Recently I realized there are two factors that powerfully determine if your blog will be a success. While you think what they might be, let me tell you about a crazy experiment …
I just posted an article over at another blog that I write for about a crazy experiment I am trying with one of my websites. Already a friend has told me I have made this site go from merely “unattractive” to “downright ugly” :) But I am sticking with the new feature for now because the numbers seem to be suggesting it is working.
Try crazy ideas
Now, I am not saying that you should plaster huge, ugly red arrows all over your blog!
But it does lead us to the first of the big influences on your success …
Your willingness to try and your ability fail and get back up. You have to try different things, test, tweak, and, yes, make yourself look silly once in a while.
Just do it.
The second is taking action, and keeping on taking action. Put in the hours. Stick with it.
In most any field, the people that you look up to as achieving what you want for yourself were just there before you, maybe only one step or two ahead. They have stuck with it for longer and tried more stuff.
What we do is pretty public, and the internet does have a long memory, but do not use that as an excuse to not do stuff. I have probably been blogging over ten years. “Probably” because it is difficult to know exactly what constitutes a blog before the term was invented. This means I made my biggest mistakes years ago, but I still make them, all the time.
So in conclusion …
Blogging recipe for success
- Try things
- Keep going
What do you think? What am I missing? Please share in the comments …
I think one of the biggest and perhaps a rather daunting aspect of blogging is that our errors are always very public. Each new thing we try is put into public scrutiny long before we can truly judge the success it may or may not bring. Sometimes, the greatest success comes from taking chances. The biggest risks earn greatest rewards and we can’t be afraid to look a little stupid.
The good news is, that everyone is on the same footing. Those we look up to now have been where we are today, they’ve made mistakes we can learn from because they didn’t have those that had done before. In order to truly emulate the greatest minds we have to do things that haven’t been done. You can mimic to some degree but eventually you’ve got to start making your own mistakes or forever dog the footsteps of others, forever be a step behind.
The question is, what are you learning from the new things you’re trying? The only way you know what works and what doesn’t is not just to try new things but to evaluate the results of what you’re doing.