How do you market your blog?
Today’s episode of the Pessimists Guide to Blogging is about Challenges… those pesky little problems that we all have from time to time - I’m sure you know what I’m talking about, many people find it a challenge just to get out of bed in the morning (something I personally don’t have a problem with… two young kids make sure of that). The previous article in this series was about Ambition if you’ve got plans of being a full-time blogger, then you’d better get over there and read that first.
Every blogger faces a challenge - quite a few challenges in fact - they are depressingly hard to avoid… so what does the pessimistic blogger have to say about challenges?
For those of you who are graphically challenged - the above image reads “Challenges - I expected times like this, but I never thought they would be so bad, so long and so frequent.”
You do expect there to be challenges right… I don’t think total ignorance is an issue, but are you prepared for the amount, length and severity of these challenges? Here is a shot list of the many, many challenges that bloggers face in their quest to become popular:
…I could go on all day - in fact every day seems to throw up a new challenge (or repeats of ones I had the previous day), that’s just the way the world turns, it’s not restricted to blogging.
Want some real examples from fellow bloggers? I asked “What’s your biggest challenge as a blogger” in the problogger room on FriendFeed, within minutes I got these responses…
Sarah Parker from Going Bananas Blog writes
Networking is fun and rewarding, but is so overwhelming and a time sucker. It’s a catch 22 as I do believe it is key to my blog’s continued growth. I find that my traffic goes down if I slow down on networking for a few days, but I don’t want to be a computer addict either. :)
Andrew Garrett from Life Sans writes
Finding time and energy to post properly. My earlier pro-blogger attempts were mostly link posts, which failed miserably. Now, I’m vastly better at original content creation, but with a fairly full-on day job, I find it hard to find time and energy to create well
Trisha from This Pale Blue Dot writes
Getting more readers for the blog and trying balance that with actually having time to write posts for the blog
Andy Roberts from Distributed Action Research writes
Finding ways to be comfortable blogging about several totally unrelated topics all on one blog. Trying to write for different audiences without impinging on each other.
and Nancy Nally from Scrapbook Update writes
It’s hard to stay organized reviewing the incoming information that I need to stay apprised of to get the news and information I need to write my posts. There’s feeds to read, news sites to browse, social networks to keep up with… I’m sure it takes me longer to do than it probably should.
All bloggers have things that challenge them… lots of things, new challenges arise every day - yours too will be significant, frequent and long lasting.
Enough of the negativity. Yes there are challenges - we all face them - but the optimist in me won’t let them bring me down. Here’s one of my all-time favourite quotes, it was made by one of the NFL’s greatest Coaches Vince Lombardi: “It is time for us all to stand and cheer for the doer, the achiever — the one who recognizes the challenges and does something about it.”
You don’t need to focus on big challenges, but you do need to focus on ones that are important to you… the ones stopping you from achieving your goals. I find that writing them down makes it so much easier to acknowlege and focus on my challenges, the fist step to beating them.
Sometimes the solution might need a bit of lateral thinking. Here is one last response to my question on FriendFeed, it was written by Igor the Troll
Does it mater where you post? Unless you trying to become rich from selling Adsense on your blog you should be able to garnish interest and followers even if you only post on social media networks. So do not be a “Blogger” only person but post were it is relevant. By having this kind of mentality you will have enough time for your off line activities. It is not the number of people who visit your blog, but how many people read what you write on the Internet as well as off the Internet.
Quite often, if the challenges you face seem huge, or your current strategy just isn’t working as well as you’d like, then a change of approach may just be what you need.
There aren’t too many successful people who just lay back, put up their feet and let luck take care of everything. Give yourself every chance, get into the habit of identifying the challenges and planning to overcome them - make sure that you are a ‘doer’ and an ‘achiever’.
What tips can you share about overcoming challenges as a blogger? Maybe you just have a story you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments.
The above image - and many more - can be found on despair.com… you can even get it printed on a coffee mug if you like.
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Right on, excellent point!
I think that as human beings, we all have a trait inside that allows us to “hope” there is a shortcut or “easy” way to do things.
But Grandpa’s advice always seems to stick…
“If you want something good in life…you gotta work for it and face the challenges along the way.”
Joseph Ratliff
Editor of The Profitable Business Edge 2
…and that’s just as important on the Internet as anywhere else - trust me, I’ve looked for shortcuts, and they are more trouble than they are worth, lol.
Put in the hard work and the end results will be much more enjoyable (and sustainable).