A new year brings a new beginning. You can look at it as the same old same old, or you can look it as an opportunity to for a new start. Here’s how to make 2009 you best blogging year.
Have A Consistent Posting Frequency
Blogging is not a get rich quick scheme. Many new people read this blog and think it had always made a lot of money. The truth is, I started just like you did. For the first eight months of the blog’s life, it made absolutely nothing and barely cracked 1,000 page views per day.
If I were to nail down one ingredient to blogging success, it would have to be a consistent posting habit. Most bloggers fail because they want instant gratification and mistakenly think that blogging is a quick road to riches. They’ll post like crazy for a few weeks, maybe even a few months. When nothing comes from it, they quit and become a statistic.
“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.â€
~ Zig Ziglar
On again, off again blogging doesn’t work. The key is consistency. This blog has average over two posts per day since the day it was created. There has never been a day that has gone by where there has not been a new post to read. It is this kind of consistency that will lead your blog to success in 2009.
Choose a posting frequency and make a commitment to stick to it. In order for something to become a habit, you have to do it everyday for at least 28 days. Blogging for me is a habit. I feel strange if I don’t get up at least one new post everyday. Fortunately, this is a very good habit to have. Over the course of a few years, it will become a very profitable habit.
It’s Time To Brand
If you haven’t already done so, it’s time to give your blog a domain name and get out of Blogspot or WordPress.com. You want to build your brand, not their. 175,000 new blogs are created everyday. Branding is what will separate you from the masses.
Make a goal to give your blog a new unique blog design in 2009. Have some business cards made up. Treat your blog like a serious business. Most don’t treat blogging seriously because of its low start up cost – easy in, easy out. If blogging cost $100,000 to start, a lot more people would treat it seriously.
Very few normal businesses can be started for $8.95 (cost of a domain name) and glow into a $400,000 operation in three years. But that is the power of blogging if you take this seriously and continue to work at it on a consistent basis.
Get To Know Your Readers
Blogging is all about forming relationships. There’s the relationship between you and the readers and relationship between you and other blogs in your niche. Make a commitment to get to know them and form that relationship.
In addition to getting to know your readers, you should have your readers get to know you. If you haven’t done so yet, then make 2009 the year to tell your story. Where did you come from? What are you goals and dreams? Introduce your family members. The more the readers know about you, the more they’ll connect with you. Eventually, your story will become a valuable part of your about page.
Start That Mailing List
I’m a big believer the Blog Mastermind and Become a Blogger way of blogging. Both systems teach you to start a blog and capture leads. While many bloggers ask their readers to subscribe to their RSS, I would much rather have the readers subscribe to my mailing list.
You can do far more things with a mailing list than you can with RSS. A list is fantastic for keeping your readers in touch with posts or projects that you’re working on. It’s also a great way to get feedback. And, once the list is big enough, it’s huge money maker. I use Aweber to handle my mailing list and I highly recommend them.
Get On Twitter
As hard as it is to believe, there are still people not on Twitter yet. I know because I’ve seen a few readers comment saying they are not on Twitter and for some reason, seem proud of that fact. If you’re reading this blog, I’m going to assume you want to learn how to make money online. If that’s the case, then I am telling you now, YOU NEED TO BE ON TWITTER. If you don’t get on Twitter now, you’re going to miss out big time. Mark my words on that one.
Stay In Quadrant 2
If you ever read the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, then you’ll know about the time quadrant. Basically, Every activity we do during the day can be put in one of four quadrants:
- Urgent and important (crises, pressing problem, deadline)
- Not urgent and important (Relationship building, planning, exercise)
- Urgent and not important (Interruptions, some calls, emails, etc.)
- Not urgent and not important (Busy work, time wasters, pleasant activities)
Answer this question: What one thing could you do in your personal and professional life that, if you did on a regular basis, would make a tremendous positive difference in your life? Chances are, whatever you name, it’s a Quadrant 2 activity.
Quadrant 2 is the heart of effective personal management. It deals with things that are important but not urgent, like building your blog, forming relationships, long term financial planning, exercising – all those things we know we need to do, but seldom get around to doing because they are not urgent and can be put it off until some other day. Well, we all know that someday never comes.
Don’t put off what you know you need to do just because it’s not urgent and you can always get to it someday. For many, someday will turn into years or never. I know people who said they were going to get into blogging years ago. I’m still waiting to see their blogs. The main difference between a highly successful blogger and an unsuccessful one is the successful blogger knows blogging is not urgent but it’s important enough to actually get started and keep going.