[This is part of the Blogging Foundations Starter Kit Series. Have you seen the other posts yet?]
Let's see this clearly, shall we?
I spent nearly an hour on skype with one of our community members here on TentBlogger (love how the community is already growing and active!) and we talked about his vision for his work, job, and future vocation.
It was an exciting discussion and it reminded me about how most of my blogs start; the genesis of all of them was simply a vision of what it could be.
The vision and dream would begin circulating in my mind and all the wonderful ideas about how the blog would be a runaway-success would get me high with excitement!
I’d start mapping out the focus of the blog in terms of content, the categories and areas of coverage that most excited me, the design elements that I wanted to include to engage the eye both strategically and for pleasure, and the functionality and feature sets that would engage the audience and take the community to the next level.
I would write all of these things down and the excitement would continue to build, which is great! But now I would face that pivotal moment in the future of this blogs’ growth and trajectory: Execution.
Would I do it? Would I follow through? Have you?
I’m guessing that you are intimately aware of this challenge. In fact, most likely you know this story all too well! You’ve walked this path of dreaming, visioncasting, and ideating about your blog but never getting around to actually doing it, right?
How many blogs have you started in your head compared to the amount of blogs that you actually have? Ouch! The graveyard of blogs that were never born must be in the trillions!
Let’s not add to the body count, shall we?
Don't hesitate! Jump!
Always Move Toward Launch
Here’s what I’ve learned: Great vision is proven to be great when it is executed well.
You see, you may have a phenomenal idea for a blog, the blog content, and the community that will inevitably (or so you believe) come together but unless you actually start you will never ever see any of that come to fruition.
And this isn’t even rocket science! But apparently many would-be-bloggers struggle with execution because there are so many people who never get beyond the dream and vision stage.
In fact, let me take it a step further.
I believe that your vision for your blog doesn’t even necessarily need to be that good in order for it to be a success. I’ve seen time and time again where mediocre ideas become amazing blogs and I really don’t understand why except for the fact that the blogger simply executed on his idea.
That blogger just went ahead and did it, which put him in a place well ahead of all of the other dreamers who may have had better ideas but never did anything about it.
Sometimes mediocrity becomes superiority through execution!
A question for you...
A Practical Question
How then does one continually move toward launch as they progress in the growth of their blog from conception to execution? It’s rather simple. I constantly ask myself this question:
What can I practically do with _____________?
If you learn to ask yourself this question and then answer it often you will see a return and results. Great ideas stay great ideas until you do something with them.
Here are some simple examples of this in action:
- Idea: I want people to subscribe to my blog.
- Execute: I will create a big RSS button for them in an obvious place on my blog!
- Result: People see the big button and subscribe.
- Idea: I want to become an expert in this particular content area and focus.
- Execute: I will research the current experts and study their strategies.
- Result: You learn from the best and begin to gain a larger platform from what you’ve learned.
- Idea: I want more weekly traffic to my blog.
- Execute: I will blog one more time every week during a peak hour of the day.
- Result: You blog one more time a week and more people visit.
Simple, right? I do this daily for my goals and I list out practical steps for execution. Don’t just stay a dreamer and ideate all day! Find simple ways to execute on your ideas and you’ll begin to experience the pleasure of knowing that things are headed in the right direction.
How have you seen this work with your blog? Any other tips and/or suggestions for the community?
[This is part of the Blogging Foundations Starter Kit Series. Have you seen the other posts yet?]
I quite agree with you John. If you want to be a dreamer, you have got to also be a “do’er”. The strategy that I use when getting started on a new blog is two main things:
1) Content is king. Build the blog on firm foundations by providing regular awesome content. The people who find their way to your blog will love you and the search engines will start to love you.
2) Get involved in social media. For me, when starting a blog Twitter is KEY. Find a pocket of people who are already in community in your niche on twitter and GET INVOLVED! Bring value to that community and then expand it!
i’ll definitely discuss twitter as well in a post (or two).
This is great. You have obviously been thinking about this for some time, no?
The reason I think it’s great is because it doesn’t only apply to blogs. It can apply to ANYTHING. For example, if you have a desire/passion to do something in a church environment, don’t just yap about it, DO something about it! Because most people just do the talking about their so-called great ideas. They never ACT on them.
John, I am loving Tentblogger
thanks dave. I’m having a blast writing on it. glad that you’re joining me on this one!
John, I think you are spot on about execution. I didn’t know that I had done something smart but about 6 months ago I took a step back and re-valuated and decided how I was going to blog and stick to it. I try not to deviate to far from it. The results…it’s growing slowly…but I’m cool with it because I do have a dream and a vision for it.
great. stay up beat and positive. growth can be slow, but growth is growth!
Very practical advice, John. I’m loving all that I’m learning and the “support” that Tentblogger is providing. Please keep up the good work!!
BTW…Will you be at Catalyst next week?
yup. will be there!
When Brad Lomenick said “there isn’t enough room in any organization for people who will only come up with ideas” it changed the way I think about creating ideas.
Though I still come up with new ideas just for the adrenaline rush sometimes. Gettin there.
great stuff! ideating is not a bad thing, but i just want to encourage people to take it to the streets!
Great stuff
Now I’m off to go execute the crap out of my vision.
you really inspired this post brian! i was writing another one but our conversation got me going!
Sounds like it was a #win for both of us.
Maybe next time you’ll get a better return and be inspired for 2 posts!
why not go for 3?
Great post. Heard it said that vision without execution is nothing more than halucination.
i love that! btw, a video post with you in it is coming up.
Thanks for the solid advice and PUSH.
DO IT!
It is so funny! I just got off the phone with my wife (working the night shift) trying to work out the details of me freelancing and blogging and…well…I knew where I could go to find inspiration. I pulled up the “archives” page and here it is. HA!
Hit the nail on the head.
Couldn’t tell you how many ideas I’ve had that never became anything because I got stuck in the planning stage.
Sometimes I think perfectionism can be one of the greatest enemies of execution – I want to do it, but I want to make sure it’s perfect first.
Do you find that you can get something “just right” before you move forward with it? Or is there a point at which you have to say “enough is enough” and just implement the vision?
definitely “enough is enough”… in fact, i don’t even get there. i execute with little to no known facts at times. strategy can come later.
Cool. Thanks, John!
Thanks, sounds to me growth and sccuess is imminent as long as you keep going in the right direction. In your experience, where did you find the motivation and the mind power to just keep going? Did you have a model you were following? How did you set your target?
sunny,
i’ve got tons of blog posts here that can help with that. feel free to use the search button on the left.
i get de-motivated a lot though… to be honest.
http://tentblogger.com/motivation/
I am about to launch my blog publicly. I have been working on it for a few months preparing. I would say, “do something every day” and keep moving forward one step at a time. For example. I loved your getting started with wordpress series so I just made sure I read one of your articles every day and executed the action point.