Today, I’m going to share with you what is probably the single best piece of blogging advice I know.
Here it is – Drum roll please…
If you would like more, great people to read your blog, start off by asking yourself the following question:
‘If I already had 10,000 prospective clients reading my blog each day, how much time and money would I be prepared to invest in developing it and delivering great content?’
When I ask people that question, they often say things like:
- Wow – With 10,000 subscribers each day, I’d invest as much time as I possibly could in the blog and make it a priority.
- I’d invest in a professional design for the blog. With all those readers, I wouldn’t want to look cheap.
- I’d publish posts most days and really work hard to make the content as useful as possible.
- I’d invest in some good quality hosting, so the blog always responded quickly and was reliable.
Cause and effect
After listening to their answers, I take a look at their blogs and usually find that they have not invested much time, money or energy into them. They want a highly valuable blog, but they won’t make the commitment required, until after their blog is a success.
It’s a little like a restaurant owner saying she refuses to serve great food, until after her restaurant becomes an award winning, premium eatery!
My mentor used to say that it would be crazy to walk up to an empty fireplace and expect heat. We know we need to do the work of building the fire and lighting it, before we can enjoy the warmth. We don’t need to be geniuses to build a successful blog, but we do need to be wise enough to understand that our results will be guided by our actions.
A leap of faith
The people that already have thousands of daily readers, did the work and made the investments before their blog was a success.
That takes a huge leap of faith, but unless you show faith in your blog, you can’t expect others to.
Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!
Image: a la mode.
This has to be the best piece I’ve read today as it rings so true. Back in my teens I went through several incarnations of my blog and I used to get so frustrated that I wasn’t getting readers immediately so I was posting less than half-heartedly. It took me a few years to learn this lesson, and I’m just starting to get back into blogging.
I’m finding the same applies to my job too. We want more customers/clients so we can have more worthwhile promotions, but surely having more worthwhile promotions would bring in those customers we want so much?
Like I say, great post Jim, a sound piece of advice!
Hi Cassandra. You’re right. The same process applies to everything in life – Cause and effect.
Thanks for the feedback and your kind words.
Hey Jim,
What a great lesson. I’m 100% agree with you. The blog isn’t going to be a popular without investment and hard work at first.
Welcome to the blog, Ehsan.
Curse you, Jim Connolly, for making me take another hard look in the mirror, and stunning me into silence with such simple logic.
Have a great day.
Hey Brett. I find ‘simple’ works well. Thanks for the comment, sir.
Great read Jim! I find this applies to so much in life. Even in our business (web design) some clients tend to want everything for as little as possible. They don’t want to make the monetary commitment to invest in something that will actually make a difference to their bottom line.
They want more customers, but don’t want to spend a dime marketing their website. I really feel sad when people don’t realize the harm they’re doing to themselves and their businesses.
Thanks for the read.
Hi MJ. You’re totally right.
One of the single biggest causes of small business failure, is the decision to starve the business of essential investment.
In the worst economy in living memory, to scrimp when it comes to marketing is insanity. Thanks for the comment.
Good afternoon, Mr Connolly!
I wouldn’t argue with the issue of time and money being important investments at the birth of a blog, but no matter how much of either is invested if there is no real passion behind the product it will still be a waste of resources. No love – no life in your blog I fear and no amount of time or money will put it right.
Kind regards,
L
ps – hope that doesn’t sound too negative!
There are lots of investments required, Linda. As you say, passion is extremely important, too.
It’s hard for a reader to be passionate about a blog, when the blog owner lacks passion. Thanks for the comment.
Entirely my pleasure, sir!
Great advice here Jim. It all boils down to be, do, have
I also agree with Linda, you’ve gotta love what you are promoting.
Thanks, Wade!
Jim, I view this post as a wake up call. I’ll say you are telling ordinary bloggers that if they wish to become big, they need to stop day dreaming and make that move that could move mountains.
This post = Motivational piece!
Thanks, Paul. I’m glad you found it uplifting, sir.
I love the way you write Jim and the advice that you give. It is like the movie Field of Dreams- “build it and they will come. You cannot expect people to come to the blog if it is not built properly.
Hi Neil. Thanks for those kind words.
You’re right Greg: Consistency is important when it comes to developing a blog.
It’s not good enough to start of with low quality content and then, determine that ‘if the blog works’ it’s then worth investing in the good stuff.
Ouch!
‘It’s not good enough to start off with low quality content..’
I can’t help but wonder if starting off with low quality content isn’t a sad fact of life for many who are new to the world of writing. As Greg says, we have to find our ‘voice’ first and until that’s done, no matter how good our ideas they may still suffer through weak or clumsy expression. I know mine do!
Kind regards,
L
Hi Linda. Sorry for not making it clearer, but I was referring to something very different.
I was referring to a strategy some so-called experts advocate, where the blogger uses their lowest quality posts at the beginning, rather than ‘waste’ their better quality posts when their readership is small.
Hope that helps.
Aah!
Thank you so much for explaining that to me, Mr Connolly. I have been advised that there are some ‘bad neighbourhoods’ out there in the web-world and I guess that’s what was meant. Of course, I heed all good advice and keep away from such ‘districts’, which is probably why I hadn’t heard about such purported strategies before!
And may I also thank you for not taking offence at my misguided belief that you were referring to something else entirely. I most certainly should have known better….
Kind regards,
L
Hi Linda. No problem
Great advice.. writing a blog needs a huge lot of hard work, time and consistency. But it again depends on how one takes it as… this article is a kind of wake up call who want their business to progress and reach their heights
Thanks, Stanley.
OK. ‘Twas you Jim, who motivated me to install a wordpress blog ON my domain and I have now done that. Now you are inspiring me to write more than once per week. Yes, indeed, I am motivated!
Thank you, Suzanne
Hi Suzanne. Thanks for the update. Please keep me updated with your progress. Feel free to email me direct, via jim@jimsmarketingblog.com
I’ve probably looked at it backwards my entire career. I write because I love to write. Then one day, I realized that if I wrote to be helpful, that might help more people. : )
Interesting.
I wonder how many other business bloggers are driven by that at the beginning, (as opposed to wanting to generate leads / sales through offering useful content?)
Thanks for the feedback, Chris.
Gentlemen,
I might be a little naive here and most certainly will bow down gracefully to greater wisdom than my own – but if business bloggers weren’t driven to write and with passion about their work, why would they blog at all?
Surely most only know about this form of marketing because they are keen readers – and readers are usually writers (whether openly or not)in one form or another…
Kind regards,
L
Hi Linda. Absolutely.
I’ve never met a blogger who produces content regularly, who doesn’t love to write. I wrote a newsletter for 10 years prior to blogging – that’s 14 years of content, and growing.
That – sir – is not only an impressive achievement, but one against which I have no chance of competing.
Whilst I might be able to claim some degree of fame as a prolific writer in a previous career, it was all for an extremely closed community. Nothing that would benefit or be of interest to more than a very select few. Bit like my current work, really…..
Power to your pen, Mr Connolly!
WKR
L
At least I can say that I am investing a ton of time into my blog. Adding content as fast as I can get it written. I do have to say it’s taking more time than I had expected to get it right, but I know in the end it’s worth the effort. Thanks for the encouragement!