Personal Networking – Remember the Forums
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIN – there are many ‘new’ platforms through which we can now ‘network’ with our peers and colleagues. In theory, you can never have enough social networks, but there has to be some limiting criteria lest we get overwhelmed and end up ‘networking’ 24/7 with the work piling on our virtual desks.
If a platform:
- Keeps it simple
- Encourages time-saving
- Provides access to a group of like-minded people with similar interests
then it’s worth adopting.
There are very few platforms that check all 3 boxes. Instant messaging (IM) has it’s place (how would you get your business done without Skype?) but it’s neither time-saving (you could argue that it cuts down on the lag that emails introduce but IM doesn’t ‘encourage’ time-saving) nor does it give you instant access to a group of people (one-to-one communication).
Facebook and similar social apps have a similar problem with time. As bloggers and generally as people who have non-traditional jobs, time management is especially important. If you’re going to spend 2 hours playing with facebook apps, that time’s not coming back (and depending on how much you charge per hour, that’s anywhere between $50 to $1000 of consulting fees lost).
Don’t get me wrong – social apps are excellent networking (and marketing) tools, however if I had to drop something from my list in order to get work done those would be the first I’d drop.
I like LinkedIN a lot primarily because it keeps things simple and doesn’t require too much time to keep updated or network with others. I hired the designer for Soccerlens through LinkedIN and for that alone I’m grateful because he’s done an excellent job in the past year or so. I’ve also hired programmers and writers this way. Everyone’s experiences are different but if you’re getting work done in less time, why not?
Forums offer a balanced blend of all three options. You meet like-minded people, it’s easier to ’switch off’ and spend less time than you would IMing or Facebooking, and they’re extremely simple to use.
Earlier this week I talked about ‘giving more to get more‘ – and while that approach works great on blogs (you reach a much greater audience), the opportunity to build lasting professional relationships is a lot higher in forums. With fewer people involved, you can give each person more attention that you would be able to through a blog.
What do you think? Are forums better for networking than the newer breed of tools available to us?
Are You Writing Content That Attract Links?
SEO is links, and links are SEO.
- Aaron Wall
If you want more search engine traffic, you need links. You can do keyword research for every post. You can tweak keyword density just right. You can optimize title tags. But if don’t get links, you won’t get search traffic.
Search engine algorithms are weighted heavily towards links. If you get a lot of links, if you get links from trusted sites, you’ll score top 10 Google rankings. It’s that simple.
How To Write Content That Attracts Links
So, how can we get more links? There are many principles to good link building. But today, let’s look at the foundation of blogging: content.
Content is king.
Write good content.
All you have is content.
We’ve heard it all before, but how do do you apply these statements practically? Here are some things you can do so your content will be a link magnet.
Rule #1: You don’t decide what is link worthy. Other webmasters do.
This is probably the most important principle to link building. Just because you think your content is deserving of links doesn’t mean other webmasters will agree with you.
Don’t think too much about what you like. Instead, find out what the linking audience, or the Linkerati, likes. Figure out what kind of content they would link to. Go to their sites and examine at their outbound links. Try to understand why they link to certain pages and sites. Take your time. You want to have a really good idea of what’s considered linkworthy in your niche. Once you have a good idea, write some linkworthy content and then promote it to the Linkerati in a non-spammy way.
Anything to do with popular news can attract links. The Linkerati likes to link to what everyone else is talking about. Keep up with the popular news in your niche and see if you can create something that relates to it. Also, you increase your chances of getting links by having a unique viewpoint.
For example, I write for a blog in the make money online niche. A couple days ago, the big thing in the niche was the launch of BlogRush, a free traffic generating product. Everyone was talking about it. I jumped in the conversation with this post, 5 Ways To Increase BlogRush Traffic, and got a couple links without doing any marketing.
