Yesterday I was involved in a discussion with travel bloggers about strategy and it was obvious to me why so few of them are successful. They follow really bad advice. Their collective thinking is “noise > value,” which, in an endeavor like blogging, is horrible. Many of them care more about how they can take more visitors for themselves (by, for example, tweeting the same link over and over), instead of spreading the wealth (by, for example, tweeting links from other people more often than their own).
Besides yesterday’s discussion I get a lot of e-mails, I have a lot of conversations, and I read a lot about business, blogging, and social media.
Many people are divided as to the correct way of going about building a successful project. For the sake of today’s article, I’ll talk strictly about building a successful blog. Obviously I don’t have the biggest blog in the world, but my blog income blew the GDP per capita out of the water so I’m coming from a certain level of experience.
Conventional wisdom suggests one of the following ways to become a successful blogger:
The Field of Dreams Method
- Write amazing content on a consistent schedule.
- The fans will follow.
The truth: I absolutely hate when “experts” give this advice. It’s akin to telling someone to play basketball a lot and they’ll make it to the NBA. Amazing content will get you a few fans, but if you actually “hit it big” using this method it’s a little like winning the lottery (or making it to the NBA). Sure it can happen, but it probably won’t. It’s a very passive “hope for the best” method.
I used this for the first 3 months of starting my blog. For those 3 months I had less than 100 visitors/day and 70 subscribers. Of course, it’s debatable whether I was writing amazing content. Still is. ;)
The Spread The Love Method
- Write amazing content on a consistent schedule.
- Write amazing content for others. (Guest blogging)
- The fans will follow.
The truth: It’s not until I used this method that my subscribers jumped from 70 to over 1,000 … literally overnight. My buddy Glen, who has used guest blogging to successfully build multiple blogs, has written the ultimate guest blogging guide for free. It’s a fantastic resource.
The Gary Vaynerchuk Method
- Create amazing content on a consistent schedule.
- Interact with your audience through e-mail, comments, twitter, and facebook.
- Be everywhere.
- The fans will follow.
The truth: I’ve gone in waves with this method. I used to respond to every retweet and every comment. Responding to every retweet was exhausting. Now I usually only respond to legitimate tweets directed at me, not just tweets of my work. As for comments: I do my best to respond to all comments. I definitely respond to all e-mails. It doesn’t make sense not to.
The Take Take Take Travel Blogger Method
- Provide fun content.
- Annoy everybody in your circle by talking about only yourself and your content. Tweet your links every hour or two because “studies have shown that most people won’t see every tweet.”
- The fans will follow?
The truth: This is a favorite amongst the aforementioned travel bloggers, which is why I had to include it. This method doesn’t work, contrary to what a few people who have been successful will tell you. They are/were successful in spite of using this method, not because of it.
What you should do instead of this method: Be cool. If your friend sent you the same text message every 2 hours, would you enjoy that? No? Then don’t treat your online followers that way.
The Interview Method
- Write amazing content on a consistent schedule.
- Interview people in your niche.
- The fans will follow.
The truth: Too many people use this method (very poorly, I might add) to make it truly useful for gaining new readers. Just because you interview someone it doesn’t mean they’re going to promote that interview. More than likely they will not because they get interviewed a lot, and most interviews are the exact same questions. That said, if you come up with great interview questions you will at least make an impact with the interviewee. That is important.
How I use interviews: I interview people for my e-mail course. I keep the interviews short, I ask questions I care about, and I also give the interviewee a chance to talk about themselves and their products. In my eyes that’s a win/win/win.
Note: The interview method can rock if you do what David Siteman Garland did with TheRiseToTheTop.com. Of course, now that he has done it, you won’t necessarily be able to copy it directly.
The Quantity > Quality Method
- Write timely content. Update many times per day. Maybe have multiple authors all providing content.
- Do some of the other stuff listed above.
- The fans will follow.
The truth: This can work and work really well. Quite a few blogs/blog networks like this have sold for 7 and 8 figures. I have no personal experience though, so I’ll leave it at that.
The Search Engine Method
- Write content with Google in mind. Quality is important, but targeting specific keywords is most important.
- The fans will follow. Eventually.
