Stop Hustling and Start Writing
This post is about as subtle as a kick to the head.
As I mentioned before in my promoting with Twitter piece, I enjoy reading and discovering new blogs. I love to read and I never get tired of learning from exceptional writers. I check out anywhere from 10 to 50 new blogs a day and while I am hesitant to call myself an expert, I do consider myself educated enough to give suggestions.
What I am about to say may surprise you but 80 percent of the blogs I discover are trash. There is a good chance your blog is trash, too. If I had discovered my blog a few months back, the current me would have said the exact same thing. The reason is so many bloggers spend too much time hustling, promoting, and scheming their way to establish traffic that they offer nothing in the way of real content.
When I first started this blog, I was very caught up in the blogging for profit niche. I already knew how to create content websites and a fair amount of SEO, so I figured it would be a pretty easy thing to transition towards. I would make sure to follow all the trendy blogs, comment daily, work their ideas by creating pointless ‘pillar’ blogs and lists that were exactly like a hundred other websites. When traffic was slow to come to my website, I decided to rethink my approach and it has done wonders. I have started to focus more on delivering quality information and less fluff.
You should ask yourself one simple question: If you were a visitor your blog, would you stay and read it?
If the answer is no, you should rethink your approach.
May 25th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Another excellent post!
May 25th, 2008 at 10:28 am
You make a great point. It’s like the ‘if you build it, they will come’ idea. You can’t make traffic. Traffic naturally happens if you write what you want to say and people want to hear it.
Patrick D.’s last blog post..Ridiculous Gas Prices
May 25th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Scott,
that post is really a kick in the head! oops, makes me swallow. 80 percent of the blogs you encounter are trash - maybe you could go in detail more about why you consider them as trash…
Ulla’s last blog post..Sunday afternoon at the cemetery / Sonntag Nachmittag auf dem Friedhof
May 26th, 2008 at 4:29 am
This post has just stood up and slapped me straight in the face. Thanks, I needed that. Sometimes we all need to have someone just say it how it is… no sugar coating required.
Patrick D has a good point also, perhaps the old saying “good things come to those who wait” should apply… on the basis you write good content in the first place!
Gosh, the odds are really stacked against aren’t they? :/
Selina Wragg’s last blog post..Luncheon In Kingston
May 26th, 2008 at 4:32 am
Selina
I JUST posted a new piece about my favorite blogs and you are in it.
Suffice to say you weren’t in the 80 percent haha
cheers
June 17th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Great post and great blog - I like it so far, as I chose to spend a couple of minutes reading 2 or 3 of your posts.
I like it when people relax and take their time to tell their story. We’re also not depending on the blog to give us an income. I have a tendency to write very long pieces and my titles are rarely SEO-friendly. At the end I see no real reason to change that. On the contrary, I get the feeling, that the most interesting pieces to our readers are the longer, more revealing ones.
Morten Blaabjerg’s last blog post..Eye-opener : Dreams of a Diva