70 Nuggets of Advice From a Successful Blogger
We do lots of interviews with successful bloggers and writers on this travel writing blog, but the normal question/answer format doesn’t lend itself to very long, detailed “here’s what to do” nuts and bolts advice sections. Sometimes I’ll veer off and do one of those myself, like The 4 Stages of a Successful Blog or Stop Chatting, Start Writing.
But if you’re looking to find out more on how to build a successful blog and get it to the point where you have thousands of followers reading and reacting to what you write, here’s a great place to start.
The Everywhereist, better known as Geraldine (or that woman who is married to Rand Fish from SEO company Moz), just passed her 1,000 post mark, after being up since 2009. Obviously she’s more focused than me, since it took me far more years to pass that point with my Cheapest Destinations Blog.
Anyway, she recently put out a great post called 70 Things I’ve Learned From Writing 1,000 Blog Posts. It’s going to take you a while to slog through those 70 nuggets and some will resonate with your more than others, but it’s a fantastic resource. No matter what stage you’re at as a blogger, you’ll find something in here that you can apply and use.
It’s also inspirational in the sense that Geraldine admits it took her quite a while to get some traction. “After two years of blogging, I had about 100 visits a day. That was it. I kept at it because I love writing, not because people were reading what I wrote.”
Here’s one tip that has pretty much defined my whole blogging and publishing career:
At some point, you’ll spend hours looking for something online. A guide, a piece of information, some help about some topic that’s pressing on you. And if you don’t find it, you need to sit down and write the post yourself.
And here is one that is hard to accept for many people, but may be what separates them the also-ran from that successful person who seems to accomplish so much:
Done and mediocre is better than unfinished and brilliant.
See the other 68 here.
About Author
Tim
Tim Leffel is the author of Travel Writing 2.0 as well as several other successful books. His work has been recognized by SATW, NATJA, and the Solas Awards. He has contributed to more than 50 publications as a freelancer and is the editor of four websites and blogs, including the "Best online travel magazine" and the popular Cheapest Destinations Blog, established in 2003. He served six years as Conference Director for TBEX and five years as co-chair of the NATJA Advisory board.
Love the last one about getting things done instead of trying to make everything perfect. Especially in the internet world, you can test what works and what falls flat and learn from that.
Congratulations! 1000 is such a huge number and I think you’ve done quite well over that span.. I sure would love to hear your expertise some time.
Also, I love the tip at the end. Priceless! You should just buckle down and get ready for a ride. :)
I’m going to assume this is a bogus post since that’s an incredibly easy thing to accomplish with Google, Microsoft, Dropbox, SugarSync, and on and on.