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Why Hopeful Bloggers Are Bad Bloggers

Posted By Guest Blogger 24th of April 2011 Miscellaneous Blog Tips 0 Comments

This guest post is by Chris, The TrafficBlogger.

Depending on your situation as a blogger, hope could be your ticket to success, or cause you to quit blogging within the month. Dictionary definition-wise, hope is the feeling that what is wanted can be had, or that events will turn out for the best. Think about how this could be a great or terrible thing for you as a blogger.

False hope (bad!)

There are two very different types of hope for online marketers—and all bloggers need to start thinking of themselves as marketers if they want to be successful.

The first type of hope is a false kind. It is the kind of hope that makes you think spending hours online was worth it because you earned a few pennies for your efforts. A false sense of hope is not only dangerous, but it also wastes your time and, more often than not, your audience’s time as well. I’d rather you failed at something miserably and attempted to make changes, rather than have mediocre success and consider it a reason to keep on failing.

False hope is so dangerous because it leads to complacency and plateauing.

False hope was something that pervaded my every effort online when I first started Internet marketing three years ago. A typical example would be AdWords and affiliate marketing. I would set up ads on Google AdWords for a few dollars each and have the accumulated traffic sent to websites designed to sell a particular product.

Since I was seeing some money come in from this effort I felt that I was successful, but I was actually failing horribly. For every $5 I spent on AdWords advertising, I made $7.

As someone just starting out I felt that a few dollars each day was successful and this feeling led to a false sense of hope which made me complacent instead of aggressive in my internet marketing endeavors. Nowadays I spend $1 and make $30, which is a far cry from the good old days of sitting back and thinking I knew everything about making money online.

Motivational hope (good!)

Failure is a great thing. It’s a reason to have hope, not to lose it.

It is through failure that we achieve success. As a computer programmer, I know what it’s like to find every possible route that doesn’t work—until eventually you track down the solution to your problem. This is how you should view failure: as closing off another dead end, which, in turn, helps you get closer to the correct answer.

When you fail, have hope in the fact that you have saved yourself from the false sense of hope I mentioned earlier, and replaced it with the motivational hope that will one day see you achieve financial success through your efforts.

Don’t take mediocre success as good enough. Keep failing until you get it right.

Taking your failure and spinning it into a motivational tool is part of becoming successful in life—not just online. Failing can push us further towards success, but we have to first recognize failure, and then convert it into motivation. The secret to doing this is to never be satisfied with your own efforts, and therefore to work constantly to improve upon your strategies. Personally, I am never satiated with the fruits of my labor and this forces me to constantly look for a better way to do what I do on a daily basis.

In three years I managed to create a system for blogging that actually builds relationships, captures leads, and sells products consistently. That’s three years of constantly working towards improving upon my own system and being my own biggest critic.

A great example of this is in my posting style. Look at the way you first started blogging, and compare it to the way you do today. Personally, I use more bulleted lists, bolded key points, big headings and concise content. I interact with my audience on a daily basis with not just posts, but social media and a few thousand words per day. I also work hard to get feedback and suggestions from my audience through various collection methods.

Rewind to three years ago? I was happy writing a paragraph a day! Only once I changed my attitude from being excited about my performance, to realizing that I was failing, was I able to begin improving my blogging business.

Are you a hopeful blogger?

The good kind of hope keeps you swinging for the fences, tearing down bad ideas, and trying out new ones until you tweak and split test to the point where even you are happy with the results. A person who is motivated by failure will always be looking to improve upon their current business strategies.

Are you this kind of person, or do you sit back and relax because you feel that you are doing “well enough”?

Chris writes for The TrafficBlogger, as well as writing books on how to drive traffic to your blog.

About Guest Blogger
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Comments
  1. Hope should only exist when you recognize that your working damn hard. Look to the future and work you ass off to get there. I suppose it’s all part of the journey though, part of the fun, recognizing that what you started off thinking was good really isn’t that amazing!

    • I’m betting the author runs on hope, given the fact that he’s running a Blogspot blog.

      I’m kidding, this article is well written and so is his site, but sheesh, somebody convince this guy to switch over to WordPress!

      • I use both! Each has its strengths and weaknesses. Be interesting to know what others think?

      • I use Blogger and I love it. Sure WP has loads more plug-ins but I don’t really mind.

