So You are a Successful Blogger — Really?

Do you blog for success or are you a failure at blogging. Which one are you?

For some reason we humans like to live in extremes. We either swing from one end of the pendulum to the other, and there’s no room in between.

The last post that I wrote has given me cause to reflect again on what it is to be a successful blogger. Sometimes even I can get caught up in all of the nonsense and need to take a step backwards just to ground myself.

We all have our reasons for blogging. I would hazard a guess that most bloggers couldn’t care less about being a successful blogger and just blog for the fun of it or for social networking.

Perhaps you are an elderly shut-in or one of the disenfranchised who wants to feel connected to the world because your family has neglected you or have lost a dear departed friend. Or maybe you just like to write. Whatever.

We all have our reasons. But there are also some of us who secretly yearn to be successful bloggers, so much so that we will invest a huge amount of time and effort, even spending a great deal of money and working round the clock to achieve our goal.

What is a Successful Blogger?

• Does success really mean making lots of money (how does six figures sound to you)?
• Or does success mean having thousands of newsfeed subscribers?
• Does success mean having dozens of comments on every post that you write and fans salivating over every letter that you bang on your keyboard?
• Does success mean recognition from your peers or your profession?
• Or does it mean having hundreds or even thousands of hits on your site every day?

So which is it?

Humour can be an effective tool to entertain as well as teach (or at least I like to think so). But it can also be a risky venture as I soon discovered that some people can be a little thin skinned. And the higher up the food chain you go the thinner it seems to get.

One reason why I like to write with my tongue-in-cheek (like I did with this post) is to use humour to make a point, rather than being confrontational with pistols drawn and guns blazing. In this case the point that I was making (or trying to) was that it’s not rocket science if you want to propel your blog to the top. It only depends on whether or not you are prepared to the play the game.

And that’s all there is to it folks. It’s just a game, and the successful bloggers sat down and figured out how to play. Blogs like these do not just happen by chance, but they are carefully planned and contrived to achieve a level of success (whatever that really means).

Some have been known to pay big bucks on professional designers to create their blogs even if they know nothing about blogging or can’t write for beans. Others I hear have even hired ghost writers. That’s how far they will go to make a buck.

But what really frosts my gonads is they have the audacity to rehash information that is readily available from the net and there is nothing original about them whatsoever except for their flashy packaging. They network and hobnob with the who’s who and use all of the tricks of the trade to achieve their goals. Whatever it takes.

Now you know why I can sometimes get a little peeved with these self-serving opportunists. So please forgive my rants ’cause I find it really hard to bite my tongue or respect people who are only in it for the money, who game the system and bluff their way to the top.

No doubt I will catch some flak for writing this but that’s how I feel and why I occasionally like to poke fun at the a-listers (and the wannabes). Not to be mean but to make them (and especially you) think. That might not be funny, but it is unfortunately blogging reality. Reality sucks but it is sometimes necessary even in the virtual world.

I’m reminded of something that Darren Rowse once told me (I’m not picking on Darren but his comment struck a chord with me). He told me that he blogs for money to pay the bills. Well, I don’t know about him but I can certainly pay the bills on a lot less than $300,000 dollars per year that he’s reportedly making. Obviously making as much money as he can from blogging is Darren’s definition of success.

Now here is the main reason for me writing this post. Does that make you any less a success if you aren’t also making a ton of money? I hope you answered no to that question. In my humble opinion success (like most things) is only what you make of it and how you perceive it.

But if making lots of money is your definition of success then go for it, but just remember that success can also come at a high price and sometimes even compromise one’s own values, integrity, family or health.

The fact is anybody can make their blog successful — and that includes you, but only you can decide what success really means and if it’s worth the cost.

Whatever your definition of success may be, above all please blog with integrity and make it your mission to give more than what you hope to receive (and avoid getting on the Bloke’s bad side :).

So what kind of blogger are you? Are you a successful blogger or are you a failure? Or are you somewhere in between with the rest of us?

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