Don’t Quit Before the Fruits of Your Labor are Revealed!
Dum de dum... Zip!
The biggest challenge that most bloggers have isn’t the creation of content, choosing the right WordPress Theme that best showcases their personality, or even getting traffic to their blogs via Facebook or Twitter – the biggest challenge is simply not quitting.
You’ve probably experienced being a victim of your own blog’s demise already – perhaps more than a few times over already. You started that new blog with defiance telling everyone you know, and especially yourself, that “this” is the “one” and that you’re going the distance and that you’ll blog every single day because you’re so gosh-darn passionate about this particular subject (with even a bit of focus perhaps!).
Three months later you’re scratching your head and you don’t even want to boot up the blog to look at it much less the back-end administration panel to write anything. You’ve quit. You’ve become depressed and it’s most likely because you weren’t seeing the results that you had expected to see.
Not bad.
After working online for all these years I know of only a few things that seem to hold true, the biggest truth is that the internet is extremely fickle and you simply have no way of knowing when the proverbial lightning will actually strike. Seriously. 90% of this business is pure luck. The other 10% (and that’s a big 10%) is part strategy mixed with a heck of a lot of execution.
The other truth is that those that presevere are the ones that eventually succeed in the ways that they had always hoped to suceed. In other words, those that don’t quit after the initial romantic/honeymoon period is over are the ones that will see the fruits of their labor.
In the blog world this happens all the time, and it continually happens to me over, and over, and over again. For example, last week one of the biggest blogs in the world picked up a blog post that I had written years ago (September 5, 2009!) and sent me a cascade of traffic that was unsolicited but much appreciated.
The formula? Quite simple. I saw a nice little uptick in my blog traffic because I first blogged that post years ago and then decided not to quit. Easy, right? Not only did I get some nice traffic for a blog I don’t touch very often but I saw some nice residual benefits of being given exposure on an international stage (like more email/RSS subscribers, a flurry of new Twitter followers, etc.) here on this blog.
The point is that I didn’t quit before I was able to see some fruit of my labor. I didn’t stop blogging because I wasn’t seeing the results I had hoped to see. I kept publishing because I really enjoy publishing and I let the results work themselves out in time.
I want to encourage you not to quit. It seems I have to opt-repeat this encouragement but that doesn’t bother me. Let your efforts mature over time and you will see some nice fruits eventually. Sure, there’s no guarantee, but you knew that before you even hit “Publish” that first time, right?
Enjoy the process. Go long-term. Run the good race. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
That’s the best blogging advice I’ve heard in awhile! Thank you!
sure thing bill!
Great post John, Longevity is no doubt a key to success.
When I started blogging I blogged for ages with little or no visitors – them whamo.
While still not massive in comparison to the above stats, they definitely represent the marketing, branding and communications leaders I’m blogging to.
I blogged ages ago about what Sōichirō Honda, founder of the Honda Motor Co said everyone should strive for. He said “Success is 99% failure.”
Winston Churchill put it another way “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
love this! one of my dad’s heroes is churchill.
Thank you! This is what I needed to hear! I’m almost a year in since I started blogging but I have yet to get into the rhythm of it. My posts have been few and far between.
Persistence is definitely the key to most things in life. So it stands to reason it should hold true here. So much of it comes down to the choices we make as we craft the live we want to life.
I find that affirmations have played a big role in shaping my future as I have been moving toward the life of my dreams.
Keep up the good work!
awesome!
John, last year, as my blog approached its first anniversay and I still didn’t have much traffic or reader’s feedback on it, I confess I was a little disappointed. Then, I decided to give it another try in an area that I hadn’t explore much until then: I decided to purchase a professional theme and give my blog a fresh new look.
Due to the great feedback from the community, including yours, I chose the Standard Theme.
I am an IT Specialist, but I had never studied PHP or CSS (I knew a little HTML), so it took me a while to customize it like I wanted, but finally, this month I got to go live with the blog’s new looks.
The feedback was amazing! Many of my friends and colleagues here are insisting that I provide them a version of the blog in Portuguese. It is unbelievable, but the looks got their attention so much that they now want to read the content (I currently post only in English, but I am working on the Portuguese version now).
