How to be a rock star blogger – part 1
MOTIVATION
Before we get down the nitty-gritty of becoming a Rock Star Blogger we need to establish one key thing and that is the motivation behind your desire to achieve blogging superstardom.
At a guess, I would imagine you have been reading some free ebooks that have told you all you need to do to become an overnight(ish) millionaire is to start a blog or a website and sell an eager audience your many pearls of wisdom.
Would I be far wrong?
If you say absolutely wrong Linda, then you have my apologies. I meet so many people who seem to think that the Internet is the key to a lifetime of riches that I can come across as a little cynical at times.
If you are willing to say, “OK you got me banged to rights Gov and I’ll come quietly”, then we are one step closer to making a Rock Star Blogger out of you yet.
The vast majority of us work on a basis of ‘what’s in it for me’. In other words, ‘I’m going to do this particular thing (whether that is work, visiting granny or diving headfirst into the world of words) because I am going to get something out of it’. As a species we are not selfless, we are selfish and if we can admit what it is we are seeking, then we can work with it and not against it.
So, what are the most common things that motivate people to get into blogging?
To build or promote their offline (or online) business because they’ve been told that marketing online is all about creating great content.
To make money, whether that is supplementing an income or replacing it entirely.
To become famous and get all the trappings that go along with that – fast car, big house, gorgeous girl/boyfriend.
To change the world and leave our mark on society.
To show off to other people about the depth of our knowledge.
To make sense of an emotional upheaval such as divorce, death, illness or life-changing event.
To build a reputation that can help us get a leg up the ladder of success.
It’s rarely just one of these things though and commonly it’s a mixture. You may even be able to add something of your own to the list.
It would be worth spending some time just thinking honestly about what you’d like to achieve because this will be a key element of its success. This is because it will help you when you start thinking about what your blog should look like, what you are going to say and who you are going to say it to. In the world of blogging, just because you build it does not mean that ‘they’ will necessarily come.
Just for the record, I started a blog by accident. I was looking for some easy content management software for a website I’d been running since 1995 and found WordPress. I’ve been using it since 2006 for that particular site and every website I’ve been involved in since.
My original site started life as a simple demonstration of how the newly emerging web could be used to disseminate information to a specific group of people. My primary motivation, in the beginning, was to get my Master’s Degree and I had no intention of it sticking around and I certainly had no idea it might become as popular as it is today.
Today my motivation has changed, as it does for all of us as we travel through life and I think I can safely say it is a mixture of all the motivators I listed above. I want to leave my mark on society, I want to make money doing something I love and I want to be seen as an expert, perhaps becoming famous along the way. I’m pleased to say that in many ways those have all been achieved, to greater or lesser degrees.
(Please note: I originally published this article on my LinkedIn account 6th March 2014)