I heard this story the other day of two old friends.
These two old friends got to talking and reminiscing over their past. They were talking about their families and the good old times back when they were in high school.
As they were talking, they recalled a popular girl back in high school.
“Sam, you remember Jenny from High School? I saw her the other day.” Says Mike.
“Sam replies, “Of course, I remember. I used to have a huge crush on her in high school. You know, I still think about her sometimes.”
Mike looks at his friend quizzically.
“You know, I always knew you had feelings for her, but I thought you’d have forgotten all about her by now. After all, it’s been years.”
“Well, yes. It’s been a long time, but I still remember her. You know, I was always a shy kid in High School. It took me a long time to work up the courage to say anything to her. I finally, wrote this beautiful poem, and gave it to her one day after gym class.”
Mike’s face took on an odd expression. “You know, Sam. I was there after you gave her that note. I never wanted to tell you this because I knew how much you cared for her and I didn’t want to hurt your feelings. But after all these years, I have to tell you. After you walked alway, Jenny showed your note to her friends and they were laughing at you.”
Sam looked back at his friend, “Thank you for telling me this, Mike. But I already knew. I figured that was her business, not mine.”
The moral of this story is: You are what you love, not what loves you.
About Love and Blogging
You may ask, what does this story have to do with blogging.
Did you know that there are millions of blogs created every day? And statistically, something like 90% of these blogs fail in the first 3 months. Either the bloggers get discouraged, or lose their passion for their blog. Some just die off in neglect.
Perhaps these blogs didn’t get the traffic their owners expected. Or they didn’t bring in the dream income we hear about whispered about the internet. Whatever the reason, I often suspect that these blogs are the victims of these external factors.
Even I fall victim to scanning my stats and constantly watching if my traffic is growing on a daily basis.
But sometimes we need to take a step back from this and remember that we are what we love.
In the blogosphere, the question is what is your blog giving to others, not what others are giving to your blog?
Over time, I find the most rewarding part of blogging is not how much traffic I get, or how much income I am receiving from the blog. The reward is in answering my comments. The reward is in seeing someone say thanks for this valuable resource. The reward is in seeing someone find a job through the job board.
Change the Question
Often, we get caught up in asking questions like the following:
- How much traffic do I get?
- How much income am I earning?
- How many backlinks do I have?
- What is my blog doing for me?
The question I like to ask is not what is my blog doing for me. The question is what is my blog doing for all of you?
Change the question:
- What am I teaching people who read my blog?
- How am I helping others who visit my blog?
- What can I do to improve my blog for the readers?
- What can I do for you?
As long as I keep asking that question it makes it easy to love blogging. It makes it that much easier to be passionate about blogging and keeping the blog alive.
When we ask the second set of questions, it makes it easier to create content, make pillar articles, tutorials, posts that add value to my blog. It cuts away trying to hype up things to sell and instead focuses on different ways to bring value to the readers.
We are what we love. Not what loves us.
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Rich, I really like this post. It's true that many people focus on what they can get out of blogging instead of what they can put into it. 🙂 Thanks for the encouragement.
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Thanks Ileane,I enjoy telling a good story, entertaining my visitors and giving value to others. It totally make running this blog a pleasure. I know many great bloggers out there that feel the same way. 🙂
Thanks for the post, encouraging and a great read to finish off the night. Thanks again you have made my day!!!
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Thanks Bill,
I'm glad you enjoyed it. Have a good night! 🙂
My recent post You Are What You Love
Hello Richard,
Many people like to see big numbers but unfortunately this is not always possible that is why they give up blogging.
The fact is that stats may take time to increase but you have to keep that passion that made your start the blog in the first place.
And those that didn't had/don't have a passion for their blog, then they should keep in mind that Rome wasn't built in one day and if they persevere, they might end up loving their blog.
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I think it's best to start a blog in a subject that you are already passionate about. It makes it so much easier to not worry about the stats when you are just having fun.
Hey Richard,
This is great!
You have a very good point here. I'm happy that I have made it past the first 3 months. Even though i have that doesn't mean the battle is over. Truthfully, the battle is nowhere near over it has only just started. Everyday is still a uphill battle to get to where I want to be. You just have to have patience with your skills and give them time to develop. Without time nothing can be accomplished, so you must be in it for the long run.
Everyday I wake up and think about what I love doing. I want to drill it in my head that this is my dream and my life and my life is complete without making dreams come true. The only way you can make a dream turn into reality is with time.
I like how you pointed out that we must change the question. Very creative thinking process my man! Keep up the good work here. ( :
God bless,
William Veasley
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Thanks William,
I'm glad you enjoyed this read. We do often get caught up in the same paradigms and I think it helps us break out of it by changing things up by doings things like changing the question. I always find it's easier to get started in the mornings if I just simply ask how am I going to help someone today. 🙂
No words to say about your blog man because it's such a wonderful article on here :). This article would be more helpful to do better post now :). so, thank you so much Richard for providing your valuable post on here 🙂
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