I spend a good deal of time building my blogging skills. How? I practice creating content and building connections daily. Heck; I actually create content and build connections daily. The practice is in truth, real creating and connecting. But even if my content goes live and I build genuine bonds through commenting and by promoting fellow bloggers, I still develop skills because even writing this guest post is a form of practice.
Unfortunately, most bloggers attach heavily to one or two particular blogging strategies, believing the strategy ITSELF will bring them blogging success. Not true. A strategy cannot do anything by itself because blogging strategies are lifeless, worthless, not sentient, and certainly not animate. A strategy cannot do anything more than a hammer can drive a nail into a wall on its own. But skilled bloggers who practice using specific strategies often become highly successful bloggers. Skills beat strategies. Work beats laziness. Ownership beats delusion.
Most bloggers foolishly believe 2 strategies will make them successful:
- driving Google traffic
- building an email list
But these beliefs are lies. Neither are true. SKILLED bloggers who LEARN how to drive Google traffic, who follow set steps and who master the skill of driving Google traffic over 1000s of hours are the ones who drive Google traffic. Driving Google traffic does not happen solo because no one strategy does anything on its own. But bloggers who really work to drive traffic through Google by being patient, persistent and generous do astounding things online.
Neil Patel and Brian Dean likely spent 20,000 to 30,000 hours collectively learning how to master Google. The strategy of optimizing posts for Google traffic is completely worthless but 20,000 plus hours of collective work put in by 2 icons alerted you to the potential in driving search traffic to your blog. Both icons spent 10,000 plus hours developing their skills through practice. Skills beat strategies.
Dive into list building. Like most bloggers, you likely have a tough time building an email list. Often, bloggers struggle to build their list because they never learn and master the skills to build lists, honed through 100s to 1000s of practice hours. List-building is worthless in and of itself because no strategy can do anything, solo. But developing your list-building skills through generous practice over many years makes you a skilled list builder. Your work put you ahead of the herd. The strategy of list building is good to you if you are good to the strategy of list building. Skills over strategies. Everything depends on your commitment to your craft, to your strategies.
I never attach to a strategy because all tactics come and go. I do focus heavily on building core skills like writing, networking and monetizing because none of these blogging basics are going anywhere soon. Humans will enjoy the written word for quite a while. People will need to network to become successful bloggers. People will use money to buy stuff; monetizing ain’t going anywhere for quite a while. Stick to the basics. Develop skills in those areas. But never attach to any one strategy as your blogging savior. Strategies come and go. Plus, the strategy cannot do anything on its own. Bloggers who practice to develop serious skills experience the greatest success with any one strategy.
Put in the time. Hone your skills. Own your skills. Practice. Make any blogging strategy sing through your persistent, diligent blogging practice.
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