Success.
It is a tricky word.
And as in most professions it is a moving target.
Blogging is no exception….
When I began to blog I remember thinking “if I can get 100 readers a day I will be able to relax and I will feel like I am a success”. I even wrote it down on a post-it note and pinned it to my bulletin board. I leave it there to remind me- how far I have come. Now with tons more page views daily, that goal of ‘just 100’ seems silly. In the early days I would read other more established bloggers and marveled at their readerships…I yearned to be ‘popular’. It felt strangely familiar. You have heard the comparison before- that the blogosphere is tantamount to a virtual high school with the cliques, drama and yes, popularity contests. And yup..it is true.
Hey bloggers? Any of this sound familiar?
Start blog.
Immediately place value of each post in # of comments. And the ones from your mom don’t count you decide.
Discover Sitemeter or Google Analytics and start to monitor # of readers every waking moment and even once or twice in the middle of the night.
Now you start to calculate the # of comments to the # of readers ratio
Discover Feedburner now obsess over # of subscribers
Now you start to calculate # of readers to # of subscribers ratio.
Sent first request for a review post on a product
Do your first give-away and realize it feels really good to give stuff to people, but it is scary to be in charge of picking the winner.
Discover Random.org and smile.
First request for a paid post for a gambling or porn site. While you are flattered, you turn them down because they are not the ‘right fit’.
You are invited to first brand sponsored event.
You go and write a post about it. Not sure if that was all they wanted from you. Seems strange.
Have blog cards printed at Uprinting.com, start to give out to anyone and everyone.
Husband calls you a Blog Pimp.
Pay money you don’t have to get a redesign for your site.
Decide a successful blog makes money. So you…
Put Google Ads on the blog ……Take Google Ads off since they bug you and you never get any money from them anyway
Put Blogher Ad up.
Take down as soon as they say you can’t do giveaways with their ad up.
Join Twitter. Immediately worry about your low number of followers.
First request for paid advertising comes in.
Thrilled. Until you discover the brand only wants to pay you $20 a month. You take it anyway.
Husband asks what you want for your birthday and you answer with “redesign and move to WordPress”. He looks confused but agrees.
Hire blog designer to move blog. Use custom domain.
LOOSE more than half of your readers and subscribers.
CRY.
CRY A LOT.
Attend BlogHer conference.
Come home feeling very small and unpopular and troubled by being called a ‘content generator’ and not a writer.
Discover Webgrader.
Discover Google Page Rank.
Discover you are no where near the ‘big guys’.
Consider giving up the blog. Question why you do this in the first place.
Participate in brand webinars, tweet-ups and conference calls.
Get free stuff.
Get huge validation from FREE STUFF. Decide that since you do not get paid for your work FREE STUFF is your ‘pay’.
Seek out give-aways and brand promotions like crazy.
Free Stuff becomes your SUCCESS meter.
Create Facebook Fan Page and immediately begin to obsess about your number of fans.
Eventually, you come to the conclusion it has become too commercial and too much like ‘work’ so you blog about ending the blog.
You decide the best thing to do is to just close up shop.
You do.
Suddenly you have more free time than you know what to do with.
And then one day you have something to say- and no one to say it to.
So you…
START BLOG.
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