Blogging is becoming more and more essential in how we gain awareness to our product, services as well as our self/personal brand. Blogs to a search engine crawler is like a kid the first time in a candy store as not only are there a myriad of choices but the content is so new and fresh that it is able to be ranked by matching search queries. A blog whether it be a news generator, promotional, how to, why or just thoughts that resonate and have an impact all serve a purpose, a purpose in turn that the search engines need to avoid providing results that are stale and untrustworthy.
In social media especially as it pertains to blogging, we are constantly feeding our brains with new information. What is going to help us to be successful and how can we interpret it for our audience so that it has not only the comment but also the share sensation? A new blogger is struggling to make their mark as they try to formulate and create their niche through this process generally start with obsessively closely monitoring the traffic stats (forgetting about the goals of the blog and the attainable objectives).
New bloggers all face the same challenges in getting attention and building momentum to their blog. The first few days are eternal bliss as the first time you hit publish there is excitement and also fear if it is good enough to even be published. After a few weeks, hitting the publish button is as easy as tying your shoes and the realness that you are a blogger starts to set in. Self imposed deadlines, researching content, interacting and engaging in the community to promote the blog and keeping up on the reading of blogs that you have long enjoyed all involve time. Realization that the commitment to blogging is greater than first thought becomes clear and the stages that many new bloggers go through in the first year start to set in.
10 Stages of New Bloggers
1. Listener. The decision to blog has been made and you go and read all that you can in your topic and subject areas as well as all that you can about blogging and how to be a successful blogger.
2. Euphoria. You have listened; you have created a bank of articles so that when the blog is launched there is not just one article for people to read. The moment of launching the blog is like being on cloud 9. The first few readers start coming in and the information for new blogs seems to flow freely.
3. Fear. After a few weeks when every article is not getting the attention that you wish, fear starts to set in. Is my content good enough? What do I have to write in order to get the article shared and the readers running to the site?
4. Control. The feeling that the blog has to be done starts to take over wanting to write and publish. It is a mindset that generally starts to set in when we feel that we have hit the wall and are almost trapped in a writing bottle. The blog is all that you think about and it starts to feel like a chore instead of a release of thoughts and ideas that are shared to help others.
5. Isolation. You are the only one who struggles with posts, the only one who is not getting comments, the only one who is not getting 1000 tweets, stumbles, diggs every day. Isolating yourself and creating the "only one club" starts to pull you away from the blogging community.
6. Loathe. The hating of the blog is real as why did you ever think that this was a good idea? Even the thought of blogging makes your stomach turn as control and isolation have consumed your thoughts and you blame the blog for existing.
7. Destruction. The blog pretty much is an afterthought as you have not continued with your schedule and the readers are starting to go elsewhere. Some shut it down completely whereas others see the declining numbers in a new light.
8. Acceptance. Those that did not shut down and walk away from blogging have a moment of acceptance. The blog is not going to be #1 and have record numbers of traffic each day. The purpose of the blog starts to come back and the wanting to blog mindset is renewed.
9. Determination. Creating goals and objectives that are reasonable and achievable is the key. Being determined to grow the blog though creating great, usable, shareable content on a consistent basis and focusing your efforts on the social part of the blog though interaction and engaging with the audience and the blogging community.
10. Learning. Learning is a very big part of blogging. We are constantly learning from others and ourselves. Learning is what keeps the blog alive and published as once we have hit the control, loathe and destruction stages, we learn from them and build upon them by continuing to read others and be connected through our thoughts and ideas.
Blogging we know is more than words on a page. It is a commitment that goes far beyond a personal challenge to create and maintain it. The creating and maintaining are just a piece of the pie as once the article is published, the promoting and being active member of the community come into play. Every blogger has a story behind why they started to blog and how they defined success. The more popular the blog, the more pressure to consistently write content that will resonate with readers with less time to actually write.
Have you experienced these stages? What did you do to power through and be successful?
photo credit: Mexicanwave