May
15
One of the hardest things to face about blogging is that moment after you’ve published a few posts when you realize that no one’s visiting your blog. It feels like a punch in the gut. You have two choices: give up or press on.
Many of you will press on. Good, but not good enough.
Stop! Clear your mind.
Now, think: what are the real differences between what you’re doing compared to a blogger you think is successful? They are not somehow magically just better than you. They are not doing the same things you’re doing, but just more of them, or faster. No.
Successful bloggers are doing entirely different things than what you’re doing.
Persistence is vital, don’t get me wrong. Determination is absolutely crucial. But persist in making smart decisions. Channel your determination into strategic long-term planning. Blogging success is not about beating your head against the wall, it’s about using your head.
When you’re new to blogging, blogging seems to consist of reading and writing blog posts. You read posts by other bloggers, get inspired, and then write your own posts. Then you check your pitiful visitor statistics.
You need to break out of this habit quickly if you want to succeed.
Think production, not consumption
Are all the top bloggers leaving hundreds of comments on other blogs? Hardly. Are they “above” that? No, they’re too busy researching and writing original content. An important way to be an original, find your voice, and write prolifically is to not read other blogs so much. I don’t even hardly pay attention to the news. Reducing input gives you room to nurture your output.
One third writing, two-thirds networking
Although you might think so based on what I said above, successful bloggers do not spend most of their time blogging. They spend most of their time networking. One of the biggest “secrets” to successful blogging isn’t blogging at all–it’s building mutually beneficial relationships with other people.
Where do you think your audience is going to come from? Who will link to you? Who will leave comments on your blog? Nobody, unless you are subscribing to, linking to, and commenting on other blogs. But not just any blogs. The right blogs. Forming a blog pack is one way to accomplish this. Becoming active in a few social media networks you like will help tremendously (StumbleUpon and Twitter have been driving mad traffic for me and many other bloggers). This doesn’t contradict what I said above: limit your commenting to a few influential or like-minded blogs.
Observe what others are doing, and then do something different
When others zig, you zag. Most people are sheep. Leading bloggers are not sheep, they’re shepherds. Do not follow the crowd. Easier said than done, I know. Avoid repeating news. By the time you repeat it, it’s old. Visitors to your blog see nothing original so they leave without subscribing (obviously, if your blog is a news blog, it’s different: then you want the scoop before anyone else). Do not quote somebody else and link to them and that’s your whole blog post. That is the most boring thing imaginable. Don’t write about something just because everyone else is. Baaa, baaa, baaa!
On the other hand, do not automatically assume an opposing position that you don’t really believe in. Do not piss people off if you can’t deal with their anger. Instead: look at the territory occupied by others, and then look for the gaps. Go for the gaps. That’s where you’ll find what hasn’t yet been said. Most of what I write about business blogging at Remarkablogger is stuff that nobody else is saying. This takes thought, time, effort, and restraint.
Purpose and audience
But all of the above are merely surface strategies compared to the biggie:
- Know your purpose
- Know your audience
Sounds easy enough, but these are the hardest of all. Why? Because we’re elusive with ourselves. We are not exact and specific enough in our thinking, so when we execute, we’re fuzzy and we’re all over the map. How to be clear? Write them down. Get feedback from others. Revise. What is the purpose of your blog? Who is your audience and what do they want? If your blog’s content is where those two things come together, your blog will succeed.
These are some of my observations what successful bloggers do differently than new bloggers. If you’re a new blogger and you’re serious about success, don’t do what you’ve been doing–do what successful bloggers do. Learn from the best. Not by reading what they write, but by doing what they do. Except for me. You should do everything I say. 
Popularity: 14% [?]
I am not sheep. I am shepherd…
Ha, I’ve said that before!
The smartest strategy for a new blogger is a LONG-TERM strategy. We were smart enough to know that there are no miracles online and that ANYTHING in life takes effort, involvement and willingness to push up your sleeves and do the work.
Once people realize that blogging may take months to see results, and they’re willing to go that distance, great things happen.
Yup. Long term is the only term. Gotta see the big picture. Thanks for the confirmation!
nice article. I learned that persistent writing does help some, but networking and creating linkable content is the best for gaining visitors. Good article.
Mike, the whole strategy is really two-fold: the networking brings in visitors, but the quality of the content makes them want to subscribe and become repeat visitors and commentators. Neither arm of this strategy works by itself. It’s important to create the best and most compelling, linkable content you can. Then use your social media and networking activities to drive traffic and build relationships. Glad you enjoyed the article!