Warning: Sometimes what the Linkerati likes may be different from what your readership likes. This is the balancing act many bloggers will have to face if they want to do serious link building. In many niches, the Linkerati comprise of only a small part of the total niche audience. With this in mind, don’t alienate your audience. Write content that will attract links, but don’t overdo it if it’s not appropriate for your niche.
Let’s look a common example. One of the best ways to get a ton of quality links is to hit the Digg front page. The Digg audience is a big audience. And much of this audience is part of the Linkerati. These online users own blogs and participate in forums. Also, the Digg front page is watched by journalists with websites. So, a front page Digg article can get you a lot of links. But don’t neglect your readership for the sake of links. Continue to write for your readers.
If you’re always writing for Digg, you may lose your audience. My general rule with general social media sites like Digg is to write for them 20%-30% of the time. These numbers depend a lot on the niche you’re in. The more your niche relates to the Digg audience, the more you can write for Digg without alienating your audience.
If you have a wedding blog, you can’t write for Digg very often. If you have a video game blog, you can write for Digg with every post. (Quick note: If you’re in a niche that Digg likes, try not to hit the front page more than twice a month. Anymore than that and you could be labeled a spammer and Diggers will bury your content.)
Consistently take risks. Don’t get into a rut. Create totally unique content that’s not in your niche. Cover important areas of your niche that don’t get enough coverage. Oftentimes, by being unique, the Linkerati will reward you.
Feedback
What other tips do you have for creating content that attracts links?
Finally …. A Simple Formula for Applying “Domaining for SEOs”
If you’re an SEO and haven’t been hiding in a cave you’ve likely been reading for the past few months about all the benefits of a marriage between SEO and domaining. Despite all the rhetoric, however, nobody has been real forthcoming with practical information about how to actually profitably combine the two fields. So without further adieu I’m going to explain what I believe to be the single most important and practical domaining technique for SEO’s. There will be no theory here, just a plain and simple explanation of how to implement domaining for SEOs.
Exact Match
The “exact match” domain is not a new concept. In fact, it’s the foundation of what domainers have been doing for years. An ‘exact match’ domain simply means that the URL is letter for letter the same as the keyword it is targeting.
So for “Hurricane Insurance” you purchase the URL www.HurricaneInsurance.com (sorry, I already own it).
The reason domainers love exact match domains, is that there are still millions of people out there surfing the interweb who haven’t grown accustomed to using Google or Yahoo! to search for things. These individuals often simply type the keyword into their URL bar (sometimes with or without the “www” or the “.com”. Because browsers fill in the blanks, there are dozens of people who land on www.hurricaneinsurance.com each month simply because it is an exact match domain. Domainers make their money by converting via landing pages on the domain.
So why does all of this matter for SEO-cum-domainers? Because of something called the ‘Google Exact Match Bump’.
The Google Exact Match Bump
SEO aren’t interested in buying up tens of thousands of domains and making a few pennies on each. Instead we specialize in buying a few domains and marching them up the search engines. That’s where exact match domains come in handy.
In addition to picking up a large number of links with keyword anchor text which is itself an exact match, Google treats the URL itself as a relevancy booster. Based on some testing, it is pretty clear that a major indicator of relevancy with search engines (particularly Google) are the words in a URL.
Simply stated, it is a whole lot easier to rank a site that has an exact match URL as compared to one that doesn’t.
Sub-Prime TLD’s
But if you’re considering going out and buying a bunch of high-traffic one and two word generic exact match .com’s in your niche, think again. For established online industries such as porn, dating, real estate, credit, insurance, web hosting, and investing you’re going to start at $100,000 and go well into the millions of dollars.
Thankfully, the Google exact match bump applies in a similar way to other tier one TLD’s. Buying an exact match .org or .net can go for anywhere from 1 to 20% of the value of the .com. While a .net or a .org does not get any type-in traffic, that only matters to domainers. For SEOs who are focused on marching their purchases up the search engine rankings, type-in traffic is so negligible that its almost not worth considering.
