Are you getting it? Yes, I am absolutely talking about bloggers — professional bloggers to be more specific and not hobby bloggers.
If you are a regular reader of Minterest (which I refuse to believe :D) then you probably know that I don’t stop criticizing bloggers (especially the so-called professional bloggers) when they are running a blog only to make money and then branding themselves as an “I love to connect/help…”.
Perhaps you should check out: 30 Things I Absolutely Hate About Your Blog. Or, maybe this screenshot (an excerpt from the aforementioned blog post) should summarize everything:
BlueHost Is NOT The Best Host
I mean, it’s perfectly fine (actually sensible) to recommend a web hosting company that they trust. But is that the case? No.
You can see that every single blogger is recommending a web hosting company and that exactly is the reason why I’m not recommending any. And it really feels fantastic to become the odd in a crowd as I believe that’s what makes someone different from the rest (don’t you think so?).
Coming back…
I see increasing number of bloggers promoting nothing but “blogging” and/or “make money online”. And you might ask they’re promoting what they’re doing, right? Well, that’s right but not always.
The perfect example could be: ProBlogger.net.
I really admire Darren Rowse (who founded ProBlogger.net) and it’s him who inspired hundreds of thousands of other bloggers (myself included).
But the problem is, he is no longer writing blog posts at ProBlogger.net. Or, he quit (sort of) blogging at ProBlogger and is focusing more on webinars, ebooks, podcasts, events, other online businesses, etc.
And the result? ProBlogger’s search traffic plummeted over the past several years (I don’t know about its referral traffic though).
Here’s the visibility of ProBlogger.net (according to SEMrush).
And ProBlogger.net’s Alexa traffic trend is no different either.
Needless to say, ProBlogger is NOT the only case here. If you check the organic traffic trends of ShoeMoney, JohnChow, NetBusinessBlog (no longer active), etc. you’d notice the same thing. All of them were once getting thousands of visits a day (or perhaps an hour) and they’re all going down.
And what’s my point? Pretty simple. It can happen to you (and of course me!).
But the good thing is… they have ruined (if I’m allowed to use that word) their blog when they became so successful and that’s the irony.
Alright — enough hatred!
Here are a handful of bloggers that I really admire. Because they haven’t compromised the quality of their blog (or blog posts) ever since they launched it and in fact it’s only getting better and more useful.
…only to name a few.
None of them are hyperactive (publishing hundreds of blog posts per month) and in fact I’m no longer subscribed to a good percentage of them. But seriously those are some blogs that I really love — in one way or the other.
Now why am I talking about all these stuff? :|
Well, as you can see my publishing frequency has reduced significantly over the past few months. Am I getting out of topics? No way. Actually, I get a ton of blog post ideas on a daily/weekly basis and sometimes it makes me restless. And yet, I couldn’t do anything about it. :(
What am I going to do now? I don’t know exactly but I’m exploring different options to streamline my content creation process without changing my editorial philosophy.
Actually, I’m thinking about going from a solo-blogger to a duo-blogger as I can no longer create in-depth handbooks, 101 listicles, tutorials, etc. all by myself.
So, the idea is to partially outsource the content creation process so that I could get my blog posts written in the quickest time possible and then start publishing content in an aggressive manner.
And I believe it’s going to give a new life to me, Minterest, and lovers/haters.
Thinking about starting a blog? Here are my ten cents:
- You don’t start a blog only to make money, you start a blog because you want to write.
- Stop thinking about making money blogging from day one. Always think about what blogging means to you and see where you are heading.
- You try not to ruin your blog with guest posts, infographics, etc. just for the sake of filling it with content.
- You maintain your editorial philosophy (no matter what). Say “No” more often. Trust me — it feels fantastic.
- You respect your readers and they will respect you too (for what you really are).
- You start your blog as a hobby. Because almost all the successful blogs started as hobby blogs (except multi-authored commercial blogs).
- It’s totally fine to make money out of your blog but don’t get obsessed with it and don’t make it your ultimate goal.
- You don’t copy other bloggers. Instead, define yourself and stand out from the crowd and let your voice be heard.
- Never quit writing. Remember, “Clear writing is a sign of clear thinking.”.
- Always love your blog. Love even more. And even more than that. Because there should be only one blog that’s exactly like yours and it must be your own blog.
So, what do you think?
You Have Started Blogging When ‘They’ Are Quitting It is a post by Minterest
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