Where Do You Get Your Blogging Knowledge?

This is a guest post by Ryan Biddulph. He shares smart blogging tips at Blogging From Paradise.

I recall 12 years ago vividly.

Someone told me to buy something called a “domain and hosting” in 2008 during my newbie blogger days. I had no idea what a blog was, nor did I know why I should blog. My mentor – I use the term loosely – told me to begin blogging. I began blogging. But I never asked anyone how to blog. I had zero blogging knowledge.

After winging it for a long time I struggled horribly. Turns out, writing and publishing content based on whatever comes to mind did not work too well for me.

I eventually mined blogging knowledge from seasoned professional bloggers. Pros know how to succeed. I learned from bloggers who knew how to succeed.

But I had to discern. Some pros offered advice resonant with my values. Other pros deviated from my ethical standards. I have erred horribly during my 12 year blogging career but I always intended to be:

honest
genuine
ethical
moral
compassionate

in all I did online. Sifting through low energy advice from less than ethical pros allowed me to build my campaign based on compassionate, generous, genuine building blocks laid out by honest, heart-centered, professional bloggers.

How About You?

Who do you look to for blogging advice? Why do you look to these people?

Donna Merrill made an excellent point here:

Best Bloggers to Follow in 2021

She noted how the most successful bloggers are not necessarily the best bloggers to follow.

Some top pros do a poor job explaining how to succeed. A few top pros advise you to invest large amounts of money to go pro but most new bloggers do not possess a big blogging budget. Other top pros use less than ethical, borderline illegal tactics to drive blogging profits. But inexperienced newbies follow these pros blindly due to their own delusion, greed and desperation.

A few pros employ competitive tactics like hyped up sales copy, deadline-based marketing and other low energy strategies guaranteed to damage your reputation and erode your credibility.

Be careful about following advice from any established pro blogger who uses fear via manipulative tactics to drive sales. Blogging predominantly from an energy of fear never leads to anything good over the long haul. Beware top pros who want nothing to do with their readers, fans or fellow bloggers. I have met compassionate pros oozing kindness, generosity and knowledge.

I have also met less than genuine pros who did not want me to bother with me. I grew closer to the kind bloggers and released everyone else who came off as arrogant, haughty or high on themselves.

Follow pros who offer advice resonant with the basics of:

creating helpful content
building genuine bonds with bloggers through your generosity, detachment and trust
monetizing through multiple streams of income

Every pro offers a different flavor.

I emphasize guest posting and genuine blog commenting. Other pros may point you in the direction of building a list and SEO-optimizing your posts for Google traffic. Follow your heart. Nice blogging guys and gals with a success consciousness actually finish first.

Soak up knowledge from compassionate pros. Heart-centered pros make your journey easier because you avoid headaches you’d encounter following advice from greedy, arrogant, manipulative pro bloggers.

Follow successful bloggers who place a heavy emphasis on showing you the process of how to succeed. Avoid pros who place a heavy emphasis on successful outcomes but skip some broad strokes in terms of teaching you how to blog successfully.

Never wing it.

Learn from the best bloggers who exude kindness, warmth and abundance.

Let go everyone else.