That gave me such a boost in my will to continue working hard on it, and, amazingly enough, it brought a lot more traffic too!
I realized that I focused so much in writing the content, I had no idea that I could have so much fun working in the “backstage” of my blog, and that this new looks would give me such a great reward.
I wanted to share this experience because other people might feel encouraged to try something new too.
Thanks!
Great work, Cris! Keep up the good work.
Thank you, Charles!
Excellent advice. I took similar advice from Ken Roberts on his Mildly Creative Blog. His was to post something, anything daily. Don’t worry about focus, and don’t worry about perfection. Give yourself permission to be mildly creative. Persistence is the key as you have reinforced.
Daily blogging is stretching me, but I’m determined to persist and see where it takes me.
excellent! don’t quit!
Amen to this post! …and through reading these tips you also pick up some good hints about readability to make your own posts more attractive (in my humble opinion!).
Keeping it simple, topical and relevant really helps. I would also add interact with other blogs/bloggers that cover similar topics and then you cross pollenate your thoughts with theres and readers will follow.
Many thanks for this advice, it’s spot on!
sure thing rich!
Thank you so much for this very encouraging article. Our blog, a book formatting website have only 100 to 150 visitors everyday. My business partner and I get so discouraged because no matter what we do, the traffic is just so little. But even though our visitor is just less than 200, we still get 5 to 7 inquiries a month regarding our service and 2 out of that 7 inquiries really convert and avail our book formatting service. My business partner and I sometimes wish that if only everyday we would have at least a thousand visitor, we would have many possible customer as well. This post give me an encouragement to not quit, have patience and continue what we are doing.
sure thing jen!
Keep up the good work, Jen! It will pay off in the end.
Thanks, I needed to hear that again.
sure thing mark!
Thanks for the encouraging reminder! I feel like this was directed specifically at me.
glad you could be inspired!
So. True.
you would know!
Thanks for the encouragement to keep blogging. I have to admit that sometimes I wonder if anyone reads or cares. But then someone will tell me that they were encouraged or challenged by something I have written and it helps me keep going.
at times it can be few and far between. but your work matters!
John,
This post was just what I needed to read. I have become fixated/semi-disappointed with the stats on my new blog that I have double guessed myself. However, I know that consistency is the key to success. Thanks for bringing that to light again.
Jonathan
a small reminder can go a long way. glad to help you out!
Thanks John. Truly after I started reading your blog over a year ago I used you as the match to my fuel (does that make sense)? I knew I was passionate about what I did, it was just the consistency to keep going that stopped in the past.
I saw your dedication and knew I could do it also, despite the lack of traffic and comments, so thanks. Wow, I need to share this post with a few other bloggers I know that keep starting and stopping. This is what keeps us going, reading posts like this.
sure thing lincoln! you’ve got a great story to tell, keep on!
Great post John!
I’ve been following your blog for quite some time, and I must say that your posts never fail to keep me reading from start to finish.
I’ve had my blog up for almost a year now, and even then, I’ve only been managing my blog “properly” for maybe 5 out of 12 months in that year. Many a time, I find it so disheartening to spend so much time and effort on a post, only to realize that noone reads it, because search engines don’t pick it up and what not.
I’ve currently decided to take the next step, and start monetizing my blog, after being inspired by your articles. Could I seek some advice though, I would like to make an upgrade to the Standard theme. However, I’m unsure if I would be able to edit it to look like what I currently have now at my blog. Is this possible with the Standard Theme?
Looking forward to your reply!
//Daniel
awesome! go experiment with it and see what happens!
Excellent post as usual John! You could apply this post to pretty much anything in life, which makes it even more valuable! Respect!
thanks man!
That’s why the tortoise always beats the hare! Great reminder John.
in this case, perhaps.
test
Great advice, John. I’ve been blogging fairly regularly for about 6 months now and I’m having a blast.
A couple months back I began using StumbleUpon and posted an article or two on it. One caught on the very first day and I had 56 hits. I kept using it over the coming weeks and one day my StumbleUpon visits surpassed 400 views.
I was reminded by how perseverance will win in the end and the need to always turn over the rocks of opportunity to see what’s available…or what’s working best at the time.
