This is a guest post by our top contributing author and travel blogger Ryan Biddulph. He is the founder of Blogging From Paradise, his course 11 Fundamentals of Successful Blogging and the author of more than 126 eBooks.
Bloggers sometimes take it easy if business seems slow.
I take the opposite approach.
I help more people for free through more channels if blogging business seems slow for a short stretch. Why? Helping more people for free through more channels allows me to help more people for pay.
Helping people for free increases your skills, exposure and credibility. Skilled bloggers with great exposure and strong credibility profit handsomely over the long haul.
Guard against the backwards-thinking mistake of pulling back on helping people for free through:
- blogging
- guest posting
- promoting other bloggers on your blog and through social media.
Is Your Blogging Business Slow?
Blogging business seems slow because you have not helped enough people for free for a sustained period of time.
What do I mean by helping people for free? Creating content for free and building connections by freely helping fellow bloggers and asking for nothing in return both form the foundation of building a thriving blogging business. Imagine writing and publishing 1 blog post and 1 guest post daily for the next month. 30 days down the road you will have increased your:
- skills
- exposure
- credibility
by writing and publishing 30 blog posts and 30 guest posts. Writing 60 posts polishes your writing skills. Appearing in 60 more spots boosts your exposure. Being skilled and seen fortifies your credibly. Guess what happens when more people see your blog and trust your skills? Expect to see an increase in blogging business because skilled, credible bloggers with solid exposure profit through their blog.
As a rule, bloggers who struggle to build a thriving business hold back. Struggling bloggers publish one blog post, promote the blog post through a few channels then sit around and wait for business to grow over the following 1-2 months. Gaining sufficient skills, exposure and credibility is quite difficult for most bloggers who publish a post every 1-2 months.
Prospering bloggers generously help people
without holding back.
I have observed a number of highly successful bloggers who created and published blog posts and guest posts for years before hitting it hit. One millionaire blogger has published almost daily for the past 15 years, between himself and his guest bloggers. He admits he’d still be blogging 15 years later even if he had not made a penny because he blogs mainly for fun versus blogging mainly for money.
Another millionaire blogger published 2-3 valuable posts daily while building friendships with people who handled syndication at major business publications. He basically worked for free for quite a long time before his valuable content and business connections helped him become a millionaire through blogging.
Blogging business seems slow
not because of any specific cycle.
Blogging business seems slow because you have not created enough free content and made enough influential blogging buddies to increase your skills, exposure and credibility to thriving professional levels consistent with seeing ever-expanding blogging business success. After being incredibly generous for 1000’s of hours you will reach a tipping point where your blogging income increases consistently. Being seen as a credible blogger in a high number of spots allows you to profit handsomely over the long haul.
But prepare yourself to put in the time over 5-10 years of your life to reach a level of ever increasing blogging returns from a business perspective. Overnight success does not exist. Do not hold back after creating and connecting generously for a few months. Never be stingy. Highly successful, powerful bloggers can afford to be stingy but these folks continue to help people freely because being generous is in their DNA.
Give freely.
Receive easily.
Accelerate your blogging business growth by generously creating and connecting.
eBook
Being generous may feel highly uncomfortable to you at first.
I had to face fears to release my employee-type “I only work if I get paid” level of thinking before becoming a persistently generous blogger.
I wrote an eBook to help you do this and other forms of freeing but highly uncomfortable stuff.
Buy it here:
How to Master Doing Freeing but Uncomfortable Stuff
Hi Ryan, I’ve seen the ups and downs over the past decade blogging. It used to be summers were slow until everyone got on their mobile devices. Now maybe around holidays and such and the news cycle now. I focus on updating old posts and guest posting when things get slow as well as helping others along the way!
Lisa that is smart. Sound business-driving activities you’re up to.