by Ryan Biddulph | Blogging |
This is a guest post by Ryan Biddulph. He shares smart blogging tips at Blogging From Paradise.
Social media has brainwashed human beings easily manipulated by their own fears.
People who fear not being enough crave illusory attention in the form of lofty vanity metrics.
But the illusion of vanity metrics forms a stark contrast to the reality of human beings who love you, admire what you do and follow you diligently.
Most people cannot see the difference between having fake followers and loyal humans who love you and love your work.
Most bloggers see blogging in a similar light.
Bloggers cannot understand the difference between fake followers and loyal readers.
Fake followers appear to follow your blog.
But fake followers literally add fake, vanity metrics to your blogging campaign. Vanity metrics are useless. Many new bloggers boast of gaining 1000 blog followers. But 1000 blog followers is simply a number attached to a vanity metric. New bloggers feel frustrated when their 1000 blog followers do not hire them, buy their stuff or spread their word by promoting the blogger followed. Unfortunately, the vanity metric of 1000 blog followers does not equate to having 1000 loyal readers.
Loyal readers:
- read most if not all of your blog posts
- promote your blog posts persistently
- tend to hire you
- tend to buy your stuff
Loyal readers endorse you, grow your business through word of mouth marketing and allow you to go pro. Loyal readers take a genuine interest in you and your blog. Caring, loyal readers make blogging fun because chatting with people who love what you do feels like a blogging party.
Fake blogging followers click a button but do not read your posts regularly.
Fake blogging followers may sign up for your list but rarely if ever open your emails and click through to your blog posts. Do you want to weed out fake blogging followers to connect solely with loyal readers? Email only active subscribers. Any subscriber who does not routinely open your emails is a fake follower padding vanity metrics. Perhaps you accumulated a high number of email subscribers, but just because someone subscribed to your blog via email does not mean:
- the individual opens your emails
- the individual clicks on links in your email to visit your blog
- the individual reads your blog posts
- the individual shares your blog posts on social media
- the individual buys your courses and eBooks
- the individual hires you
Loyal readers read your blog, hire you and buy your stuff more often than not.
Give virtually all of your attention and energy to loyal readers.
Chat with loyal readers on social media. Engage loyal readers through blog comments. Email loyal readers to ask how they are doing. Bonding with loyal readers brings more loyal readers to your blog because where your attention and energy goes, grows. Loyal readers promote your blog and business to their like-minded buddies. Their like-minded buddies follow your blog, hire you and buy your stuff.
Let go vanity metrics because anything that pleases ego and makes you appear to be trustworthy is meaningless, worthless and held in esteem only by superficial, vacant people easily impressed by illusions. Let go fake followers. Release your obsession with numbers. Give your attention and energy to genuine human beings who love you and love your blog.
People who diligently follow your blog form a rock solid foundation for your blogging campaign. Listen to their needs. Tune into their problems. Pay close attention to their dreams. Blogging gets easier when you realize going pro depends on building intimately personal bonds with loyal readers, 1 to 1. Long term success flows to bloggers who make their loyal readers feel special, loved and cared for.
by Ryan Biddulph | Blogging |
This is a guest post by Ryan Biddulph. He shares smart blogging tips at Blogging From Paradise.
Deep. paralyzing self-doubt cripples almost all newbie bloggers from time to time.
Left unchecked, self-doubt destroys your blogging campaign. Why blog if no one will read your blog anyway? Why would anyone read your blog? Why would anyone eventually hire you or buy your stuff when you monetize your blog? Each thought-feeling races through the mind of every new blogger a few times. If you do not face, feel and release self-doubt you will fail because blogging from a doubting energy guarantees self-sabotaging ways.
For example, if you fear no one will read your blog because you are a newbie you tend not to write and publish posts persistently. Other self-sabotaging ways involve playing small, not networking, resisting monetizing your blog and surrounding yourself only with fellow new, struggling bloggers who offer failing advice.
One way exists to overcome newbie blogging self-doubt; wade into the energies and walk through the energies by feeling self-doubt.
No elegant, seamless way exists to overcome self-doubt suffered by newbies. Meditating helps to expand your awareness to observe your deep doubts but sitting to watch your thoughts and feelings does not overcome self-doubt for you. You need to face fears, feel fears and release fears to conquer self-doubts. Few human beings enjoy feeling tender, vulnerable and open but conquering lack of belief in self involves hugging these bad-feeling energies to leave doubts in the rear-view window.
Face self-doubt.
Stare the energy in the eyes. Feel self-doubt. Sit with the discomfort of questioning yourself, invalidating your blog and devaluing your blogging abilities. Every new blogger doubts themselves but few wade into the highly uncomfortable emotions of feeling like a:
New bloggers usually see themselves as unqualified, unprepared frauds on some level because you have no experience and skills to call upon to build your credibility. Every beginner blogger has a similar experience because all new bloggers lack skills, experience and exposure enough to gain reader trust. Write and publish your first 5 blog posts even if you fear nobody will read the posts.
What happens if nobody readers your first 5 blog posts? What happens if your deepest fears come true to fully confirm your doubts? Nothing! Join the club.
