.
Most of us are busy and extended beyond belief, so starting a blog (for some people) means that you just get online and type away without giving it much forethought. However, if you find yourself struggling or when you start out blogging, why not try and work backwards from your goals to determine what you hope to achieve. For example, do you want 1,000 subscribers? Do you want to earn $50 a day? Or do you want to educate people on the world’s only poisonous bird?
Simple, right? But so many don’t undertake this necessary step.
With your blogging or even with your social media efforts, and keeping patience and foundation building in mind, ask yourself the following questions:
- What do you really want to accomplish with your blog?
- How long are you willing to stick with blogging in order to achieve your goals? (One month, six months, a year?)
- What are your measurable benchmarks going to be? (Will it be how often you post and number of readers attracted, earning your first customer, etc.)
Now, with realistic expectations in mind, ask yourself do you the having patience, and the willingness to put in the time and do the hard work, that is required to create the foundation (remember, one brick at a time!) and to not throw your hands up in frustration after the first or second week?
What do you think? Besides content, what do you consider the most important ingredient for blogging success?
(Note, if you find that you frequently get annoyed with blogging or sometimes need a motivational reminder, then stay tuned or sign up for email updates because my friend Joaquin and I have something special & FREE coming next week, which should help you.)