Do you find yourself scratching your head over why your blogging strategy is not working? Why, despite a million people doing it, you can’t seem to get it right?
You place good content out there, you do all your social media marketing, you have a pretty good website but all you get is crickets.
It’s frustrating.
This blog post is all about the non-technical aspects of your strategy that lead to failure in blogging.
#1 You’re not confident enough
In a famous Ted Talk, a renowned speaker/author Simon Sinek (Read 10 Books all Entrepreneurs Need to Read), gives us a golden nugget for success in any entrepreneurial venture.
People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
Simon Sinek
Have a strong intent behind whatever you are doing. be very vigilant about your audience, their needs, their problems, and then give creative, very helpful, and easy solutions to those problems.
If your strategy doesn’t include your vision for your business you will naturally be dealing with a lack of confidence in your product/blog/service. To get clarity on what you are offering and why people will want to buy from you think about your ‘WHY’.
Pro Tip: Every week plan a strategy meeting with your team. If you are going solo in your business plan a meeting with yourself. Take a few minutes aside to step into your audiences’ shoes and try to feel their problems.
What do they want?
How do they want it?
How am I going to reach out to them?
#2 Far from and Entrepreneurial Mindset
If you are into blogging for money but still call it your side-hustle and not a business, you need a mental shift. You are not just a blogger, you are into making money as a business.
Better still, you are an entrepreneur. Why? Because you are bringing creative solutions to the table. In order to stand out from the crowd, where you need to have your own (done-for-you) strategy in place, you also need to be creative in your approach.
You can’t be offering similar solutions, something they can get from anyone on the internet, and expect different results. In order to make a difference, learn to be different.
Simply ask yourself:
How can my content be of more value to my readers?
This also means you will have to get rid of the click-bait, get-rich-quick, overnight-millionaire mindset and jump into the entrepreneurial mindset.
Nope, just being a blogger won’t crack it anymore.
Entrepreneurs are the go-getters. They are focused on the goal/reward. People with non-entrepreneurial mindset are focused on the hurdles – everything that stops them from getting to a specific goal.
#3 You lack Productivity
Most of the bloggers are starting out on their own. The biggest challenge that comes with being the all-in-one Content Creator, Marketing Manager, Developer, Designer, Manager and CEO of your blog is that you lose track of what’s important vs. what’s urgent.
Productivity is not just about getting stuff done efficiently, it’s about prioritizing and focusing on what’s bringing you the most value.
Time is money. Every minute you spend on the nitty-gritty, you lose a client, a sale or prospect lead.
Focus on the important, delegate the rest to your team. Don’t have a team? Hire a VA. Don’t have money to invest in one yet? Think again.
Perhaps you can save and spare $100 per week. Hire a VA (usually $25/hour) for 4 hours and get 4 hours for yourself to work on the important stuff. You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on hiring someone to assist you.
Pro Tip: Just go through your paid subscriptions and cancel those you are not using for a while now to save some money for your VA.
#4 Consistency is the key
Everything works on this principle. You need to eat, sleep, breathe consistently to survive. You need to keep a consistent strategy for your blog to work.
One of my greatest hurdles with blogging was doing it consistently. I usually had pits and peaks in my consistency graph. There used to be a phase where I would go in and put up blog posts, do the social media stuff and wait for audience to start pouring in.
When you are starting it’s hard to gain a lot of traction, your SEO, your social media channels all want you to show some consistency before being kind enough to let your word out there to your audience.
When the results didn’t show up, my motivation went down the drain and with that all hopes for staying consistent.
Don’t do that. You’ve come a far way to give up on your dream. Keep putting efforts in the right direction, with hope, give value to your readers and you will make it. Remember, entrepreneurs are go-getters.
And of course, you need to stick to a strategy long enough to see results.
#5 Not Seeking Solitude
Many of you mind rise eyebrows on this one. What does solitude have to do in our noisy world. We don’t have any place or time for it.
Agreed. But how many of you have had great ideas in the shower or when on long peaceful walks?
From my personal experience, solitude induces creativity. When you learn to cancel all the noise and let your brain wander great ideas start pouring in, solutions start surfacing and things start making sense.
Take a moment to sit back and listen to yourself. It’s important in all aspects of your life. Yes, even for your blog or business.
Read more on the topic in Ryan Holiday’s bestseller ‘Stillness is the Key’.
#6 You are deep into Information Overload
According to Internet Live Stats, there are 1.5 billion websites on the world wide web of which around 200 Million are active.
When devising a strategy on your own and looking for answers you don’t know because of your inexperience and curiosity, information overload is a viral online disease.
In your pursuit to succeed at blogging, you now know so much that it’s hard to distinguish right from wrong. Or more precisely, from what actually works and what doesn’t.
Is there any way out?
The answer lies in agility.
Whether you are taking advice from a random person on the internet or seeking it from a know-it-all internet guru, not everything is going to work for you.
While some strategies are obvious they are not for you, for others you might need to adopt agility. That means adopt the strategy, put your share of work on it, follow up on feedback, and give it enough time. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, reiterate with another strategy.
#7 Baby Steps?
Have great goals but always always always start with baby steps. Baby steps can help you avoid burnout which eventually leads to failure at blogging.
If you start by making a list of things you need to do to run a blog, just writing that list might wear you out. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Start small. Focus on a few important tasks. Delegate the rest or leave them for another time (which, frankly, never comes but then again those tasks weren’t top priority in the first place).
Bonus: Understand the difference between your Goal and your Journey
Lastly, remember your goal is what you are after but don’t put your enjoyment or happiness on hold until you get there. Because it’s not just about the achievement of your goal but more about the journey.
Enjoy the journey. Enjoy your little successes. Do that happy dance on every milestone. Make the most of this journey towards your goal. Enjoy your hard work, enjoy the rewards, enjoy everything in between, even the hustle, efforts and all the hours put into work.
Learn to look at the bigger picture. Consider every task you do to be a brick. The wall will only complete when their are enough bricks.
Do you face any hurdles when it comes to your strategy for your blog?
Read about my blogging strategy that works – the technical aspects of the strategy.
Save on Pinterest!
