It’s a problem that plagues not only the Internet marketing industry, but it is within this niche that we find it particularly prevalent. I suppose this only makes sense, given the general appeal of making money online. People from the outside looking in have a certain preconceived notion of what it means to a professional blogger or Internet marketer. They think it comes easily. They think it comes quickly.
And that’s why you’ll find the world wide web bursting at its virtual seams with people claiming they can tell you how to “get rich quick” on the Internet. Follow this simple formula and you’ll be rolling around in millions of dollars, jetsetting your way to exotic locales and driving fancy sports cars in no time. No experience needed! You can do this in your pajamas.
So Easy Your Grandma Could Do It?
And that’s a problem, because for every successful person that you see online, you’re only seeing the proverbial tip of the iceberg. You don’t see the years of work, experience and dedication that went into building that empire. You don’t see how many times they failed or come up short. You only see the riches and you expect it to come to you instantly. Save for a few rare exceptions, it just doesn’t work that way. It takes time.
In the context of launching a blog, building an audience, and developing a brand, it’s very unlikely that you’ll skyrocket to the top of the blogosphere overnight. You can’t expect to start a blog and suddenly become the next Darren Rowse, Neil Patel or John Chow in a matter of days.
But what is the one critical factor that unifies all successful bloggers and blogs? Consistency. The old tale of the tortoise and the hare taught us that slow and steady wins the race. Now, when it comes to the Internet, moving slowly probably isn’t in your best interest, but the “steady” part of that equation certainly does.
A Schedule You Can Count On
Something that I’ve witnessed more times than I care to count is when a new blogger gets started with a giant dose of enthusiasm. He’s really excited about getting into this space and fires off several great posts with unique ideas that are well thought-out and are supported by visually-appealing images.
Then, he logs into his Google Analytics account and sees that no one is reading his posts. He looks at his Twitter profile and sees that he has no followers. He logs into his Amazon Associates, Google AdSense and Clickbank accounts to see that he hasn’t earned a dime. He gets disheartened. He loses interest. He stops writing posts, partly because he’s run out of ideas and partly because he’s lost his enthusiastic motivation. Not long thereafter, he throws in the towel and quits.
As you can imagine, you don’t want to be that guy.
That guy decided to approach blogging as if it were a sprint. He thought he could fire on all cylinders right away and skyrocket his way to the top. It doesn’t work that way. It takes time.
The Same Steps Every Day
Rather than focus all your attention on how quickly you can ascend the ranks and how soon you can quit your day job to live solely off your online earnings, focus instead on being as consistent as possible with your blogging. Dedicate yourself to posting at least once a week, if not far more often than that.
To date, over 6,000 blog posts have been published on John Chow dot Com (several hundred of which are written by me). Do you think that John decided to publish 15 posts in one day only to leave his blog dormant for a week? No. He made sure that readers had fresh content to read and enjoy every day. The content schedule is consistent and predictable.
When you stick to a schedule, you develop a habit and a routine. This doesn’t mean that you actually have to write a new post every day; it’s much more efficient to write your posts in batches and timestamp them. And with that positive habit, you build up your compound efforts and put yourself in a far better position to succeed, not just today but in the long term.
Maintain that enthusiasm and passion. You don’t want to lose interest too soon.