Comments on: Every Blogger Starts From Zero – You Could Be On the A-List Next Year

By: Sonia Simone

Sonia Simone — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:59:46 +0000

Oops, I also thought of one more point. You don’t have to get into the Technorati Top 100 to have a wonderfully successful blog.

Some of the most successful (making plenty of money, great connection with their audience, great reputation around the web, good search engine traffic, etc.) bloggers I know have well under 10K subscribers. (And I know that sounds like a lot at first, but it’s really very doable.) Many have fewer than 5K subscribers. It’s not about getting Darren-level numbers, although that’s nice too. :)

By: Sonia Simone

Sonia Simone — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:56:47 +0000

This is such a great point, Ali! It’s hard to believe, but it really is true. Every blogger you admired started pretty much in the same spot. The wall seems impossible to scale, but it isn’t.

By: dvd

dvd — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:24:50 +0000

So true. I thought about my list of categories a few months back and thought “this is too many. how is this usable for my readers?” so I drastically cut back the numbers, and recategorized many posts. It feels so much cleaner now.

By: TheManRevolution

TheManRevolution — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:15:19 +0000

Very inspiring post! Thanks.

As a budding blogger myself, it really energized me.

By: Syed Akram

Syed Akram — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:09:04 +0000

Every Business is a people business.

No matter what busines you’re in, your success depends on your ability to communicate with people…listen to people…atrract people…help people…sell to people…teach and train people…inspire people…share with people…and love people.

The internet is a powerful tool, but we must never lose sight of the fact that it’s still tool to enrich the lives of other people.

By: Peter - TheDJPodcast

Peter - TheDJPodcast — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:20:43 +0000

Very motivational and encouraging for a new blogger to read. Blogging is definitely not a form on instant-gratification. I think it takes everyone a little while to realize that.

By: John

John — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:34:54 +0000

Good advice. This definitely helps when starting a new blog. It has been frustrating for me at times but this column helps to keep me motivated knowing that even the best blogs struggled in the beginning.

By: SURVEYS FOR MONEY

SURVEYS FOR MONEY — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:49:26 +0000

Knowing that every successful blogger has to start somewhere is extremely motivating. We have to eventually find our voice and learn to write for our readers. Reading the early experiences and posts of top bloggers is also a great tip for beginning bloggers.

By: Earner's Vision

Earner's Vision — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 02:09:25 +0000

great analysis and good point. but from idea to success from words to the real stuff it’s always a long way to walk.

By: Justin

Justin — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:40:48 +0000

Ali, I completely agree with what you’ve written. However I do think these things are certainly easier said than done. Its very difficult for a new blogger with no connections (like myself) to follow these guidelines.

I find that social bookmarking sites are simply too overcrowded for anyone to notice your new posts. I think the blogosphere is hugely saturated with what probably are good quality blogs and I wonder what the actual reader story is. Are these readers bloggers themselves?

It saddens me to say this, but I think the day of launching the new blog is long gone.

By: ITrush

ITrush — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 04:35:11 +0000

Very challenging and encouraging.. thanks for mentioning the checklist it’ll surely help us guide our way straight up.

By: Lee

Lee — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:10:42 +0000

Hey Ali,
Really, really great post!!! You bring-up a good point that Alex Jeffreys keeps pounding into my head…it is not about me the writer, it is about the reader!! While it is easy enough to say, it is more difficult to remember when writing! :) Will have to work on this…
Looking forward to your next post!
Best Regards
Lee

By: Sean

Sean — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:16:29 +0000

Great article.. I just re-launched my blog a couple of weeks ago, looking forward to see just where I can take my blog in the future..

By: Blaine Bullman

Blaine Bullman — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:42:24 +0000

This post came as exactly the right time for me as I just started my own blog, a thousand thoughts running my each day thinking of what to write, are the posts good enough, will visitors come back and so on but there is nothing better than to just start your blog and start writing.

I think you should “always be doing”, always strive to do better and give as much value as you can each day. If you can focus on doing your best in the short term with clarity of your long term goals, then things will start to fall into place.

I find starting my blog like is like getting a plane off the ground, I have to go full power to get off the ground but hopefully once I get higher and a good readership base, I can pull back and less effort is needed but focus on the more important parts of the blog.

It’s so true to stop waiting for the perfect moment to start your blog or publish a post. Also about having a check list, an overall view of what needs to be done is important and is something I personally have and use everyday to remind me and show me what I need to get done.

My favorite point though of the whole post was change your thinking and focus that the blog is about ME to thinking that it’s about my readers and how can I help and give something of value to them.

Blaine

By: Deidre

Deidre — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:38:03 +0000

Thanks for the post. It’s very encouraging, just started my blog approximately 3 weeks ago and well it’s not the easiest of roads…but perseverance is the key and we all need to start somewhere.
Needed the boost today…Thanks again

By: Richard Tea @ netParticles

Richard Tea @ netParticles — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:32:31 +0000

You mentioned something about checking stats hourly and I can relate. I wrote a recent article on How-to: Stop Wasting Your Time Checking Your Website Stats to try to counter that. But in my case, I only picked up another addiction instead: Digg.

By: Anatoly

Anatoly — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:36:28 +0000

This post is very inspiring.It’s very hard to convince yourself to write and write when the results are not impressive yet.
But, like I wrote in my Blog “Every long journey begins from the single step”.
That’s why, no choice! We have to keep doing!
Thank you for such positive message!

By: wiseinvestor

wiseinvestor — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 07:46:43 +0000

When starting out, do not concern too much about the perfectness of writings since not many people is going to read it anyway and in addition, need some blog posts to make the meat of the content.

But as time goes by, if want to increase the conversion of readers from organic traffic into long time readers, definitely need solid content.

For the case of blogging, it is not much the writings or expression of ideas but the quality of ideas in blog posts.

By: Shannon Rubio

Shannon Rubio — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:29:09 +0000

I tried to reply last night but had some errors, I hope this doesn’t come through numerous times. The thing i always have to remind myself is to write about what the reader wants to hear. It’s not always about me.:) I mean it is about me but not really. Great point.

By: Naeem Congo

Naeem Congo — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 02:15:46 +0000

This article is what all new bloggers need to hear and see. Just keep writing, and don’t force your writing. They article is right. Your true voice will eventually emerge.

And most importantly, just keep writing and writing and writing.