The truth: A favorite method of affiliate marketers. It’s not so much about building a fan base, it’s more about getting lots of search engine traffic and selling ads or affiliate products. There’s nothing wrong with this, of course. I personally don’t focus on search engines at all for this blog, although Google sends me thousands of visitors every month. I know, based on general SEO principles, that I will get search engine traffic, but it’s just not something I choose to focus on here.
The Viral Method
- Write content with the goal of going viral with a lot of links, Tweets, Facebook likes, and Stumbles.
- The fans will follow.
The truth: This can work well to build a successful blog, but it won’t necessarily build a successful blog business unless you take steps to make that happen. Violent Acres (long abandoned) built a big audience, but didn’t build a business. Leo Babauta, on the other hand, built the biggest single person run blog in the world using this method (along with other methods above). Trent from The Simple Dollar also successfully utilized this method in the early days of his blog. He was on the Digg front page quite a few times.
Why You’ve Been Lied To
If I said “you have to try everything above and figure out what works for you” it doesn’t sell as many “how to blog” courses or get as many Tweets or Facebook likes as “Focus on just this method, it’s easy!” It’s not as sexy as the magic pill method.
And that’s just it. You have to try everything and figure out what works for you.
Maybe you’ll have an article that goes viral and brings you a lot of traffic, but it doesn’t bring in the right audience. For example, this article I wrote last year has ~600 Facebook likes and over 45,000 visitors just from StumbleUpon. How many visitors who reach that page subscribe to my free Freedom Fighters course or buy something? If I told you you’d quit blogging. :)
Maybe you’ll try to interact with every person who comments and tweets, but realize it’s not for you. If you’re not going to interact, turn off comments and see what happens. Most likely you’ll kill your chances for success (unless you’re already successful), but maybe that’ll be exactly what works in your market.
Maybe you’ll be the very rare blogger who makes the interview model work. If you mess with the formula (like BlogcastFM did by creating a podcast) it might just kick ass for you.
I’ve been messing with my own formula a lot lately. Even recently I mentioned that I need to continue posting Monday, Thursday, and sometimes Saturday because it works for me. But I don’t. I’ll continue writing every day like nothing has changed, but I don’t need to post that writing on any schedule. Last week I posted on Tuesday and Saturday. It was my highest traffic week since March.
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion in Practice
Once you’ve been doing this for a while you’ll get a better sense of what works and what doesn’t. When I was writing “17 Reasons To Ignore Everybody and Follow Your Dreams” I knew it would resonate with you. I knew you were going to share it on twitter and facebook and I knew you were going to comment. Why? Because it uses a classic “Viral Method” article formula. A great headline, easily digestible content, and a call to action. It uses a bit of influence and persuasion that forces you to connect with it. But, if I can be honest, I wrote it for myself because I needed a bit of a “follow your dreams” boost myself. Which was another sign that it was going to be a well-received article. It came from a place of passion.
Most Importantly: Don’t Be Afraid To Change The Formula
It’s not an exact science. Mess with it.
If you’re sick of being led astray with bad blogging advice share this article with your friends:
You’re right on Karol. There is no secret formula. What works for some, won’t work for all. The key is to experiment, and discover what works for you. But, I do think that great content is table stakes.
True, good content is important. Interestingly enough, if you have good (not great) content you can become very successful. If you look around you’ll see what I mean. The “how do I create great content” conundrum hits many new bloggers too hard. I almost feel like it’s a way for current successful bloggers to shy people away from blogging. :)
I tend to agree Karol. Writing well is very difficult, and most bloggers don’t write well.
This is why I really appreciate your blog; Karol, you tell the truth. This blog is remarkably free of bullshit. I never see any of the blatantly commercial posts pumping up products the blog owner hasn’t even tried, and cant possibly even have a use for (why do I see A list bloggers going off about how amazing and insightful some new ebook about how to be a blogger is? As *if* they had any reason to read such a book).
amen Jonathan
Thanks Jonathan! I do what I can to be free of bullshit. :)
Loved this one, man I’m on this bandwagon all day long. Another huge thing I’m seeing but too scared to blog about is people mis-representing their success. There are a lot of successful bloggers, who teach blogging, who make the correlation/causation mistake and its hurting the hopefuls. Running experiements is a much better approach, and therefore, will probably be largely ignored. ! I kid I kid…. anyway, thanks for writing this one out I enjoyed it.
