You’ve probably read tons of blog posts on how to blog. These posts gives you the rules and regulations of how to get respect from others.
You probably bookmarked a bunch of these types of posts as references.
As soon as you come up with an idea, you go through your routine.
As a habit you always double-checking to see if you have everything right.
There’s nothing wrong with this, but it does take up a lot of your time. Or is it really because you’re procrastinating to publish your new blog post because of a fear?
You probably have blogged in the past and you didn’t have the greatest success. You may have gotten a lot of criticism or maybe you’ve always felt like you are a horrible writer.
You also might not have gotten the results you wanted as far as traffic, comments, and shares.
So I ask you, are you mainly focus on what other people think or are you more focused on improving?
If blogging is something you enjoy and want to leverage to build a home business, then focusing on improving will help you conquer the fear.
So how can you improve when you feel like you’re going backwards with your writing which leads you to not hit the publish button?
I went through this and I will show you what I’ve done and still do to conquer this fear!
Don’t you hate putting pressure on yourself to prove yourself to others.
Many people don’t like to admit it.
Many of us like to put out a big, tough front as if we’re only doing the things we do specifically for ourselves. But in reality, we all want the approval of others to some degree.
And there’s nothing wrong with that.
As a matter of fact it’s encouraging if you’re a blogger. You want to put out the type of content that’s going to resonate with your audience.
Oh wait, some of you don’t have an audience just yet.
You’re either a beginner or have failed in the past with blogging.
You may feel like you’re not cut out to be a great blogger. Right about now you’re writing isn’t something to brag about and you need a lot of improvement.
We all tend to throw out this word “improvement” around, but what does it actually means to you?
Does it really mean following all of the grammatical rules and projecting a vocabulary that only an esoteric group of people can understand?
When it comes to blogging, we to build a specific loyal audience, but we also don’t want to leave out a big group of people that will matter to our success.
Yes, there are some twists and turns, but there’s always a way to simplify things so that you can grow as a blogger.
It can be kind of nerve-wrecking to hit that publish button, but it doesn’t have to be.
We want to develop the confidence to hit that publish button without pressuring ourselves or even letting the OCD, analysis by paralysis to be conjured when it comes to our writing.
There’s a lot of you who have a tendency to compare your writing with other great bloggers and end up second guessing your abilities.
But let’s see how we can get comfortable in our own skin and have the courage to project the best of ourselves as we’re conveying value.
The Psychology Of Building Self Confidence
Let’s get something clear!
There’s going to be that handful of people, or trolls, who really don’t deserve your acquaintance.
Why?
To simplify it, they’re just bitter, arrogant, narrow-minded assholes.
No matter what you do, or how much you improve, they’re going to have some type of unproductive, valueless criticisms.
They love to feed off of your negative emotions, and once they see that you’re confidence start to diminish, this is a great indicator to them that they’re accomplishing their goals.
This is why it’s vital to network with bloggers that not only publish valuable content, but also are very encouraging and personally give you tidbits on what to improve on.
From my own experience I could count on one hand of how many people I came across who were complete jackasses.
For the most part, the majority of bloggers are quite helpful and supportive once you start building rapport with them.
There are 3 main books that really spark my confidence in my writing which are:
– Noah St. John “The Secret Code Of Success”
– Daniel Coyle’s “The Talent Code”
– Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist”
These books gave me inspiration, some “aha” moments, and some direction of what to focus on.
One thing I realize is that writing/blogging is a process where you never cease to improve.
Reading good material like these books and blogs related to your own blog topics will help you stay on the right track and keep you from not overlooking the little areas you want to improve on.
When you consistently do this, you’ll start to attract an audience.
But should you try to attract as many people as possible, or only the ones that can relate to your blog topics?
Only Focus On An Audience That Can Relate To Your Topics
You know what?
It’s actually OK to run into people that don’t like your writing style or blog topics!
In fact, I would encourage to make sure you repel them so that you can focus on attracting the right type of people to your blog.
I mean, if you’re a dog lover, why would you attract cat lovers.
Or if you specifically write about German Shepherds, why would you want to attract people who love Pomeranians?
And it’s not all about the blog topics.
