Becoming a huge hit in the world of blogging is tough. Henri Junttila diagnoses the success of his favorite band, Iron Maiden and shows you what you can learn from that success. Want to write for us too?
Being a successful blogger depends entirely on what you want to get out of it and what your goals are.
When the English heavy metal band, Iron Maiden started, they were nobodies. They remained nobodies for quite a while, until of course their popularity exploded and became known all over the world. Now, the band is quite legendary.
I grew up listening to Iron Maiden. Partly because when I was 6, my brother, who was going through his rebellious teen phase, got me into them. He always had great taste in music: Skid Row, Iron Maiden, Metallica (the old albums) and Megadeth. All amazing bands.
The point I want to get across is that it doesn’t matter if you want to create a popular band, brand, product or blog, because a lot of the same concepts apply everywhere. They are universal.
When you learn these concepts, you will not only have learned how to take your blog to the next level, but also how to succeed in other areas of your life.
I noticed this myself as I went from a professional poker player to making a living online from my websites and blogs. I played online poker for almost 5 years, and during this time I learned many things that now translate over to blogging.
With all that said, let’s check out how exactly Iron Maiden can help take your blog to the next level. Don’t worry, even if you don’t like their music, they still have some things to teach you.
1. Start where you are
Iron Maiden didn’t become famous overnight. It took them years of hard work before anything happened.
For an outsider, it always seems like everyone’s an overnight success. But that observation couldn’t be farther from the truth. It took Iron Maiden around three years before they got around to recording their first demo in 1978. Most bloggers give up before even a year. Talk about perseverance.
You don’t have to have permission from the gods to start making a difference with your blog. Start with what you have and go from there. Start writing a blog post. Start connecting and start having fun. If you’re not having fun then what are you doing? You’ve just created another 9-to-5 job.
If you don’t have a blog yet, the first step is to find your passion and then to start taking action. You will run into fear and resistance, but that is natural and something that I went through as well. There are plenty of ways you can overcome fear, so don’t worry!
Be different, and they will remember you.
2. Try Everything
Iron Maiden went through an incredible amount of line-up changes before they started releasing platinum and gold albums. It took a long time before they got their act together and found the right people who would eventually catapult them into fame.
When you’re first starting out blogging, or even if you’ve been blogging a while but aren’t reaching your goals, you simply have to work hard and try different things. It took me a long time and many ideas before I started making money blogging.
Sometimes it seems like people expect everything to happen faster just because it’s the internet. It would be great if things worked that way. But the harsh truth is that they don’t. At least, nothing quick happened for me.
Blogging is hard work. You also have to realize that blogging won’t automatically make you money. You have to have a plan. You have to know how you are going to monetize. I’m not talking about just hoping on making money from advertising and affiliate links.
While that may work, it isn’t as good as producing your own products, offering consulting or whatever you like. You may say to yourself “I can’t make my own products” or “No one would want to buy anything fro me.” That’s where many bloggers go wrong, they lack confidence.
If you are truly passionate about something, then you will always work as hard as you can to do it for the rest of your life. People will buy a product you make, or a service you offer if they can see you have that passion on your blog.
3. Produce Memorable Riffs
If you want to stand out and be remarkable, you have to create something unique. Don’t get the wrong idea — you don’t have to be a genius to create something unique, you just have to be yourself.
It is so easy to get caught up wondering what it takes to be remarkable, so I’m just going to come out and tell you right now: if you want to stand-out, be yourself, quirks and all.
Iron Maiden would never have made it if they didn’t produce music they loved. They became famous because they experimented with new styles and lyrics. They created songs that became memorable, just because of how different they were from the “regular music.” When I think of Iron Maiden, I instantly think of their song Fear of the Dark because it is so unique to me.
They didn’t try and go after a general audience. They did what they loved and it resonated with some people but not so much for others. If you want to succeed in blogging, you have to be yourself and target the group of people who most would benefit from what you have to share.
Remember: you can’t please everyone.
Listen to your community, and they will love you.
4. Keep Your Ears Open
Iron Maiden has always stayed true to their roots, which is one reason why they have been able to build such a large following. When you’re consistent in the message you send out, you will have a lot more success.
When you first start your blog, you will mostly be writing about whatever you want. But as your audience grows, you should listen to them and let them guide you.
There’s just one problem, however.
When I say that you should listen to your audience, I don’t mean you should only listen to the people who comment on posts, or email you all the time for example. Not only is that canceling out many opinions from other sources, but you’re sticking to the people who are on your blog the most frequently and probably enjoy your blog enough as is. There’s not as much innovation.
