90 Days to a Successful Blog — Guaranteed
If your blog is good and you’re blogging consistently, you’ll be successful.
That’s it. Two conditions. If it sounds simplistic, it’s because we don’t think enough about that second part: blogging consistently. Most bloggers start off with a passion and excitement, only to have it wane within a few weeks or a few months.
Now that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’m a firm believer that you have to get out there and do something to find out if it’s really something you like to do or something you’re good at. You can’t just read a book about it and know. So flaming out after trying something for just a little bit isn’t necessarily a bad thing at all. I’ve started and abandoned too many projects to count, and I’m glad I did. It’s only by trial and error that I’ve narrowed in on what I really want to do.
So this guarantee isn’t for those of you who have found out that you don’t really enjoy blogging. It’s for those of you you who do enjoy it and are looking to take your blog to the next level.
Just Three Steps
If you’ll do just three things over the next 90 days, I absolutely guarantee that your blog will be so successful that it will be harder to stop blogging than it will be to keep going.
Step 1: Blog Every Day
Consistency is key, so for the next 90 days you absolutely must:
- Post at least one good post…
- Every weekday…
- At the same time every day.
Let’s break those down.
One Good Post
You can’t write just anything and expect to sail through. It has to be something worthwhile, something readers are going to want to read. It doesn’t have to take you three hours to write it by any means, but it does have to be interesting.
Every Weekday
Things just go so much easier when your readers know exactly what to expect and you always deliver on that. As Cameron said last month, it’s not actually necessary to post every single day as long as you’re consistent, but for the sake of this challenge we’re going to do one each weekday. Your readership will just climb much, much faster if you’re blogging every day.
The Same Time Each Day
Here again, this goes to consistency. If you’re posting at different times of the each day, that’s not much better than posting on random days. Write your posts in advance and use your blogging software’s delayed posting feature to have them post on a consistent schedule.
Step 2: Get the Word Out
Aaron wrote yesterday that “there is no reason to hope that quality + free is enough to get your site where it belongs.” The “where it belongs” probably makes this statement technically true, but I firmly believe that your blog can be very successful without you having to spend any money promoting it.
You do have to promote it, though. You can’t just expect readers to magically appear. So step two is to read “11 Free, Easy Ways to Get Visitors to Your New Blog” and spend some time each day using some of those techniques to make more and more people aware of your blog.
Step 3: Make Yourself Accountable
As John Chow wrote Sunday, most people don’t take the steps necessary to achieve their goals. One of the ways to avoid that in this case is by making yourself accountable to someone. Tell your family or friends that you’re committing to this 90-day challenge. Better yet, post it on your blog for all your readers to see. You can be sure that they’ll call you on it if you miss a day (or several).
Also, use the link in the menu to let me know that you’re making the commitment. Every time 10 people let me know, I’ll use a whole post to link to their blogs so that everyone can see. I’ve even added a new 90-Day Challenge category to make it easy to follow everyone.
So let’s get started! Who’s going to be first?
Kim
April 10, 2007
at 10:32 pm
Oh my…this will be a doozy…but..I’ll try it. I wrote 50,000 words in one months, I can do a post a day for 90 days. I think……..
I Don’t Wanna Be Anything Other Than Me // Emergiblog
April 11, 2007
at 12:32 am
[...] over to this post and sign [...]
Jessalee
April 11, 2007
at 12:42 am
Great advice! It’s been in the back of my mind that I should post at the same time each day, but I haven’t really put that into action. Thanks for the reminder.
I like the new look here too. It’s been too long since I’ve had the time to click over from Bloglines. And thanks for your comment today. It made me literally laugh out loud! “YOU ALISA-LAH!” Haha!
impacted nurse.com
April 11, 2007
at 3:42 am
Thanks for a producing a very informative blog and for nurturing some of the better nurses blogs out there.
My own feelings on this are that it is a pretty fine line between engaging in the process of having a *successful* blog (whatever that means) and launching down that slippery slope of becoming totally obsessed with hits per day, and number of links, and commenting on other peoples blogs (for the single purpose of getting your link there), and putting yourself under pressure to come up with the goods every day.
