Do you want more traffic to your blog? Awesome. Read on.
There are 5 things you’ve GOT to stop doing if you want to make blogging work for you so you can get noticed and reach a bigger audience to help.
1. Stop trying to be (fill in the blank here)…
Stop trying to be “professional” or “perfect” or “normal” or… whatever you feel like you have to project for an image… cut it out.
Seriously, it’s more than just being “you” but start there. Start with being unashamedly who you are and sharing your personality and your knowledge through your blog posts. Give yourself permission to not be perfect, and to explore finding your own voice. Take what’s unique about you and dial it up instead of hiding it.
2. Stop wasting your energy reinventing the wheel.
See those successful bloggers? Go learn from them! You don’t need to spend your time and energy trying to put the pieces all together on your own.
You’ve got a message to get out there and you don’t have time to waste.
3. Stop caring about perfection.
It’s unachievable. So stop worrying about it. A typo may sneak through no matter how carefully you proofread. You might word something one way that you realize later would have worked better differently.
Between you and me, every time I look at my blog I see *dozens* of little things (and a couple big things) I should be doing better. It’s a work in progress. It always will be. But if I let that stop me I’d never get anywhere!
It’s all an experiment. Collect data, modify your strategies as you go, and keep getting better.
No more trying to be perfect. Just aim for excellence and focus on being of service instead.
4. Stop worrying about “traffic.”
Yes, I just said not to worry about traffic while telling you these rules will get you more traffic… but I’m serious. Step away from your stats and stop obsessing about your traffic numbers.
Here’s what matters more that how many “hits” or “page views” you got last month: the audience you’re reaching and the platform you’re building.
Yeah, I know, “it’s a numbers game” is somewhat true — but please don’t see your readers as numbers. Our readers aren’t numbers. They’re people who come to us for help and guidance and we can make a difference for them.
Instead of looking at your traffic numbers as your measure of success, look for the connections you’re making, the relationships you’re building, and the people who you’re helping. Because if you just keep delivering helpful content and getting out there to promote it consistently, I promise you that your audience will grow and the traffic numbers will go up.
5. Stop spotlighting yourself and share your platform.
One of the biggest ways I built my blog quickly (when it finally began to take off after a bumpy start) was by realizing that it’s not just about ME or MY business.
I learned how to shift the spotlight from myself to others–my readers, my colleagues, my friends–and what a powerful way that was to share my influence and help good people get noticed, as well as drive lots more traffic back to my blog.
[ Please forgive this brief commercial interruption as I share
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[ Regular blog post now resuming, thanks for sticking around through that salesy little interlude. ]
Your Turn! What do you think of these rules? Love them? Or think I’m totally off base? Tell me why in the comments below.
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Great advice, and I have found my voice, but even that may be a work in progress. After two plus years of flopping around with my blogs, kind of going in a direction I thought I wanted to go, I signed up for your 30 day blog challenge last July. Even though I had to blog from a roof top (only place I could find wifi) in Mexico while on vacation, I blogged every day. It forced me to narrow my direction. Next came the UBC and I started to fine tune things and Chef William begin to surface in the direction I wanted to go. Now I’m having fun with it, have three books on kindle and looking forward to the next UBC.
William I am right where you were! I have a million ideas in my head and my blog seems to start in one direction and turn sharply the next day. I really need to focus on what it is I really want to talk about, what I can say that people would want to hear but something that is important to me. I think I know the direction I want to go now and thanks to this post and your reply I believe I can go forward from here!! So thank you to you and to Michelle for the great post!
Love the rules :) (and I signed up)
Thanks for this post. I needed to hear this today! It is hard to keep in mind that writing for your audience, rather than for goal x or goal y, is really the best way to improve a blog. It’s also great advice to review successful blogs. Success leaves clues!
THANK YOU Michelle! This is all very helpful advice, and I can see how it could hasten a newbie blogger like me!) learning it all the hard way.
I think these are great tips. As I’ve implemented them in my own website / blog / social media communities I have seen more traffic, engagement, and sales.
Great post,
Takara
Bestselling author of Peering Through the Veil: The Step by Step Guide to Meditation and Inner Peace
http://www.MagnificentU.com
I SOOOOO needed to hear this today, Michelle. I’m loving your newsletter:) Well done!
Such great advice. Especially worrying about traffic. I need to update my analytics for my PR/Media page, but I’ve had to train myself not to compare myself with other blogs or stress about those numbers. I used to belong to a group on Google Plus where a guy stressed how serious we needed to take these numbers; it was such a turn off, because I think we should spend that time producing and promoting great content and connecting with others.
Teaching online courses and working as a translator for a financial organization in Latin America, I am not really looking for readers for my blogs, but my employers are…looking for readers for the blogs they ask me to translate….So I find these advices helpful because “to stop doing” something wrong is more basic than to do things perfectly and more realist for lazy people like me….Thank you!
Just be and everything will turn out okay. Great advice Michelle.
I think I am guilty of all of the above. As most bloggers are. (At least I’d like to think I’m not alone lol.) But I definitely do not need to use that as an excuse to keeping doing what I am doing.
The day I stopped worry about traffic and ranks and focused on writing from my heart, is when I started to get more traffic. Your post is, as always, wise and practical, Michelle.