Putting it all together
Now that you know that the key to domaining for SEO’s is ‘one and two word generic exact match sub-prime TLD domains’ its time to put it all together. There are two primary ways you can put this information into action, enter proven industries or unproven industries.
Proven industries are like those mentioned above: “buying insurance online” is a proven model as is converting American Express business card leads. There is no question that having your exact match site rank for keywords in those niches is going to bring a big and certain return. Unfortunately, because the return is virtually guaranteed you will have to pay a premium for domains. A .net exact match domain in an industry as competitive as insurance or credit is going to go for the full 20% of the .com.
On the other hand, you can take this information and apply it to an unproven or semi-proven industry. This is an option if you have insider information and not a lot of capital to throw around. For example, if you have a friend in the wine business you can target obscure wine terms for your exact match purposes. Or, if you have a friend that is a lawyer you can ask him or her about obscure high-margin legal work. For example, I recently helped an attorney friend acquire domains related to Jones Act maritime law cases and trucking accident cases. Not only did I have no idea that those were lucrative leads, but it turns out not a lot of other SEOs and domainers did either, since some pretty decent exact match sub-prime TLD domains were available as freebies.
Conclusion
Whether you decide to utilize the one and two word generic exact match sub-prime TLD technique (Geez that’s a mouthful) to enter into established markets or unproven markets will depend upon your access to capital and aspirations.
Even after this, you’re going to need solid original design, top-notch content, and excellent on-page SEO. None of that is changed by the fact that you adopt this technique. The bottom line is that this technique is a practical and effective integration of the benefits of domaining with the traditional strengths of SEOs, and it’s an approach that I know flat-out works.
Twenty Guest Posts In A Week: Can We Do It?
My friend Dee Barizo tells me that the two most under-utilized methods of networking are Guest Posts and Interviews. I think he’s right.
The great thing about Guest Posts and Interviews is that they can be 100% organic and good for the web (nutrition for the Internet).
Next week I’ll focus on Interviews, but this week, I’d like to focus on Guest Posts.
Guest posting is good for both the writer and the blog owner. The writer gets free exposure and a free link or two. The blog owner gets fresh-thinking, outside the box content which appeals to “variety is the spice of life” blog readers.
So here’s the deal. Performancing has about 10 or so probloggers, who want to do a guest blog post on your blog. All you need to do is post the URL to your blog in the comment section of this post within 7 days, and we’ll select our favorite twenty. We’ll then not only do a quality guest post at your blog, but also feature the article in a few weeks on our site when we list all twenty of our guest blog posts for Performancing readers to check out.
So what are you waiting for? Get your blog some exposure!
People Are Trying to Help You: Are You Listening?
Yesterday I talked about how bloggers should be more generous; how they should learn to give more instead of just asking for favors.
Before you can be all ‘giving’ though, you need to know exactly what you’re going to ‘give’. Doing favors blindly doesn’t make any practical sense – ideally you want to make a meaningful contribution to someone else’s life, and to figure out what matters to people in your social circle, you have to listen first.
As bloggers our job is to talk – we talk to our readers, we talk to advertisers, we talk to our employees, we talk smack with competitors – it’s pretty much a full-time talking job, blogging.
However, in all this talking we need to find the time to shut up and listen to the people around us – to learn what they want, to learn from their suggestions, criticisms and support, and to spot ideas in what they do and say. Listening to others (and more importantly, to the right people) gives you the kind of knowledge few people can hope to attain, and with that comes the ability to do make a genuine difference in your own life and that of others.
So who should you listen to? Here are a few ideas:
Your Readers: Blogging is about relationships (we keep saying this over and over again), and if you’re not in tune with what your readers want, you won’t be able to serve them properly and you will, sooner or later, end up loosing them.
This is a tricky place because there are many people who, on the surface, lead their audiences instead of their readers leading them. This is an illusion, I assure you. While the person may be headstrong, seemingly independent or just plain controversial, the reality is that bloggers are successful BECAUSE they provide what people want, and to know what they want you have to listen to them.
