5 Ways to completely suck at blogging (and what you could do about it)
What’s so cool about blogging ? Its easy, and anyone who can write emails can do it quick and dirty, let their thoughts be known the world and get feedback in no time. Now, don’t get me wrong but I’m entirely positive when I say that the noise is more than signal among blogs world wide. If you were to categorize bloggers based on their productivity (which itself is a debatable term) then there would be a dominating amount of “strugglers” than “achievers”. Agree ? No ? Okay, lets see where it goes.
I’m taking off my blogger’s hat. I’m thinking like a student fresh out of college, researching on whether he should take blogging as a career or not. I put on his spectacles, and this is what I see, and here are the results.
What do I see most on the web ?
- People promising to teach you something “too good to be true”
- Experts who sells CD’s and tutorial videos.
- Experts who’re already successful by telling people how they want to be successful.
- Products that if you buy will probably make you richer over nite.
- Some random SEO guy who keeps telling him how one can get backlinks from virtually anywhere on the internet.
- Adsense tips.
What do I don’t see most on the web ?
- Successful people revealing their income sources.
- Experts not talking in real terms or practicality.
- Experts who don’t have certificates from accredited universities like the one I went to.
- People who don’t mention anything about the time he took to buy that ferrari he’s posing with.
Now, lets not take it personal with the “gurus” out there. This is what someone who’d search the web would often come across. Lots of fluff than the real stuff – unfortunately. That’s the web for you. Blogs are no different. I’m not trying to say that there aren’t any blogs at all that pass value. There sure are and we all know how many of them are there really. And we know who’s faking it. But if you’re a blogger, you’ll know how difficult is it to come up with ideas that are acceptable by the crowd daily. And its not the blogger’s mistake if he finds it hard. I’d say its the listener’s mistake.
Why does an “Internet Success Guru” survive ? Because he never runs out of “clients”. So if you’re being one, you just promoted the idea, mind you. Now, who’s to blame ?
So if you’re being a blogger who’s doing all that things that doesn’t make any sense but give you the “fake celebrity status” and gets you running with that “possibly it’ll make me some money before my last vacation” thoughts, here are some clues for ya.
- Read your reader’s mind.
And what does that mean ?Use your brain. Forget those keyword tools and internet data. Imagine you’re speaking to a group of real people, with similar mind set, and think of why they would listen to you. What could make them happy ? What’s that they anticipate from you ? Find answers, list them down, brood over it.
- Don’t fake.People can see right through your words.
Did you know that faking is easy and many people do it already ? What you’re doing is that you’re just being one among the crowd, with no difference, value what so ever. Be original, now that takes some guts, and not many people are courageous enough to take it up. You be it, you be it.
- Don’t try to be somebody who’s already known for his face or words.
Well technically it means – don’t f***ing copy others ! ‘Nuff said.
- Don’t be a news agency. Leave it to them please.
Do you know which category has the most number of blogs ? Technology. And you know why ? Because technology news is easily gobbled up by the community. But do you know why technology sucks ? Because you need expertise, and not all can be experts. And you know what separates a loser technology blogger from a successful technology blogger ? Time. Yes time. So there was a software that launched yesterday and Techcrunch and Mashable reported it already, its on the front page of dig and there are 300 f***ing comments already made. Now you go to your tiny little blog and “break the story” ? What happens ? If possible, readers would draw graffitis on your homepage. I can’t even imagine what they’d write though. Probably something nasty.
- Bring things into perspective. Don’t yap.
Oh wait, now you must be thinking, this dude is telling me to do all the things that’s difficult and not so easy huh ? Well, my friend that’s the game all about. You do easy things, you get forgotten easily. You do difficult things, and you stand a chance to win the lottery.
Great and useful read, thanks for sharing
Heh: “Read your reader’s mind” – don’t read too much
Good article, good to see main issues of the blogging.
This is the first time I am reading such a “strong” post from you …. Everything you wrote is true….
People don’t give a damn on what one thinks ….. that why we mostly say TRAFFIC instead of Readers. And we care only about affiliate sales and ecpm and getting more bloggers to write for us in multi author ones.
But I thing I would tell you is …. Suppose Mr. A is a tech blogger … His blog is mostly read by his office colleagues…. who know nothing about Micheal Arr. or Pete Cashmore… Their only way of knowing about “the software” would be Mr. A’s blog….
In fact all successful bloggers have proved to us that they were successful due to their originality and not becoz of some keyword or seo strategy.
Nice Post man! Subscribed
Kudos! Love this article.
It’s hard to be an authentic blogger. Further, I feel many find it hard to be authentic. Period.
Thanks for sharing this.
PS Mani, can you delete my previous post. I was confused about the twitter/FB links…They were messed up! Thanks.
Done Jenni, I must admit there are some minor problems with the current code on the FB/Twitter links we are using now. It shows up the earlier commenters details. I’m already on it, sorry for the trouble.
Thanks Dear,
This is my first after subscription read from your blog.
But the view you shared with me, already grown my confidence …..
It’s the thing what I am searching for
I like what you said about blogging to actually have readers, not traffic, come to your writing and read the stuff. To bring the kind of value that begins a relationship.
This week I had a conversation about understanding the emotions of your readers on your topic. This post is a good example of that. You have some very strong feelings about junk blogging.
People are stopping to read this. You make some good points, and I take them to heart.
Great simply great, i do run a blog im doing my level best to promoting it up. but its limited to just 80 visits yet after it started. I am writing original contents, though there is not many. I don’t know whether im in right track? If you can suggest something, it will be a great help.
Thanks for the read
Freeging awesome comments about the same crap I see every day. Thanks for saying it so well, Mani.
Great post. This article is truly right.
That’s an awesome insight. I would say that copying is the thing I dislike the most, and yes being unique is important to stand out among the crowd.
As always, great article full of insightful information. In my industry, real estate, being seen as an authority is critical to developing a following. As for me, I just launched my blog, feel free to check it out and critique, but I look forward to implementing some of the ideas given here.