Yes, a lot of people misrepresent … it’s fairly see-thru, but a lot of people don’t seem to see it. As for running experiments: it probably will be largely ignored, but I’m OK with that. What fun is following everything exactly the way others have done it every step of the way? :)
Yes! I’m all for public experiments. I think it forces people to put their money where their mouth is, and it shows the reality vs. the PR angle, which is important.
This is exactly why I’m doing my 10 Weeks/$1000 in France experiment this summer! I’m pretty sure it can be done, and I’m allowing my readers to follow along.
I appreciate that you said the last part. We really need to mess with the formula. I can’t stress that enough for myself. Every so often, I’m tempted to follow what the experts say. This is why I have been focusing on my own little series for myself that I call ‘Ignore the Experts’. I won’t link it here so as to avoid being spammy, but truly, I think it’s sage advice.
Mess with the formula. I like it.
Hey David, it’s OK to follow the experts. It’s following them blindly and without your own thoughts where it can become a problem. Everything I do I learned from somebody.
I can only assume that the “travel blogger” thing was a shot at me.
I can’t believe that the one group you didn’t target was the “pie in the sky 20-something lifestyle design blogger who tells everyone to quit their job and be awesome yet hasn’t really accomplished anything in their life beyond selling a few ebooks but still insists on telling everyone how to live their life.”
There are a LOT of those….
Nope, it wasn’t actually a shot at you. It was a shot at the collective travel blogger thought process. You’re successful for reasons most travel bloggers won’t grasp.
I don’t know how you can encourage experimentation yet rip on things which work for people because they found it worked.
I agree you can tweet stuff too much, but retweeting something 2-3 times, 8 hours apart isn’t that big of a deal to most people. It really only bugs me when I see people retweeting the same post every day for weeks.
I do agree that content is not king. You can’t just create good stuff and assume people will beat a path to your door.
I think the missing ingredient that most bloggers don’t get it is that it is more important to BE interesting and DO interesting things than it is to create a single bit of interesting content. If you DO stuff that is interesting or have an interesting personality, then the content will come.
Personality is king, not content. I think people like Gary Vaynerchuk because he’s Gary Vaynerchuk, not because they love wine. Almost every big blog has a personality behind it that people gravitate too, even multi-author blogs. I don’t think the personality type matters as much as just being true to yourself. (I know I can be too direct and abrasive at time, but I think people know that I’m not going to bullshit them, and that goes a long way.)
I always compare blogging to television. It isn’t like a movie where you are trying to craft one great thing that everyone will buy tickets for. You are trying to get people hooked to watch the next episode. Any great or viral piece of content isn’t successful if it can’t convert the views to followers. If you can’t convert, then it was as useful as a heroin rush.
Hey Karol,
Thanks for pulling together the pro’s / con’s in this way, interesting perspective.
Bottom line seems to be suck-it-and-see, what works for you may not work for me (or even continue to work for you next month!).
I’m with Gary Arndt on the personality thing though – on the whole, people buy from people, we want to engage, to like/be liked (and not just via a SM button!).
We like people for WHO they are (and for BE’ing and DO’ing as Gary says).
And most of us can smell the difference between authentic and the alternative…. :).
Great post – thanks!
I agree with Gary on that point as well … and that’s why he’s a successful travel blogger. He has personality.
I understand why someone might want to retweet something over and over, but here’s the truth…
Do it and I unsubscribe.
I don’t have twitter attached to my hip; for me it’s something I check a couple of times a day. Multi-posts just aggravate me.
It might be totally different for someone who checks at least once an hour; there are lots of those people, and reminding them might outweigh alienating the folks like me. It’s a judgement call.
Personality is king. Spot on Gary.
Gary, I see this same thing going on in the San Francisco startup scene: people with life experience measured on the fingers of one hand droning on and on about How Everything Is Supposed To Be.
The supreme irony is people preaching about failure, who haven’t actually failed. Real failure has real consequences. Sometimes lifelong consequences.
“Real failure has real consequences. Sometimes lifelong consequences.” – I’m missing the point. Does that mean it’s not worth striving for success in fear of failure? Or are you just pointing out that sometimes we make mistakes that might (although rarely will) be with us for life? There are not any failures I can think of that are lifelong. Unless the result of failure is death or a terminal illness it seems there is always a way out or a light at the end of the tunnel.