When it comes to listening to your readers, pull out all the stops. Do your keyword and niche research, monitor industry trends, read all comments, take onboard all suggestions and most of all, discuss issues in public and get input from your community. You don’t have to listen to them – you probably shouldn’t allow mob voting to make your decisions anyway – but taking their views onboard gives you a chance to listen to all sides and it also integrates readers more into the community.
Your Advertisers: The next time you have someone contact you to advertise on your blog, watch how they approach you, what they offer, how they continue negotiations, etc. Everything they say or do is a clue that can help you make more money from your site, so you’d better be listening.
One of the key things I’ve learned from listening to advertisers is to make as much information as possible available on the site in a prominent position so that advertisers can get a clue quickly (you’d be surprised at how many bloggers do their ‘advertise here’ pages wrong). Another thing I’ve learned is to reduce the number of options available to advertisers – too many options confuse them and reduce their chances of making a buying decision on the spot. Yet another thing I’ve learned is that while US based advertisers are comfortable working over email, UK based advertisers prefer using the phone (or Skype) before concluding a deal. It’s a minor detail (and possibly an inaccurate interpretation) but it’s an example of the hundreds of little things you can learn about advertising, about what your blog is doing right / wrong, about your niche, etc.
Your Employees: If you’ve hired people to work for you, pay attention to their suggestions and more importantly give them the right nurturing environment to grow and network for themselves. It boils down to the principle of giving – the more you help the people that work for you, the better it will be for you in the long run.
Yes, there will be some people who will only look to take advantage of you. Weed these characters out in the beginning and move forward.
Your writers, your designer / programmer / marketer – anyone you hire could be the source of the next idea that could double your blog’s income. Underestimate the benefits at your own peril.
Your Competition: In a competitive environment the players find different ways to gain an edge on their peers. As an observer, you can learn a lot by simply examining what makes your competitors successful and adapting that to your benefit.
90% of your competition is too proud, too lazy or just too anal to learn from listening. Be the 10% that break the mold and observe their environment. Combined with what we talked about yesterday in ‘Going for Broke‘, intelligent observations (or just listening) can be your ticket to blogging success.
Network with your competition, as much as possible. The relationships you build here will be invaluable in the long run.
Your Mentors: Your mentor may be someone you turn to for guidance in times of need, or it may be someone whose work you follow regularly or a one-on-one relationship with someone who is guiding you in your business. You may have one mentor or several, you may change mentors or stick with one person for a long time.
Whatever your case, listen from your mentor(s), learn and for the love of whatever you believe in, apply it in your life.
Takeaway: Schedule some time out today to listen to your readers, to the people around you. Schedule some time in your daily routine to just listen, observe and learn.
Bottom line – in a career where it’s mostly one-way traffic, it pays to take a break from time to time and let the traffic flow the other way for a change.
Go For Broke
I was going to title this one “The Secret to Earning $10k/month from blogging in just 6 months”, but that might have been a bit too much 
If you want to make $10,000 / month from blogging in 6 months, here is a quick formula for you:
1) Figure out how you can make this a reality (freelance work, build a site to sell it, affiliate marketing, using PPC to sell your own ebook, blogging for hire, create your own site, etc) and create a detailed, step-by-step plan for it.
2) Go for it, now. Don’t stop for anything, even for this article to end – just start executing that plan right now.
They say that “good things come to those who wait” – and while I value patience, it has its place and it is often a convenient rationalisation for people who are afraid to take risks. There are times when you have to grab the bull by the horns and attack an opportunity with full strength.
In simple terms…you can’t wait for opportunities to knock on your door. You have to put yourself out there, put your blog out there, and make sure that you’re first in line when any opportunity comes up. You’ll take risks. You’ll make mistakes. But you’ll be much better off at the end of it than when you started, which is where you would have stayed stuck if you hadn’t moved in the first place.