Sometimes it’s either your personality or how you write that they don’t like.
Now don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with getting productive criticism so that you can keep growing as a writer, but you’ll run into those that don’t give you any type of valuable criticism.
You just have to distinguish which ones are genuine and those who just want to throw you under the bus.
But as you progress you’ll start to attract an audience that will always give you positive feedback and are more interested in the type of value you offer.
The more you know this, the more you become confident in yourself and the blog post you publish.
It’s not all about trying to get everyone to like you.
It’s about getting those specific people that really vibe with you and your content.
You may instantaneously find these people or it may take you a long time, but however long it takes, you’ll eventually attract them.
You’re Limited Amount Of Time Hinders You From Publishing A Blog Post
How many times have you been told that in order to get massive traffic back to your blog you have to publish a blog post everyday?
How many of you tried this and yet your blog posts start to lose quality?
Have you been told that you need to be consistent with blogging?
But what does this mean exactly?
This is subjective because it depends on an individual blogger’s schedule.
Some bloggers may have enough time to consistently publish a quality blog post with all the bells and whistles everyday and get massive amount of traffic.
Others may only publish a blog post once a month and still get the same amount of traffic as those who publish everyday.
So what’s the catch?
The answer is how well you brand yourself, network with others, and promotion of yourself and your blog.
This compliments the previous point about only focusing on those who can relate to your blog topics.
Blogging is a great way to brand yourself, network and promote yourself and your products/services, but it’s not the only route to take.
Being able to have a productive marketing plan is what’s going to get you over the hump.
A good strong marketing plan that will consistently showcase you in different areas such as Social Media, Paid Advertisement, Blogging Communities, etc..is something to focus on.
And you know what?
You don’t have to spend hours upon hours a day to execute a marketing plan. It’s all about working smart.
But I do admit, it would be smart to publish a blog post at least once a week when you first start off for at least the first 6 months.
This is what worked for me and now I put out a blog post at least once a month whether it be on my blog or being a guest author on another blog.
Comparing Yourself To Other Bloggers
Its ok to be yourself.
As a matter of fact, it’s the best thing you can do.
Yes, you may read blogs with all the images, SEO, edited videos, etc. and you can add those features later if you wish.
But to be honest with you, when you eventually build your audience, if you haven’t already, they will be looking for what makes you distinct among the rest of the bloggers.
This is why it’s important to know yourself and be comfortable with who you are.
Your audience wants to connect and relate to someone that’s human.
It’s one thing being influenced by bloggers that you admire, but don’t be a carbon copy of them.
There have been many bloggers who have been my influence, and the biggest take away I got from them is that it’s ok to be yourself.
This will make you stick out more.
There’s no such thing as a perfect blog post. There’s only blog posts that your audience can relate to. But first they have to be able to relate to you and your primary message.
Although I have a variety of visitors, I tend to attract those that can relate to me which are the ones who are more introverted and work full-time jobs with little time to spare to grow a blog and home business.
So the question is, what do you want your target market to know about you and how you can be of value to them?
Be aware and confident of who you are because there’s always going to be people who looking for people like you that they can relate to.
Conclusion
If you’ve already started blogging, or have an interest to do so, but yet there’s still this anxiety that keeps you from hitting the publish button, then I hope this post helps.
I’ve had some negative feedback from peers and I use to compare myself to other bloggers, but eventually I built enough courage to keep putting out great content.
I kept educating myself and surrounding myself with positive bloggers within the online world. This kept me supercharge, giving me the energy to keep going despite the obstacles.
One other thing I like to point out are some encouraging statistics that will give you the fuel to progress of what’s very possible to achieve:
To some of you, this may seem far fetched, but for others these statistics may be motivating. But in any case it’s very possible to achieve this whether you have very little time or a lot of time.
Look forward to making some mistakes, but only put your energy on learning, improving and attracting the right people that resonates with your blog topics and who you are.
Doing this will make it a better blogging experience for you.
Now It’s Your Turn!
What’s your biggest fear about publishing blog posts?
Is it what other people may thing? Do you feel small compared to other bloggers? Or maybe you feel like consistency is a big challenge?
Please share your thoughts below and share this post with your friends. I look forward to reading them!