        Anyway, great post! I really love this bit:
        “Since I was seeing some money come in from this effort I felt that I was successful, but I was actually failing horribly. For every $5 I spent on AdWords advertising, I made $7.”

        Keep it up!

      • Everybody is running on hope and that includes you. I wouldn’t bother to develop a blog that doesn’t have a keyword rich domain name. You have done that and I guess you have also found some success. It was your hope (your hope that someday you would make it) that brought you this far.

        By the way, this comment isn’t meant to offend anybody.

        • I too think hope is what is the driving force behind many of the endeavors people make. Isn’t it hope that has carried the war against terrorism this far in Afghanistan, Iraq and now Libya.

          Hope is not wishful thinking. Hope is what comes to you naturally after you take the first step towards what you wish to achieve.

          @Santosh I don’t agree to your opinion that you need to have a keyword rich domain name to be successful at blogging. There are numerous examples out there of successful blogs that did not have keyword rich domain names. You can also go forward if you have a unique, nice sounding domain name that is not actually a word from the dictionary. Such words are invented and it involves lots of creativity to find such names.

          Thanks

          Deepak

          • That’s true. You can build a successful blog even if you don’t have a keyword rich domain name. But building a successful blog from a good domain name (I mean a keyword rich domain name) is a whole lot easier than developing a domain that has no keywords in it.

            That’s what I said. I didn’t say that only keyword rich domains are successful. It just makes your job easier.

      • Whats the difference between all these different blog sites anyways. For example, whats the difference from Word Press compared to Blogger? Are they not basically the same thing? I use Word Press, but not because I thought It was better. I just read a few blogs that recommended it.

  2. Ya your right. With hope you need hard work contanly hard work only hope can’t do anything.

  3. That’s a pretty interesting point but is more difficult when it’s a personal blog and your style is just your style and you’re hoping to build traffic based entirely on personality and brand.

  4. yeah you right dude.motivation hope is definitely want for every blogger. Without hopes we can’t success. Also you must work according to some goals. And Time management also a want for every blogger.! :-)

  5. Hi Chris,

    This is a wonderful post with a different perspective. Most of us don’t realize that hope can really be bad at times. Sometimes hope just feeds us over confidence and it is all dangerous.

    Cheers,
    Jane.

  6. Your post is wonderful you made me think another way. Everyone encourage others to hope better and you encourage us to Hope for good only. thanks..

  7. I like this article — it’s different from the typical ‘be happy, do your best’ mantra and actually provides some realistic feedback to anyone’s online endeavors and encourages real growth, not obscuring the truth to remain happy. Good stuff.

  8. Very inspirational post. It can be very difficult to know the difference between doing well and doing ok. If you have never experienced proper online success you can’t tell if you are doing it right. My advice would be to keep in constant contact with people who you know are doing better than you so you have a guide to aim for.

  9. I really like this statement you put here. “Don’t take mediocre success as good enough. Keep failing until you get it right.” Makes me feel like the efforts i put into my business nowadays is just about getting there. I can’t say that I’ve made it but I love your positive perspective on failing and never giving up.

  10. thank for the advice, now i really motivate to encourage for each other with passionate with blogging..

  11. The Traffic Blogger strikes again! Congratulations Chris. I’m a bad blogger. You know how much my blog made yesterday? A whopping 68¢. Yaw, really funny. :)

    Now it’s a race to see which Problogger article comes first – mine or Jon Morrow’s. Neither of us have submitted yet, but I’m doing that next.

  12. Appreciate this post! Whats wrong with being a hopeful blogger as long as we’re determined and enjoy what we do. Like you stated, “Don’t take mediocre success as good enough. Keep failing until you get it right.” it’s important that we learn from our mistakes and continue the push forward to prospering.

  13. Very good points. Hope can sometimes be useless without metrics as well. LOL. Being able to measure success and get constructive feedback from those that are experienced as well as being motivated in the right ways can help significantly

  14. If it could really happen that all hopeful bloggers are bad one then I must be included too. Great article

  15. An informative article. It got me thinking about researching what I need to know to help my daughter set up a blog where she can earn some income. You need a niche. You need something you’re an “expert” in. You need content. You can HOPE you’ll succeed, but the bottom line is, you’ve got to do the work that’s required. That’s the way it is with anything in life!

  16. Hope implies that something may or may not happen. There is uncertainty; and uncertainty is a lot like gambling.

  17. ‘Winners lose more often than losers’ is one of my favorite sayings.