For your blog, this means positioning it to benefit from trends in your niche. For example, for my football blog, I tend to get plenty of search engine traffic for matches as well as for any key incident that happens (celebrity gossip, in-game violence, etc). There are two reasons for this – one, I’m covering these events (taking initiative) and two, my blog ranks high in search engines naturally so that helps individual pages rank highly as well.
If you think about it, all progress on your blog is a function of you taking initiative and going out seeking opportunities instead of sitting at home waiting for them.
That $10k isn’t going to come to you if you wait for it (unless your blog earns that much in a month, in which case add a couple of zeros at the end of the number and start over) – you have to get up, get out and work for it, and quite often that means being in the right place to take advantages of the opportunities that arise.
How Bloggers Can Give More To Get More
I’ve talked about this more in my “tips for building a kick-ass blog” article, but I’d like to expand on the idea a bit more.
The basic idea is that you cannot grow as fast by yourself as you can with the help of others (leverage other peoples’ resources). There are two ways you can get the help of others – ask them (nicely, of course), or get them to volunteer to help you. Asking (especially if you’re paying for it) works wonders, but right now I want to focus on the second option – having people help you of their own accord.
How do you do this as a blogger?
By helping other people – your readers, fellow bloggers, your contacts, your advertisers and your employees. In terms of your relationships, this means going out of your way to help others, doing them favors when asked, and being there for friends when they need your help. You’ll have to give first before you can expect anything and for someone who’s impatient for results (like me), it would help to remember that this isn’t just you giving the store away, it’s you investing your resources in your future. Investments, when done in the right place and the right time, can bring about fantastic returns down the line, and so it is with people.
In terms of your blog, this means giving first (providing value to your readers) and giving a lot (don’t assume that you can ‘ask’ them for something after just one week’s of good blogging). And what are you ‘asking them’? Their trust, their loyalty and their support. You won’t ask for it explicitly, but once you’ve given a lot to your readers you will notice that your readers will start giving back – in terms of comments, praise, feedback, mentions on other blogs and forums, respect, and if you’re selling something, money too.
If you’ve read “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Robert Cialdini (highly recommended), you’ll know that ‘Reciprocity’ is one of the six key ways to influence people (the others are: Commitment / Consistency, Social Proof, Liking, Authority and Scarcity). When you give first, you create a subconscious debt on the other person’s conscience which they will feel the need to repay or risk suffering from guilt. It’s how we are socially wired.
What we’re NOT socially wired to do is to give first and ask later – in fact, we’re selfish (like it or not) and do exactly the opposite. If you want to succeed as a blogger, want to grow your blog and want to do both of these things super-fast, bite the bullet and invest in your future. The relationships you build as a result, with your readers and your friends, will be the foundation for your rapid growth in the future.
Personally, I don’t care whether you help people because you genuinely believe in helping others or because you’re looking for a quick return on your investment. I’ve had this tendency to go out of my way to help others as a kid and I’ve learned to harness that habit and use it intelligently. If you’re the same, then focus on making a smart use of your time and while you should still volunteer, make sure you don’t over-commit.
If you’re in it for the fast return, then remember that the whole act of doing others a favour in order to get a favor from them in return pisses people off. We don’t want to be used (even if in the long run that’s what’s happening) and in most cases a reciprocal exchange like this is rejected unless it is overwhelmingly in our favour. Take the short-term hits and settle in for the long-haul in such investments because if you play your cards right (and you will if you’re patient about it), the returns are HUGE.
How To Improve Your Focus
If you chase two rabbits, both will escape.
You’ve heard many bloggers talk about how you should ‘focus’ on a few key projects. Trouble is, not everyone intuitively knows exactly how to turn that ‘focus’ knob up to 100%, and even if you know how to do that, what do you focus on?
The two keys to having a clear focus in your blogging are ‘priorities’ and ‘concentration’. If you have priorities but no concentration (like me), you’ll know what to do but never get anything done because you’ll get distracted all the time. On the other hand, if you have concentration but no clear grasp of your priorities, you will be excellent in something but won’t make much progress (because you’ll be focusing on the wrong things).