As always, you’re blogs seem to arrive like magic on the right day to give inpsiration and encouragement when needed!!
Sue
Great points Michelle!! The last point…”sharing the spotlight” really does work! Thanks for sharing! Have a wonderful week!!
You are so on taget about helping others….and stop worrying about your own business. In the network groups, and blogs I read everyone is so busy pitching their stuff and services, they forget what really matters….its the connections. Sometimes it does take 7 touches….sometimes its just reading blogs that say something. Hope wherever you are…..you ‘feel the hugs’ and thanks for helping us all get more traffic.
Hi Michelle,
I love those five stop signs! We can only be ourselves when we blog. Yes, we need to put out good content but in our own words. As for numbers? He He I never worried about that, and I receive pretty good ones. The comments on my blog are long and conversational. If I get those one liners, they never get “accepted” on my blog.
We do have to have the mindset that we are writing for others. Once we have that in mind, the words will flow. And..people will return.
Thanks for this great message.
Donna
Great info Michelle. Thanks for allowing us to be imperfect.
Well, there ARE some of us that need to do that, Michelle!
If I don’t review my blog and render it just a little bit more… then I will manage to alienate a few people.
So, I agree with your concept, but make sure that when you do write your blog, you don’t drop a few FXXX or SXXXX or POLIXXXXX into your message. Unless, of course, you are running a porn site or political site (I am not sure there are any differences, given today’s society).
Yes, I know a lot of bloggers who check their traffic and their income every day, perhaps several times. Let it go. You are not building while checking.
Michelle I love your tips. In my first year of blogging, when I didn’t know what I was doing, I shared my platform weekly with my EXTRAordinary women series. This is the one tip I need to pay attention too. The others I’ve implemented in some fashion.
You deserve and have earned your commercial interruptions. You over deliver to your readers. I wish you well with your program. I know you’re going to have lots sign ups.
Michelle, I constantly have to remind myself to let go of the quest for perfection; which is like you say entirely unattainable.The problem is I often find myself slipping back into that same recipe for unproductivity and misery.
Your inclusion of perfectionism on your list of core deadly sins comes as welcome additional ammunition to bolster my naturally shaky resolve in this area. Aiming to be of service, as opposed to perfect is a far higher ideal and a healthier mindset anyway; something your posts have certainly been to me over the last few days in my attempt to figure out Web 2.0.
Thank you for some very helpful, down to earth advice.
Thanks for your guide, gonna try your tips
Michelle, you are one wise woman. Thank you for reminding me to have fun and that keeps me authentic.
Cheers to you. Namaste.
Linda
Really nice advice. It is good to be real and show our capabilities. People will definitely like to read real posts. I would like to say thanks for sharing this post. Keep it up!
I’m really guilty of number 4! I’m always desperate to increase my blog traffic! Great post!
Very nice list. I was cursing myself on each and every point mentioned above LOL
Learnt quite a good lesson today.
Thanks.
Nice work! Appreciate the sound advice. It’s hard not to obsess over those traffic stats, esp after a spike that (sigh!) ends. Kind of like a rash: you know it will get worse if you scratch, but… I’ll keep trying to focus on more important long-term issues, and appreciate the added motivation you gave me today.
You really did killed the post in a positive way. I love all steps as they are on point. Thanks
Michelle,
These are all so true, especially the perfectionism one, it’s so easy to stop ourselves from taking action by trying to get things so perfect.
But, the thing we need to remember there is a point that if we throw perfectionism out of the window to early then we can end up delivering sub par content that will only result in hurting us and our business/blogs etc.
Great advice Michelle. Get on with the job and business will happen, or as Kevin Costner said in “Field of Dreams” ” Build it and they will come”
#3 is a big one for me- I often spend so much time perfecting things I wonder if it will ever get done. I started allowing myself no more than three revisions and it has been working great. Keep up the great posts!
I always believe that one of the best key to have a consistent quality content and become a successful blogger is to be always yourself. People are more enticed to posts that have personal touch and realistic.
Hi Michelle,
Loved these 5 tips! I have been struggling with trying to be extremely “professional” and “perfect” and have found that by letting go of some of this insane desire to be all and perfect, writing for my blog has become easier. I’ve also found it’s opened the door to more writing ideas.
So the tips definitely helped! Thanks. If you want to see how it’s been a positive influence, check out my last blogpost at http://wp.me/p2zTcq-rO
Lynn Spiro
Michelle. I so love the way you write and the brilliance of your content. You are an inspiration. I learn so much from you. Really great points and a fabulous reminder
Michelle,
Thank god for your advice! I especially appreciate the one about perfection!!
As a brand-new-starting-yesterday-blogger who knows next to nothing about this new media communication platform, your article was helpful.
I was not sure if in order to be taken seriously and professionally I should suppress the true me or let it fly…
Yeah, I got flavor and some uniqueness to my story so based on your advice – I will be me and my own self and will just write ….easier said than done….
Thanks!!
Dear Michelle,
I realize this is an older post, but I saw it when I was trying to update my inbox, because I tend to get behind on it. This post has really good tips. My favorites are to not to get too focused on perfection. The other is to not focus on the blog traffic. I have to remember that my goal with my Christian blogs is to remember that if any of the things God leads me to share help one or two people, that’s all that counts. Thanks for reminding me. Debbie Seiling