Nobody read my blog for a long time. I tortured myself with deep doubts concerning myself and my blogging abilities. I persistently blogged through my self-doubts. I felt these terrible-feeling emotions. Eventually, after feeling my self-doubts persistently enough I cleared many doubts and replaced the energies with clarity and belief in myself. I continued blogging. Great blogging success followed.
Nudging into doubt allows you to face, feel and release doubt. Increased confidence and clarity expand in your being. Clearer, more confident bloggers create and connect through thick and thin.
Be comfortable with being uncomfortable as a new blogger.
I sometimes cringe at my first few blog posts because my high level of self-doubt reflected through my work. I lacked writing confidence and clarity during my newbie blogging days because *all* newbie bloggers lack confidence and clarity. Who lacking skills, exposure and credibility feels clear and confident? Bloggers develop clarity and confidence by increasing your skills, exposure and credibility through persistent creating and connecting.
Never overwhelm yourself with self-doubt until you retreat into a cyber cave. Feel the fear of not being good enough. Hug the fear of not being skilled enough. Embrace the routine self-questioning habit pattern each time you write and publish a blog post as a new blogger.
Get used to doubting yourself as a newbie blogger but don’t trust your doubts. Feel fears fueling self-doubts, keep creating and connecting and position yourself to succeed online by wading through uncomfortable but freeing emotions.
by Ryan Biddulph | Blogging |
This is a guest post by Ryan Biddulph. He shares smart blogging tips at Blogging From Paradise.
Blogging is a skill.
Skills require 1000s of practice hours to master any skill.
Becoming a professional blogger requires thousands of:
- learning
- studying
- practicing
hours in order to become skilled enough to be a pro blogger. Becoming a pro blogger demands you blog for 1000s of hours spanning years, well before you earn a professional blogger income. Most bloggers struggle, fail and quit when times get tough versus seeing the journey through. How can you develop any skill if you quit before you put in real time?
Imagine that you want to become a doctor. After spending 6 months in college – studying biology – you become frustrated at not earning one cent of income as a doctor. Does this sound insane? You bet it does. No college student with 6 months of experience as a bio major has enough skills to become a doctor running a thriving practice. Expect to give 10 to 15 years of your life to become a highly prospering doctor with no debts to pay off because being that skilled requires ample practice.
But aspiring bloggers exhibit a similar level of delusion after being upset about not making a dime as newbies. Why would someone hire you to coach them if you have only 3 months of blogging skills under your belt? You can only give what you have. Bloggers have nowhere near the skill set to develop as doctors do, yet we need to spend 1000s upon 1000s of hours writing, creating, connecting and monetizing our way to professional blogging careers. Shortcuts do not exist.
Amateur bloggers often look for blogging shortcuts.
Aspiring pros sometimes foolishly believe one can take shortcuts to a pro career but no one can skip skills development. Even if you had a time machine you cannot fast forward to succeed because you would miss the 1000s of work hours required to become highly skilled, clear and confident. No one skips skills development and goes pro because the skills make you a professional blogger. Sans skills, you do not go pro.
Blogging is a serious skill because one needs to develop various skill sets in order to become a professional. Become a skilled writer to gain credibility. Learn how to network with influential bloggers to move higher in blogging circles. Monetizing is yet another skill to learn, practice and master in order to increase your blogging income effectively. No one learns and masters these skills overnight because each requires 1000s of study and practice hours in order to become highly proficient in each area.
Do you understand why few bloggers seem to go pro?
Most think being a pro blogger is:
- sitting down to your laptop
- writing whatever comes to mind
- hitting the publish button
- plastering a few ads along your sidebar
- counting sweet pro blogger money
In reality, being a pro blogger involves:
- careful study of how to become a pro blogger by investing money in courses and eBooks from pros, consuming resources voraciously and putting their knowledge into action
- listening to reader needs
- solving their problems with your content
- networking by promoting fellow bloggers in your niche
- monetizing your blog through resonant channels
- spending 5000 to 7000 plus hours doing these things through thick, thin, fun, fears and everything in between
Being free is worth it. Circling the globe as a pro or simply blogging in your hometown as a professional is a fun, freeing, fulfilling way to live but getting in your skill work challenges you mightily at times. No one tastes the blogging sweet unless you down the less palatable blogging sour at times.
Blogging is a skill with many moving parts.
Remember this as you dive headfirst into your blogging campaign going forward.
by Ryan Biddulph | Blogging |
This is a guest post by Ryan Biddulph. He shares smart blogging tips at Blogging From Paradise.
I have unfollowed 1000s of people over the past few days.
Why?
I am doubling down on tip #3. I do not follow the news. But my social media streams became news sources; allegedly. Attempting to find helpful content amid this wave of news wasted too much of my time for me to tolerate. Spending less time on social media lets me spend more time blogging and guest posting.
Being a professional blogger requires you to follow three basic tips for a sustained period of time.
1: Spend Most Energy and Time
on Your Blog and Buddy Blogs
Spend most of your time and energy on your self-hosted blog and on buddy self-hosted blogs.
Create on your owned real estate. Create on real estate owned by your blogging buddies.
