101 things I wish I knew when I started out blogging

To this september, it’s exactly one year since I started out blogging. May not sound like so much time, but, the important thing is that I’ve learnt many new things about something which I thought was just plain old web content creation. So this post is kinda like looking back at the whole thing and summing up in 101 points, the most important things that I’ve learnt about blogging, intenet marketing and everything in between.

1. It’s not about doing more - it’s about doing what matters.

Before I started college I used to dedicate around 12-15 hours just for a single blog. I tried to be a super-blogger. Trying to do everything that I’ve heard people say that would make me a successful blogger. Things include trying to be a top user of stumbleupon, researching hours and hours for quality posts, commenting on 30-50 other blogs per day and so on.

Needless to say, about 2-3 weeks later, I got fed up of the whole thing, and didn’t do anything related to blogging for around 2 months as I was disappointed with the results. When I started out again, I knew that I couldn’t be a super-blogger. It’s not about working harder. It’s about working smarter.

2. You must find your own rhythm.

There will be enough and more people who would tell you “how to manage your blog”. But that doesn’t mean that you should do it exactly as they say.

I have told many times through my posts that doing several posts at a time can really save your time. Well, it’s true. It saves time and I have tried it out. But I do not do that. Why? It’s just not aligning itself with my rhythm. I’m a person who gets bored really easily when doing repetitive tasks. So when I do something, I like to have the freedom of chopping down my work. So, when I blog, I tend to take my time, and not do a lot of blogging at once.

Doesn’t matter whether it’s recommended by 100 bloggers, you must do what feels right to you. You’re not them. So, it’s pretty hard for someone else to be so accurate about how you should do something.

3. No one will tell you where the treasure is - you must find your own

Just imagine., if someone had a treasure map, would that person be so stupid enough to share it with the rest of the world and lessen his cut from the tresure? He could have the tresure to himself.

Likewise, if you’re looking to strike gold by looking for secrets from other bloggers, there’s not that much of a chance for that. For an exmple, I have my own way of doing SEO, that I have learnt through experiences of 6-7 years. Some of them, I have and I will share with you guys from this blog. But, to be honest, the most effective ones that I’ve discovered by myself would not be shared even through a $97 e-book.

What people learn through experience and experimentation is pure gold because they learn it by themselves. And what they learn, give them the edge in the things that they do. If they give it away, if they share their gold with the world, they won’t be as rich. So, if you’re looking for gold, dont expect to people to be so charitable.

4. It’s not about running faster, it’s about running longer.

Ramzi Rashid, the Gold Medal winner in Beijing 2008 men’s 1500m wasn’t the fastest runner in the world. Usain bolt could have beaten him to a pulp in the men’s 100m. But the thing was Rashid had to run 1500m and finish it, being the fastest. If he tried to run like Usain Bolt in his race, he wouldn’t be standing after 600m.

True enough, you might not have much traffic when you’re starting out and you might be in desperate need of subscribers. But that doesn’t mean you must go ahead and do everything there is to get your blog going. You should have a plan in doing it. Much like Rashid plans his race for the first 500m, second 500m, third 400m and the last 100m. He doesn’t run as fast as he could in the first 1000m, because he must run longer.

Only time will tell a blog’s true success. If you know how it should be done, you’ll see stardom a bit faster than others. But, whether you know it or not, it’s important that you understand that doing 30 things in 30 days is more realistic and achivable than doing 30 things in 2 days and giving up after that. Persistence is key.

5. Magic beans exist where others fail to look.

I’m a firm believer in the statement “A blog has endless potential”. But I don’t belive that potential could be achieved by running a rat race. The rat race that so many rats are running, not realizing that they are just following the rats in front of them.

But, what if I don’t want to be a runing rat? What if I want to be like Stuart Little and fly in an aeroplane? Then I will have my own heading, and I will travel faster than the other mice.

Likewise, don’t just run the rat race. Think differently, and think out of the box. Look for answers where others won’t look, and you will find your magic beans, Jack. Performancing Ads came up offering $10 per referral for publishers who refer other to the network. Needless to say, every blogger on the block promoted them with free reviews asking their readers to sign-up through them. Certain a-listers wrote half a dozen of posts dedicated to Performancing Ads alone., trying to get their readers to sign-up.

But I saw things in a different light. A couple of e-mail exchanged with Ryan Caldwell of the Performancing team, 45 minutes later, I was running my own Peformancing Ads contest, sponsored by Performancing Ads.

I didn’t need to wite 5 reviews about Performancing Ads to get so many referrals. I only had a 5 minute braistorming session, a 45 minute e-mail exchange, a 40 minute promotion campaign. What took someone else 5 reviews, 5 days and 5 hours to accomplish was achieved within less than two hours, 1 post and 1 day.

Guess I found a few magic beans where others failed to look.

…

101. Head fake: Exaggeration only works if you do not compromise on quality.

Everyone exaggerates the potential of their product/service, in this case, the blog post. I was sure that most of the bloggers reading this post would gain something - even a little thing - and would find this a read worthwhile. I was not being overconfident - but ambitious. So, I had to exaggerate a little bit about the size of the whole thing.

But, despite of the head fake, I’m proud to say I never exaggerated nor compromised on the quality on this post. Quality always works. Quantity? not always. If you’re still reading this, then you’d know just why

Inspired by Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture, and 20 Things I Wish I Had Known When Starting Out in Life by Zenhabits.

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