As bloggers we all dream about that one post. You know the one I’m talking about where upon posting it in the morning and coming back that night after work only to find it’s been shared hundreds of times, there are hundreds of comments, and it is cited by larger bloggers. Essentially it has gone viral. We’ve all probably heard stories about a blogger who was just plugging away with not much happening and then bam they wrote that one post and before they knew it they were being featured on the largest newspapers in the world and became a household name overnight. Sort of like those stories of people who win the lottery or write a best selling book while on welfare. Nice stories for the news but not the most effective ways of building your brand.
You see despite what it appears like the majority of people build their success through day in and day out plugging away at something. I know not as sexy as writing that one mind blowing post but the truth. Despite what you may want to hear blogging is a constancy and patience game. It’s rolling up your sleeves every day and putting in the time and effort. It’s a game of singles, not home runs. Don’t get me wrong home runs can be nice and occasionally happen but they are what winning blogs and businesses are made out of. No, winning blogs and businesses are made out of the consistent singles.
Do The Work
There is no way around this, everyday you must sit down at your computer and produce. It doesn’t matter how your feeling or if you’d rather be doing something else. You must discipline yourself to be a producer, not just a consumer. If you do happen to hit one big, then great but don’t plan on it. Plan on having to crank out quality content for some time before you can expect to make an impact. Blogging (or anything other than winning the lottery) is not a get rich quick scheme.
You could have two men. One who knows everything there is to know about blogging. From optimizing SEO, to writing good copy, to the best websites design, and more. The other who knows how to put up a post and that’s about it. The first guy who knows everything there is to know about blogging starts blogging for three months putting out an article a week. There second guy who knows little blogs everyday simple putting up some things that he thinks will be useful to others.
After three months the first guy is way ahead of the second as you would expect. However given a year and that second guy who knows little about blogging has produced five times as much content as the first guy. At this point they might be close in regards to their popularity granted that they both were producing content that was actually useful to their readers, that they gave value. Keep this up and eventually say another six months and the second blogger will surpass the first simply by continuously plugging away and being consistent. Meanwhile the man who knows more may get bored and move on to something else. He may constantly think the grass is greener whereas the second man who knew less only knows one thing, to keep plugging away.
Consistency Is Key
It’s just like at the gym. You can have one person who knows everything there is to know about lifting and another who simply has a basic routine that he plugs away on day in and day out. Unless the one who knows all there is to know about lifting stays consistent the guy who knows less is going to surpass him. A successful blog or brand is build as they say in the trenches. Grinding away, even when you don’t want to. That’s where success is forged.
You see we only see the end product. We see the guy getting the gold medal, we see the author on the morning TV show, we see the blogger sitting by a lake talking to cute girls while his bank account fills up. We don’t see the blood and sweat that is poured into their endeavors. We don’t see that blogger sitting there for a month straight pecking away at his keyboard. Sometimes he is fired up about his subject, sometimes nothing could bore him more but what matters is that he sticks with it and continues to chip away day in and day out.
Remember
The internet is a big place and to make a dent in it you have to work hard. In a way it is a numbers game. Obviously you can negate this a bit by having good content, good SEO, and just good general knowledge of blogging but ultimately it is going to come down putting out quality content time and time again. Not perfect content as consistency matters more then having gold content every time. Ten pieces of bronze are worth more than one piece of gold. At least in regards to blogging.
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If you have any questions you would like to see answered in a future post send them to me at charlessledge001 (at) gmail (dot) com. If you found value in this post then I would encourage you to share this site with someone who may need it as well as check out my books here. I appreciate it. You can follow me on Twitter here.
-Charles Sledge