It’s clear then that we need a strategy for focusing our time and energy. I would recommend using the following model:
Focus 70% on Strengths
Take stock of your strengths as an entrepreneur and blogger (make sure you ask your friends and co-workers for input as well). Are you good at monetizing your blogs? Do you have a knack for creating social bait (linkbait)? Are you a good designer?
The first step is knowing what you’re good at. The second step is to ensure that a major portion of your working time is spent focusing on these activities – this is what you’re good at, so make sure you profit the most from it.
As a personal example – I gave up on trying to design my own themes or code my own software a long time ago. I had to choose between blogging and designing, and with writing being my strength, I chose to blog and outsource my designing / programming chores. You don’t have to become a specialist, but even as a ‘jack of all trades’, it makes sense to spend most of your time doing what you’re good at.
If there’s a situation where you have two equal strengths but you have to choose between them (management and writing, for example), you should always choose the one that is best aligned with your priorities. If your goal is to have fun, hire someone to manage and stick to the writing. If you want to make money and grow, then shift to management and hire a good writer. Put yourself where you can serve your own priorities the best.
Focus 25% on New Things
Yesterday we talked about taking risks and expanding your horizons by doing new things and moving out of the blogging comfort zone. The need to constantly take risks and learn new things can be explained in very simple terms:
Growth = Change.
If you want to get better, you have to keep changing and improving. This means taking risks and stepping out into new areas. This is also your chance to be the generalist and channel your creative efforts by taking out focused time for side projects that help you build new skills and expand your knowledge. If you’re the kind who likes to play it safe, this time is crucial for you – it will help you push forward and grow past your current limits.
If you dedicate time to new things that are closely related to your strengths, you’ll find yourself becoming a far better blogger and entrepreneur than you were before. For example, if you love writing but are average at writing link bait, it would pay if you focused 25% of your time on learning how to write great headlines and crack social bait.
In the online world where change is the only constant, you cannot afford to ‘rest’ on what you’ve learned and achieved as a blogger. In simple terms – grow (evolve) or fail (die).
Focus 5% on Areas of Weakness
You can’t get up one day and just avoid dealing with your weaknesses. The key is to minimize it as much as you can and delegate (tell / ask someone else to do it for you) or outsource (pay someone to do it) it whenever possible. I wouldn’t suggest avoiding areas that are closely related to your strengths or avoiding something that is a necessary component to your life goals, but when it comes to everything else, figure out a way to have someone else work on it.
3 Steps To Improve Your Focus
- Shift to Strengths: Make a list of three to four things you do well as a blogger. What percentage of your time do you spend doing them? What percentage of your resources is dedicated to these areas of strength? Devise a plan to make changes, allowing you to dedicate 70 percent of your time to your strengths.
- Staff your Weaknesses: Identify three or four activities necessary for your blog’s managment that you don’t do well. Determine how you can delegate the jobs to others. Will it require hiring / outsourcing? Can you partner with another blogger to share responsibilities? Develop a plan.
- Create an Edge: Now that you’ve looked at priorities, think about concentration. What would it take for you to go to the next level in your main area of strength (be it link baiting, design or programming)? What new tools do you need? Rethink how you do things, and be willing to make sacrifices. Time and money spent to take you to the next level are the best investment you can make of your resources as a blogger.
Learn To Blow Your Horn
Self-Promotion is something most of us are uncomfortable with – and it’s not just the prospect of ’selling’ that turns us off, in reality its insecurity (cleverly dressed as modesty) that holds us back.
Whether by nature or by society, we are programmed to sell ourselves short. A few months back I was talking to an old college friend and we started talking about careers. In retrospect, his current job was nowhere near as interesting or lucrative as what I’m doing now as a blogger, but when we talked about it, he was confident to the point that I envied him at the spot and felt slightly foolish mumbling something about owning a football news blog and being a online marketing / blogging consultant.
