photo credit: nettsu
Over the past few years, I’ve seen hundreds of blogs being set up, run for a few months, and then shelved to languish unloved in the virtual world.
These blogs always fail for the same reasons, and it’s disappointing for both the owner and the creator when a blog with great potential and possibilities doesn’t flourish and grow as it should.
I’ve learned that there are three principle reasons for blogs failing, and these three elements (which conveniently begin with A, B and C!) are consistently missing when a blog fails to be successful.
The ABC of blogging really does come down to three basic words – Activities, Belief and Commitment.
No matter how much of a seasoned blogger you may be, it’s always worth keeping these three principles for best practice in mind.
Activities
It’s a sad fact of online entrepreneurialism that blogs don’t run themselves.
If they did, all of those blogs that fall by the wayside would be going from strength to strength right now, instead of dying off through neglect!
When we blog, we have a set number of tasks that we need to undertake regularly to make sure that we keep our site current, relevant and useful for our customers.
These activities include:
- Logging in at least once a day to read any comments and respond to them promptly
- Checking our messages to see if we have any questions from potential customers, and answering them
- Updating the blog with an article or video posting
- Visiting other sites and making comments with links back to our own blog
- Clearing spam and junk comments
- Updating our social network with comments, links and information
- Guest blogging on other sites with links back to our own.
This may sound like a lot, but with just a few minutes set aside every day as part of a routine, the activities will be done before you even settle down for a day’s work!
Belief
One of the major stumbling blocks for online success always seems to come down to a belief in your blog, and an unswerving confidence in your own ability to make your blog work, and the ability of your blog to flourish within your chosen industry.
A lack of confidence and vision will soon lead you to losing faith in what you are doing, resulting in your blog being ditched in favour of more immediately obvious returns on investment.
Having a firm belief in the process, your ability to make it work, and the fact that your site will bring long-term benefits is really key to ongoing success.
Commitment
No matter how great a blogger you are, how entertaining your posts may be, or how well you have identified and then tapped in to a successful niche for your online enterprise, you won’t succeed unless you really commit to your site.
This involves setting time apart every day to develop it, putting in place contingency plans to keep it current during time off or holidays, and staying committed to it long after the initial interest has worn off.
The best blogs out there are owned by people who understand the importance of a long-term strategy, and commit fully to their site. Whether you blog for business, a hobby, interest or as your primary income stream, your level of commitment needs to remain constant.
So! There’s my take on the ABC of blogging – the three critical elements that we all need to keep in mind when we make a success of our online venture. If you can think of any other things which are just as key, let me know in the comments below and I’ll add them in to the mix!
They don’t have to be alphabetical, by the way…
Andrew is a website builder and helps small businesses with their on-line presence…so they can grow their customer list and increase sales. That’s it! That’s what we do each and every day.
Before you even think about getting into a big project (and all of your projects should be viewed as big, I suppose), you need to have a particular level of confidence or belief in yourself and your work. Otherwise, all of the hard work you put into it will be in vain – you will quit and that will be the end of it.
This is something I’ve also monitored. I think it’s really important to prove to yourself and your readers that you are committed and believe in yourself to make a stronger bond amongst the community that you form. That’s why I’ve taken it upon myself to write daily posts on my blog – I’m currently aiming to write daily for over three months. Failure won’t nip me 😉
Great post, keep up the amazing work!
Joe,
That’s a big committment and it will pay dividends. What about some guest posting as well?
Andrew
Hi,
that are three very important principles you mention. I think they are interlinked between each other. If you are commited to your blog and belief in it, it’s easy to be very active. If you’re active and commited to your blog, the belief will come… and so on.
Heinz
I agree…some of these traits and very linked. All very important, though.
Andrew
Great motivating article Andrew. It is really important to stay focused, have clarity and persistence! I believe everything has to do with time management and that is an area that I am trying to control so I can be more productive and produce better results. Thank you for sharing.
John
John,
Managing your time is a fine art.
I find setting targets helps me focus on the things that are important.
Andrew
Commitment is make a man success. without commitment no one can achieve the target. Now the world is very fast.. so everyone can run beyond of Commitment.
http://www.media-kom.com/
hey Andrew,
Awesome post with great information and I really enjoyed this post while reading and I think this post contain all the necessary point for a successful blog and Yes, for a successful blog, first we have to belief in ourself then we have to update regularly and also make links with other blog continuously. Thanks for sharing this post.
Sudipto
It does take a lot of hard word, etc to be successful.
Unfortunately due to the on-line hype, many people THINK all they have to do is set up a blog and ‘hey presto’ the money will come rolling in.
Andrew
nice one with the a,b,c’s andrew, really a motivating article. i would like to add an additional D (desire) to the abc’s , as incentives are also strong motivation for every human. If we have a desire to get famous, to make money or to run a successful blog, we will surely work hard on it, no matter how many failure we get in the process.
Amit
Yes, Desire is important, I agree.
What’s yours?
Andrew
Andrew
I agree with all 3…and Desire.
It’s the same with my weight loss clients – they need the A, B, C and Desire.
Steve
I can understand that, Steve.
To lose weight…you must have the desire.
Andrew