You do not own social media or likely, forums. But you do own your blog. Ditto for blogging buddies of yours who own their blogs. Creating and connecting through owned blogs ensures whatever happens with:
- Google
- Facebook
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- forums
your business will thrive, grow and expand exponentially over the long haul. Blogs are your business hub, the content engine driving increasing traffic and profits, 24-7, 365, if you spend 1000s of hours generously creating and connecting on real estate you own and owned by your buddies.
2: Sell through Trusted Digital Storefronts
Jeff Bezos is the wealthiest person in history. Doesn’t it make sense to capitalize on his:
- business genius?
- elite digital storefront?
- massive, loyal audience?
versus the nightmarish headache of trying to set up a shopping cart on your blog? Pay a prosperity tax by allowing Amazon to collect their decent-sized commissions. Allow Bezos’ billions of dollars worth of:
- infrastructure
- support
- staff expertise
to handle all the backend stuff while you sell and profit as Amazon takes a cut. No brainer.
Sell through any trusted digital platform to leverage by using the power of the platform network, staff and overall branding. Think long and hard about setting up a shopping cart to buy through your blog unless you have a massive, targeted audience.
Even then, be prepared to invest substantial money and time in coordinating development for the endeavor. What happens when your digital storefront crashes? Unlike Amazon with their army of developers, your one-man-band may be sleeping. Ouch.
3: Spend Little Time on Social Media
Spend little time on social media because other people own those platforms.
See social media as a tool to share value, to build bonds and to tap into your targeted audience with light usage.
Every extra hour you spend on social is an hour you could use to create content for:
- your blog
- your brand
- your business
Pop in to engage on social for a few times daily. Time your sessions in minutes, not hours. See social media as a secondary or tertiary channel through which to share value and to forge bonds with people who love your blog. Make your blog home base to build a rock solid business.
Conclusion
Most bloggers never go pro because they do the exact opposite of tips #1 and #3. Bloggers usually spend way too little time on their blog and way too much time on social media and forums.
Turn around these trends. Publish helpful content frequently. Engage a little bit on social media to strengthen bonds but do the majority of work through your blog and through buddies’ blogs.
Have posture. Build your blogging business like a pro.
by Ryan Biddulph | Blogging, Guest Posts |
This is a guest post by Ryan Biddulph. He shares smart blogging tips at Blogging From Paradise.
Or what you do “allow” to disturb your blogging campaign?
Observe elections. Pay close attention to politics. Assess the news headlines. How about trivial family matters? What – or who – do you allow to disturb your blogging campaign? What triggers agitation in you leading to you shirking your blogging duties?
I am hardly a blogging cyborg. I feel agitated in moments. Some rare peeks at news headlines on Twitter annoy me here and there. But I choose to blog versus detouring to focus my attention and energy on:
- politics
- elections
- news headlines
- trivial family stuff
- any stuff other than blogging
Even though I am no mindless blogging robot I have it in my power to choose to blog versus choosing to follow the news or to opine about the elections. I prefer blogging, fun and freedom over everything else. I appear to be like clockwork because I value blogging, fun and freedom over everything else in terms of potential disturbances, distractions and attention black holes.
Nobody “gets” distracted because bloggers have a free will.
Bloggers choose what bloggers decide to do. But most bloggers blog for fear-based drivers like money or popularity. Fear-based drivers influence you to backburner blogging at a moment’s notice; news, politics, elections, family matters and other events take precedence over blogging because you value each more than you value blogging for money and/or fame.
No thing disturbs you although the appearance seems real. You choose to give your attention and energy to people or events based on what you value. Humans who value blogging more than virtually all else in terms of distractions blog no matter what.
People who blog for fun, freedom and fulfillment value blogging over everything else. Note; I do not suggest valuing blogging over your family, of course.
Never make blogging some god or sole focal point of your life. But do blog generously, persistently and consistently no matter what because committing fully to blogging allows blogging to commit fully to you.
Blogging gives you what you give blogging.
But giving blogging your all feels uncomfortable in moments because the common disturbances of politics, news, elections and small family issues feel too enticing, too tempting and too irresistible to turn down. Why? Suffering from the fear of missing out scares you into putting blogging on the backburner in favor of giving your attention and energy to these disturbances.
Bloggers whose minds seem dominated by fear allow fear-illusion to poison and weaken their mind. Weak-minded bloggers – or bloggers suffering through a weak-minded moment – seem disturbed by everything.
How do you commit to blogging in the appearance of politically chaotic times, wild elections, manipulative news headlines and seeming family drama?
Take control of your mind to become aware of fears triggered by disturbances.
I suggest spending 30-60 minutes or more daily managing your energy to expand your awareness.
I meditate, do Kriya yoga, do yin yoga and power walk to:
- expand my awareness
- see my mind as it really is
- observe, face, feel and release my fears
- develop the habit of maintaining serenity, calm and poise amid the
appearance of disturbances.
Blogging – and life – becomes easier if you take control of your mind, face your fears and dissolve illusory disturbances because you get the blogging job done and walk around the minefield of chaos crippling weaker minded individuals whose minds seem dominated by fear.
See through the illusion of disturbances to commit fully to your blogging campaign.