Karol, absolutely not! Striving is critically important, especially in the fear of failure.
I’m breaking my brain here trying to figure out a way to express precisely what I mean, but it’s proving difficult. In part, I think it *is* a perception thing. What some people call failure, others do not. On the other hand, I know people who have died, both at the their own hand and by taking a bad risk (I’ve been lucky here, no doubt). There are several monster blog posts here, right along the lines of what you have done here with force-fed blogging.
In fairness to startup culture, angel and vc investors know _how_ to mitigate risk, how to fail a business. How to fail such that the consequences are minimized. There is an art to this failure stuff, I am convinced! While I’m not interested in external funding per se, I can see the value of learning these skills!
Also, I don’t get around the comment circuit much at the moment, but I do like this article a lot, and I have huge respect for what you’re doing (and have done) here.
Back to lurking…
Thanks for clearing it up Dave.
“There is an art to this failure stuff…” – I agree. Part of the art is not being afraid to fail. Test stuff out. See what works. See what doesn’t. Learn. Grow.
EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT, Muy Excellente…
All those above strategies, definitely work somewhat depending on the niche. You hit it on the head by saying you HAVE TO mix and match and find what works for you.
To go even further than that, you started to point out that you are STILL working on the formula…
It definitely is something that you must keep in mind on an ongoing basis. There is always a better way to connect, and a more appropriate way to connect with fans (especially the ones that share).
Right now, I am on a guest posting spree, focusing on some real core content… and REALLY focus on my reason WHY… WHY people come to my site, WHY people will come back… WHY People will share it, and WHY people will bring it up in conversation at the dinner table (hopefully.)
Thanks Karol!!! Surfs up,
Thanks Salvatore. Yes, I’m definitely still working on the formula. A lot of it is holding true to your own beliefs. You are your own barometer. For example, I hate popups so I don’t put them on my site. Who cares that they work? I know they work. I don’t care. I also know by only tweeting my articles once (sometimes, but rarely, twice) I’m not hitting all my followers when they’re on twitter. That’s OK. I hate when people tweet the same thing over and over so I’m not about to start just because I know it will increase my exposure.
So…write good content, be consistent, mess with everything else?
Hi Elizabeth, I think even consistency can be messed with. Glen from ViperChill.com (who I linked to in this article) has gone months where he has only posted 2 articles. Even on those months his audience grew and his traffic was good. Why? People stick around if you give them good stuff … even if you’re not consistent with it.
This is right on, Karol! You’ve captured all the different advice I’ve seen – both from free sources and paid courses out there. While I like some ideas the big blog tips sites have to offer, it seems like there’s a new technique to overwhelm you every day. I like the idea that you should try different techniques and see what works for you, but I also think you shouldn’t give up on something before you can evaluate if it’s really working or not.
And yes, those who “change the formula” are often the ones that are most successful.
Thanks for summing it all up and giving us a take on what really works.
Thanks Jeffrey. I have nothing against any big blog tips sites. I still read them. The point is what works for me may not work for you. As I mentioned to Salvatore above, you are your own barometer. If something feels good to you, do it. If it doesn’t feel good, don’t do it even if someone you respect is telling you to.
This was just the right article at just the right time. I am curious though–as experienced bloggers, is there a strategic difference on blogging to become a blogger and blogging to support/build an existing business that “lives” outside of blogging?
Yes, there is a strategic difference. If the end goal is the sale then you’ll go about things differently than if the end goal is just to build a blog. Not that there isn’t overlap in strategy, of course.
Best advice I’ve ever heard on this topic Karol, and completely unsexy. But it’s the truth. You have to just try a lot of shit.
Something is bound to work. Then do more of that. Tweak. Repeat.
Thanks Jonathan. That means a lot!
To put it all another way, everything works and nothing works, until you know for sure for your audience. :)
Thanks for the great advice. There are so many blogs and people out there trying to sell “The Secret to Blogging Success”. As I’ve been working on improving one blog and starting another, I’ve been reading lots of material on how to approach the strategy for my blog. Sometimes it’s overwhelming and difficult to figure out which advice to follow and which to ignore.