  18. Great post. Dig in, study, discover what works and like you said what doesn’t work.

    Have hope in failing forward.

  19. Hope is not a good strategy. In fact, it’s not a strategy at all – it’s the opposite of a strategy.

    Cautious optimism, however, well, that’s just fine!

  20. I think part of it comes from a misconception that the internet is a magic gold mine when, as other commenters have said, it takes work like anything else.

  21. I hope to fail so I can find what works and what my audience wants to read. After that, I hope to succeed because failure feels like crap. Thanks for good read.

  22. I’ve always been one to embrace failure. Fav line: “Do not trust to hope…” When you recognize that you can fail, and that it’s ok to fail, you recognize the opportunities for improvement. Examine this aspect of your blogging and writing and you’ll constantly finds ways to improve not only the writing but also the user engagement.

    That might not churn out income right away but it will certainly keep people reading.

  23. Thanks for the motivational tips.

  24. Awesome post. Enjoyed reading it.
    A very important read to all the new bloggers .. (including me)
    Failure is the pillar of success indeed.

    Cheers!

  25. it is the ability and wisdom to be able to tell the difference between the two that makes the success

  26. I have to admit and I hate to admit it, that I mostly fall into the first category but, want to fall into the second category. I know my weakness is holding me back though and that’s that I find motivation hard to find. I do know that though, so I guess that’s a step in the right direction. Once I figure out how to get and keep motivation, I’ll be able to move into your second category of bloggers and I do want to do this! Any tips of building motivation levels?

  27. Well, I’m failing a lot–not sure that makes me hopeful, but I guess I’m learning.

  28. I like this article — it’s different from the typical ‘be happy

  29. Great comments everyone, I’m very excited to see this kind of reaction to the post.

  30. No hope, no work, no cry, no nothing.

  31. What a great post, thank you! I definitely have the good hope–while failure is hard, I completely agree with you, it is what helps to refine and improve our process so that one day we do succeed; it gives us the ability to stay hungry. I’m in the middle of refining my blogging process right now and how to better balance it with my work. It’s important to take a step back once you’ve made a mess and figure out how you’re going to clean it up–actually, it’s pretty exciting once you get started and you see that all of the changes are improving your blog and what you want to accomplish with it starts to take shape. :)

  32. Good post. I am still a hopeful blogger, don’t think bad. still haven’t earned a penny. But will make it someday, I am really hopeful

  33. Reminds me of a Tony Robbins talk I once attended – don’t hope to succeed, be certain you will succeed.

  34. Paying $5 to make $7 – jeez when I started using adwords I was paying $6000 a month to make $200 profit sometimes so your false hope example was actually quite successful in comparison :)

    I quickly realised that making Google richer was not the way forward and learnt SEO like a crazy thing – and now don’t give them a cent.

    Great article, thanks

  35. Motivation is the key to success for blogger and it is important to get success in blogging you are right mate.

  36. Chris,

    I’m having trouble juggling this with the fact that this is a long term venture. For beginner bloggers like me (My blog started about 6 months ago) other posters have suggested that one focus on material and building a relationship with readers.

    Measuring success / having a false hope by money at this stage seems very difficult. Should one ignore income as a gauge at this point, or measure it using click through as a percentage?

    Something makes me feel that I should focus on the blog and material and developing a loyal fan base for now and then come back and look at this in 6 months to a year when readership and loyalty is better established.

  37. That’s true! I can see many new bloggers only spend time in reading ebooks related to earn money online and blogging, but never decide to take action, and after sometimes they loose hope! Interesting and valuable read!

  38. I am an optimistic blogger. I just know my efforts are going to pay off in some way really soon.

  39. Depending on your situation as a blogger, hope could be your ticket to success, or cause you to quit blogging within the month. Dictionary definition-wise, hope is the feeling that what is wanted can be had, or that events will turn out for the best. Think about how this could be a great or terrible thing for you as a blogger.

  40. What a great post, thank you! I definitely have the good hope–while failure is hard, I completely agree with you,

  41. I was soooo thinking that the other day in a motivating effort to embrace my failure and keep trying.
    Thank you sooo much for that insite. I needed your words to confirm I am going in the right direction!

  42. I totally agree with the author of this article. I am a new blogger, and my first idea in mind is spend in adwords, paid SEO memberships, etc. But i still hope that after a couple of years my blog Ads will start getting clicks and start earning.

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