If you listen to people who have launched products, you’ll hear over and over again that the people who brought their products never commented on their blogs. Why do you think that is? And how does it change the way you think about things?
Listen to your audience, but don’t solely rely on certain sources. Go everywhere and anywhere and listen to everybody. Look through your most popular posts. Look at the e-mails you get from your readers and even join blogging communities and talk about your blog there.
5. Self-Sabotage
You can check your stats and earnings all you want, but don’t get addicted. By 1981, the Iron Maiden vocalist Paul Di’Anno had become increasingly unstable. It is believed that his self-destructive behavior was caused by drug use. But we’ll never know, will we?
The important thing to take away is that it is easy to sabotage yourself. Many bloggers have fallen prey to self-sabotage just as they are about to reach the next level. Maybe it’s because of laziness, maybe it’s because they weren’t passionate about their topic. You just can’t figure it out sometimes.
There’s something deep down in many that prevents them from achieving success. Before you are allowed to level up, you have to become aware of what this belief is. Shedding light on it alone will lessen its strangle-hold on you.
Just as Paul Di’Anno was replaced by Bruce Dickinson, so can you be replaced by someone else. The blogosphere is a living entity that does not have favorites.
If you mess up and don’t even try to recover, you will fail. But there’s something I have left out. If you mess up and fall off the bandwagon, you can always pick yourself up and learn from your mistakes.
No matter what, you just have to keep going. Right big guy?
6. Accept Change
Iron Maiden has been through a lot of change. They’ve gone through band members, drug abuse and what have you, but they’re still standing and producing great music.
The same applies to blogging and business. The only constant in the universe is change, as they say, and you have to be ready for it. You may be successful now, but that may change.
Something that doesn’t change is your inner drive and your motivation to share what you have to share with the world. It doesn’t matter if things fall apart, because we can always try again. That’s a part of life, and what fun would it be if everything were easy?
Facing your fears can be challenging, and of course: scary. But once you’ve done it a few times, you’ll knock out your next fear quicker. And your next fear even quicker, and so on until you start forming an addiction to combating fear and feeling accomplishment. They’re pretty important feelings for any blogger, right next to happiness.
Most bloggers are not willing to do these things unfortunately, which is why it is so refreshing to see an up and coming blogger hit so much success just because they were willing to get out there and face their fears.
Ask yourself, what are you afraid of when it comes to growing your blog? Then go out there and start doing it over and over again. It doesn’t matter if you fail. You will succeed if you keep learning and trying.
27 Discussions
thanks for this great post ….and i like the last point most……:)
Accept change. and really..Facing fears can be challenging
Dev | Technshare´s last blog ..SEO – 20 ways to build backlinks
Fears are always tough. We have to come up with our own way of dealing with them. Experiment and see what happens. Thanks for the comment!
Thanks for another great post, Henri. I’m enjoying your pearls of wisdom! It can be very disheartening to write what you hope is quality stuff, researched, interesting and informative, and then see ’0 comments’. Argh! It can also be a challenge if you’ve been successful in a previous career – beginning again, as a blogging ‘persona non grata’, and having to earn your spurs in a new field. The point you make, and what I’ve been discovering, is that old chestnut: patience is a virtue. Just keep delivering quality content. Be consistent. At the beginning it’s all about creating a community, isn’t it? That takes time and a lot of rocking on! Enjoy your day! Warmly, Mandy
You also have to remember that sometimes your post is so awesome that people feel like they have nothing to contribute in the comments, so don’t judge your success by comments alone!
Also I’d like to add to get out there and market yourself. Comment, guest post and build relationships, because if you don’t build roads to your blog or website, how are people going to find you?
Thanks for commenting, Mandy!
Those are the most wonderful words I’ve ever herd! Wow.
I won’t say ‘Awesome Post, Henri’ for that is an understatement. The amount of effort you’ve put behind is inspiring and the source of inspiration behind this post – man, I’d wanna talk about it so much!
That is what I am seeking. Don’t get me wrong the post is more than awesome and really enjoyable. But what is more appealing to me is the inspiration source of it.
I really want to know, how did you come up with idea. What was the state of mind or ‘no-mind’ (meditation). What was the intent. I hope you get what I am asking (I am really bad at asking questions).
Looking forward to more posts by you.
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Thanks for the kind words. I actually watched a documentary with Iron Maiden called Flight 666. It got me thinking about why Iron Maiden as a band was so awesome.