Which all seems somehow a little psychologically unhealthy to me.
For example: How many people out there have felt a wee bit depressed when no one comments on their blog? How many people get a little grumpy when their hits graph drops away? How many people get frustrated and frazzled when they cannot think of a single thing to write about for the day?
Me too. (oh…..nobody put their hand up.)
I think we should be promoting methods of nurturing the creative process and of encouraging writers to find their own distinct voice rather than equating blogging success with high visibility and $$$ earned through google adds.
Could it be that link love is in danger of becoming nothing more than link sex?
Or could it be that I’m just suffering from blog envy?
I would be interested to hear your own views on this. Keep up the fine work (despite my comments I am a fan)….Ian.
Julie
April 11, 2007
at 8:13 am
I’ll give this a go, after all my blogging rate has fallen well below par recently and I need an incentive. Also can’t have Kim at Emergiblog getting one over on me can I now?
Shane
April 11, 2007
at 9:21 am
Ian, those are outstanding comments. I definitely would turn them into a post on your own site because you make some really great points.
How many people out there have felt a wee bit depressed when no one comments on their blog? How many people get a little grumpy when their hits graph drops away?
That is exactly what this is about. I think most of feel that way. I mean, how many of us are blogging just to blog? Don’t most of us want people to actually read what we’re writing?
But when you take a step back, would you read your blog regularly? I have found in my case that the answer almost always was “probably not — at least not regularly.” And I think most of that has to do with the fact that I’m such an inconsistent poster.
So this is a way to get you over that hump. I really, truly believe that if you will blog consistently for 90 days, it will become a habit. I also believe, though, that you’ll come to realize a lot about yourself and your blogging over that 90 days. When you have to come up with five good posts a week, you’ll be forced to find your motivation, and in doing so will discover, hopefully, why it is that you really blog. I’ve been asking myself that constantly over the past few weeks, so I’m looking forward to discovering that as well.
Some people blog to make money; others just blog to be read. Either way, though, both groups do better the more readers they have. This is an attempt to solve the problem of low readership in the most effective way possible, but it’s also very much an experiment. That’s one of the big reasons why I want to chronicle it all: so we can all learn from it.
Shane
April 11, 2007
at 9:25 am
Kim, Jessalee and Julie: great to have you guys on board! I’ll be sure to keep up with you to see how you’re doing. And remember, “I BE DIEGO! YOU ALISA-LAH!“
NNP
April 11, 2007
at 9:57 am
I’m going to hop on board as well. I read your post yesterday and was tepmpted to comment however heldback. I think as a new blogger it will be good to make it a habit, and consistent. The same time thing will be rather difficult for me, I think I will aim for within the same 12 hour period. Thanks for providing information to help out us new bloggers, bloggers in general, and providing a challenge!
Kim
April 11, 2007
at 9:58 am
‘Link Sex”? Ian, you are responsible for my first spit-take of the day. In fact, it was my first sip of coffee! LOLOL! That was a great line.
I took the challenge on because I have a list of about 30 ideas for topics sitting here waiting to be fleshed out, and it helps my writing skills to have to produce “on deadline”, so to speak.
I’m not obsessed with hits or links. Okay, yes I am. I’m so transparent!
The perfect time for a challenge « Life in the NHS
April 11, 2007
at 10:51 am
[...] on Emergiblog that I couldn’t prevent myself from going for. I clicked on the link over at Shane.org and signed up to do the [...]
emily
April 11, 2007
at 5:44 pm
Count me in. Some days I find that getting a post up is like trying to talk myself into going to the gym at 5 a.m. Well, I have been getting myself outta bed, so I think it is time to tackle consistent blogging
crzegrl.net » Blog Archive » Shane hit the nail on the head
April 11, 2007
at 5:53 pm
[...] for the challenge Shane. I think it was just what I [...]
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at 7:05 am
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