Lastly, I have begun to use the social sharers more on the blogs I visit, such as yours. I have decided to be more proactive in StumbleUpon’ing and Google+’ing and Tweeting the articles I find even relatively interesting or informative. It is my way of giving back to those bloggers that have influenced me and motivated me to keep going.
So keep it up, my friend.
I gotta go now, so I can StumbleUpon this article!
awesome! great job man! love the experimentation!
Thank you for writing this. It was so helpful and encouraging. Great article!!
sure thing pilar!
Very encouraging! thanks for writing. I often wonder about this, but refuse to become gimmicky to get readership. It will happen with persistance!
it can happen. don’t stop!
John!
Excellent Stuff! Really been praying/thinking/dreaming through the whole process of Tentblogging lately…I need to utilize this stuff in a way much like Paul did, to free me to be engaged in carrying the Gospel. I don’t see my primary/namesake site as the one that I’ll do this from, though. That is the hard part for me..really figuring out what to focus on.
But, thanks! I need to get over the forums and engage on there more!
Cheers!
Tony
tony,
experimentation, iteration, trial and error. these things are my formula for success.
Thanks for posting this! I needed to hear some encouragement like that. It’s hard when you don’t see results right away… or even after a little while. But thanks for the reminder that it takes time and perseverance eventually wins!
it can take some time. for me it’s been years.
Very true, and a great a reminder!
I can honestly say this happened to me. I published, published, published, and than all of a sudden, when I least expected it, my site started to hit a huge growth spurt. You really never know when it’s going to happen, but as you’ve said a million times, write for readers, blog constantly, and don’t give up…..this is all very true.
To anyone out there reading this, I want to encourage you to keep getting better, keep hitting that publish button, and as John said, the results often tend to work themselves out on the long run.
you’ve had a great run recently. congrats.
John, thank you for the reminder. Fruit only comes as a result of seeds being planted. Especially is this the case for bloggers…keep writing.
don’t stop! great work on blogx!
This was really encouraging. Thanks Mr. Tent Blogger!
sure thing archer!
This is great advice, John. I have definitely felt a lull in my blogging traffic lately, and it would certainly be easy to quit all together. I’m not ready to do that. I believe that I have something to share.
don’t quit jon!
Thank you very much. Your post has encouraged me a lot.
awesome!
Taking nothing away from this great post, or it’s author, I’m always smiling when I read posts like this and see the example graphs. They nearly always show the incredible spikes that person enjoys when their blog is discovered, which is good to see.
But I’m jealous not because of the heights that the visitor spike reaches, but because the graph tells me of the number of readers the author usually gets day to day, in this case over a 1000! Well done, when I get to your average I’ll still be pleased!
Thanks once again John.
thanks rich….!
Thanks for encouragement. My numbers have been improving as weeks go by, but still waiting for the day when it’s profitable.
it starts slow. trust me.. i know.
John,
This post made my day! I’ve been blogging since Nov. 2010 and with your tips and by growing my social media communities my blog is becoming more popular (baby steps). Thanks for the boost!
Cheers.
awesome! don’t stop, you’re doing great!
I’ve struggled on this. I thought (many times) of quitting, since I believed in the “lie” that no one actually reads my blogs.
Yes, I shouldn’t quit. Rather, persevere!
Thanks for the inspiring post.
it takes time! don’t quit!
I’m the guys who can’t even push the start button. It’s been few years (at least 3) to think do something on my own. Like blog. and always something popup in my mind for a week and keep thinking, after a while,… nothing happened. Always feel my life like drifting around waiting for miracle to happen… Arrrggh..
What i’m try to say since last 3 week, after discover your blog, it’s make me feel conform to GET a try! Because your blog can let me feel, Yes, It’s possible to do it!!!
Today i feel drifting again, i start to think… tentblogger, get some ‘spirit injection’.. well it’s really HELPs!!!.
So i say to myself.. Don’t worry about too many things!!! START doing something simple!!!
Thank you.
start! go! now!
Wau.. i got to say your blog have a complete blog system.
Anything i do (read, post) it’s will retain me.
After a post, you save my details and probably will send me email when someones reply.. wau… maybe i’m seldom gives comment
. or maybe this feature is been around for ages but it’s new to me…