It’s helpful to realize that not everything works for everyone and that I have to experiment with what works for me. Just because an “expert” is telling me to do something, it doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily right for me.
Hi Lindsay, yes, it can get confusing and overwhelming. There are a few things (good content + a solid guest posting strategy) that are a good basis to start with, but even that is pliable. Keep experimenting and let me know how it goes.
Great advice Karol. I’ve learned in this early stage of my blog that growing your blog isn’t a cookie cutter method. If it was, everyone would have huge popular blogs.
This definitely is an eye opener to try all different things and see what works.
That’s a good point Benny. “If it was so easy everybody would do it.” The truth is, it’s not rocket science so it’s not necessarily difficult. Something else I didn’t mention was persistence. I’ve known a few great writers/bloggers who simply quit too soon. This goes for wannabe entrepreneurs as well. There comes a tipping point where the clouds begin to part and things get a bit clearer, but it may not come quickly for everybody.
Thanks for the follow up Karol. Persistence is definitely a part of it. There’s time when someone might just give up when maybe a little push more they would have their tipping point.
Did you have many times early on when you just wanted to quit? I think most bloggers face that.
That’s something I have to remember on my two month old blog.
I didn’t have that because I had no expectations. For the first 3 months I barely had any readers, but it didn’t matter. I wanted to practice writing and share my thoughts in public again … even if that public was small.
Had to laugh at the traveller method, seriously, tweeting about a new post on the hour gets a bit old hat..
I’m rolling with the Karol Gajda method… use your picture of getting kissed by an elephant, photoshop my face onto it, twitter profile.. and the followers will flock!
This was a really helpful post for me though, thanks Karol.
Thanks for rolling with the Karol Gajda method! Let me know how that elephant photo works out. ;)
The advice contained in this article applies to all authority figures and “experts”. What “works” is often based on trends that are impermanent and only applies to some cultures. My brother currently lives in Japan and informed me that anonymous blogs are actually preferred there over personal branding or individuality.
The best formula for success today “here” may not be the most effective tomorrow “there”. Making mistakes and learning lessons that are unique to you will only lead to you creating your own unique formula and path for success.
“If you’re not going to interact, turn off comments and see what happens. Most likely you’ll kill your chances for success (unless you’re already successful), but maybe that’ll be exactly what works in your market.”
Which markets could be an exception to that?
That’s true Kevin. I was sticking to blogging simply for consistency. A lot of this advice can be extrapolated to various endeavors/industries.
“Which markets could be an exception to that?” – It’s not so much specific markets as it is specific people. For example, Leo (http://zenhabits.net) turned off comments ~2 years ago and his blog has continued to thrive since then. Leo can do that because he preaches simplicity. Spending all day moderating and responding to comments (which was the case for Leo since his blog is so massive) is not simple. Danielle Laporte (http://whitehottruth.com) is another example of someone who has continued to thrive after turning off comments. It’s the personality not the market. That said, I have a hard time believing either of them would have reached the levels they’re at without connecting with their audiences via comments in the growing stages of their sites.
AMAZING POST! I am finding it hard to get subscribers, though I do get a lot of views on my blog (considering I have only just started it). It is very hard to find ways that aren’t just plain annoying to get your work out there, so this is a very helpful guide as to how to go about it. Thanks!
Thanks Cassie. Building subscribers is much easier when you show you’re serious about the endeavor. And while you may be serious, when you’re on a free blog host (blogspot, wordpress, etc) it’s more of a challenge … not insurmountable, just a challenge.
One point that you didn’t mention was the medium. “Blogging” implies text I guess, but I think many of the superstars in the future will be those that master video. Vaynerchuk is the obvious example.
A direction that I am steering towards on my other blog is animated explanations. I believe that some concepts can be conveyed much more effectively with text, graphics and animation. (Think CommonCraft.)
Two examples I can think of are the BoxofCrayons videos and even Scott Stratten’s http://www.thetimemovie.com/.
How important do you think video will be in the future?
I don’t foresee text going away any time soon. Video will definitely be a bigger part of the future, but it will be a long while before it overtakes text, if that ever happens. Even people who primarily use video use lots of text to enhance the video … including Gary V.
Thanks for the advice Karol,i too got a wrong idea of how it works until i read your post.