That incident has stuck with me since then, and while I’ve stopped selling myself short I’ve realised that it not only does it pay to show initiative, it pays in spades to talk yourself up as the best thing since sliced bread. It’s not just an exercise in making your name known or speaking up – if you can do it with confidence without coming off as arrogant, it is the most powerful advertising technique directly available to you (referrals and endorsements are better, but first impressions and the actual sales pitch matter a lot).
As a blogger – whether you want to promote your own services or you’re promoting your blog – you have to learn to blow your own horn. No one else will be doing that for you, so celebrate your success (small or big), talk up your achievements and put yourself firmly in the minds of your readers (and anyone else who wants to listen).
Risk-Taking Bloggers Make More Money
Yesterday I talked about competence and excellence – it’s a theme you’ll be hearing a lot in the next dozen or so articles from me. The basic idea is that “good enough” is never satisfactory – to be successful and to keep moving forward, you have to give it your best shot every single time.
Sometimes you might find it difficult to show up with your “A” game – however, if something is difficult it isn’t an excuse for not making it happen. If you find it difficult it just means that you either need to find a shortcut (work smarter) or dig deep and push through (work harder).
Today I want to talk about something related to competence – risk-taking.
Part of the philosophy of giving a project your 100% every day is that you are always pushing for improvements. At one time or the other, this push will require you to take risks, and it is at this point in time that you will feel the most resistance, when you will find it most difficult to ‘bring your A-game’ to the table.
Risk-taking is an integral fact of business and blogging. Every day we’re faced with choices that require us to leave the comfort of the familiar and venture into the unknown.
Should you hire a new writer? Is this new ad network worth your time? Will you take time out today to build links to your blog instead of writing your daily 5 articles? Is it a good idea to purchase advertising on that site or would it be smarter to keep the money and reinvest into a new design?
When faced with choices, our minds do something very interesting. You will intuitively know what the right decision is (as long as your priorities for your blog are straight), but whether you will be emotionally inclined towards it will depend on how ‘familiar’ it is. With choices that result in taking the unknown path (i.e. taking a risk), chances are that you will come up with rationalisations to avoid taking that step.
Real-world example – I have a friend who runs a very successful construction business. It takes him 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, plus another 6 hours on Sunday. That’s 78 hours per week of work, and this guy is running himself into the ground while building his business up. On one hand he’s happy with his success, but on the other hand it’s clear that he’d like to grow but cannot scale the business. Why Not? Because he hasn’t found a way to replicate himself.
This is a situation many bloggers are familiar with. After a certain point it becomes impossible for a blog to grow unless the owner leverages money for other peoples’ time instead of working on it 24 hours a day. Whether it is hiring a designer or a programmer or just to bring in new writers, it’s a risk the blogger has to take and as a result there’s a natural resistance to it.
This fear of the unknown (for that’s what it is – fear) limits you as a blogger. To paraphrase the Roman historian Tacitus (who was talking about leaders), the desire to play safe stands against every great blogger and blog. There will come a time when you will hit a plateau in your blog – and if you want to move past it, you will have to overcome your fear of the unknown, take risks and push forward to the next level.
Risk Taking 101
Some people look at guys like Tim Ferriss and Matt Furey and wonder how some people can accomplish so much in their lives – it seems inhuman until you realise that these people have an extraordinary willingness to take risks and explore the unknown. This drive doesn’t always pay off, but in most cases you end up being better off than before.
Today’s takeaway: Look at your blog and your blogging efforts and pinpoint the risks that you’ve been avoiding for the last few weeks or even months. Pick one of these risks, discuss the options with your friends and family (or people who know your business) and if it’s the right thing, do it.
And then repeat this once a day (or once a week if you’re doing ‘projects’) with your blog. You don’t have to turn into blind risk-taker, but by constantly pushing your limits and what you do with your blog you’ll not only grow your blog but you’ll also discover new opportunities in blogging and business that were never available to you before.
