Waiting While Blogging
I’ve said before that I believe the number one quality of every successful blogger is patience. But it’s hard, being patient. People equate patience with waiting, but that’s not what it is, not in blogging, anyway. And the difference is one that determines its success or failure.
It doesn’t matter how unique, how extreme, how eclectic, how well branded you are offline, how passionate–it takes time to traverse each level of the blogosphere to whatever spot you seek in your reader’s hearts and heads. There’s no getting around it. Although there are certainly factors that can help speed your journey, and others that can help you skip a level or two, this blogging business is still one defined in time and space.
It’s the “waiting” that gets most of us, I’d say. To all appearances we’re merrily churning out a few hundred words on a regular basis, week after week, month after month, and then–suddenly–we check out. Because inside, we’ve been waiting all this time.
Waiting without checking to see how much farther we’ve come, rather than how much farther we have to go.
Waiting without changing–or while changing too often to be taken seriously.
Waiting without asking for help.
It’s only a matter of time. One day we look up at the top of the heap once too often. And we get sick of waiting to get there.
But guess what? Your business isn’t going anywhere you don’t take it. As part of your business, your blog has to be taken–dragged, kicking and screaming sometimes–to where you want it to go.
Get there fast or slow, rough or smooth. Teleporting is not possible.
A business blog seeks reactions. But don’t forget the first part of the equation: “Every action has an equal and opposite.” If you’re not seeing the reaction you’d like, you’re not acting out its “equal and opposite.”
Take an uncomfortable look. Get closer than you’d like. Squeeze and prod. You can’t ride your blog like you do a bus or train, absently and with thoughts only on your destination. If you do, you might get someplace, but it won’t be a higher level of engagement that delivers… oh, yes, wait for it… the business you’re waiting for.
Photo credit: Matt Brown, courtesy of Flickr, CC 2.0.
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@MissKemya Thanks for another excellent point: the blogosphere is packed, and any path we take through it is constantly changing with each step we take, so being committed is really the best sanity insurance as we go.
Patience is important not only for bloggers, but for all kinds of writers. It can take a long time to hear back from an agent or to get an article published, so you make a really good point in this post.
@CharlotteRDixon Oh, wow, I like your add, Charlotte. I think for people whose primary occupation is something other than writing, blogging can get frustrating because they're not used to the kind of waiting writers often have to do. So it turns into automaton-like posts and minimal results.
Oh, boy. This is so down in the dumpster. Yep. But I didn't call my first year waiting at all; it was a hard-core journey of bells and whistles and voice finding and tears and frustration I couldn't do it until I could. And, then something happened, people started to read and comment and come visit more often.
It's NOT a waiting game; that sounds so pessimistic and glass half empty. It's what you said -- you need to step it up with some vibrancy that makes everyone else take note. Just sayin' not yellin.
People who give up on blogging too early? Or try to change it all up too early will never learn the hard lessons along the way. Blogging is NOT easy street; in fact, it's damn hard to be creative and nice and topical and current and not echoy. But, the rewards are hiding; kinda like playing Mario. You never know where the gold coin is going to appear.
@Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing But for a lot of business bloggers that this happens to, I don't think they even realize they're doing it. It's a subconscious thing that can eat away at that drive to keep it coming. But I have to say my first year was more of an adventure than a waiting. And I saw so many changes and happenings in the blogosphere it was hard to feel static, and even harder not to be touched.
ShakirahDawud@soulati I have a blogger proposal out to a client; they wanted an ed cal of sorts. They went down the list and culled the topics they wanted me to cover and then said, OK, now come back to us with a pared down budget b/c we deleted these topics from the list. OY.
It doesn't work that way. They had no idea how to blog for real or what it takes. I said it wasn't about the topic, it was about the frequency. And, it wasn't a one-time topical thing; it was a long-term growing pains thing.
@Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing Depending on how deep you have to dig, even the idea that blogging less frequently means less work is a bit misguided...
Always good to look at how far we've come, Shakirah, rather than how far we have to go. That's a great start for a blog post! ;)
EricaAllison I know, probably any blogger coulda wrote that, right? But seriously, I think business bloggers lose sight of it. I know I have at times.
This post rings so true! I don't think people realize how crowded the blogosphere really is, so being patient is crucial as you continue to perfect your blog content. Patience and relentless committment have to be a part of your blogging strategy, or you'll go insane as you wait to make it to the top of the blog mountain.
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