Thanks for pointing everything out, and that free guide about blogging on other people,s site rocks aswell
Cheers!
Henk.
You’re welcome Henk. :)
Love this, and not too proud to confess to some of the mistakes you pointed out! And you’re right about the “The Quantity > Quality Method.” I lived that for TEN years and burnt out (and ALMOST cashed out for six figures… oh well!).
Thanks Seth. I’m not against the “quantity > quality” method, I just don’t have personal experience with it. Was yours at AOL or did you do other stuff as well?
Really enjoyed this post but I thought it was a bit unfair to call out travel bloggers specifically.
I think this is symptomatic of all new bloggers and there happens to be a lot on the FB group that you participate in.
As a travel blogger I interact with my own niche group but also with the blogging community as a whole and I can say it happens everywhere – especially with lifestyle design and social media bloggers.
That is why some bloggers stick around and others do not. But let’s face it, there is not ONE right way to blog or tweet or participate in social media.
Within our travel blogger community you could look at Nomadic Matt and Gary Arndt, they both have very different strategies but are both successful in their own right.
I think people are taking this too personally. I know it’s not just travel bloggers, but the story would be a lie if I said some other discussion prompted this article.
There is not one right way to blog or tweet, very true. But I don’t tell my friends the same story 3-4 times a day to be sure they get it. ;)
I don’t take it personally at all, particularly as I don’t consider myself to be one of those people. I just thought it was warranted to say this is really part of the learning process for MANY bloggers.
When I first started twitter I had at least 12-18 tweets a day and then after a bit of experience I cut back considerably. The same goes for blogging, my first 6 months were terrible as I attempted to emulate bloggers that I admired and then found my own voice.
Everyone starts somewhere and, fingers crossed, you start to suck less over time. Let’s face it, those who don’t often give up over time anyway.
The learning process could be quicker if new bloggers didn’t blindly follow bad advice. Part of that is how you feel when you do certain things. If popups feel good, if you absolutely love seeing them on other people’s sites, then use popups. If tweeted photos of morning coffee get you excited, then tweet photos of your coffee. Etc, etc. I think most people would do better to listen themselves a bit more.
Agreed, David Risley told me I should never read posts or blogs about blogging (ironic considering his blog) and I have to say I agree.
What may not work for you (i.e. 3-4 tweets of your post) could work for others. I think any definitive post of what you should or shouldn’t do is useless as there is no one set audience.
I’m with you on listening to your gut, treat people as you want to be treated. Online relationships are no different than in the real world because online IS the real world.
The irony indeed, considering Risley’s niche.
I used to write a lot in the same space. I’ve stopped giving any advice on “blogging” per se over the last year, instead choosing to reframe the information in terms of “what do you want your website to do?” That turns out to be a pretty hard question for a lot of people. Still hard for me, actually.
It’s not that it (3-4 tweets of my posts) doesn’t work … it definitely results in more traffic to my site. On occasion (for example, if there is interesting discussion like this one going on in the comments) I will tweet the same article again. But for the most part it’s just not worth it to me to be an annoying POS just to get a few more people to come to my site.
“Online relationships are no different than in the real world because online IS the real world.” <--- THIS! Yes, thank you. :)
Karol,
Thanks you for writing this article. It takes a lot of courage to ruffle feathers, but some of the things you said needed to be said. Keep producing some of the best content on the web and representing Chicago!
Thanks Jeffrey! Although I’m not really representing Chicago. Only lived there for 2 months out of my 30 years. :)
Whew! now i know the truth, thanks Karol.
I have been struggling with how to draw people into interacting with my blog, getting fans and getting them interested. Right now my blog is all about information: what this place is, what it was, something fun about it, beautiful pictures, etc.. How does something like that get popular? I guess it’s a travel blog, only it’s about a place I am passionate about but have never been to.
Anyone else with a similar circumstance? Any help, Karol?
Hi Abigail,
Destination blogs are only popular for a person when that person is researching that destination. So building a long-term audience for something like that is a little more difficult than for a general travel blog. Your focus should be on getting quality links and dominating search engines for your destination’s keywords.
Karol
Thank you for the prompt reply, Karol! That’s good advice; I’ll keep it in mind.
By the way, I found out about you through Justin Lukasavige’s Coach Radio podcast. Great interview!