The band members were down-to-earth and they were doing everything right. It inspired me to write about it because the parallels with blogging were too awesome not to blog about
Great stuff, I know of iron maiden lived the 80′s and you are right, it takes time, but what happens when you build up so much and then to have one or two people shoot you down so bad you just use the delete button? Having faith in yourself is a bigger thing than having people around making a point. Thanks for you post…really great stuff
One or two haters is nothing compared to the people that will reap the benefits from reading your post now and in the future.
There will always be people that try to put you down because they cant’ stand the fact that others are succeeding and they are not. Let them be and use it as a signpost that you’re doing something right.
You can’t please everyone!
I never know that there is such a thing as self sabotage. perhaps this is the reason why some bloggers didn’t make it
Palabuzz´s last blog ..Folded & Hung Summer Collection 2010 Sam Milby
It exists. Believe me!
Henri,
You literally are everywhere my friend
. I think it’s great because that backs up everything you’ve said in this post. You’ve clearly embraced the work hard part of this and you’ve been very strategic in how you’ve done things. I look forward to much of your future success.
I do my best! Following your passion, working hard and seeing results, is there anything better? Thanks for stopping by Srini. Always fun to see a comment from you!
OMG it’s Henri again.Never thought someone would compare blogging like this, in the end it feels like inspiring. What’s more inspiring is wakeupcloud .
Thank you for your kind words, Sushant! Someone had to compare blogging with rock n’ roll, right?
Awesome post as always Henri, I enjoyed getting it ready for the blog.
Thanks dude. It looks great with all the stuff you added to it!
Great point about overnight success, Henri.
It happens all the time: People, many times their detractors, think so-and-so band is an overnight success, so-and-so actor/actress is an overnight success.
Only to find out that it took them years to become an overnight success.
Jim´s last blog ..Affiliate Marketers Raped by Tax-Hungry Politicians
Yup. Couldn’t agree more. Overnight success usually isn’t overnight after all
I didn’t expect that someone would make a connection between one of my favorite bands and blogging. I particularly like the part about being different. I agree that in the 80′s there were a lot of bands in the same genre as Iron Maiden, but it’s their lyrics, musicianship, and consistency that set them apart. This can really be applied to blogging. Each one of us is unique and we need to find our own personality and show it in the things we write.
Julius´s last blog ..Closed-Circuit Televisions
What amazes me about Iron Maiden is their consistency, like you said. They’ve been playing for a very long time, but they’re still true to their roots and going strong.
I believe their consistency in everything from their music to their branding is why they have built such a huge following. Just goes to show you what consistency, being remarkable and time can do.
First, great choice my friend. I went to a Maiden/Dio concert when I was about 12…didn’t hear right ’till I was about 14. LOL
Anyhoo, #2 surely strikes a chord (pun intended). My current blog on it’s domain is by far the first blog/site/whatever that this domain has seen.
I believe though that I have found the magical combo, finally! I wanted a personable touch to my teachings, so what better way then to use my personal domain.
All about the branding ya know.
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Nice, I’m glad your hearing returned to normal. Better late than never, right?
Keep rocking your blog and work hard!
Great post! I like the way you incorporated Iron Maiden, an interesting choice of bands considering I would have thought your target demographic may not even know who they are.
Bradley Davis´s last blog ..Hunting Google With Spearguns In Norway
Wow! Brilliant work Henri, I really enjoyed this post. I am huge maiden fan and yeah they have seen quite ups and down in the beginning. Lets say it about doing what you love to with out loosing any hope!
Don’t forget to listen to hard-music to enchance your brain productivity. That’s what I did in last year.
Reza Winandar´s last blog ..This is blog is now Do Follow
Excellent blog post,
Iron Maiden did take a very long time to become hugely accepted it wasn’t until their massive World Tour in 1984 where they released on the best live heavy metal albums of all time. Iron Maiden are a solid example of strong successful group.
Just like Bruce Dickinson leaving in 1994 and returned back to Iron Maiden in 2000, where it is wise to have a rest from blogging. But only a short one! Because fresh ideas are very important to keep a blog going.
Once you receive a high level of acceptance and success, this will excel your passion. It will pay off in the long term. As you probably noticed I am an Iron Maiden fan too. I saw them in London back in 2008.
Best of luck with your blog.
James King
I swear I commented on this last week, but I don’t see it.
Anyway, just want to say thanks for the honor of being included your post, and keep up the great work Henri.
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