Envy whoever you want, it won’t make you them

I see it almost every day: people who want to be a better, more successful blogger. I know I want to be a better blogger too. But I am unlike many bloggers out there; I understand the costs and time it takes to become a better blogger.

Unfortunately, people are all talk and no work and will get nothing accomplished. I hear blogging being described as simply “upload your platform, add a theme, start writing content, and you’re all set!” which is 100% wrong. They forgot to mention the hours a day of promoting, upgrading/managing/customizing, and pulling your hair out when your subscriber count drops.

The point of this post is this: to get you out of that “gimmee, gimme, gimme” stage and get you into that “work harder! work harder! WORD HARDER!” stage.

Have a blogging idol, someone who’s there to motivate you

There’s always a blogger out there who has something you want. Whether it’s tons of comments on their posts, being constantly interviewed, or becoming a famous blogger there will always be something you want.

Get inspired by the things you want

I see ProBlogger getting at least 30 or more comments a post, and I ask myself “why haven’t I gotten that yet?”. I work harder on my articles by providing a little more information then what may be truly needed, and I will drop in some questions here and there to get a better response. At times it works, and there are other times it doesn’t. But seeing ProBlogger’s 30+ comment streak again the next day kind of gets me back into the idea that if he can do it, I can do it.

Be jealous at times too, you never know what the end result will be

Jealousy is a strong emotion, and it can lead to a lot of positive or negative things. I will admit that I have some jealous tendencies when I see other bloggers get more attention than I do when I don’t truly believe they deserve it, but going back the point of inspiration: it only makes me work towards becoming a better blogger.

The best of what jealousy brings out in you

• As I have said above, jealousy makes me feel like I just need to work harder, so I do what I can to become better.
• You may be jealous at first, but there are times where you come out of that jealous stage and move into a more logical approach to something and just like that you have something to set you apart from that person you want to become so bad.

Then there’s the bad side of it all

• You want that success, but it’s not something you can just get. You might get annoyed seeing how successful someone became, and you might not understand the work they put into it. Not understanding that will not help you become a better blogger.
• Do you think your mind would be as clear if you spent all that time trying to be like the other blogger instead of becoming the blogger you want to be? Spending all of your time copying from other bloggers instead of creating new innovations is a terrible form of jealousy and I hope it hasn’t hit you!

Don’t let others successes control you, find your own system

Nearly ever blogger has copied (or as they will put it “got over-inspired) something from someone else in hopes that they will make their blog better. All of the time I see people trying to get other bloggers to expose their secrets, and even more, I see bloggers exposing THEIR secrets to you like it will actually help you.

While sometimes it can help you and provide you a list of things you can try, are they really the solutions for you? A ‘successful blogger’ can tell you that you need to post once a day to get more readers, but maybe posting every second day is the thing you are more comfortable with doing.

You have heard it over and over, and you will hear it again: a successful blog doesn’t happen over night. People won’t strike you down for posting every second day. It’s not like all blogs explode with thousands of readers every night. People also won’t attack you for starting out with a free/premium theme either. There are so many things new bloggers are worried about, (appearance, SEO, features, etc.) that when it comes down to writing the content, they come up short.

Just to finish out the post, I have made a short list of ideas to be taken more seriously as a blogger, become more unique, and become the blogger you want to become.

Quick Fire Tips

• Free is nice, but free blog hosts aren’t. They are less customizable, and when it comes to being different, it just won’t cut it.
• Find the theme for your blog, and not some free theme that has been used hundreds of times before by other bloggers.
• Work like you’ve never worked on a website before. Easier said than done, believe me, but it will be worth it.
• Try to do something you haven’t done before. Add a couple extra images to each of your posts, try making yourself a custom theme. There is always a positive ending when you try to up the standards for yourself in each new step of your blogs success.