Thanks for this. I am in this postion now. 2 months in and my best day is 43 visitors and my worst 2. My average is 10 a day. I do all the normal stuff to promote my blog. Will take your advice on board. Cheers
)
John, your topic is overcrowded. It’s very difficult to stand out unless you go “ultra-niche” or take an approach that’s so unusual and attention-getting that people notice it. In your favor, some of the blogs in your niche are so big that you can play on being a friendlier place. You may be surprised how much a more appropriate design would help, too.
Good advice, Michael. My problem is time…how do you find time to write, promote, and network, while working a F/T job? My goal is to freelance full-time, I’m just having a hard time balancing it all well enough to focus. I have lots of ideas…and I’d be interested to hear how others handle(d) it before they left their F/T job.
Lisa
Lisa, I get about 5 hours of sleep a night and don’t spend as much time with my family as I would like. Probably not the answer you were hoping for.
One strategy that many top bloggers use is they write posts in advance and future-publish them. I often write posts on the weekends and then set them to publish throughout the rest of the week.
There are other “shortcuts”, too, like doing end-of-month or even end-of-week reviews so that you can reuse previous content without spending hours writing.
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This post has been featured in FullTiltBlogging.com’s Daily Blog Summary today. Great post!
Awesome, thank you so much for the link love!
Well put – you hit the nail on the head for what amounts to a very ambiguous subject.
The problem with this is it all boils down to human relationships, which for many people, is a huge challenge online.
Not just online, unfortunately!
I’m rapidly developing a theory that we’re all so busy scrambling to squirrel away our own little nut, we’re losing the habit of people-watching for purpose.
All we have time to do is catch a glimpse of ‘surface strategies’ and the masks that we wear for each other — this is admittedly a wild sweeping generalization about ‘modern society’ here — and we’re losing the knack of discerning motivations and methods in the real world, with eye contact to drop a hint, and all the primal instincts kicking into flight-or-fight assessment…
How in the world, then, can we expect to be able to distinguish the subtleties of human interactions online, and to reap the benefits of doing it right?
Good post. Time,effort,discipline and the will to succeed are needed whether it’s a blog, website,business, marriage or sport.
Yes and no.
Many of the most popular blogs are very faddy – talking about the latest news and copying each other. The blogs about blogging are probably the worst offenders.
I think you are dead on the money about networking.
Great post. I’m on this where no one visits my blog. Digging up this post. Thanks!
This is a great outline for newbies. I would add…stick to your focus and make sure your focus is important enough it has stickiness for you.
There is nothing worse then losing focus, meandering off point, changing your stripes mid-stream as I’ve seen so many blogs I follow do…and then they lose me and I don’t trust anything new they do unless they came right out told (respected) their readership enough to do so.
And be a shepherd…absolutely!
This is a great post. When I blog I never did think that I was doing the same as other bloggers but on a small scale. I had managed to admit to myself that I was just doing everything wrong! I thought that my blog was doomed before it had even began.
Nevertheless, I continued working and my blog has got to 100 visitors a day which I am really proud of. I just have to continue now and hopefully my blog will take off.
We’ll see. Thanks for the help,
Mike
Michael
Great Post, I found this through Yaro.
I would love to know how others find the right blogs to comment on?
The right blogs to comment on are surely the one’s that have content on them that appeals to you. Nothing more, nothing less?
As a new blogger with a long way to go thank you for sharing great wisdom.
Julia
http://www.thescrapbookingblog.com
Hi Michael,
Thank you for sharing your knowledge! I’m always looking for ways to improve myself and I’m glad to have found your blog. Thank you for sharing with us.
Cheers,
Roy
Long time posting or maintaiing a blog will bring you results. Content management and consistency are vital important. But you have put the words what was there in my mind and great narration….
thanks
Surely being a blogger is about as descriptive as saying you are a writer. I am always confused by anyone who says that they aspire to become a writer because that tells me what task they want to perform not what product they intend to offer to the world.
I understand someone who says they want to share their love of wine or poetry and intend to use the act of writing to produce material that will move their feeling and emotions about wine out of their consciousness and into the consciousness of others. That I get.
So if you just want to be a blogger fine, but don’t expect anyone else to get excited about your function. If you want to share a joy or passion or wealth of knowledge let that be your mission and your blog be something that others barely see as you share your gift to the world.
[...] Last week my post here at PureBlogging was Smart Strategies for New Bloggers. If you haven’t read it, yet, you might want to because it will be excellent background for [...]
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