The following is written by Nick Sotos.
There is currently a huge buzz around blogging. A lot of people achieved tremendous success just by blogging about their interest; talk about Yaro, Seth Godin, and many other probloggers. However, while we look up to and celebrate their success, the happiness and growth is much felt in the climbing process and not while on the top. At first, with the fresh enthusiasm, the road seems clear and easier but after a while, we begin to see it dwindling and becoming clouded with self doubt due to the absence or negligible success.
Just like in mountaineering, first we have to write down a list with all the needed outdoor gear, then pack our equipment and then hit the mountain trail. The same preparation has to be done if we want blogging success too. With this in mind, let’s pack together our blogging backpack in order to hit the blogging trail with success.
How To Climb The Blogging Mountain
In order to make our blogging carrier a success, there are some factors that we must put to consideration. Whether you have started or you are about to launch a blog, you will at some point come to this if you want to enjoy long term blogging success.
You Can’t Blog about Everything: This may not be what you need to hear, but the truth is that you can’t tell everybody everything. Ensure that your blog is in a niche and best still, talk about a specific factor in that niche. Many people preach that we should blog about our interest which is a sure way to launch a blog, but you will reach success easier and faster if you find a common problem within your interest and offer solutions with your blog posts.
Know Your Audience: The world seemed already grouped. Just like you may prefer automobiles, software, or web designing and may want to take it up on your blog, another person may just love medicine, PPC advertising, kayaking or skin care products as much as you love web designing. Any post you write on your blog should be for those who share the same interest and you need to write in the language they will understand. Most times, using individual engaging words and statements which speak to each visitor directly tend to pierce the hardest hearts.
Are Your Posts Right To The Point?
I hate reading five paragraphs to find a point. If you write like this, chances are you will be losing audience instead of building a readership community around your blog. Be direct to the point; if the title of your post says they will learn the solution to a particular problem, give it to them first-hand and explain the details with the following paragraphs, This way, you will win their interest to drive them right to the bottom of every blog post.
Use Post Scheduling Systems
If you find the process of writing and posting to be tedious, you can use post scheduling systems to improve your productivity. With any of these systems, you can write and schedule about 3 posts over the weekend to be posted the following week and have the week for your other activities.
Respond To Questions and Inquiries
If I read a blog with queries and questions that were unattended to, I quickly lose interest, especially where those questions have stayed for a while. It means that the bog wasn’t profitable and the owner has lost hope which is discouraging. When readers ask questions with no response from you, they will gradually lose interest and you might lose more than one reader from such a mistake.
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{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
February 17, 2012 at 3:10 AM
Good tips, Nick. I would argue wholeheartedly that writing about a special subset within your given passion/hobby will reap the best rewards. Too many blogs out there seem to have little direction and no specific purpose. The ones that keep me going back are the ones that seem to have a particular viewpoint/objective (even if I disagree with it) and offer well-written content.
That’s exactly my opinion too Alex; as I wrote you can’t blog about everything. Visitors want to read targeted posts.
Thank you for commenting.
February 17, 2012 at 9:02 AM
Nice post, Nick. I certainly agree about long intros detracting from the message. There is an alternative print newsweekly here in Fort Worth that always buries the lead (or lede, depending on where you learned the term) on their cover stories. That’s very annoying and turns me off every time.
Gip
Thanks Gip. The information you can find in the web is so huge, that if you’re not direct to the point, probably your visitor will “backspace” and click the next site.
Thanks for your comment.
You have a lot of good points. I just started scheduling my posts which really helps me keep posts consistent. Also, I think if you don’t truly enjoy blogging, then you will never make any money off of it.
Good job Katie, scheduling is a key-tip.
As you say, only when you truly love what you are doing, you’ll do it with quality. And when it comes to blogging, my opinion is that quality is always better than quantity.
Thanks for your comment.
February 18, 2012 at 4:48 AM
WOW! There’s so much to learn when we look at blogging from a mountaineer’s viewpoint. Apart from having all the necessary gears in place and practicing, it’s the mountain climber’s passion that helps them achieve their goals. Similarly, blogging also requires a lot of passion to become successful, in addition to sticking to the basics of the game.
I agree with you about ‘not blogging about just anything’ and ‘identifying the target audience’ when it comes to creating loyal blog readers. Certainly, passion without knowledge won’t help.
Indeed; the parallelism between blogging success and mountain climbing, was the key-point for me to write that article.
Thanks for your comment Obaidul.
Very informative and useful post. This will help a lot to me as a new one in blogging. This idea enhances my capability. All of the content is about keywords and in fact I definitely understand those things. Thanks for sharing this and its a very big help for me..
I’m glad you found my post helpful Becca.
Since, as you say, you are new to blogosphere, I wish you a happy blogging start. Remember, always blog with passion!
Thank you for commenting
February 23, 2012 at 5:34 AM
Hi Nick, you make some very good points, I never really thought about the journey that is blogging as a mountain climb. The thing is a mountain has a top, but does blogging? I think you can carry on climbing!
One thing I here batted around a lot is that you have to choose your niche, or as you put it “You Can’t Blog about Everything” – I somewhat disagree. Fair enough have a general topic area in mind, but why not write more generally. On Technology Bloggers we write about everything from technology and science, to computing and blogging. Is this bad?
By the way, I love the picture, especially appropriate considering you’re a mountaineer expert
Thanks Christopher, I’m glad you liked my post. Having or not blogging a specific top, “the happiness and growth is much felt in the climbing process and not while on the top”, as I wrote
In my opinion the whole niche debate, comes from a deeper point, and that point is quality.
If a blogger is capable to produce quality content about lots of things, then it’s not bad at all
Thanks for your comment.
February 23, 2012 at 1:13 PM
You are welcome, it is interesting to see others take on things
February 25, 2012 at 5:08 AM
and then, after reaching the top, you’ll see in front of you another higher mountain: promoting your blog using SEO …and you are already addicted to that passion of climbing higher and higher
Mountaineers and bloggers, seems to share the same passion
Thanks Amanda for sharing your thoughts.
It is so true when you said, “You Can’t Blog about Everything”. When I just started blogging, I would write about anything and everything cause I didn’t want to missed out on anything important. I would sometimes write about stuff that I was unfamiliar with, so I had to do hours and hours of research. It was very time consuming and frustrating at times.
Now I only write about things that interest me and it shows in my blog.
Good job Loc. For me the key-point is quality; niche blogs ensures that.
Though, as always, there are exceptions.
Thanks for your comment Loc.
Great post Nick, be focused on your topic and cover the best you can, and be real.
I’m glad you enjoyed my post Jamie.
Thank you for commenting.
I’ve read many posts on conquering blogging. But this is really unique, how you link it with mountaineering over snow-coated mountains!
That last bit to sum it up is so true. The interest is definitely lost once the story-line doesn’t click, goes off topic or just gets dull!
From my mountaineering experience, I found too many common things between mountain climbing and blogging. Very important is to equip yourself properly with the right gear.
I’m glad you liked my post Alicia, thanks for your comment.