Being successful isn’t easy, it rarely happens overnight and especially within blogging it is HARD WORK. Seriously HARD WORK.
I have read many comments recently from people wanting to start blogging to make instant money. This makes my blood boil, so I wanted to set the record straight. The thought of anyone blogging purely to make money makes me sad. Yes we all have to earn a living, but I believe our primary reason for blogging should be because we love to blog or like me ‘have’ to blog.
So how do you become successful? Well, first things first, you have to say it like you mean it. “I will be successful”, that’s it, stop there. No qualifier, just that, ‘I will be successful’. Then you MAKE IT HAPPEN.
Some of you might already be making excuses. You have X number of commitments, maybe a lack of support; but here’s the thing, it’s hard for everyone. No-one has the monopoly on the juggling balls, we are all doing it, every single day. I work until 1am almost every night, it doesn’t make me a better blogger than you if you don’t, it just means that I’m more committed.
Achieving your goals is hard work and takes a lot of dedication, commitment and focus. The reason many people fail is that they lack this focus and commitment. You can be the best writer and photographer, but if you aren’t prepared to make sacrifices you will not achieve the success you desire. This might sound harsh, maybe it is, but it is also the truth. You don’t get credit for having a tough time, you get credit for making things happen regardless of your circumstances.
Everyone has problems to overcome
Making a success of anything is tough and you have to make sacrifices. If you don’t want to make sacrifices, I would guess that means you don’t want it enough. Which is fine, but then you need to let go of the idea you will make a success of it and love it for what it is. There are so many reasons why making a success of your blog can be tough, maybe you work full-time, have a baby keeping you up all night or young kids running around. These are problems for sure, but they are not necessarily bigger or more difficult to overcome than anyone else’s problems.
If you want to succeed you will find a way, if you don’t you will find an excuse
Whatever your personal situation is and whatever you are striving for you have to push to make it happen. You have to push when you don’t feel like it, when you would rather be with your family, chilling with your partner, sleeping, anything but working. The fact is that these are the sacrifices you might have to make to make a success of your online dream. Sure you might not have to sacrifice anything and eventually over time, your blog might pick up and make money. However, to reach your goals quickly and achieve your success you need to push, graft and sacrifice.
I work late at night, grabbing time wherever I can. My way might not work for you. Your kids might be better sleepers than mine and so it might work for you to wake up before them to have a couple of hours to focus on work. Whatever makes it work for you. The thing is if you want your blog to be your full time job and your business, you have to treat it like a full time job and business NOW. We can do AMAZING things when we put our minds to it. You can always sign up to my FREE productivity challenge if you need more help.
You need to LOVE what you do
There’s no way you will have the strength to make this happen if you don’t absolutely love what you do. FACT. So if you think your blog is nothing more than a way to earn you money, I wouldn’t go down this road as it will never be the thing that makes you happy. You need to love your blog regardless of the money it does or doesn’t make you. That shines through to your readers and that keeps you going when you are burning the midnight oil.
Being successful takes a bucket load of commitment
The reality of making your blog work isn’t glamorous. If you are juggling a full time job as well, the reality is probably getting up an hour or two earlier and working before you leave for work. See, I told you it wasn’t glamorous. Then again running your own business isn’t 9-5 either… Creating the life you want takes all of these things, hard work, commitment and sacrifice, but it is worth it all.
Ditch perfection
Don’t over analyse every aspect of what you do, make progress. Get the posts written, not perfect. Chances are every time you read a post you could make small changes and adjust things, but publishing great engaging content is important. Perfection isn’t a useful state to be seeking. You will probably fail. Some things will work, other’s not so much. The key is to learn from the failures and KEEP GOING.
Visualise your dream future
When things go wrong don’t use it as an excuse to bail. Things will go wrong, collaborations may not go your way, but if you visualise your future, how you want it to be, these are just bumps in the road. Bumps you’re very capable of navigating. Be creative, add value, strive to do better and you will become better.
Make a decision about your future, give yourself a deadline and MAKE IT HAPPEN.
